It can’t be just the legal field.

https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-trial-legal-models-hallucinate-1-out-6-queries

AI on Trial: Legal Models Hallucinate in 1 out of 6 Queries

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are rapidly transforming the practice of law. Nearly three quarters of lawyers plan on using generative AI for their work, from sifting through mountains of case law to drafting contracts to reviewing documents to writing legal memoranda. But are these tools reliable enough for real-world use?

Large language models have a documented tendency to “hallucinate,” or make up false information. In one highly-publicized case, a New York lawyer faced sanctions for citing ChatGPT-invented fictional cases in a legal brief; many similar cases have since been reported. And our previous study of general-purpose chatbots found that they hallucinated between 58% and 82% of the time on legal queries, highlighting the risks of incorporating AI into legal practice. In his 2023 annual report on the judiciary, Chief Justice Roberts took note and warned lawyers of hallucinations.

Across all areas of industry, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is seen and promoted as the solution for reducing hallucinations in domain-specific contexts. Relying on RAG, leading legal research services have released AI-powered legal research products that they claim “avoid”  hallucinations and guarantee “hallucination-free” legal citations. RAG systems promise to deliver more accurate and trustworthy legal information by integrating a language model with a database of legal documents. Yet providers have not provided hard evidence for such claims or even precisely defined “hallucination,” making it difficult to assess their real-world reliability.

In a new preprint study by Stanford RegLab and HAI researchers, we put the claims of two providers, LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters (the parent company of Westlaw), to the test. We show that their tools do reduce errors compared to general-purpose AI models like GPT-4. That is a substantial improvement and we document instances where these tools can spot mistaken premises. But even these bespoke legal AI tools still hallucinate an alarming amount of the time: these systems produced incorrect information more than 17% of the time—one in every six queries.

No surprise. It’s a mess.

https://pogowasright.org/resource-biometric-privacy-as-a-case-study-for-us-privacy-overall/

Resource: Biometric Privacy as a Case Study for US Privacy Overall

WilmerHale lawyers Kirk Nahra, Ali Jessani, Amy Olivero and Samuel Kane authored an article in the April 2024 issue of the CPI TechREG Chronicle that outlines how the rules governing biometric data reflect US privacy at large.

Excerpt: “Privacy law in the United States is best described as a patchwork of rules and regulations at both the state and federal level. This development is perhaps no better exemplified than by how the US regulates biometric information. From competing definitions to (sometimes) contradictory compliance obligations, the rules surrounding the processing of biometric information are myriad and complex, creating meaningful challenges for companies that wish to take advantage of the benefits associated with processing it (which include increased security and more convenience for consumers). This article outlines how the rules governing biometric data reflect US privacy at large and how this approach negatively impacts both consumers and businesses.”

Read the full article.

I believe that an explanation is always possible. Getting there is complex, but possible.

https://www.bespacific.com/heres-whats-really-going-on-inside-an-llms-neural-network/

Here’s what’s really going on inside an LLM’s neural network

Ars Technica: “With most computer programs—even complex ones—you can meticulously trace through the code and memory usage to figure out why that program generates any specific behavior or output. That’s generally not true in the field of generative AI, where the non-interpretable neural networks underlying these models make it hard for even experts to figure out precisely why they often confabulate information, for instance. Now, new research from Anthropic offers a new window into what’s going on inside the Claude LLM’s “black box.” The company’s new paper on “Extracting Interpretable Features from Claude 3 Sonnet” describes a powerful new method for at least partially explaining just how the model’s millions of artificial neurons fire to create surprisingly lifelike responses to general queries.

Could we allow deals like these for exclusive access by one LLM? Would that degrade those banned from access?

https://www.bespacific.com/openais-news-corp-deal-licenses-content-from-wsj-new-york-post/

OpenAI’s News Corp deal licenses content from WSJ, New York Post

The Verge: “OpenAI has struck a deal with News Corp, the media company that owns The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Daily Telegraph, and others. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI’s deal with News Corp could be worth over $250 million in the next five years “in the form of cash and credits for use of OpenAI technology.” The multi-year agreement gives OpenAI access to current and archived articles from News Corp publications for AI training and to answer user questions. This is the latest in a string of licensing deals OpenAI has inked with major media companies and outlets, including The Associated Press, the Financial Times, People publisher Dotdash Meredith, and Politico owner Axel Springer. Some outlets have filed lawsuits against OpenAI instead, like The New York Times, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, and The Intercept. They’ve accused both OpenAI and Microsoft of copyright infringement by training AI models on their work. The partnership also includes outlets like Barron’s, MarketWatch, Investor’s Business Daily, FN, The Sunday Times, The Sun, and The Australian, among others, and News Corp will “share journalistic expertise” with OpenAI to “ensure the highest journalism standards.”

