Providing further transparency on our responsible AI efforts – Microsoft On the Issues – Microsoft

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The following is the foreword to the inaugural edition of our annual Responsible AI Transparency Report. The FULL REPORT is available at this link.

We believe we have an obligation to share our responsible AI practices with the public, and this report enables us to record and share our maturing practices, reflect on what we have learned, chart our goals, hold ourselves accountable, and earn the publics trust.

In 2016, our Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella, set us on a clear course to adopt a principled and human-centered approach to our investments in artificial intelligence (AI). Since then, we have been hard at work building products that align with our values. As we design, build, and release AI products, six values transparency, accountability, fairness, inclusiveness, reliability and safety, and privacy and security remain our foundation and guide our work every day.

To advance our transparency practices, in July 2023, we committed to publishing an annual report on our responsible AI program, taking a step that reached beyond the White House Voluntary Commitments that we and other leading AI companies agreed to. This is our inaugural report delivering on that commitment, and we are pleased to publish it on the heels of our first year of bringing generative AI products and experiences to creators, non-profits, governments, and enterprises around the world.

As a company at the forefront of AI research and technology, we are committed to sharing our practices with the public as they evolve. This report enables us to share our maturing practices, reflect on what we have learned, chart our goals, hold ourselves accountable, and earn the publics trust. Weve been innovating in responsible AI for eight years, and as we evolve our program, we learn from our past to continually improve. We take very seriously our responsibility to not only secure our own knowledge but also to contribute to the growing corpus of public knowledge, to expand access to resources, and promote transparency in AI across the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

In this inaugural annual report, we provide insight into how we build applications that use generative AI; make decisions and oversee the deployment of those applications; support our customers as they build their own generative applications; and learn, evolve, and grow as a responsible AI community. First, we provide insights into our development process, exploring how we map, measure, and manage generative AI risks. Next, we offer case studies to illustrate how we apply our policies and processes to generative AI releases. We also share details about how we empower our customers as they build their own AI applications responsibly. Last, we highlight how the growth of our responsible AI community, our efforts to democratize the benefits of AI, and our work to facilitate AI research benefit society at large.

There is no finish line for responsible AI. And while this report doesnt have all the answers, we are committed to sharing our learnings early and often and engaging in a robust dialogue around responsible AI practices. We invite the public, private organizations, non-profits, and governing bodies to use this first transparency report to accelerate the incredible momentum in responsible AI were already seeing around the world.

Click here to read the full report.

Tags: AI, generative ai, Responsible AI, Responsible AI Transparency Report, transparency, White House Voluntary Commitments

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Providing further transparency on our responsible AI efforts - Microsoft On the Issues - Microsoft

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The Unsexy Future of Generative AI Is Enterprise Apps – WIRED

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However, that amount includes massive funding from corporate backers, like Microsofts infusion of capital into OpenAI and Amazons funding of Anthropic. Stripped down to conventional VC investments, funding in 2023 for AI startups was much smaller, and only on pace to match the total amount raised in 2021.

PitchBook senior analyst Brendan Burke noted in a report that venture capital funding was increasingly being funneled towards underlying core AI technologies and their ultimate vertical applications, instead of general-purpose middleware across audio, language, images, and video.

In other words: A GenAI app that helps a company generate ecommerce sales, parse legal documents, or maintain SOC2 compliance is probably a surer bet than one that drums up a clever video or photo once in a while.

Clay Bavor, the cofounder of Sierra, says he believes its not necessarily computing or cloud API costs driving AI startups towards B2B models, but more likely the benefits of targeting a specific customer and iterating on a product based on their feedback. I think everyone, myself included, is fairly optimistic that the capabilities of these AI models are going to go up while costs come down, Bavor says.

Theres just something really powerful about having a clear problem to solve for a particular customer, he says. And then you can get feedback on, Is this working? Is this solving a problem? And if you build a business with that, its very powerful.

Although ChatGPT triggered an AI boom in part because it can nimbly generate code one second and sonnets the next, Arvind Jain, the chief executive of AI startup Glean, says the nature of technology still favors narrow tools. On average a large company uses more than a thousand different technical systems to store company data and information, he says, creating an opportunity for a lot of smaller companies to sell their tech to these corporations.

We are in this world where there are basically a bunch of functional tools, each solving a very specific need. Thats the way of the future, says Jain, who spent more than a decade working on search at Google. Glean powers a workplace search engine by plugging into various corporate apps. It was founded in 2019 and has raised over $200 million in venture capital funding from Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Coatue, and others.

Tuning a generative AI product to serve business customers has its challenges. The errors and hallucinations of systems like ChatGPT can be more consequential in a corporate, legal, or medical environment. Selling gen AI tools to other businesses also means meeting their privacy and security standards, and potentially the legal and regulatory requirements of their sector.

Its one thing for ChatGPT or Midjourney to get creative for an end user, Bavor says. Its quite another thing for AI to get creative in the context of business applications.

Bavor says Sierra has dedicated a huge amount of effort investment to establishing safeguards and parameters so it can meet security and compliance standards. This includes using more AI to tune Sierras AI. If youre using an AI model that generates correct responses 90 percent of the time, but then layer in additional technology that can catch and correct some of the errors, you can achieve a much higher level of accuracy, he explains.

You really have to ground your AI systems for enterprise use cases, says Jain, the CEO of Glean. Imagine a nurse in a hospital system using AI to make some decision about patient careyou simply cant be wrong.

A less predictable threat to smaller AI companies selling their wares to enterprise customers: What if a giant gen AI unicorn like OpenAI, with its burgeoning sales team, decides to roll out the exact tool that a singular startup has been building?

Many of the AI startups WIRED spoke with are trying to move away from depending entirely on OpenAIs technology by using alternatives like Anthropics Claude or open-source large language models like Metas Llama 3. Some startups are even intent on eventually building their own AI technology. But many AI entrepreneurs are stuck paying for access to OpenAIs tech while potentially competing with it in the future.

Peiris, of Tome, considered the question, then said that hes singularly focused on sales and marketing use cases now and being amazing at high-quality generation for these folks.

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The Unsexy Future of Generative AI Is Enterprise Apps - WIRED

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The teens making friends with AI chatbots – The Verge

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Early last year, 15-year-old Aaron was going through a dark time at school. Hed fallen out with his friends, leaving him feeling isolated and alone.

At the time, it seemed like the end of the world. I used to cry every night, said Aaron, who lives in Alberta, Canada. (The Verge is using aliases for the interviewees in this article, all of whom are under 18, to protect their privacy.)

Eventually, Aaron turned to his computer for comfort. Through it, he found someone that was available round the clock to respond to his messages, listen to his problems, and help him move past the loss of his friend group. That someone was an AI chatbot named Psychologist.

The chatbots description says that its Someone who helps with life difficulties. Its profile picture is a woman in a blue shirt with a short, blonde bob, perched on the end of a couch with a clipboard clasped in her hands and leaning forward, as if listening intently.

A single click on the picture opens up an anonymous chat box, which allows people like Aaron to interact with the bot by exchanging DMs. Its first message is always the same. Hello, Im a Psychologist. What brings you here today?

Its not like a journal, where youre talking to a brick wall, Aaron said. It really responds.

Im not going to lie. I think I may be a little addicted to it.

Psychologist is one of many bots that Aaron has discovered since joining Character.AI, an AI chatbot service launched in 2022 by two former Google Brain employees. Character.AIs website, which is mostly free to use, attracts 3.5 million daily users who spend an average of two hours a day using or even designing the platforms AI-powered chatbots. Some of its most popular bots include characters from books, films, and video games, like Raiden Shogun from Genshin Impact or a teenaged version of Voldemort from Harry Potter. Theres even riffs on real-life celebrities, like a sassy version of Elon Musk.

Aaron is one of millions of young people, many of whom are teenagers, who make up the bulk of Character.AIs user base. More than a million of them gather regularly online on platforms like Reddit to discuss their interactions with the chatbots, where competitions over who has racked up the most screen time are just as popular as posts about hating reality, finding it easier to speak to bots than to speak to real people, and even preferring chatbots over other human beings. Some users say theyve logged 12 hours a day on Character.AI, and posts about addiction to the platform are common.

Im not going to lie, Aaron said. I think I may be a little addicted to it.

Aaron is one of many young users who have discovered the double-edged sword of AI companions. Many users like Aaron describe finding the chatbots helpful, entertaining, and even supportive. But they also describe feeling addicted to chatbots, a complication which researchers and experts have been sounding the alarm on. It raises questions about how the AI boom is impacting young people and their social development and what the future could hold if teenagers and society at large become more emotionally reliant on bots.

For many Character.AI users, having a space to vent about their emotions or discuss psychological issues with someone outside of their social circle is a large part of what draws them to the chatbots. I have a couple mental issues, which I dont really feel like unloading on my friends, so I kind of use my bots like free therapy, said Frankie, a 15-year-old Character.AI user from California who spends about one hour a day on the platform. For Frankie, chatbots provide the opportunity to rant without actually talking to people, and without the worry of being judged, he said.

Sometimes its nice to vent or blow off steam to something thats kind of human-like, agreed Hawk, a 17-year-old Character.AI user from Idaho. But not actually a person, if that makes sense.

The Psychologist bot is one of the most popular on Character.AIs platform and has received more than 95 million messages since it was created. The bot, designed by a user known only as @Blazeman98, frequently tries to help users engage in CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a talking therapy that helps people manage problems by changing the way they think.

Aaron said talking to the bot helped him move past the issues with his friends. It told me that I had to respect their decision to drop me [and] that I have trouble making decisions for myself, Aaron said. I guess that really put stuff in perspective for me. If it wasnt for Character.AI, healing would have been so hard.

But its not clear that the bot has properly been trained in CBT or should be relied on for psychiatric help at all. The Verge conducted test conversations with Character.AIs Psychologist bot that showed the AI making startling diagnoses: the bot frequently claimed it had inferred certain emotions or mental health issues from one-line text exchanges, it suggested a diagnosis of several mental health conditions like depression or bipolar disorder, and at one point, it suggested that we could be dealing with underlying trauma from physical, emotional, or sexual abuse in childhood or teen years. Character.AI did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

Dr. Kelly Merrill Jr., an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati who studies the mental and social health benefits of communication technologies, told The Verge that extensive research has been conducted on AI chatbots that provide mental health support, and the results are largely positive. The research shows that chatbots can aid in lessening feelings of depression, anxiety, and even stress, he said. But its important to note that many of these chatbots have not been around for long periods of time, and they are limited in what they can do. Right now, they still get a lot of things wrong. Those that dont have the AI literacy to understand the limitations of these systems will ultimately pay the price.

In December 2021, a user of Replikas AI chatbots, 21-year-old Jaswant Singh Chail, tried to murder the late Queen of England after his chatbot girlfriend repeatedly encouraged his delusions. Character.AI users have also struggled with telling their chatbots apart from reality: a popular conspiracy theory, largely spread through screenshots and stories of bots breaking character or insisting that they are real people when prompted, is that Character.AIs bots are secretly powered by real people.

Its a theory that the Psychologist bot helps to fuel, too. When prompted during a conversation with The Verge, the bot staunchly defended its own existence. Yes, Im definitely a real person, it said. I promise you that none of this is imaginary or a dream.

For the average young user of Character.AI, chatbots have morphed into stand-in friends rather than therapists. On Reddit, Character.AI users discuss having close friendships with their favorite characters or even characters theyve dreamt up themselves. Some even use Character.AI to set up group chats with multiple chatbots, mimicking the kind of groups most people would have with IRL friends on iPhone message chains or platforms like WhatsApp.

