AI Secrets is your new weekly update on how AI is changing our everyday lives. Our experts will keep it clear and simple, so you can stay ahead of the game. This week we are focussing on AI legislation.Share this with anyone you want to keep up to date.
Big AI’s Plea: Regulate Us! 👮 🙏
This week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman packed his bags and headed to Washington for a long-awaited showdown with legislators, with surprising results. Many assumed the ChatGPT boss would take a defensive position when threatened by outside regulation, but the reality proved very different.
Altman’s cooperative stance may have been adopted for convenience as much as anything else; this was a tough crowd to please, and the criticism coming his way wasn’t just bipartisan, but also found on both sides of his desk. Appearing alongside him were IBM VP and chief privacy officer Christina Montgomery, representing a more conservative face of Big Tech, and Gary Marcus, a former NYU professor who is a vocal opponent of “AI hype”.
Criticism, allegations and sharp questions flew at Altman from all directions, so it is perhaps not surprising that he attempted to mollify his peers, or at least appear to do so. Altman acknowledged the concerns of those present, claimed that they were shared by OpenAI, and then shocked everybody by suggesting potential global licensing arrangements under which future AI models should be regulated.
When pressed on what harms that licensing would combat, Altman gave incredibly broad examples: "I think a model that can persuade, manipulate, or influence a person's behavior, or a person's beliefs - that would be a good threshold. I think a model that could help create novel biological agents would be a great threshold - things like that." Specifics were thin on the ground, but while Altman’s apparent eagerness to be regulated may not have been entirely convincing, it looks like he may soon get his wish. On Thursday, US Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Peter Welch (D-VT) proposed a new bill called the Digital Platform Commission Act, which seeks to establish a new federal agency to oversee the technology sector, including AI.
On top of all this, OpenAI has just announced the launch of their iOS app - although you may struggle to find it in the App Store amid all the imitators - with Android users expected to have their own pocket ChatGPT “soon”. It’s remarkable that the fastest-growing application in the history of computing has come this far without an official mobile app, and with all the hype it’s been easy to miss some of the less glamorous AI applications out there, so why not check out our article on the best-kept secrets in the world of AI apps?
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An investigation by Vice has uncovered new, AI-driven monitoring tools used by the Department of Homeland Security, connecting social security records with social media accounts.
Arizona astronomy professor Chris Impey explains how the sky is no longer the limit, thanks to AI accelerating the pace of astral discoveries through smarter telescopes, improved data and sharper analysis.
Google’s mooted Duet AI has drawn unflattering comparisons with Clippy, Windows 97’s helpful but unloved animated assistant. Are you ready to be told that it looks like you’re writing a letter?
The Verge’s Adi Robertson warns that Google’s promised new features threaten “a more boring future”, as AI-generated email responses threaten to flood offices with a fresh deluge of unread replies.
A Texas University professor has sparked controversy after refusing to grade student papers if ChatGPT claims they were created using an AI. This unusual anti-cheating technique has not gone down well!
Rare booksellers are capitalizing on historical documents from the first wave of AI development, and they tell a familiar tale of frenzied hype, fearmongering and overlooked women scientists.