What do you do when you don’t have an anti-deepfake law?

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/steve-kramer-admitted-deepfaking-bidens-voice-new-hampshire-primary-rcna153626

Political consultant who admitted deepfaking Biden's voice is indicted

Steve Kramer, the political consultant who admitted to NBC News that he was behind a robocall impersonating Joe Biden's voice, has been indicted in New Hampshire.

Kramer faces five counts, including bribery, intimidation and suppression, according to WMUR-TV of Manchester, which first reported the indictment. It is unclear how he is pleading to the charges.

Isn’t this an example of ‘new technology’ rubbing against ‘old law?’

https://pogowasright.org/court-rejects-claims-that-websites-live-chat-feature-violates-californias-prohibitions-on-wiretapping-and-eavesdropping/

Court Rejects Claims that Website’s Live Chat Feature Violates California’s Prohibitions on Wiretapping and Eavesdropping

Amy Gordon, Leslie Shanklin, and Jeff Warshafsky of Proskauer write:

In recent years, the “live chat” feature often used on consumer-facing websites has become the subject of lawsuits brought under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”). In particular, there have been a surge of putative class actions challenging the use of this feature under Sections 631(a) and 632.7 of CIPA, which prohibit wiretapping and eavesdropping on certain communications.

This month, Judge Annette Cody of the Central District of California dismissed one such lawsuit at the motion to dismiss phase, holding that the plaintiff had failed to allege any unlawful conduct under CIPA. Cody v. Boscov’s, Inc., No. 22-cv-01434 (C.D. Cal. May 6, 2024).

Read more at Proskauer on Privacy.

Interesting but I wonder if Donald Trump could do the same? He would have to articulate a coherent philosophy.

https://www.ft.com/content/43378c6e-664b-4885-a255-31325d632ee9

China’s latest answer to OpenAI is ‘Chat Xi PT’

Internet regulator uses Chinese leader’s political philosophy to help answer questions posed to latest large language model

Beijing’s latest attempt to control how artificial intelligence informs Chinese internet users has been rolled out as a chatbot trained on the thoughts of President Xi Jinping.

The country’s newest large language model has been learning from its leader’s political philosophy, known as “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, as well as other official literature provided by the Cyberspace Administration of China.

“The expertise and authority of the corpus ensures the professionalism of the generated content,” CAC’s magazine said, in a Monday social media post about the new LLM.

We can, therefore we must?

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/openai-scarlett-johansson-sky/678446/?gift=2iIN4YrefPjuvZ5d2Kh306LFFT6yU6HZVP_tmIcOfig&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

OpenAI Just Gave Away the Entire Game

The Scarlett Johansson debacle is a microcosm of AI’s raw deal: It’s happening, and you can’t stop it.

If you’re looking to understand the philosophy that underpins Silicon Valley’s latest gold rush, look no further than OpenAI’s Scarlett Johansson debacle. The story, according to Johansson’s lawyers, goes like this: Nine months ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman approached the actor with a request to license her voice for a new digital assistant; Johansson declined. She alleges that just two days before the company’s keynote event last week, in which that assistant was revealed as part of a new system called GPT-4o, Altman reached out to Johansson’s team, urging the actor to reconsider. Johansson and Altman allegedly never spoke, and Johansson allegedly never granted OpenAI permission to use her voice. Nevertheless, the company debuted Sky two days later—a program with a voice many believed was alarmingly similar to Johansson’s.