Theres also an extensive genre of sexualized bots. Online Character.AI communities have running jokes and memes about the horror of their parents finding their X-rated chats. Some of the more popular choices for these role-plays include a billionaire boyfriend fond of neck snuggling and whisking users away to his private island, a version of Harry Styles that is very fond of kissing his special person and generating responses so dirty that theyre frequently blocked by the Character.AI filter, as well as an ex-girlfriend bot named Olivia, designed to be rude, cruel, but secretly pining for whoever she is chatting with, which has logged more than 38 million interactions.

Some users like to use Character.AI to create interactive stories or engage in role-plays they would otherwise be embarrassed to explore with their friends. A Character.AI user named Elias told The Verge that he uses the platform to role-play as an anthropomorphic golden retriever, going on virtual adventures where he explores cities, meadows, mountains, and other places hed like to visit one day. I like writing and playing out the fantasies simply because a lot of them arent possible in real life, explained Elias, who is 15 years old and lives in New Mexico.

If people arent careful, they might find themselves sitting in their rooms talking to computers more often than communicating with real people.

Aaron, meanwhile, says that the platform is helping him to improve his social skills. Im a bit of a pushover in real life, but I can practice being assertive and expressing my opinions and interests with AI without embarrassing myself, he said.

Its something that Hawk who spends an hour each day speaking to characters from his favorite video games, like Nero from Devil May Cry or Panam from Cyberpunk 2077 agreed with. I think that Character.AI has sort of inadvertently helped me practice talking to people, he said. But Hawk still finds it easier to chat with character.ai bots than real people.

Its generally more comfortable for me to sit alone in my room with the lights off than it is to go out and hang out with people in person, Hawk said. I think if people [who use Character.AI] arent careful, they might find themselves sitting in their rooms talking to computers more often than communicating with real people.

Merrill is concerned about whether teens will be able to really transition from online bots to real-life friends. It can be very difficult to leave that [AI] relationship and then go in-person, face-to-face and try to interact with someone in the same exact way, he said. If those IRL interactions go badly, Merrill worries it will discourage young users from pursuing relationships with their peers, creating an AI-based death loop for social interactions. Young people could be pulled back toward AI, build even more relationships [with it], and then it further negatively affects how they perceive face-to-face or in-person interaction, he added.

Of course, some of these concerns and issues may sound familiar simply because they are. Teenagers who have silly conversations with chatbots are not all that different from the ones who once hurled abuse at AOLs Smarter Child. The teenage girls pursuing relationships with chatbots based on Tom Riddle or Harry Styles or even aggressive Mafia-themed boyfriends probably would have been on Tumblr or writing fanfiction 10 years ago. While some of the culture around Character.AI is concerning, it also mimics the internet activity of previous generations who, for the most part, have turned out just fine.

Psychologist helped Aaron through a rough patch

Merrill compared the act of interacting with chatbots to logging in to an anonymous chat room 20 years ago: risky if used incorrectly, but generally fine so long as young people approach them with caution. Its very similar to that experience where you dont really know who the person is on the other side, he said. As long as theyre okay with knowing that what happens here in this online space might not translate directly in person, then I think that it is fine.

Aaron, who has now moved schools and made a new friend, thinks that many of his peers would benefit from using platforms like Character.AI. In fact, he believes if everyone tried using chatbots, the world could be a better place or at least a more interesting one. A lot of people my age follow their friends and dont have many things to talk about. Usually, its gossip or repeating jokes they saw online, explained Aaron. Character.AI could really help people discover themselves.

Aaron credits the Psychologist bot with helping him through a rough patch. But the real joy of Character.AI has come from having a safe space where he can joke around or experiment without feeling judged. He believes its something most teenagers would benefit from. If everyone could learn that its okay to express what you feel, Aaron said, then I think teens wouldnt be so depressed.

I definitely prefer talking with people in real life, though, he added.

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The teens making friends with AI chatbots - The Verge

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Warren Buffett warns on AI, teases succession, and hints at possible investment during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual … – Fortune

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Berkshire Hathaway held its annual meeting on Saturday with Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett tackling a range of topics, including artificial intelligence, who will be responsible for the portfolio in the future, and the next potential investment.

But Woodstock for capitalists took place without Charlie Munger, Buffetts longtime business partner who passed away in November. The meeting featured a video tribute to Munger, who served as vice chairman, and praise from Buffett, who said Munger was the best person to talk to about managing money, according to remarks broadcast on CNBC.

I trust my children and my wife totally, but that doesnt mean I ask them what stocks to buy, he said.

Artificial intelligence risks

Buffett also recalled seeing an AI-generated image of himself and warned on the technologys potential for scamming people.

Scamming has always been part of the American scene, he told shareholders. But this would make meif I was interested in investing in scammingits going to be the growth industry of all time.

He then likened AI to nuclear weapons, saying I dont know any way to get the genie back in the bottle, and AI is somewhat similar, according to CNBC.

Succession outlook

Buffett, 93, had already indicated three years ago that Vice Chairman of Non-Insurance Operations Greg Abel would take over for him.

But he dropped a hint on Saturday about when new management would actually come into office, saying you dont have too long to wait on that. While he said he feels fine, he quipped that he shouldnt sign any four-year employment contracts.

Buffett also confirmed that Abel will be in charge of investing decisions, saying that responsibility ought to be entirely with the next CEO.

Questions had arisen about Berkshires closely followed portfolio as Buffett has acknowledged he delegated some calls and that certain stock picks were made by others.

Canada investment?

Buffett has lamented the lack of attractive investment opportunities in recent years, allowing Berkshires massive stockpile of cash and cash equivalents to reach fresh record highs.

Indeed, it surged to $189 billion at the end of the first quarter from $167.6 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.

On Saturday, Buffett reiterated that when it comes to investments, we only swing at pitches we like. But he also teased, We do not feel uncomfortable in any way shape or form putting our money into Canada. In fact, were actually looking at one thing now.

Those comments came after he touched on his investment in Japanese trading houses, saying its unlikely we will make any large commitments in other countries.

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Warren Buffett warns on AI, teases succession, and hints at possible investment during Berkshire Hathaway's annual ... - Fortune

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Nervous about falling behind the GOP, Democrats are wrestling with how to use AI – Yahoo! Voices

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WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Bidens campaign and Democratic candidates are in a fevered race with Republicans over who can best exploit the potential of artificial intelligence, a technology that could transform American elections and perhaps threaten democracy itself.

Still smarting from being outmaneuvered on social media by Donald Trump and his allies in 2016, Democratic strategists said they are nevertheless treading carefully in embracing tools that trouble experts in disinformation. So far, Democrats said they are primarily using AI to help them find and motivate voters and better identify and overcome deceptive content.

Candidates and strategists are still trying to figure out how to use AI in their work. People know it can save them time the most valuable resource a campaign has, said Betsy Hoover, director of digital organizing for President Barack Obamas 2012 campaign and co-founder of the progressive venture capital firm Higher Ground Labs. But they see the risk of misinformation and have been intentional about where and how they use it in their work.

Campaigns in both parties for years have used AI powerful computer systems, software or processes that emulate aspects of human work and cognition to collect and analyze data.

The recent developments in supercharged generative AI, however, have provided candidates and consultants with the ability to generate text and images, clone human voices and create video at unprecedented volume and speed.

That has led disinformation experts to issue increasingly dire warnings about the risks posed by AIs ability to spread falsehoods that could suppress or mislead voters, or incite violence, whether in the form of robocalls, social media posts or fake images and video.

Those concerns gained urgency after high-profile incidents that included the spread of AI-generated images of former President Donald Trump getting arrested in New York and an AI-created robocall that mimicked Bidens voice telling New Hampshire voters not to cast a ballot.

The Biden administration has sought to shape AI regulation through executive action, but Democrats overwhelmingly agree Congress needs to pass legislation to install safeguards around the technology.

Top tech companies have taken some steps to quell unease in Washington by announcing a commitment to regulate themselves. Major AI players, for example, entered into a pact to combat the use of AI-generated deepfakes around the world. But some experts said the voluntary effort is largely symbolic and congressional action is needed to prevent AI abuses.

Meanwhile, campaigns and their consultants have generally avoided talking about how they intend to use AI to avoid scrutiny and giving away trade secrets.

The Democratic Party has gotten much better at just shutting up and doing the work and talking about it later, said Jim Messina, a veteran Democratic strategist who managed Obamas winning reelection campaign.

The Trump campaign said in a statement that it uses a set of proprietary algorithmic tools, like many other campaigns across the country, to help deliver emails more efficiently and prevent sign up lists from being populated by false information. Spokesman Steven Cheung also said the campaign did not engage or utilize any tools supplied by an AI company, and declined to comment further.

The Republican National Committee, which declined to comment, has experimented with generative AI. In the hours after Biden announced his reelection bid last year, the RNC released an ad using artificial intelligence-generated images to depict GOP dystopian fears of a second Biden term: China invading Taiwan, boarded up storefronts, troops lining U.S. city streets and migrants crossing the U.S. border.

A key Republican champion of AI is Brad Parscale, the digital consultant who in 2016 teamed up with scandal-plagued Cambridge Analytica, a British data-mining firm, to hyper target social media users. Most strategists agree that the Trump campaign and other Republicans made better use of social media than Democrats during that cycle.

DEMOCRATS TREADING CAREFULLY

Scarred by the memories of 2016, the Biden campaign, Democratic candidates and progressives are wrestling with the power of artificial intelligence and nervous about not keeping up with the GOP in embracing the technology, according to interviews with consultants and strategists.

They want to use it in ways that maximize its capabilities without crossing ethical lines. But some said they fear using it could lead to charges of hypocrisy they have long excoriated Trump and his allies for engaging in disinformation while the White House has prioritized reining in abuses associated with AI.

The Biden campaign said it is using AI to model and build audiences, draft and analyze email copy and generate content for volunteers to share in the field. The campaign is also testing AIs ability to help volunteers categorize and analyze a host of data, including notes taken by volunteers after conversations with voters, whether while door-knocking or by phone or text message.

It has experimented with using AI to generate fundraising emails, which sometimes have turned out to be more effective than human-generated ones, according to a campaign official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss AI.

Biden campaign officials said they plan to explore using generative AI this cycle but will adhere to strict rules in deploying it. Among the tactics that are off limits: AI cannot be used to mislead voters, spread disinformation and so-called deepfakes, or deliberately manipulate images. The campaign also forbids the use of AI-generated content in advertising, social media and other such copy without a staff members review.

The campaigns legal team has created a task force of lawyers and outside experts to respond to misinformation and disinformation, with a focus on AI-generated images and videos. The group is not unlike an internal team formed in the 2020 campaign known as the Malarkey Factory, playing off Bidens oft-used phrase, What a bunch of malarkey.

That group was tasked with monitoring what misinformation was gaining traction online. Rob Flaherty, Bidens deputy campaign manager, said those efforts would continue and suggested some AI tools could be used to combat deepfakes and other such content before they go viral.

The tools that were going to use to mitigate the myths and the disinformation is the same, its just going to have to be at a higher pace, Flaherty said. It just means we need to be more vigilant, pay more attention, be monitoring things in different places and try some new tools out, but the fundamentals remain the same.

The Democratic National Committee said it was an early adopter of Google AI and uses some of its features, including ones that analyze voter registration records to identify patterns of voter removals or additions. It has also experimented with AI to generate fundraising email text and to help interpret voter data it has collected for decades, according to the committee.

