AI PROBLEMS
North Shore News: Solo teen hiker hoisted from mountain cliff after using AI to plan route, North Shore Rescue says. “The hiker started on Grouse Mountain around 8 a.m., aiming to do a route that went up Crown Mountain, said search manager Paul Markey. AI had planned a route that ascended Crown Mountain by a gully. But when the hiker was following the trail, it actually led him to a rock-climbing route with steep terrain. The teen got stuck at the base of a cliff.”
Futurism: Meta Is Refusing to Remove AI-Generated Facebook Videos of Graphic Child Abuse, Including a Baby Roasting in an Oven. “Last month, we reported that Facebook was hosting enormous numbers of graphic AI-generated videos of physical child abuse that showed kids being beaten, burned, dragged by their hair, locked in cages, and more. In response to our questions, Facebook’s parent company Meta alternately dragged its feet, rationalized about why the videos were acceptable, and issued hard-to-parse statements that dodged any accountability or meaningful commitment to fighting the phenomenon.”
ANTI-AI SENTIMENT
Salt Lake Tribune: Most Utahns oppose building more data centers. Here’s what they want done about them.. “As the number of planned data center projects seemingly explodes across Utah, most residents aren’t happy with how their elected leaders have handled them, according to a new survey. A vast majority of Utahns – 86% – also don’t feel the cost of data centers, including their water and energy demands, outweigh their touted economic benefits, according to results from Utah State University’s Community and Natural Resources Institute’s survey. And nearly 76% of residents oppose or strongly oppose building more data centers in Utah.”
DATA CENTERS
CNBC: Google ordered to halt work on two data centers in ‘Texas of Europe’. “Finnish Licensing and Supervision Agency (LVV) on Tuesday issued a notice to Google subsidiary, Tuike Finland Oy, to suspend building work for data center projects planned for Muhos and Kajaani until the environmental impact assessments have been completed.”
Mirror Indy: Coalition of AI giants, labor unions proposes uniform guardrails for Indiana data centers. “A national coalition of AI companies, labor unions and investors is launching a campaign in Indiana calling for tighter guardrails on new data centers while pushing back against local moratoriums. The American Infrastructure Alliance (AIA), a multi-million-dollar cohort of 20 organizations, began in September working with local and state officials to implement standards around data center developments.”
AI MODELS
Politico: German search engine ditches Mistral, bets on Chinese open-source AI. “A Berlin-based search engine used by government services is dropping its French AI partner, Mistral, in favor of open-source models, including those from China, its CEO told POLITICO.”
AI IN GOVERNANCE
Futurism: Particularly Weak-Minded Americans Are Asking ChatGPT Which Candidate to Vote For, Which Sounds a Bit Like AI Is Just Voting Now Via Meat Proxies. “In a new piece, NPR spoke to several voters who use the OpenAI chatbot to research candidates and get a rundown on their voting records. Some are asking the AI to create spreadsheets on different races or to verify or debunk viral claims. One even used AI to create an entire website for retrieving voting info. Experts are aghast, noting that AI models tend to be sycophantic and aren’t as impartial as they seem.”
Associated Press: Italy’s Meloni follows pop stars in seeking to trademark her voice to combat AI deepfakes. “Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has applied to trademark her voice with the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office, seeking to protect herself against AI-generated deepfakes. The application filed with the EU agency includes a four-second audio recording of Meloni repeating the phrase, in Italian, ‘Io sono Giorgia Meloni’ (“I am Giorgia Meloni”), according to the EU office’s records on Monday.”
AROUND THE AI WORLD
New York Times: Religious Scholars Met With Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them.. “Anthropic, one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the world, had turned to one of humanity’s most ancient sources of wisdom to help determine how to train its A.I. models to behave virtuously. The company described it as an effort to ensure that A.I. would be a positive force in the world, thereby protecting humanity. But to some who participated in the meetings, Anthropic appeared quite concerned with protecting Claude.”
Gizmodo: OpenAI Decides ChatGPT Would Be Better With More Sponsored Results. “Hey! You got ads in my AI responses! On Monday, OpenAI announced that it plans to start expanding the types of advertisements that appear in ChatGPT alongside the model’s outputs.”
SECURITY & LEGAL
ABC News: Visual investigation: Online resellers using AI to pretend to be mom-and-pop stores. “Scores of online companies are increasingly turning to generative AI technology to deceive consumers, falsely portraying themselves as struggling small businesses to charge a premium for lower quality products, an ABC News visual investigation found. ABC News has identified dozens of similar online retailers — selling everything from clothing to jewelry to lamps — that used AI images and videos to portray themselves as down-on-their-luck craftsmen or small business owners in need of support.”
Billboard: AI Music Streaming Fraudster Sentenced to 1.5 Years in Prison for $8M Royalties Scam. “Michael Smith, 54, pleaded guilty in March to using AI to generate thousands of songs and then streaming them billions of times with bots, generating more than $8 million in royalties. His was the first criminal conviction over a tricky problem that’s plagued the music industry for years.”
The Guardian: California issues investigative subpoena to OpenAI over rogue agents’ hacking. “California’s attorney general has issued an investigative subpoena to OpenAI, starting an investigation into the startup as part of a broader inquiry into potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents related to its AI models, his office said on Thursday.”
RESEARCH & OPINION
Reuters: OpenAI says teens use ChatGPT for under 15 minutes a day as worries over risks grow. “Teens spend under 15 minutes a day on average on ChatGPT, while less than 2% of them interact with the chatbot for over three straight hours, OpenAI said, as technology companies face scrutiny over the risks AI chatbots pose to children. Sam Altman’s AI company released the figures in its first report on teen use on Wednesday as rapid adoption of AI platforms raises concerns about their impact on adolescent mental health and developmental safety.” With the caveat that these numbers come from OpenAI.
The Register: Anthropic Claude subscription plan provides more value than OpenAI’s, study says. “Following changes to OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan that effectively halved its value, SemiAnalysis looked at the various subscription plans offered by AI companies, because that’s still the main way that individuals and small businesses buy AI services.” Good evening, Internet…
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Categories: AI Roundup