Spend wisely or not at all.

https://www.makeuseof.com/gpt4-free-for-everyone-but-still-reasons-keep-using-chatgpt-plus/

GPT-4 Is Now Free for Everyone, but There Are Still 6 Reasons to Keep Using ChatGPT Plus

Following OpenAI's Spring Update, GPT-4o has become publicly available to Free users. This means that everyone can access GPT-4-level intelligence without paying. You might wonder why you would want to keep paying $20 monthly when you can get it for free.

Well, here are some reasons you might want to keep your ChatGPT Plus sub.

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-teams-up-with-khan-academy-to-make-the-khanmigo-ai-teaching-assistant-free-153008848.html

Microsoft teams up with Khan Academy to make the Khanmigo AI teaching assistant free

Microsoft and non-profit educational organization Khan Academy have formed a partnership that will allow all K-12 educators in the US to access the pilot version of Khanmigo for Teachers at no cost. Khanmigo is an AI-powered teaching assistant that can help teachers find ways to make lessons more fun and engaging. It will also recommend assignments, display information on a student's performance so that teachers can assess their progress and provide resources educators can use to refresh their knowledge.

The tool can also quickly create lesson plans and suggest student groups for team activities.

Is this the solution?

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/20/uks-autonomous-vehicle-legislation-becomes-law-paving-the-way-for-first-driverless-cars-by-2026/

UK’s autonomous vehicle legislation becomes law, paving the way for first driverless cars by 2026

… The U.K. has been eager to position itself at the forefront of the autonomous vehicle revolution, funding various AV projects and research programs around safety. The government has touted the potential safety benefits of self-driving cars in that they remove human error from roads, though it acknowledges that crashes will still happen, as evidenced by reports from the U.S., where self-driving cars have a firmer foothold. In fact, California has emerged as a hotbed for proposed AV regulation, too.

This is why liability is one of the core facets of the U.K.’s new regulation — who will bear responsibility in the event of a crash? The U.K. clarified this point in 2022 when it published a roadmap that stated that its new legislation will make corporations responsible for any mishaps, “meaning a human driver would not be liable for incidents related to driving while the vehicle is in control of driving.”

Each approved self-driving vehicle will have a corresponding “authorized self-driving entity,” which will typically be the manufacturer but could also be the software developer or insurance company. And this entity will be responsible for the vehicle when self-driving mode is activated.

But could it take over my blog?

https://www.bespacific.com/see-how-easily-ai-chatbots-can-be-taught-to-spew-disinformation/

See How Easily AI Chatbots Can Be Taught to Spew Disinformation

The New York Times [no paywall]: “Ahead of the U.S. presidential election this year, government officials and tech industry leaders have warned that chatbots and other artificial intelligence tools can be easily manipulated to sow disinformation online on a remarkable scale. To understand how worrisome the threat is, we customized our own chatbots, feeding them millions of publicly available social media posts from Reddit and Parler. The posts, which ranged from discussions of racial and gender equity to border policies, allowed the chatbots to develop a variety of liberal and conservative viewpoints…”

The same, but different.

https://pogowasright.org/minnesota-legislature-passes-consumer-data-privacy-act/

Minnesota Legislature Passes Consumer Data Privacy Act

David Stauss & Brad Hammer of Husch Blackwell write:

On May 19, the Minnesota legislature passed the Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act (HF 4757 / SF 4782). The bill, which is sponsored by Representative Steve Elkins, was passed as Article 5 of a larger omnibus bill. The bill next moves to Governor Tim Walz for consideration.

The Minnesota bill largely tracks the Washington Privacy Act model but with some significant and unique variations. For example, the bill creates a novel right to question the result of a profiling decision and have a controller provide additional information regarding that decision. It also contains privacy policy requirements that are intended to increase interoperability with other state consumer data privacy laws. Further, the bill contains provisions requiring controllers to maintain a data inventory and document and maintain a description of policies and procedures the controller has adopted to comply with the bill’s provisions. We discuss those requirements and provisions, along with others, in the below article.

As with prior bills, we have added the Minnesota bill to our chart providing a detailed comparison of laws enacted to date.

Read more at Byte Back.