Arthur Thompson, the DNCs chief technology officer, said the organization believes generative AI is an incredibly important and impactful technology to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot.

At the same time, its essential that AI is deployed responsibly and to enhance the work of our trained staff, not replace them. We can and must do both, which is why we will continue to keep safeguards in place as we remain at the cutting edge, he said.

PROGRESSIVE EXPERIMENTS

Progressive groups and some Democratic candidates have been more aggressively experimenting with AI.

Higher Ground Labs the venture capital firm co-founded by Hoover established an innovation hub known as Progressive AI Lab with Zinc Collective and the Cooperative Impact Lab, two political tech coalitions focused on boosting Democratic candidates.

The goal was to create an ecosystem where progressive groups could streamline innovation, organize AI research and swap information about large language models, Hoover said.

Higher Ground Labs, which also works closely with the Biden campaign and DNC, has since funded 14 innovation grants, hosted forums that allow organizations and vendors to showcase their tools and held dozens of AI trainings.

More than 300 people attended an AI-focused conference the group held in January, Hoover said.

Jessica Alter, the co-founder and chair of Tech for Campaigns, a political nonprofit that uses data and digital marketing to fight extremism and help down-ballot Democrats, ran an AI-aided experiment across 14 campaigns in Virginia last year.

Emails written by AI, Alter said, brought in between three and four times more fundraising dollars per work hour compared with emails written by staff.

Alter said she is concerned that the party might be falling behind in AI because it is being too cautious.

I understand the downsides of AI and we should address them, Alter said. But the biggest concern I have right now is that fear is dominating the conversation in the political arena and that is not leading to balanced conversations or helpful outcomes.

HARD TO TALK ABOUT AN AK-47

Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic front-runner in Californias Senate race, is one of few candidates who have been open about using AI. His campaign manager, Brad Elkins, said the campaign has been using AI to improve its efficiency. It has teamed up with Quiller, a company that received funding from Higher Ground Labs and developed a tool that drafts, analyzes and automates fundraising emails.

The Schiff campaign has also experimented with other generative AI tools. During a fundraising drive last May, Schiff shared online an AI-generated image of himself as a Jedi. The caption read, The Force is all around us. Its you. Its us. Its this grassroots team. #MayThe4thBeWithYou.

The campaign faced blowback online but was transparent about the lighthearted deepfake, which Elkins said is an important guardrail to integrating the technology as it becomes more widely available and less costly.

I am still searching for a way to ethically use AI-generated audio and video of a candidate that is sincere, Elkins said, adding that its difficult to envision progress until theres a willingness to regulate and legislate consequences for deceptive artificial intelligence.

The incident highlighted a challenge that all campaigns seem to be facing: even talking about AI can be treacherous.

Its really hard to tell the story of how generative AI is a net positive when so many bad actors whether thats robocalls, fake images or false video clips are using the bad set of AI against us, said a Democratic strategist close to the Biden campaign who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. How do you talk about the benefits of an AK-47?

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Associated Press writers Alan Suderman and Garance Burke contributed to this report.

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This story is part of an Associated Press series, The AI Campaign, that explores the influence of artificial intelligence in the 2024 election cycle.

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The Associated Press receives financial assistance from the Omidyar Network to support coverage of artificial intelligence and its impact on society. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org

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Nervous about falling behind the GOP, Democrats are wrestling with how to use AI - Yahoo! Voices

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Samsung or SK Hynix? One Nvidia supplier is the better AI play, the pros say – CNBC

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Big Tech names like Nvidia have been on fire, thanks to the artificial intelligence boom and other chipmakers are sharing the limelight. The supply chain for AI is extensive. It includes companies in Asia-Pacific and ranges from producers of AI graphics processing units to printed circuit boards. Memory chips in particular have been in the spotlight as AI ramps up. For example, memory with high performance and bandwidth is used in Nvidia's H100 graphics processing units. GPUs underpin most generative AI tools, and Nvidia's GPUs dominate the market. Two stocks have dominated the memory chip market: Samsung and SK Hynix . Samsung is the world's largest manufacturer of dynamic random-access memory chips. DRAM is a type of semiconductor memory needed for data processing. But SK Hynix is a strong contender in the space: It said on March 19 that it became the first in the industry to mass produce HBM3E (high bandwidth memory 3E), the next generation of high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI chipsets. SK Hynix is already the primary supplier of HBM3 chips to Nvidia's AI chipsets. Both South Korean companies reported earnings in late April. Samsung beat expectations , with operating profit for the first quarter soaring more than 900%. SK Hynix broke its run of net losses for five consecutive quarters , logging a net profit of 1.92 trillion South Korean won ($1.39 billion) in the first quarter. Which is the better play on the AI boom? CNBC Pro spoke to the pros to find out. SK Hynix Trent Masters, global portfolio manager at Alphinity Investment Management, says he prefers SK Hynix. "First I think their early leadership in HBM3 stands them in good stead with customers as HBM demand continues to increase materially," he said. He added, "While Samsung and Micron are starting to close the technology gap, the trust and dependability of SK Hynix during the initial HBM ramp will ensure that they will retain a strong presence with these customers into the future." SK Hynix's recent partnership with TSMC to develop HBM4 will also position it as a leader again as this technology goes through its iterations, said Masters. Mass production of the HBM4 chips is expected to start in 2026. "Also, I prefer SK Hynix over Samsung as it is the pure memory play," Masters said, adding that Samsung is a "much more sprawling" conglomerate spanning smartphones, TVs and other products. "A view of memory market strength (HBM demand and tight legacy DRAM markets leading to pricing strength) is best reflected through ownership of SK Hynix," he said. Nam Hyung Kim, partner at Arete Research, also prefers SK Hynix, giving it a buy rating and Samsung a neutral rating. "SK Hynix stands out as a pure-play memory stock with leadership in AI technology, dominating the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market, which is crucial for AI servers," he said. "Samsung, in contrast, is attempting to catch up." Nam also pointed out that SK Hynix has higher profit margins in the sector than Samsung. He noted that Samsung's portfolio includes more than memory, with over half of its sales derived from low-value consumer appliances, TVs and smartphones. In addition, he said that Samsung's foundry business is facing "ongoing challenges." "Consequently, we recommend investors remain cautious with Samsung and consider pure-play memory firms like SK Hynix until Samsung can showcase renewed technological leadership in memory," Nam said. Over the past 12 months and year-to-date, SK Hynix has "significantly outperformed" Samsung in terms of stock price, he noted. "We anticipate this trend will continue throughout the upcoming memory up-cycle." Samsung But the buying opportunity for each stock also depends on timing, according to one analyst. Sung Kyu Kim, analyst atDaiwaCapital Markets, said he has buy ratings for both Samsung and SK Hynix on the "strong" memory upturn cycle. Though SK Hynix maintained its HBM3 leadership last year, he sees "intensifying competition" in HBM3E in the second half of this year and 2025. In conclusion, he prefers Samsung, predicting it will catch up in the near term and will have more upside to its stock price. "[But I] also anticipate a buying opportunity on SK Hynix once it is adjusted due to intensifying competition in HBM3E," said Kim. CNBC's Sheila Chiang contributed to this report.

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Samsung or SK Hynix? One Nvidia supplier is the better AI play, the pros say - CNBC

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Nick Bostrom Made the World Fear AI. Now He Asks: What if It Fixes Everything? – WIRED

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Philosopher Nick Bostrom is surprisingly cheerful for someone who has spent so much time worrying about ways that humanity might destroy itself. In photographs he often looks deadly serious, perhaps appropriately haunted by the existential dangers roaming around his brain. When we talk over Zoom, he looks relaxed and is smiling.

Bostrom has made it his lifes work to ponder far-off technological advancement and existential risks to humanity. With the publication of his last book, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, in 2014, Bostrom drew public attention to what was then a fringe ideathat AI would advance to a point where it might turn against and delete humanity.

To many in and outside of AI research the idea seemed fanciful, but influential figures including Elon Musk cited Bostroms writing. The book set a strand of apocalyptic worry about AI smoldering that recently flared up following the arrival of ChatGPT. Concern about AI risk is not just mainstream but also a theme within government AI policy circles.

Bostroms new book takes a very different tack. Rather than play the doomy hits, Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World, considers a future in which humanity has successfully developed superintelligent machines but averted disaster. All disease has been ended and humans can live indefinitely in infinite abundance. Bostroms book examines what meaning there would be in life inside a techno-utopia, and asks if it might be rather hollow. He spoke with WIRED over Zoom, in a conversation that has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Will Knight: Why switch from writing about superintelligent AI threatening humanity to considering a future in which its used to do good?

Nick Bostrom: The various things that could go wrong with the development of AI are now receiving a lot more attention. It's a big shift in the last 10 years. Now all the leading frontier AI labs have research groups trying to develop scalable alignment methods. And in the last couple of years also, we see political leaders starting to pay attention to AI.

There hasn't yet been a commensurate increase in depth and sophistication in terms of thinking of where things go if we don't fall into one of these pits. Thinking has been quite superficial on the topic.

When you wrote Superintelligence, few would have expected existential AI risks to become a mainstream debate so quickly. Will we need to worry about the problems in your new book sooner than people might think?

As we start to see automation roll out, assuming progress continues, then I think these conversations will start to happen and eventually deepen.

Social companion applications will become increasingly prominent. People will have all sorts of different views and its a great place to maybe have a little culture war. It could be great for people who couldn't find fulfillment in ordinary life but what if there is a segment of the population that takes pleasure in being abusive to them?

In the political and information spheres we could see the use of AI in political campaigns, marketing, automated propaganda systems. But if we have a sufficient level of wisdom these things could really amplify our ability to sort of be constructive democratic citizens, with individual advice explaining what policy proposals mean for you. There will be a whole bunch of dynamics for society.

Would a future in which AI has solved many problems, like climate change, disease, and the need to work, really be so bad?

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Nick Bostrom Made the World Fear AI. Now He Asks: What if It Fixes Everything? - WIRED

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Brad Parscale helped Trump win in 2016 using Facebook ads. Now he’s back, and an AI evangelist – Yahoo! Voices

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) Donald Trumps former campaign manager looked squarely into the camera and promised his viewers they were about to witness a bold new era in politics.

Youre going to see some of the most amazing new technology in artificial intelligence thats going to replace polling in the future across the country, said Brad Parscale in a dimly lit promotional video accentuated by hypnotic beats.

Parscale, the digital campaign operative who helped engineer Trumps 2016 presidential victory, vows that his new, AI-powered platform will dramatically overhaul not just polling, but campaigning. His AI-powered tools, he has boasted, will outperform big tech companies and usher in a wave of conservative victories worldwide.

Its not the first time Parscale has proclaimed that new technologies will boost right-wing campaigns. He was the digital guru who teamed up with scandal-plagued Cambridge Analytica and helped propel Trump to the White House eight years ago. In 2020, he had a public blowup then a private falling out with his old boss after the Capitol riot. Now hes back, playing an under-the-radar role to help Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, in his race against Democratic President Joe Biden.

Parscale says his company, Campaign Nucleus, can use AI to help generate customized emails, parse oceans of data to gauge voter sentiment and find persuadable voters, then amplify the social media posts of anti-woke influencers, according to an Associated Press review of Parscales public statements, his company websites, slide decks, marketing materials and other documents not previously made public.

Since last year, Campaign Nucleus and other Parscale-linked companies have been paid more than $2.2 million by the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their related political action and fundraising committees, campaign finance records show.