In Alabama nobody will know you’re a dog.

https://pogowasright.org/alabama-enacts-genetic-privacy-bill/

Alabama Enacts Genetic Privacy Bill

Libbie Canter and Elizabeth Brim of Covington and Burling write:

On May 16, 2024, Alabama enacted a genetic privacy bill (HB 21), which regulates consumer-facing genetic testing companies. HB 21 continues the recent trend of states enacting genetic privacy legislation aimed at regulating direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) genetic testing companies, such as in Nebraska and Virginia, with more than 10 states now having similar laws on the books.

Scope of HB 21

HB 21 regulates “genetic testing companies’” practices involving “genetic data.” HB 21 defines a “genetic testing company” as “[a]ny person, other than a health care provider, that directly solicits a biological sample from a consumer for analysis in order to provide products or services to the consumer which include disclosure of information that may include, but is not limited to, the following:

1. The genetic link of the consumer to certain population groups based on ethnicity, geography, or anthropology;

2. The probable relationship of the consumer to other individuals based on matching DNA for purposes that include genealogical research; or

3. Recommendations to the consumer for managing wellness which are based on physical or metabolic traits, lifestyle tendencies, or disease predispositions that are associated with genetic markers present in the consumer’s DNA.”

Read more at Inside Privacy.

Worth noting…

https://www.bespacific.com/how-to-tell-if-a-conspiracy-theory-is-probably-false/

How to tell if a conspiracy theory is probably false

Via LLRX – How to tell if a conspiracy theory is probably false – Conspiracy theories abound. What should you believe − and how can you tell? H. Colleen Sinclair, a social psychologist who studies misleading narratives, identifies seven step you can take to vet a claim you’ve seen or heard.

How to get it wrong.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4829598

A Real Account of Deep Fakes

Laws regulating deepfakes are often characterized as protecting privacy or preventing defamation. But examining anti-deepfakes statutes reveals that their breadth exceeds what modern privacy or defamation doctrines can justify: the typical law proscribes material that neither discloses true facts nor asserts false ones. Anti-deepfakes laws encompass harms not cognizable as invasion of privacy or defamation—but not because the laws are overinclusive. Rather, anti-deepfakes laws significantly exceed the dignitary torts’ established boundaries in order to address a distinct wrong: the outrageous use of images per se.

The mechanism by which non-deceptive, pornographic deepfakes cause harm is intuitively simple, yet almost entirely unexamined. Instead, legislators and jurists usually behave as if AI-generated images convey the same information as the photographs and videos they resemble. This approach ignores two blindingly obvious facts: deepfakes are not photographs or video recordings, and often, they don’t even pretend to be. What legal analysis of deepfakes has lacked is a grounding in semiotics, the study of how signs communicate meaning.

Part I of this Article surveys every domestic statute that specifically regulates pornographic deepfakes and distills the characteristics of the typical law. It shows that anti-deepfakes regimes do more than regulate assertions of fact: they ban disparaging uses of images per se, whether or not viewers understand them as fact. Part II uses semiotic theory to explain how deepfakes differ from the media they mimic and why those differences matter legally. Photographs are indexical: they record photons that passed through a lens at a particular moment in time. Deepfakes are iconic: they represent by resemblance. The legal rationales invoked to regulate indexical images cannot justify the regulation of non-deceptive deepfakes. Part III in turn reveals—through a tour of doctrines ranging from trademark dilution to child sexual abuse imagery—that anti-deepfakes laws are not alone in regulating expressive, non-deceptive uses of icons per se. Finally, in Part IV, the Article explains why a proper semiotic understanding of AI-generated pornography is vital. Lawmakers are racing to address an oncoming deluge of photorealistic, AI-generated porn. We can confront this deluge by doubling down on untenable rationales that equate iconic images with indexical images. Or we can acknowledge that deepfakes are icons, not indices, and address them with the bodies of law that regulate them as such: obscenity and an extended version of the tort of appropriation.

Is GDPR adequate?

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alfio-Grasso-4/publication/380317554_The_Bad_Algorithm_Automated_Discriminatory_Decisions_in_the_European_General_Data_Protection_Regulation/links/6635073e7091b94e93eed43f/The-Bad-Algorithm-Automated-Discriminatory-Decisions-in-the-European-General-Data-Protection-Regulation.pdf

The Bad Algorithm

The use of automated systems to reach a decision is increasingly widespread, and more and more automated systems have been involved in the formulation of decisions that have a significant impact on individual and collective lives, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Automation in decision making has proved to be able to produce extremely positive results in terms of greater efficiency and speed in decision-making, but often conceals the risk of discrimination, longstanding and newly minted.

Based on an analytical examination of the legal provisions on the subject and a close comparison with the stances of law scholars, and the European Court of Justice jurisprudence, the study examines the topic of discriminatory automated decisions in the light of data protection law, in order to ascertain whether the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides effective tools for counteracting them

Perspective.

https://www.aol.com/news/stephen-wolfram-powerful-unpredictability-ai-100053978.html

Stephen Wolfram on the Powerful Unpredictability of AI

Stephen Wolfram is, strictly speaking, a high school and college dropout: He left both Eton and Oxford early, citing boredom. At 20, he received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Caltech and then joined the faculty in 1979. But he eventually moved away from academia, focusing instead on building a series of popular, powerful, and often eponymous research tools: Mathematica, WolframAlpha, and the Wolfram Language. He self-published a 1,200-page work called A New Kind of Science arguing that nature runs on ultrasimple computational rules. The book enjoyed surprising popular acclaim.

Wolfram's work on computational thinking forms the basis of intelligent assistants, such as Siri. In an April conversation with Reason's Katherine Mangu-Ward, he offered a candid assessment of what he hopes and fears from artificial intelligence, and the complicated relationship between humans and their technology.

Did we get it right?

https://fpf.org/blog/colorado-enacts-first-comprehensive-u-s-law-governing-artificial-intelligence-systems/

COLORADO ENACTS FIRST COMPREHENSIVE U.S. LAW GOVERNING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS

On May 17, Governor Polis signed the Colorado AI Act (CAIA) (SB-205) into law, establishing new individual rights and protections with respect to high-risk artificial intelligence systems. Building off the work of existing best practices and prior legislative efforts, the CAIA is the first comprehensive United States law to explicitly establish guardrails against discriminatory outcomes from the use of AI. The Act will take effect on February 1, 2026.

Watch the video. Note how “human” ChatGPT4o sounds. What other training might benefit from this technology?

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2024/05/17/new-chatgpt-eyed-better-learning

AI’s New Conversation Skills Eyed for Education

… ChatGPT’s newest version, GPT-4o (the “o” standing for “omni,” meaning “all”), has a more realistic voice and quicker verbal response time, both aiming to sound more human. The version, which should be available to free ChatGPT users in coming weeks—a change also hailed by educators —allows people to interrupt it while it speaks, simulates more emotions with its voice and translates languages in real time. It also can understand instructions in text and images and has improved video capabilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nSmkyDNulk&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidehighered.com%2F&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&feature=emb_imp_woyt

A security heads-up! Now that you “can” it is inevitable that someone “will” point ChatGPT to your proprietary data.

https://venturebeat.com/ai/chatgpt-now-lets-you-import-files-directly-from-google-drive-microsoft-onedrive/

ChatGPT now lets you import files directly from Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive

The news from OpenAI this week continues: today, the company announced it has updated its signature large language model (LLM) chatbot ChatGPT with the capability to import files directly from external cloud drives Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.

The capability is coming to paying subscribers to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise users and will be available when using the new underlying GPT-4o model that OpenAI debuted on Monday, as well as older models.

What is the implied “or else” here? Sony will try to gain access to each LLM to determine what (trivial) percentage of the data comes from Sony. Then it will try to determine if that had an impact on the output. Then try to estimate the percentage of profits Sony is entitled to?

https://www.ft.com/content/c5b93b23-9f26-4e6b-9780-a5d3e5e7a409

Sony Music warns global tech and streamers over AI use of its artists

Sony Music is sending warning letters to more than 700 artificial intelligence developers and music streaming services globally in the latest salvo in the music industry’s battle against tech groups ripping off artists.

The Sony Music letter, which has been seen by the Financial Times, expressly prohibits AI developers from using its music — which includes artists such as Harry Styles, Adele and Beyoncé — and opts out of any text and data mining of any of its content for any purposes such as training, developing or commercialising any AI system.