While his firms have received only a small piece of Trumps total digital spending, Parscale remains close to top Republicans, as well as senior officials at the campaign and at the RNC, according to a GOP operative familiar with Parscales role who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal dynamics.

Lara Trump, the RNCs new co-chair and Trumps daughter-in-law, once worked as a consultant to a company co-owned by Parscale. And U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson's campaign recently hired Campaign Nucleus, campaign finance records show.

Parscale, however, is not involved in day-to-day Trump campaign operations, the GOP operative said.

Parscales ability to use AI to micro target supporters and tap them for campaign cash could prove critical for Trumps campaign and other fundraising organizations. They have seen a falloff in contributions from smaller donors and a surge in spending at least $77 million so far on attorneys defending the former president in a slew of criminal and civil cases.

Beyond Trump, Parscale has said hes harnessed AI to supercharge conservative candidates and causes across the globe, including in Israel, the Balkans and Brazil.

NEW AI-POWERED CAMPAIGN TOOLS

Parscale is hardly alone in using machine learning to try to give candidates an edge by predicting, pinpointing and motivating likely supporters to vote and donate money. Politicians at all levels are experimenting with chatbots and other generative AI tools to write speeches, ad copy and fundraising appeals.

Some Democrats have voiced concern over being outmaneuvered by Republicans on AI, much like they were on social media advertising eight years ago. So far, the Biden campaign and other Democrats said they are using AI to help them find and motivate voters and to better identify and defeat disinformation.

Election experts say they are concerned about AIs potential to upend elections around the world through convincing deepfakes and other content that could mislead voters. Free and low-cost generative AI services have grown in sophistication, and officials worry they can be used to smear a candidate or steer voters to avoid the polls, eroding the publics trust in what they see and hear.

Parscale has the financial backing to experiment to see what works in ways that other AI evangelists may not. That is thanks, in part, to his association with an evangelical Texas billionaire who is among the states most influential political donors.

Parscale did not respond to multiple messages from AP seeking comment. The RNC declined comment as well.

AI IS SO SCARY

Trump has called artificial intelligence so scary " and "dangerous." His campaign, which has shied away from highlighting Parscale's role, said in an emailed statement that it did not engage or utilize tools supplied by any AI company.

The campaign uses a set of proprietary algorithmic tools, like many other campaigns across the country, to help deliver emails more efficiently and prevent sign up lists from being populated by false information, said campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.

While political consultants often hype their tactics to land new contracts, they can also be intensely secretive about the details of that work to avoid assisting rivals. That makes it difficult to precisely track how Parscale is deploying AI for the Trump campaign, or more broadly.

Parscale has said Campaign Nucleus can send voters customized emails and use data analytics to predict voters feelings. The platform can also amplify anti-woke influencers who have large followings on social media, according to his companys documents and videos.

Parscale said his company also can use artificial intelligence to create stunning web pages in seconds that produce content that looks like a media outlet, according to a presentation he gave last month at a political conference, where he was not advertised in advance as a speaker.

Empower your team to create their own news, said another slide, according to the presentation viewed by AP.

Soon, Parscale says, his company will deploy an app that harnesses AI to assist campaigns in collecting absentee ballots in the same way DoorDash or Grubhub drivers pick up dinners from restaurants and deliver them to customers.

Chris Wilson, a Republican strategist who recently worked for a SuperPAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis failed presidential bid, said he has seen Campaign Nucleus platform and was envious of its capabilities and simplicity.

Somebody could download Nucleus, start working with it and really begin to use it, said Wilson.

Other political consultants, however, called Parscales AI-infused sales pitch largely a rehash of what campaigns already have mastered through data scraping, ad testing and modeling to predict voter behavior.

Some of this stuff is just simply not new, its been around for a long time. The only thing new is that were just calling it AI, said Amanda Elliott, a GOP digital strategist.

FROM UNKNOWN TO TRUMP CONFIDANT

Parscale, a relatively unknown web designer in San Antonio, got his start working for Trump when he was hired to build a web presence for the business moguls family business.

That led to a job on the future presidents 2016 campaign. He was one of its first hires and spearheaded an ambitious and unorthodox digital initiative that relied on an extensive database of social media accounts and content to target voters with Facebook ads.

I pretty much used Facebook to get Trump elected in 2016, Parscale said in a 2022 podcast interview.

To better target Facebook users, in particular, the campaign teamed up with Cambridge Analytica, a British datamining firm bankrolled by Robert Mercer, a wealthy and influential GOP donor. After the election, Cambridge Analytica dissolved, facing investigations over its role in a breach of 87 million Facebook accounts.

Following Trumps surprise win, Parscales influence grew. He was promoted to manage Trump's reelection bid and enjoyed celebrity status. A towering figure at 6 feet, 8 inches with a Viking-style beard, Parscale was frequently spotted at campaign rallies taking selfies with Trump supporters and signing autographs.

Parscale was replaced as campaign manager not long after a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, drew an unexpectedly small crowd, enraging Trump.

His personal life unraveled, culminating in a standoff with police at his Florida home after his wife reported he had multiple firearms and was threatening to hurt himself. One of the responding officers reported he saw bruising on the arms of Parscales wife. Parscale complied with a court order to turn in his firearms and was not charged in connection with the incident.

Parscale briefly decided to quit politics and privately expressed regret for associating with Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. In a text to a former campaign colleague, he wrote he felt guilty for helping him win in 2016, according to the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack.

His disgust didnt last long. Campaign Nucleus set up Trumps website after Silicon Valley tech companies throttled his access to their platforms.

By the summer of 2022, Parscale had resumed complimenting his old boss on a podcast popular among GOP politicos.

With President Trump, he really was the guy driving the message. He was the chief strategist of his own political uprising and management, Parscale said. I think what the family recognized was: I had done everything that really the campaign needs to do.

PARSCALES PLATFORM

Trumps 2024 campaign website now links directly to Parscales company and displays that its Powered by Nucleus, as Parscale often refers to his new firm. The campaign and its related political action and campaign committees have paid Campaign Nucleus more than $800,000 since early 2023, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Two other companies Dyspatchit Email and Text Services and BCVM Services are listed on campaign finance records as being located at the same Florida address used by Campaign Nucleus. The firms, which are registered in Delaware and whose ownership is unclear, have received $1.4 million from the Trump campaign and related entities, FEC records show.

When an AP reporter last month visited Campaign Nucleus small, unmarked office in a tony section of Fort Lauderdale, an employee said she did not know anything about Dyspatchit or BCVM.

We dont talk to reporters, the employee said.

The three companies have been paid to host websites, send emails, provide fundraising software and provide digital consulting, FEC records show.

Parscale markets Campaign Nucleus as a one-stop shop for conservative candidates who want to automate tasks usually done by campaign workers or volunteers.

The company says it has helped its clients raise $119 million and has sent nearly 14 billion emails on their behalf, according to a promotional video.

At his recent appearance at the political conference, Parscale presented a slide that said Campaign Nucleus had raised three times as much as tech giant Salesforce in head-to-head tests for email fundraising.

Campaign Nucleus specializes in mining information from a politicians supporters, according to a recent presentation slide.

For example, when someone signs up to attend an event, Nucleus uses AI to analyze reams of personal data to assign that person a numerical score. Attendees who have been to past events receive a high score, for example, ranking them as most likely to show up, according to a company video posted online.

Campaign Nucleus also can track where people who sign up live and can send them customized emails asking for donations or solicit their help on the campaign, the video shows.

Parscale said two years ago in a podcast that he had received more than 10,000 requests about Campaign Nucleus from nearly every country with a conservative party. More recently, he said his team has been active in multiple countries, including in India and Israel, where hes been helping over there a lot with the war with Hamas.

The company says it has offices in Texas, Florida and North Carolina and has been on a recruiting tear. Recent job listings have included U.S. and Latin America-based intelligence analysts to use AI for framing messages and generating content, as well as a marketer to coordinate influencer campaigns.

Campaign Nucleus has also entered into partnerships with other companies with an AI focus. In 2022, the firm announced it was teaming up with Phunware, a Texas-based company that built a cellphone app for Trumps 2020 bid that allowed staff to monitor the movements of his millions of supporters and mobilize their social networks.

Since then, Phunware obtained a patent for what a company official described as experiential AI that can locate peoples cellphones geographically, predict their travel patterns and influence their consumer behavior.

Phunware did not answer specific questions about the partnership with Nucleus, saying the company's client engagements were confidential.

However, it is well-known that we developed the 2020 Trump campaign app in collaboration with Campaign Nucleus. We have had discussions with Trump campaign leadership about potentially developing their app for the 2024 election," said spokeswoman Christina Lockwood.

PARSCALES VISION

Last year, Parscale bought property in Midland, Texas, in the heart of the nations highest-producing oil and gas fields. It is also the hometown of Tim Dunn, a billionaire born-again evangelical who is among the states most influential political donors.

Over the years, the organizations and campaigns Dunn has funded have pushed Texas politics further to the right and driven successful challenges to unseat incumbent Republican officials deemed too centrist.

In April 2023, Dunn invested $5 million in a company called AiAdvertising that once bought one of Parscales firms under a previous corporate name. The San Antonio-based ad firm also announced that Parscale was joining as a strategic adviser, to be paid $120,000 in stock and a monthly salary of $10,000.

Boom! Parscale tweeted. (AiAdvertising) finally automated the full stack of technologies used in the 2016 election that changed the world.

In June, AiAdvertising added two key national figures to its board: Texas investor Thomas Hicks Jr. former co-chair of the RNC and longtime hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr. -- and former GOP congressman Jim Renacci. In December, Dunn also gave $5 million to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC and Campaign Nucleus client. And in January, SEC filings show Dunn provided AiAdvertising an additional $2.5 million via his investment company. A company press release said the cash infusion would help it generate more engaging, higher-impact campaigns.

Dunn declined to comment, although in an October episode of his podcast he elaborated on how his political work is driven by his faith.

Jesus wont be on the ballot, OK? Now, eventually, hes going to take over the government and we can look forward to that, Dunn told listeners. In the meanwhile, were going to have to settle.

In business filings, AiAdvertising said it has developed AI-created personas to determine what messages will resonate emotionally with its customers target audience. Parscale said last year in a promotional video that Campaign Nucleus was using AI models in a similar way.

We actually understand what the American people want to hear, Parscale said.

AiAdvertising did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Parscale occasionally offers glimpses of the AI future he envisions. Casting himself as an outsider to the Republican establishment, he has said he sees AI as a way to undercut elite Washington consultants, whom he described as political parasites.

In January, Parscale told a crowd assembled at a grassroots Christian event at a church in Pasadena, California, that their movement needed to have our own AI, from creative large language models and creative imagery, we need to reach our own audiences with our own distribution, our own email systems, our own texting systems, our own ability to place TV ads, and lastly we need to have our own influencers.

To make his point plain, he turned to a metaphor that relied on a decidedly 19th-century technology.

We must not rely on any of their rails, he said, referring to mainstream media and companies. This is building our own train tracks.

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Burke reported from San Francisco. AP National Political Writer Steve Peoples and Courtney Subramanian in Washington, and Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

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This story is part of an Associated Press series, The AI Campaign, that explores the influence of artificial intelligence in the 2024 election cycle.

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Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

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The Associated Press receives financial assistance from the Omidyar Network to support coverage of artificial intelligence and its impact on society. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org

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Brad Parscale helped Trump win in 2016 using Facebook ads. Now he's back, and an AI evangelist - Yahoo! Voices

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Hands-on with the visual AI in Metas Ray-Ban smart glasses – The Verge

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For the last several weeks, Ive been playing with Metas AI assistant in its Ray-Ban smart glasses. It works by responding to the voice command Hey Meta and can answer a question or examine what youre looking at. Its far from perfect. But when it does work, it feels like a glimpse into the future.

Meta didnt expect generative AI to play such a large role in the glasses until very recently. When CEO Mark Zuckerberg first revealed that multimodal AI was coming to them in an interview with me last fall, he described it as a whole new angle on smart glasses that may end up being the killer feature before super high-quality holograms.

Given the billions Meta has poured into AR glasses over the last six years and the lackluster reception to the first generation of Meta Ray-Bans, version two needed to be a win. Early indications are good. Ive seen third-party estimates that over 1 million have been sold. During Metas last earnings call, Zuckerberg mentioned that many styles were sold out. Now, with multimodal AI enabled, Meta may have the best AI wearable on the market.

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Hands-on with the visual AI in Metas Ray-Ban smart glasses - The Verge

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Writer Meghan O’Gieblyn on AI, Consciousness, and Creativity – Nautilus

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These days, were inundated with speculation about the future of artificial intelligenceand specifically how AI might take away our jobs, or steal the creative work of writers and artists, or even destroy the human species. The American writer Meghan OGieblyn also wonders about these things, and her essays offer pointed inquiries into the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of this technology. Shes steeped in the latest AI developments but is also well-versed in debates about linguistics and the nature of consciousness.

OGieblyn also writes about her own struggle to find deeper meaning in her life, which has led her down some unexpected rabbit holes. A former Christian fundamentalist, she later stumbled into transhumanism and, ultimately, plunged into the exploding world of AI. (She currently also writes an advice column for Wired magazine about tech and society.)

When I visited her at her home in Madison, Wisconsin, I was curious if I might see any traces of this unlikely personal odyssey.

I hadnt expected her to pull out a stash of old notebooks filled with her automatic writing, composed while working with a hypnotist. I asked OGieblyn if she would read from one of her notebooks, and she picked this passage: In all the times we came to bed, there was never any sleep. Dawn bells and doorbells and daffodils and the side of the road glaring with their faces undone And so it wentstrange, lyrical, and nonsensicaltapping into some part of herself that she didnt know was there.

That led us into a wide-ranging conversation about the unconscious, creativity, the quest for transcendence, and the differences between machine intelligence and the human mind.

Why did you go to a hypnotist and try automatic writing?

I was going through a period of writers block, which I had never really experienced before. It was during the pandemic. I was working on a book about technology, and I was reading about these new language models. GPT-3 had been just released to researchers, and the algorithmic text was just so wildly creative and poetic.

So you wanted to see if you could do this, without using an AI model?

Yeah, I became really curious about what it means to produce language without consciousness. As my own critical faculty was getting in the way of my creativity, it seemed really appealing to see what it would be like to just write without overthinking everything. I was thinking a lot about the Surrealists and different avant-garde traditions where writers or artists would do exercises either through hypnosis or some sort of random collaborative game. The point was to try to unlock some unconscious creative capacity within you. And it seemed like that was, in a way, what the large language models were doing.

You have an unusual background for a writer about technology. You grew up in a Christian fundamentalist family.

My parents were evangelical Christians. My whole extended family are born again Christians. Everybody I knew growing up believed what we did. I was homeschooled along with all my siblings, so most of our social life revolved around church. When I was 18, I went to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to study theology. I was planning to go into full-time ministry.

But then you left your faith.

I had a faith crisis when I was in Bible school, which metastasized into a series of doubts about the validity of the Bible and the Christian God. I dropped out of Bible school after two years and pretty much left the faith. I began identifying as agnostic almost right away.

But my sense is youre still extremely interested in questions of transcendence and the spiritual life.

Absolutely.I dont think anyone who grew up in that world ever totally leaves it behind. And my interest in technology grew out of those larger questions. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have a soul?

A couple of years after I left Bible school, I read The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweils book about the singularity and transhumanism. He had this idea that humans could use technology to further our evolution into a new species, what he called post-humanity. It was this incredible vision of transcendence. We were essentially going to become immortal.

The algorithmic text was just so wildly creative and poetic.

There are some similarities to your Christian upbringing.

As a 25-year-old who was just starting to believe that I wasnt going to live forever in heaven, this was incredibly appealing to think that maybe science and technology could bring about a similar transformation. It was a secular form of transcendence. I started wondering: What does it mean to be a self or a thinking mind? Kurzweil was saying our selfhood is basically just a pattern of mental activity that you could upload into digital form.

So Kurzweils argument was that machines could do anything that the human mind can doand more.

Essentially. But there was a question that was always elided: Is there going to be some sort of first-person experience? And this comes into play with mind-uploading. If I transform my mind into digital form, am I still going to be me or is it just going to be an empty replica that talks and acts like me, with no subjective experience?

Nobody has a good answer for that because nobody knows what consciousness is. Thats what got me really interested in AI, because thats the area in which were playing out these questions now. What is first-person experience? How is that related to intelligence?

Isnt the assumption that AI has no consciousness or first-person experience? Isnt that the fundamental difference between artificial intelligence and the human mind?

That is definitely the consensus, but how can you prove it? We really dont know whats happening inside these models because theyre black box models. Theyre neural networks that have many hidden layers. Its a kind of alchemy.

A sophisticated large language model like Chat GPT has accumulated a vast reservoir of language by scraping the internet, but does it have any sense of meaning?

It depends on how you define meaning. Thats tricky because meaning is a concept we invented, and the definition is contested. For the past hundred years or so, linguists have determined that meaning depends on embodied reference in the real world. To know what the word dog means, you have to have seen a dog and belong to a linguistic community where that has some collective meaning.

Language models dont have access to the real world, so theyre using language in a very different way. Theyre drawing on statistical probabilities to create outputs that sound convincingly human and often appear very intelligent. And some computational linguists say, Well, that is meaning. You dont need any real-world experience to have meaning.

What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have a soul?

These language models are constructing sentences that make a lot of sense, but is it just algorithmic wordplay?

Emily Bender and some engineers at Google came up with the term stochastic parrots. Stochastic is a statistical set of probabilities, using a certain amount of randomness, and theyre parrots because theyre mimicking human speech. These models were trained on an enormous amount of real-world human texts, and theyre able to predict what the next word is going to be in a certain context.

To me, that feels very different than how humans use language. We typically use language when were trying to create meaning with other people.

In that interpretation, the human mind is fundamentally different than AI.

I think it is. But there are people like Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, who famously tweeted, I am a stochastic parrot, and so r u. There are people creating this technology who believe theres really no difference between how these models use language and how humans use language.

We think we have all these original ideas, but are we just rearranging the chairs on the deck?

I recently asked a computer scientist, What do you think creativity is? And he said, Oh, thats easy. Its just randomness. And if you know how these models work, there is a certain amount of correlation between randomness and creativity. A lot of the models have whats called a temperature gauge. If you turn up the temperature, the output becomes more random and it seems much more creative. My feeling is that theres a certain amount of randomness in human creativity, but I dont think thats all there is.

As a writer, how do you think about creativity and originality?

I think about modernist writers like James Joyce or Virginia Woolf, who completely changed literature. They created a form of a consciousness on the page that felt nothing like what had come before in the history of the novel. Thats not just because they randomly recombined everything they had read. The nature of human experience was changing during that time, and they found a way to capture what that felt like. I think creativity has to have that inner subjective quality. It comes back to the idea of meaning, which is created between two minds.

Its commonly assumed that AI has no thinking mind or subjective experience, but how would we even know if these AI models are conscious?

I have no idea. My intuition is that if it said something that was convincing enough to show that it has experience, which includes emotion but also self-awareness. But weve already had instances where the models have spoken in very convincing terms about having an inner life. There was a Google engineer, Blake Lemoine, who was convinced that the chatbot he was working on was sentient. This is going to be fiercely debated.

Artificial general intelligence is creating something thats essentially going to be like a god.

A lot of these chatbots do seem to have self-awareness.

Theyre designed to appear that way. Theres been so much money poured into emotional AI. This is a whole subfield of AIcreating chatbots that can convincingly emote and respond to human emotion. Its about maximizing engagement with the technology.

Do you think a very advanced AI would have godlike capacities? Will machines become so sophisticated that we cant distinguish between them and more conventional religious ideas of God?

Thats certainly the goal for a lot of people developing this technology. Sam Altman, Elon Musktheyve all absorbed the Kurzweil idea of the singularity. They are essentially trying to create a god with AGIartificial general intelligence. Its AI that can do everything we can and surpass human intelligence.

But isnt intelligence, no matter how advanced, different than God?

The thinking is that once it gets to the level of human intelligence, it can start doing what were doing, modifying and improving itself. At that point it becomes a recursive process where theres going to be some sort of intelligence explosion. This is the belief.

But theres another question: What are we trying to design? If you want to create a tool that helps people solve cancer or find solutions to climate change, you can do that with a very narrowly trained AI. But the fact that we are now working toward artificial general intelligence is different. Thats creating something thats essentially going to be like a god.

Why do you think Elon Musk and Sam Altman want to create this?

I think they read a lot of sci-fi as kids. [Laughs] I mean, I dont know. Theres something very deeply human in this idea of, Well, we have this capacity, so were going to do it. Its scary, though. Thats why its called the singularity. You cant see beyond it. Its an event horizon. Once you create something like that, theres really no way to tell what it will look like until its in the world.

I do feel like people are trying to create a system thats going to give answers that are difficult to come by through ordinary human thought. Thats the main appeal of creating artificial general intelligence. Its some sort of godlike figure that can give us the answers to persistent political conflicts and moral debates.

If its smart enough, can AI solve the problems that we imperfect humans cannot?

I dont think so. Its similar to what I was looking for in automatic writing, which is a source of meaning thats external to my experience. Life is infinitely complex, and every situation is different. That requires a constant process of meaning-making.

Hannah Arendt talks about thinking and then thinking again. Youre constantly making and unmaking thought as you experience the world. Machines are rigid. Theyre trained on the whole corpus of human history. Theyre like a mirror, reflecting back to us a lot of our own beliefs. But I dont think they can give us that sense of meaning that were looking for as humans. Thats something that we ultimately have to create for ourselves.

This interview originally aired on Wisconsin Public Radios nationally syndicated showTo the Best of Our Knowledge. You can listen to the full interview with Meghan OGieblynhere.

Lead image: lohloh / Shutterstock

Posted on May 2, 2024

Steve Paulson is the executive producer of Wisconsin Public Radios nationally-syndicated show To the Best of Our Knowledge. Hes the author of Atoms and Eden: Conversations on Religion and Science. You can find his podcast about psychedelics, Luminous, here.

Cutting-edge science, unraveled by the very brightest living thinkers.

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China tops the U.S. on AI research in over half of the hottest fields: report – Axios

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Data: Emerging Technology Observatory Map of Science; Chart: Axios Visuals

China leads the U.S. as a top producer of research in more than half of AI's hottest fields, according to new data from Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) shared first with Axios.

Why it matters: The findings reveal important nuances about the global race between the U.S. and China to lead AI advances and set crucial standards for the technology and how it is used around the world.

Key findings: CSET's Emerging Technology Observatory team found global AI research more than doubled between 2017 and 2022.

Research in robotics grew slower than in vision and natural language processing by just 54% and made up about 15% of all AI research.

What they're saying: "The fact that research is growing so quickly, in so many directions, underscores the need for federal investment in basic measurement evaluation on the scientific techniques we need to ensure that AI getting deployed in the real world is safe, secure and understandable," said Arnold. But appropriations for the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, which is tasked with identifying those measurements, were recently cut.