Sony Music is sending the letter to companies developing AI systems including OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Suno and Udio, according to those close to the group.

The world’s second-largest music group is also sending separate letters to streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple, asking them to adopt “best practice” measures to protect artists and songwriters and their music from scraping, mining and training by AI developers without consent or compensation. It has asked them to update their terms of service, making it clear that mining and training on its content is not permitted.

Did AI have a voice in this treaty?

https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/council-of-europe-adopts-first-international-treaty-on-artificial-intelligence

Council of Europe adopts first international treaty on artificial intelligence

The Council of Europe has adopted the first-ever international legally binding treaty aimed at ensuring the respect of human rights, the rule of law and democracy legal standards in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The treaty, which is also open to non-European countries, sets out a legal framework that covers the entire lifecycle of AI systems and addresses the risks they may pose, while promoting responsible innovation. The convention adopts a risk-based approach to the design, development, use, and decommissioning of AI systems, which requires carefully considering any potential negative consequences of using AI systems.

The Council of Europe Framework Convention on artificial intelligence and human rights, democracy, and the rule of law was adopted in Strasbourg during the annual ministerial meeting of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, which brings together the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the 46 Council of Europe member states.

The future of elections?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68918330

AI and deepfakes blur reality in India elections

In November last year, Muralikrishnan Chinnadurai was watching a livestream of a Tamil-language event in the UK when he noticed something odd.

A woman introduced as Duwaraka, daughter of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tamil Tiger militant chief, was giving a speech.

The problem was that Duwaraka had died more than a decade earlier, in an airstrike in 2009 during the closing days of the Sri Lankan civil war. The then-23-year-old's body was never found.

Perspective. Will students form the same opinions?

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/05/15/a-quarter-of-u-s-teachers-say-ai-tools-do-more-harm-than-good-in-k-12-education/

A quarter of U.S. teachers say AI tools do more harm than good in K-12 education

As some teachers start to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their work, a majority are uncertain about or see downsides to the general use of AI tools in K-12 education, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in fall 2023. [How fast will it change? Bob]

A quarter of public K-12 teachers say using AI tools in K-12 education does more harm than good. About a third (32%) say there is about an equal mix of benefit and harm, while only 6% say it does more good than harm. Another 35% say they aren’t sure.

Toward the fully artificial lawyer?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuadupuy/2024/05/15/neuro-symbolic-ai-could-redefine-legal-practices/?sh=1e76599d70f6

Neuro-Symbolic AI Could Redefine Legal Practices

In law school, grades are often viewed as predictors of future success: A students become law professors, B students become judges and C students become millionaires. But the adage may need updating. With neuro-symbolic AI, the coders and tech savants who master algorithms are poised to rule.

… The pioneering developments in neuro-symbolic AI, exemplified by AlphaGeometry, serve as a promising blueprint for reshaping legal analysis. Unlike traditional legal AI systems constrained by keyword searches and static-rule applications, neuro-symbolic AI adopts a more nuanced and sophisticated approach. It integrates the robust data processing powers of deep learning with the precise logical structures of symbolic AI, laying the groundwork for devising legal strategies that are both insightful and systematically sound.

Resources.

https://www.makeuseof.com/generative-ai-courses-best/

The 5 Best Generative AI Courses

Perspective.

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/audio/ai-hype-and-skepticism-economist-paul-romer/

AI Hype and Skepticism: Economist Paul Romer

Paul Romer once considered himself the most optimistic economist. He rightfully predicted that technology would blow up as an economic driver coming out of the inflation of the 1970s but acknowledges he did not foresee the inequality that technology advances would lead to.

On this episode of the Me, Myself, and AI podcast, Paul shares his views on AI advances and their implications for society. Rather than pave the way for full automation, he is a proponent of keeping humans in the loop and believes that, rather than slowing down technology, it can be pointed in a direction for more meaningful and beneficial use, citing education as an area ripe to benefit from AI.

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/openai-says-new-gpt-4o-model-is-twice-as-fast-costs-half-as-much-for-businesses.html

OpenAI Says New GPT-4o Model Is Twice as Fast and Costs Half as Much for Businesses

The company that ushered in the generative AI revolution with ChatGPT just announced its newest flagship model, GPT-4o. The model is said to be faster and have enhanced capabilities across text, vision, and audio. The new model will be rolled out to all ChatGPT users, both free and paid, over the next few weeks.

In a live streamed presentation, OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati explained that the "o" in GPT-4o stands for "omnimodel," meaning that it is a multimodal tool with vision and audio capabilities natively built in. Previously, for ChatGPT to process images or audio, OpenAI would string multiple models together, all of which were specialized for a different media type, or "modality." Stringing these models together led to significant lag times, but by combining all the modalities into a single model, the process is made much faster. For example, the new model can translate a conversation between two people speaking different languages in real time, without any lag for loading or processing.

It used to be that only local weather conditions impacted planting. Now a solar storm stops everything.

https://www.404media.co/solar-storm-knocks-out-tractor-gps-systems-during-peak-planting-season/

Solar Storm Knocks Out Farmers' Tractor GPS Systems During Peak Planting Season

The solar storm that brought the aurora borealis to large parts of the United States this weekend also broke critical GPS and precision farming functionality in tractors and agricultural equipment during a critical point of the planting season, 404 Media has learned. These outages caused many farmers to fully stop their planting operations for the moment.

One chain of John Deere dealerships warned farmers that the accuracy of some of the systems used by tractors are “extremely compromised,” and that farmers who planted crops during periods of inaccuracy are going to face problems when they go to harvest, according to text messages obtained by 404 Media and an update posted by the dealership. The outages highlight how vulnerable modern tractors are to satellite disruptions, which experts have been warning about for years.

(Related) Could an enemy impact our agriculture?

https://www.ft.com/content/be9393db-cd63-4141-a4c8-c16b4fe1b6b0

How GPS warfare is playing havoc with civilian life

… So-called GPS jamming and spoofing have largely been the preserve of militaries over the past two decades, used to defend sensitive sites against drone or missile attacks or mask their own activities.

But systematic interference by armed forces — particularly following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza — has caused widespread issues for civilian populations as well. The footprint of corrupted signals has become vast.

Is the need to “control” moving us away from “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

https://fpf.org/blog/now-on-the-internet-will-everyone-know-if-youre-a-child/

NOW, ON THE INTERNET, WILL EVERYONE KNOW IF YOU’RE A CHILD?

As minors increasingly spend time online, lawmakers continue to introduce legislation to enhance the privacy and safety of kids’ and teens’ online experiences beyond the existing Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) framework. Proposals have proliferated in both the federal and state legislatures across the U.S. with varying approaches to minors’ privacy protections. Key pieces of this discussion are the age of individuals online, whether online sites and services know that an individual is a child, and how to balance kids’ and teens’ protections with anonymity online.

I think he may have a point.

https://academic.oup.com/ojls/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ojls/gqae017/7665668

The Data Crowd as a Legal Stakeholder

This article identifies a new legal stakeholder in the data economy: the data crowd. A data crowd is a collective that: (i) is unorganised, non-deliberate and unable to form an agenda; (ii) relies on productive aggregation that creates an interdependency among participants; and (iii) is subjected to an external authority. Notable examples of crowds include users of a social network, users of a search engine and users of artificial intelligence-based applications. The law currently only protects users in the data economy as individuals, and in certain cases may address broad public concerns. However, it does not recognise the collective interests of the crowd of users and its unique vulnerability to platform power. The article presents and defends the crowd’s legal interests in a stable infrastructure for participation. It therefore reveals the need for a new approach to consumers’ rights in the data economy.

Tools & Techniques.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/11/u-k-agency-releases-tools-to-test-ai-model-safety/

U.K. agency releases tools to test AI model safety

The U.K. Safety Institute, the U.K.’s recently established AI safety body, has released a toolset designed to “strengthen AI safety” by making it easier for industry, research organizations and academia to develop AI evaluations.

Called Inspect, the toolset — which is available under an open source license, specifically an MIT License — aims to assess certain capabilities of AI models, including models’ core knowledge and ability to reason, and generate a score based on the results.

In a press release announcing the news on Friday, the Safety Institute claimed that Inspect marks “the first time that an AI safety testing platform which has been spearheaded by a state-backed body has been released for wider use.”