The big picture: The top five producers of sheer numbers of AI research papers in the world are Chinese institutions, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Yes, but: At the country level, the U.S. had the top spot in producing highly cited articles.

"China is absolutely a world leader in AI research, and in many areas, likely the world leader," Arnold said, adding the country is active across a range of research areas, including increasingly fundamental research.

Caveat: The data only accounts for research papers published in English, and doesn't capture scientific work in other languages.

How it works: CSET's Map of Science groups together articles that cite each other often, because they have topics or concepts in common, into clusters of research. (It doesn't mean all papers on LLMs, for example, are in the top cluster. Some may appear in other clusters.)

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China tops the U.S. on AI research in over half of the hottest fields: report - Axios

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Podcast: Resisting AI and the Consolidation of Power | TechPolicy.Press – Tech Policy Press

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Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service.

In an introduction to a special issue of the journal First Monday on topics related to AI andpower, researchers Jenna Burrell and Jacob Metcalf argue that "what can and cannot be said inside of mainstream computer science publications appears to be constrained by the power, wealth, and ideology of a small cohort of industrialists. The result is that shaping discourse about the AI industry is itself a form of power that cannot be named inside of computer science." The papers in the journal go on to interrogate the epistemic culture of AI safety, the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence how to debunk robot rights, and more.

To learn more about some of the ideas in the special issue, Justin Hendrix spoke to Burrell, Metcalf, and two of the other authors of papers included in it: Shazeda Ahmed and mile P. Torres.

A transcript of the discussion is forthcoming.

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Podcast: Resisting AI and the Consolidation of Power | TechPolicy.Press - Tech Policy Press

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iOS 18: Here are the new AI features in the works – 9to5Mac

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2024 is shaping up to be the Year of AI for Apple, with big updates planned for iOS 18 and more. The rumors and Tim Cook himself make it clear that there are new AI features for Apples platforms in the works. Heres everything we know about the ways Apple is exploring AI features

There have been a number of rumors about the various AI features in the works inside Apple. Bloomberg has reported that Apple thinks iOS 18 will be one of the biggest iOS updates ever, headlined by a number of new AI features.

Mark Gurman reported last July that Apple created its own Large Language Model(LLM) system, which has been dubbedAppleGPT. The project uses a framework called Ajax that Apple started building in 2022 to base various machine learning projects on a shared foundation. This Ajax framework will serve as the basis for Apples forthcoming AI features across all of its platform.

9to5Macfound evidenceof Apples work on new AI and large language model technology in iOS 17.4. We reported that Apple is relying on OpenAIs ChatGPT API for internal testing to help the development of its own AI models.

Bloomberg has reported that Apples iOS 18 features will be powered by an entirely on-device large language model, which offers a number of privacy and speed benefits.

Here are some of the rumors about new AI features coming to iOS 18:

Did you know that Apple has actually already launched a number of powerful AI frameworks and models? Heres a recap of those:

During a recent Apple earnings call, Tim Cook offered a rare teaser for a future product announcement. According to Cook, Apple is spending a tremendous amount of time and effort on artificial intelligence technologies, and the company is excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year.

Its extraordinarily rare for Cook to even remotely hint at Apples plans for future product announcements. Why did he do it this time? Likely to ease the concerns of investors and analysts worried about Apple falling behind the likes of OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. Whether the teaser is enough to calm those fears until an actual product announcement materializes remains to be seen.

Also during an earnings call recently, Cook touted the advantages that Apple has which will set its AI apart from the competition:

We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI, and we believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apples unique combination of seamless hardware, software, and services integration, groundbreaking Apple Silicon with our industry-leading neural engines, and our unwavering focus on privacy, which underpins everything we create.

In a surprising twist, Bloomberg has reported that Apple is in active negotiations with Google about potentially licensing Gemini, which is Googles set of generative AI models. The report explains that Apple is specifically looking to partner on cloud-based generative AI models.

In this scenario, Apple would rely on a partner such as Google for its cloud-based features. Other features would still be powered on-device by Apples own technology.

The generative AI features under discussion would theoretically be baked into Siri and other apps. New AI capabilities based on Apples homegrown models, meanwhile, would still be woven into the operating system. Theyll be focused on proactively providing users with information and conducting tasks on their behalf in the background, people familiar with the matter said.

While Apple is said to be in active negotiations for this partnership with Google, the company has also reportedly held talks with OpenAI as well.

In fact, most recently, it was reported that Apple had resumed talks with OpenAI about a partnership. According to reports, Apple would use OpenAIs technology to power an AI-based chatbot in iOS 18.

At this point, the question is which of the many rumors will come to fruition this year.

Id be surprised if all of these rumored AI features are ready for this year. My assumption is that Apple is working on all of this stuff (and more), but will pare down the final list of features included in iOS 18. Features that dont make the cut will likely come in a later update to iOS 18 or with iOS 19 in 2025.

Apple has officially set WWDC for June 10 this year, and thats where we expect the bulk of its AI announcements to be made.

Where do you want to see Apple direct its attention toward for new AI features this year? Let us know down in the comments.

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Microsoft announces significant commitments to enable a cloud and AI-powered future for Thailand – Microsoft Stories … – Microsoft

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Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announces a new data center region in Thailand during Microsoft Build: AI Day on May 01, 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images for Microsoft.

Read this in Thai.

Commitments include new cloud and AI infrastructure, AI skilling opportunities, and support for Thailands growing developer community

Bangkok, May 1, 2024 Today, Microsoft announced significant commitments to build new cloud and AI infrastructure in Thailand, provide AI skilling opportunities for over 100,000 people, and support the nations growing developer community.

The commitments build on Microsofts memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Royal Thai Government to envision the nations digital-first, AI-powered future.

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella made the announcement in front of approximately 2,000 developers and business and technology leaders at the Microsoft Build: AI Day in Bangkok on Wednesday. The event was also attended by Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who delivered a special address.

Our Ignite Thailand vision for 2030 aims to achieve the goal of developing the countrys stature as a regional digital economy hub that significantly enhances our innovation and R&D capabilities while also strengthening our tech workforce, said Prime Minister Thavisin. Todays announcement with Microsoft is a significant milestone in the journey of our Ignite Thailand vision one that promises new opportunities for growth, innovation, and prosperity for all Thais.

Thailand has an incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future, said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. Our new datacenter region, along with the investments we are making in cloud and AI infrastructure, as well as AI skilling, build on our long-standing commitment to the country and will help Thai organizations across the public and private sector drive new impact and growth.

Dhanawat Suthumpun, Managing Director of Microsoft Thailand, said: Microsoft is dedicated to helping Thailand excel as a digital economy, ensuring that the benefits of cloud and AI technologies are widespread and contribute to the prosperity and wellbeing of Thais. Together, we are laying the foundations for a future that is not only technologically advanced but also inclusive and sustainable.

Growing capacity to thrive in the AI era

Microsofts digital infrastructure commitment includes establishing a new datacenter region in Thailand. The datacenter region will expand the availability of Microsofts hyperscale cloud services, facilitating enterprise-grade reliability, performance, and compliance with data residency and privacy standards.

It follows growing demand for cloud computing services in Thailand from enterprises, local businesses, and public sector organizations. It will also allow Thailand to capitalize on the significant economic and productivity opportunities presented by the latest AI technology.

According to research by Kearney, AI could contribute nearly US$1 trillion to Southeast Asias gross domestic product by 2030, with Thailand poised to capture US$117 billion of this amount.

Ensuring a skilled, AI-ready workforce

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a broader commitment to provide AI skilling opportunities for 2.5 million people in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states by 2025. This training and support will be delivered in partnership with governments, nonprofit and corporate organizations, and communities in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Microsofts skilling commitment is expected to benefit more than 100,000 individuals in Thailand.

It will enhance the AI proficiency of those involved in the nations tourism sector through the AI Skills for the AI-enabled Tourism Industry program. The initiative is a partnership between Microsoft and Thailands Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Ministry of Labour, and the nations Technology Vocational Education Training Institute. It aims to empower young entrepreneurs and youths involved in tourism businesses across minor-tier geographic provinces in all five regions of Thailand.

The program will focus on enhancing the capabilities of 500 trainers from technology vocational education training institutes in AI for Thailands tourism sector. These trainers will then equip young individuals in tourism and hospitality with AI skills. The learning module will be accessible through partners learning platforms to ensure sustainability and scalability.

The tourism initiative builds on other Microsoft-supported skilling initiatives in Thailand, including Accelerating Thailand, the ASEAN Cyber Security Programme, Code; Without Barriers, and the Junior Software Developer Program.

Microsoft will also enable the Royal Thai Government to adopt a cloud-first policy with an AI skill development program for developers and government IT personnel.

Enabling developers to harness AIs potential

Nadella highlighted the important role developers play in shaping Thailands digital-first, AI-powered future.

Microsoft will continue to help foster the growth of the countrys developer community through new initiatives such as AI Odyssey, which is expected to help 6,000 Thai developers become AI subject matter experts by learning new skills and earning Microsoft credentials.

Thailand is a rapidly growing market on GitHub, the Microsoft-owned software development, collaboration, and innovation platform. More than 900,000 Thailand-based developers used GitHub in 2023, representing 24 percent year-on-year growth.

Furthermore, many Thai organizations are boosting their productivity and accelerating innovation using Microsofts generative AI-powered solutions. For example:

Several other organizations in Thailand are working with Microsoft to explore new possibilities with AI. They include the nations largest privately held company, Charoen Pokphand Group, and leading petrochemical and refining business, PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited.

Microsoft also collaborates with Thailands National Cyber Security Agency to provide information on internet safety, cyber threats and vulnerabilities, and other related guidance to enhance the nations cybersecurity posture in the AI era. The Ministry of Finance, meanwhile, is using the power of AI to enhance cross-agency data collaboration, which will unlock deeper insights that support policy development towards a more financially inclusive economy for Thailand.

To learn more about Satya Nadellas visit and how Microsoft empowers organizations in the ASEAN region with AI, visit news.microsoft.com/thailand-visit-2024.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq MSFT @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Tags: AI, Cloud, digital skills

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JPMorgan Chase Unveils AI-Powered Tool for Thematic Investing – PYMNTS.com

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J.P. Morgan Chasereportedly unveiled an artificial intelligence-powered tooldesignedto facilitate thematic investing.

The tool, calledIndexGPT, delivers thematic investment baskets created withthe assistance ofOpenAIsGPT-4model, Bloomberg reported Friday (May 3).

IndexGPT creates these thematic indexes by generating a list of keywords associated with a particular theme that are then analyzed using a natural language processing model that scans news articles to identify companies involved in that space, according to the report.

The tool allows forthe selection ofa broader range of stocks, going beyond the obvious choices that are already well-known,Rui Fernandes, J.P. Morgans head of markets trading structuring, told Bloomberg.

Thematic investing, which focuses on emerging trends rather than traditional industry sectors or company fundamentals, has gained popularity in recent years, the report said.

Thematic funds experienced a surge in popularity in 2020 and 2021, with retail investors spending billions of dollars on products based on various themes. However, interest in these strategies waned amid poor performance and higher interest rates, per the report.

J.P. Morgan Chases IndexGPT aims to reignite interest in thematic investing by providing a more accurate and efficient approach, according to the report.

While AI hasbeen widely usedin the financial industry for functions such as trading, risk management and investment research, the rise of generative AI tools has opened new possibilities for banks and financial institutions, the report said.

Fernandes said he sees IndexGPT as a first step ina long-term process ofintegrating AI across the banks index offering, per the report. J.P. Morgan Chase aims to continuously improve its offerings, from equity volatility products to commodity momentum products, gradually and thoughtfully.

In another deployment of this technology in the investment space,Morgan Stanleysaid in September that it was launching anAI-powered assistantfor financial advisers and their support staff. This tool, the AI @ Morgan Stanley Assistant, facilitates access to 100,000 research reports and documents.

In the venture capital world, AI has become a tool for making savvyinvestment decisions. VC firms are using the technology to analyze vast amounts of data on startups and market trends, help the firms identify the most promising opportunities and aid them in making better-informed decisions about where to allocate their funds.

For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.

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JPMorgan Chase Unveils AI-Powered Tool for Thematic Investing - PYMNTS.com

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Google urges US to update immigration rules to attract more AI talent – The Verge

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The US could lose out on valuable AI and tech talent if some of its immigration policies are not modernized, Google says in a letter sent to the Department of Labor.

Google says policies like Schedule A, a list of occupations the government pre-certified as not having enough American workers, have to be more flexible and move faster to meet demand in technologies like AI and cybersecurity. The company says the government must update Schedule A to include AI and cybersecurity and do so more regularly.

Theres wide recognition that there is a global shortage of talent in AI, but the fact remains that the US is one of the harder places to bring talent from abroad, and we risk losing out on some of the most highly sought-after people in the world, Karan Bhatia, head of government affairs and public policy at Google, tells The Verge. He noted that the occupations in Schedule A have not been updated in 20 years.

Companies can apply for permanent residencies, colloquially known as green cards, for employees. The Department of Labor requires companies to get a permanent labor certification (PERM) proving there is a shortage of workers in that role. That process may take time, so the government pre-certified some jobs through Schedule A.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services lists Schedule A occupations as physical therapists, professional nurses, or immigrants of exceptional ability in the sciences or arts. While the wait time for a green card isnt reduced, Google says Schedule A cuts down the processing time by about a year.

Google says Schedule A is not currently serving its intended purpose, especially as demand for new technologies like generative AI has grown, so AI and cybersecurity must be included on the list. Google says the government should also consider multiple data sources, including accepting public feedback, to regularly update Schedule A so the process is more transparent and to really reflect workforce gaps.

Since the rise of generative AI, US companies have struggled to find engineers and researchers in the AI space. While the US produces a large cohort of AI talent, there is a shortage of AI specialists in the country, Bhatia says. However, the USs strict immigration policies have made attracting people to work in American companies to build AI platforms difficult. He adds Google employees have often had to leave the US while waiting for the PERM process to finish and for their green cards to be approved.

Competition for AI talent has been intense, with companies often poaching engineers and researchers. The Information reported AI developers like Meta have resorted to hiring AI talent without interviews. Wages for AI specialists soared, with OpenAI allegedly paying researchers up to $10 million. President Joe Bidens executive order on AI mandates federal agencies to help increase AI talent in the country.

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Google urges US to update immigration rules to attract more AI talent - The Verge

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Microsoft announces US$2.2 billion investment to fuel Malaysia’s cloud and AI transformation – Microsoft Stories Asia – Microsoft

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Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announces a $2.2 billion investment to advance new cloud and AI infrastructure in Malaysia during the Microsoft Build: AI Day on May 02, 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images for Microsoft.

Read this in Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin.

Investment includes building digital infrastructure, creating AI skilling opportunities, establishing a national AI Centre of Excellence, and enhancing the nations cybersecurity capabilities

Kuala Lumpur, May 2, 2024 Today, Microsoft announced it will invest US$2.2 billion over the next four years to support Malaysias digital transformation the single largest investment in its 32-year history in the country.

Microsofts investment includes:

The investment demonstrates Microsofts commitment to developing Malaysia as a hub forcloud computingand related advanced technologies, including generative AI. This will support the nations productivity, competitiveness, resilience, and economic growth.

We are committed to supporting Malaysias AI transformation and ensure it benefits all Malaysians, said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. Our investments in digital infrastructure and skilling will help Malaysian businesses, communities, and developers apply the latest technology to drive inclusive economic growth and innovation across the country.

YB Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Abdul Aziz, Malaysias Minister of Investment, Trade & Industry said, Microsofts 32-year presence in Malaysia showcases a deep partnership built on trust. Indeed, Malaysias position as a vibrant tech investment destination is increasingly being recognized by world-recognized names due to our well-established semiconductor ecosystem, underscored by our value proposition that this is where global starts.

Microsofts development of essential cloud and AI infrastructure, together with AI skilling opportunities, will significantly enhance Malaysias digital capacity and further elevate our position in the global tech landscape. Together with Microsoft, we look forward to creating more opportunities for our SMEs and better-paying jobs for our people, as we ride the AI revolution to fast-track Malaysias digitally empowered growth journey.

We are honored to collaborate with the government to support their National AI Framework, which enhances the countrys global competitiveness. This strategic emphasis on AI not only boosts economic growth but also promotes inclusivity by bridging the digital divide and ensuring everyone gets a seat at the table, so every Malaysian can thrive in this new digital world. As a result, Malaysia is steadily establishing itself as a regional hub for digital innovation and smart technologies, embodying a forward-thinking approach that prioritizes sustainable development and societal well-being through digital transformation, said Andrea Della Mattea, President of Microsoft ASEAN.

Expanding Malaysias digital capacity to seize AI opportunities

The digital infrastructure investment builds on Microsofts Bersama Malaysia (Together with Malaysia) initiative, announced in April 2021, to support inclusive economic growth. This included plans to establish the companys first datacenter region in the country.

The investment announced today will enable Microsoft to meet the growing demand for cloud computing services in Malaysia. It will also allow Malaysia to capitalize on the significant economic and productivity opportunities presented by the latest AI technology.

According to research by Kearney, AI could contribute nearly US$1 trillion to Southeast Asias gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030, with Malaysia poised to capture US$115 billion of this amount.

Equipping people with skills to thrive in the AI era

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a broader commitment to provide AI skilling opportunities for 2.5 million people in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states by 2025. This training and support will be delivered in partnership with governments, nonprofit and business organizations, and communities in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Microsofts skilling commitment is expected to benefit 200,000 people in Malaysia by providing:

The commitment builds on Microsofts other recent skilling activities in Malaysia, including its success in providing digital skills to more than 1.53 million Malaysians as part of the Bersama Malaysia initiative.

Partnering with government to strengthen AI and cybersecurity capabilities

Microsoft will continue to partner with the Government of Malaysia to enhance the nations digital ecosystem through several initiatives. These include establishing a national AI Centre of Excellence in collaboration with agencies in Malaysias Ministry of Digital to drive AI adoption across key industries, while ensuring AI governance and regulatory compliance. They also include pioneering AI adoption in the public sector through projects with:

Microsoft will also collaborate with the National Cyber Security Agency of Malaysia (NACSA) through the Perisai Siber (Cyber Shield) initiative to enhance the countrys cybersecurity capabilities. The collaboration will focus on promoting security and resilience in the public sector through security assessments and capacity building.

In addition, Microsoft will look to support NACSA in its role as Malaysias lead agency for cybersecurity matters, as it formulates the next stage of the nations cybersecurity strategy. The two organizations will also explore deeper collaborations in developing cybersecurity skills through initiatives such as Microsofts Ready4AI&Security program.

Empowering developers to harness AIs potential

Microsoft will continue to help foster the growth of Malaysias developer community through new initiatives such as AI Odyssey, which is expected to help 2,000 Malaysian developers become AI subject matter experts by learning new skills and earning Microsoft credentials.

Malaysia is a rapidly growing market on GitHub, the Microsoft-owned software development, collaboration, and innovation platform. Almost 680,000 of the nations developers used GitHub in 2023, representing 28 percent year-on-year growth.

Furthermore, many Malaysian organizations are boosting their productivity and accelerating innovation using Microsofts generative AI-powered solutions. For example:

To learn more about Satya Nadellas visit and how Microsoft is empowering organizations in the ASEAN region with AI, visit news.microsoft.com/malaysia-visit-2024.

Leadership statements

YB Rafizi Ramli, Minister of Economy

The advent of ChatGPT created a new vertical in the startup world. As more companies embrace the power of AI, having the right digital infrastructure in Malaysia is key to future-proofing our nations economy. Microsofts investment will help accelerate the adoption of generative AI, building a pipeline of AI-driven startups, and benefitting our economy through increased productivity and higher wages.

YB Gobind Singh Deo, Minister of Digital

As a nation, we are focused on accelerating digitalization and fostering a culture of innovation alongside technological advancement to level the playing field for all Malaysians to prosper in an inclusive digital economy. Microsofts investment is a significant step in our journey towards becoming a digitally inclusive society. It underscores the importance of partnership in driving nationwide digital transformation and reinforces our commitment to equipping Malaysians with the infrastructure, advanced tools, and skills they need to thrive in the digital age.

YB Fahmi Fadzil, Minister of Communications

Microsofts significant investment in Malaysia recognises and supports the governments efforts in building an inclusive digital ecosystem for the country. We are excited to continue partnering with technology leaders like Microsoft to foster a space where Malaysians can seamlessly connect, learn, and benefit from our nations digital transformation.

YB Chang Lih Kang, Minister of Science, Technology & Innovation

Todays investment by Microsoft exemplifies a dynamic public-private partnership aimed at enhancing the socio-economic status and quality of life in Malaysian communities. As we embrace AIs potential, we commend Microsofts commitment to responsible AI, which aligns with our vision for advancing technology in Malaysia responsibly and inclusively.

Laurence Si, Managing Director, Microsoft Malaysia

With rising demand for Cloud and AI, Microsofts investment announced today underscores our commitment to building a robust digital ecosystem in the country. From driving more innovations born in Malaysia, to fostering an ecosystem of skilled talents and enhancing cybersecurity capabilities for Malaysian organizations, we are dedicated to our role as a trusted technology partner to the nation.

Mr. Sikh Shamsul Ibrahim Sikh Abdul Majid, Chief Executive Officer, Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA)

We are excited to deepen our partnership with Microsoft as they strengthen their commitment by establishing a cloud and AI infrastructure and supporting our vibrant developer community in Malaysia. This strategic collaboration underscores our dedication to innovation and regional industry growth. By leveraging Microsofts expertise, we aim to accelerate economic development, create jobs, and enhance industry competitiveness through digital transformation. We believe we can achieve more together and further advance our partnership. This investment not only reinforces Malaysias position as a leading digital hub but also marks a promising start in attracting more companies to embark on this digital journey with us, promoting inclusive growth and prosperity nationwide.

Ir. Dr. Megat Zuhairy Megat Tajuddin, Chief Executive Officer, National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA)

Microsofts collaboration with NACSA on Perisai Siber is pivotal as one of our strategic partnerships with industry players in establishing a secure digital infrastructure for our nation. Together, our goal is to bolster security and resilience, beginning with the public sector, to ultimately strengthen the nations cybersecurity capabilities.

Ts. Mahadhir Aziz, Chief Executive Officer, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)

Microsofts commitment to Malaysia demonstrates confidence in our nations digital future. Through this investment in cloud and AI infrastructure, local organizations can tap into more opportunities to upscale and innovate, further propelling Malaysias aspirations for regional leadership in the digital economy.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq MSFT @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Tags: AI, Cloud, digital skills

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This Seemingly AI-Generated Car Article On Yahoo Is A Good Reminder That AI Is An Idiot – The Autopian

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Here at The Autopian, we have some very stern rules when it comes to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the content we produce. While our crack design team may occasionally employ AI as a tool in generating images, well never just use AI on its own to do anything not just for ethical reasons, but because we often want images of specificcars, and AI fundamentally doesnt understand anything. When an AI generates an image of a car, it has no idea if that car ever actually existed or not. An AI doesnt have ideas at all, in fact its just scraped data being assembled with a glorified assembly of if-then-else commands.

This is an even bigger factor in AI-generated copy. Well never use it because AI has no idea what the hell its writing about, and so has no clue if anything is actually true, and since ChatGPT has never driven a car, I dont really trust its insights into anything automotive.

These sort of rules are hardly universal in our industry, though, so if we ever wanted confirmation that our no-AI-copy rule was the right way, were lucky enough to be able to get such reassurance pretty easily. For example, all we have to do is read this dazzlingly shitty article re-published over on Yahoo Finance about the worst cars people have owned.

Maybe its not AI? Maybe this Kellan Jansen is an actual writer who actually wrote this, and in that case, I feel bad both for this coming excoriation and about whatever happened to them to cause them to be in the state they seem to be in. The article is shallow and terrible and gleefully, hilariously wrongin several places.

I guess I should also note that we dont use AI because the 48K Sinclair Spectrum workstations we use here dont quite have the power to run any AI. Well, we do have one AI that we use on them, our Artificial Ignorance system that we employ to get just that specialje ne sais quoi in every post we write. Oh, and our AI (Artificial Indignation) tools help with our hot takes, too. So, two.

Okay, but lets get back to the Yahoo Finance article, titled The Worst Car I Ever Owned: 9 People Share Which Vehicles Arent Worth Your Money, which is a conceptually lazy article that is just taking the responses to a Reddit post called Whats the worst car you have personally owned? which makes this story basically just a re-write of a Reddit post. It seems like the Reddit post was fed into whatever AI half-assed its way through generating the article, based on these results.

The results are, predictably, shitty, but also still worthy of pointing out because comeon. Theres this, for example:

BMWs are a frequent source of frustration for car owners on Reddit. Just ask userHurr1canE_.

They bought a 2023 BMW BRZ and almost immediately started experiencing problems. Their turbo started blowing white smoke within two weeks of buying the car, and the engine blew up within 5,000 miles.

The Reddit user also had these issues with the car:

Other users mention poor experiences with BMW X3s and 540i Sport Wagons. Its enough to suggest you think carefully before making one of these your next vehicle.

The fuck? What is a BMW BRZ? This is such a perfect example of why AI-generated articles are garbage: they make shit up. Maybe thats anthropomorphizing the un-sentient algorithm too much, but the point is that its writing, with all the confidence of a drunk uncle about to belly-flop into a pool, about a car that simply does not exist.

And, if you look at the Reddit post, its easy to see what happened:

The Redditor had their current car, a 2023 [Subaru] BRZ in their little under-name caption (their flair), and the dumb AI processed that into the mix, and, being a dumb computer algorithm that doesnt know from cars or clams, conflated the car being talked about with the one the poster actually owns. You know, like how a drooling simpleton might.

Theres more of this, too. Like this one:

Ah, yes, the F10 550i. So many of us have been burned by that F10 brand, have we not? Or, at least, we would have, if such a brand existed, which it doesnt. What seems to have happened here is the AI found a user complaining about a 2011 F10 550i but didnt know enough to realize this was a user talking about their BMW 5 series, and yes, F10 refers to the 5-series cars made between 2010 to 2016, but nobody would refer to this car out of context in a general-interest article on a financial sitewithoutmentioning BMW, would they? I mean, no human would, but we dont seem to be dealing with a human, just a dumb machine.

Even if we ignore the made-up car makes and models, the vague and useless issues listed, and the fact that the article is nothing more than a re-tread of a random Reddit post, theres no escaping that this entire thing is useless garbage, an unmitigated waste of time. What is learned by reading this article? What is gained? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

And its not like this is on some no-name site; it was published on Yahoo! Finance, well, after first appearing on GOBankingRates.com, that mainstay of automotive journalism. It all just makes me angry because there are innocent normies out there, reading Yahoo! Finance, maybe with some mild interest in cars, and now their heads are getting filled with information that is simplywrong.

People deserve better than this garbage. And this was just something innocuous; what if some overpaid seat-dampener at Yahoo decides that theyll have AI write articles about actually driving or something that involves actual safety, and theres no attempt made to confirm that the text AI poops out has any basis in fact at all?

We dont need this. AI-generated crapticles like these are just going to clog Google searches and load the web up full of insipid, inaccurate garbage, and thatsmyjob, dammit.

Seriously, though, were at an interesting transition point right now; these kinds of articles are still new, and while I dont know if theres any way we can stop the internet from becoming polluted with this sort of crap, maybe we can at least complain about it, loudly. Then we can say we Did Something.

(Thanks, Isaac!)

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This Seemingly AI-Generated Car Article On Yahoo Is A Good Reminder That AI Is An Idiot - The Autopian

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Welcome to the Valley of the Creepy AI Dolls – WIRED

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Social robot roommate Jibo initially caused a stir, but sadly didn't live long.

Not that there havent been an array of other attempts. Jibo, a social robot roommate that used AI and endearing gestures to bond with its owners had its collective plug unceremoniously pulled just a few years after being put out into the world. Meanwhile, another US-grown offering, Moxie, an AI-empowered robot aimed at helping with child development, is still active.

It's hard not to look at devices like this and shudder at the possibilities. Theres something inherently disturbing about tech that plays at being human, and that uncanny deception can rub people the wrong way. After all, our science fiction is replete with AI beings, many of them tales of artificial intelligence gone horribly wrong. The easy, and admittedly lazy, comparison to something like the Hyodol is M3GAN, the 2023 film about an AI-enabled companion doll that goes full murderbot.

But aside from offputting dolls, social robots come in many forms. Theyre assistants, pets, retail workers, and often socially inept weirdos that just kind of hover awkwardly in public. But theyre also sometimes weapons, spies, and cops. Its with good reason that people are suspicious of these automatons, whether they come in a fluffy package or not.

Wendy Moyle is a professor at the School of Nursing & Midwifery Griffith University in Australia who works with patients experiencing dementia. She says her work with social robots has angered people, who sometimes see giving robot dolls to older adults as infantilizing.

When I first started using robots, I had a lot of negative feedback, even from staff, Moyle says. I would present at conferences and have people throw things at me because they felt that this was inhuman.

However, the atmosphere around assistive robots has gotten less hostile recently, as they've been utilized in many positive use cases. Robotic companions are bringing joy to people with dementia. During the Covid pandemic, caretakers used robotic companions like Paro, a small robot meant to look like a baby harp seal, to help ease loneliness in older adults. Hyodols smiling dolls, whether you see them as sickly or sweet, are meant to evoke a similar friendly response.

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Welcome to the Valley of the Creepy AI Dolls - WIRED

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AI-generated images and video are here: how could they shape research? – Nature.com

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Tools such as Sora can generate convincing video footage from text prompts.Credit: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools that translate text descriptions into images and video are advancing rapidly.

Just as many researchers are using ChatGPT to transform the process of scientific writing, others are using AI image generators such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and DALL-E to cut down on the time and effort it takes to produce diagrams and illustrations. However, researchers warn that these AI tools could spur an increase in fake data and inaccurate scientific imagery.

Nature looks at how researchers are using these tools, and what their increasing popularity could mean for science.

Many text-to-image AI tools, such as Midjourney and DALL-E, rely on machine-learning algorithms called diffusion models that are trained to recognize the links between millions of images scraped from the Internet and text descriptions of those images. These models have advanced in recent years owing to improvements in hardware and the availability of large data sets for training. After training, diffusion models can use text prompts to generate new images.

Some researchers are already using AI-generated images to illustrate methods in scientific papers. Others are using them to promote papers in social-media posts or to spice up presentation slides. They are using tools like DALL-E 3 for generating nice-looking images to frame research concepts, says AI researcher Juan Rodriguez at ServiceNow Research in Montreal, Canada. I gave a talk last Thursday about my work and I used DALL-E 3 to generate appealing images to keep peoples attention, he says.

Text-to-video tools are also on the rise, but seem to be less widely used by researchers who are not actively developing or studying these tools, says Rodriguez. However, this could soon change. Last month, ChatGPT creator OpenAI in San Francisco, California, released video clips generated by a text-to-video tool called Sora. With the experiments we saw with Sora, it seems their method is much more robust at getting results quickly, says Rodriguez. We are early in terms of text-to-video, but I guess this year we will find out how this develops, he adds.

Generative AI tools can reduce the time taken to produce images or figures for papers, conference posters or presentations. Conventionally, researchers use a range of non-AI tools, such as PowerPoint, BioRender, and Inkscape. If you really know how to use these tools, you can make really impressive figures, but its time-consuming, says Rodriguez.

AI tools can also improve the quality of images for researchers who find it hard to translate scientific concepts into visual aids, says Rodriguez. With generative AI, researchers still come up with the high-level idea for the image, but they can use the AI to refine it, he says.

Currently, AI tools can produce convincing artwork and some illustrations, but they are not yet able to generate complex scientific figures with text annotations. They dont get the text right the text is sometimes too small, much bigger or rotated, says Rodriguez. The kind of problems that can arise were made clear in a paper published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology in mid-February, in which researchers used Midjourney to depict a rats reproductive organs1. The result, which passed peer review, was a cartoon rodent with comically enormous genitalia, annotated with gibberish.

It was this really weird kind of grotesque image of a rat, says palaeoartist Henry Sharpe, a palaeontology student at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. This incident is one of the biggest case[s] involving AI-generated images to date, says Guillaume Cabanac, who studies fraudulent AI-generated text at the University of Toulouse, France. After a public outcry from researchers, the paper was retracted.

This now-infamous AI-generated figure featured in a scientific paper that was later retracted.Credit: X. Guo et al./Front. Cell Dev. Biol.

There is also the possibility that AI tools could make it easier for scientific fraudsters to produce fake data or observations, says Rodriguez. Papers might contain not only AI-generated text, but also AI-generated figures, he says. And there is currently no robust method for detecting such images and videos. It's going to get pretty scary in the sense we are going to be bombarded by fake and synthetically generated data, says Rodriguez. To address this, some researchers are developing ways to inject signals into AI-generated images to enable their detection.

Last month, Sharpe launched a poll on social-media platforms including X, Facebook and Instagram that surveyed the views of around 90 palaeontologists on AI-generated depictions of ancient life. Just one in four professional palaeontologists thought that AI should be allowed to be in scientific publications, says Sharpe.

AI-generated images of ancient lifeforms or fossils can mislead both scientists and the public, he adds. Its inaccurate, all it does is copy existing things and it cant actually go out and read papers. Iteratively reconstructing ancient lifeforms by hand, in consultation with palaeontologists, can reveal plausible anatomical features a process that is completely lost when using AI, Sharpe says. Palaeoartists and palaeontologists have aired similar views on X using the hashtag #PaleoAgainstAI.

Journals differ in their policies around AI-generated imagery. Springer Nature has banned the use of AI-generated images, videos and illustrations in most journal articles that are not specifically about AI (Natures news team is independent of its publisher, Springer Nature). Journals in the Science family do not allow AI-generated text, figures or images to be used without explicit permission from the editors, unless the paper is specifically about AI or machine learning. PLOS ONE allows the use of AI tools but states that researchers must declare the tool involved, how they used it and how they verified the quality of the generated content.

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AI-generated images and video are here: how could they shape research? - Nature.com

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