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Biden's AI Executive Order
Dive into a tailored breakdown of the latest governmental move to regulate artificial intelligence
Wes Roth
October 31, 2023
Today:
What Biden’s New Executive Order Could Mean For The Future Of AI
President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at putting some reins on the booming AI industry. This is the government's biggest move yet to fuel innovation while also watching out for problems like bias, job losses, and national security risks. In the next year, U.S. and Canadian companies are expected to dump $5.6 billion into AI projects that can whip up stuff like text and images.
Biden's order tells government agencies to whip up some AI rules. It also wants to set up new standards for things like keeping our data private, beefing up national security, and setting official government standards for this rocketing industry. However, it's important to remember this ain't a law, and Congress hasn't hinted they're gonna make one like it.
One big part of this order? More money for researching AI technologies that value our privacy. Jake Williams from a cybersecurity firm says the message is loud and clear: AI companies, especially the new kids on the block, should be ready for more rules around privacy, fairness, and civil rights.
Biden's also nudging for worldwide teamwork on AI. The UN's already got a crew looking into AI rules with folks from all over the globe, and this move will keep the U.S. in the loop.
ChatGPT for career growth? Practica introduces AI-based career coaching and mentorship
Practica, a startup that used to offer executive coaching, is now diving into AI-based career coaching. They've created an AI chatbot mentor to help folks improve their skills in areas like management, marketing, and more. Originally founded by Dave Whittemore and Andy Scheff in 2020, the company used to connect professionals with human coaches. But they noticed that with an average price of $200 per hour, a lot of people couldn't afford it. So, they turned to AI to help out.
This new AI coach doesn't just spit out answers, though. It directs users to original content sources for deeper learning. Think of it as a smart search engine that's also coaching you. What's cool is that this AI remembers what you've learned before and builds on that. They're testing it out now, and you can get in on it for $10-$20 a month. Their goal? Make top-notch coaching affordable for more people. Oh, and they've banked $1.5 million in funding so far. Not too shabby!
Crypto billionaire's nonprofit buys $500 million of AI data center chips
Jed McCaleb, a big shot in the crypto world, has his nonprofit, Voltage Park, dropping a cool half-billion on some high-end Nvidia chips. They're all about leasing these bad boys out to companies digging into AI projects, offering both long and short-term deals. The CEO, Eric Park, is throwing shade at the current state of machine learning, saying it's all kinds of messed up. They're setting up shop in Texas, Virginia, and Washington, planning to have all 24,000 chips ready to roll by February.
After ChatGPT hit the scene, everyone's been hungry for Nvidia's gear, but there are other players in the game like Intel and AMD, not to mention a bunch of new kids on the block. McCaleb made his fortune founding Mt. Gox, Ripple, and Stellar in the crypto space. Voltage Park is part of McCaleb's Navigation Fund, but he's keeping his hands off the day-to-day. The profits? They're all going back to Navigation.
Alibaba upgrades AI model Tongyi Qianwen, releases industry-specific models
China's big tech player, Alibaba, just amped up its AI game. They jazzed up their AI model, Tongyi Qianwen, and it's now one of the world's strongest by how many parameters it has. Not stopping there, they dropped eight new AI models designed for stuff like movies, money, health, and law. This comes hot on the heels of their first release just six months ago, showing how fast the AI scene is moving in China.
Tencent, another big fish, said there's a huge AI model showdown happening with more than 130 models out there. Some are even saying Tencent's AI beats out OpenAI's latest! Alibaba's new AI tools, which went live today, can do cool things like make images, write code, and hunt for legal docs. Oh, and word on the street is that about half of China's big AI models use Alibaba's cloud. They've also got a platform called ModelScope, which has a ton of models and a boatload of developers behind it.
Meta’s AI research head wants open source licensing to change
Meta shook things up by dropping their Llama 2 AI model for pretty much everyone to use, standing out from other big tech firms. But, there’s a catch: it’s not totally open-source by the book. They've got some strings attached, like fees for the big players with tons of daily users, and a no-go on training other models with Llama.
Joelle Pineau, the head honcho for AI research at Meta, knows the deal. She says it’s a tricky balance, keeping the company's secrets safe while also sharing enough to get everyone on the same page and innovating. And even with the limited sharing, it’s made Meta's team sharper and more on their toes.
PyTorch is Meta’s big gift to the coding world, a toolkit for building AI models that’s been a hit since 2016. Pineau’s hoping to strike gold again with Llama 2 and other AI tools, making sure they’re safe before they go wide. It’s all about getting lots of eyes and brains on their work, making the tech better for everyone.
Pineau’s calling for a fresh take on licenses, especially for AI models that learn from a ton of different sources. The old rules don’t really fit anymore, and there’s more at stake. She’s leaving the legal jargon to the pros, but it’s clear the industry’s in for some changes.
The Largest Black-Owned Bank Launches AI Tool To Help Promote Financial Literacy
OneUnited Bank, the biggest Black-owned bank in the U.S., is stepping up to the plate with WiseOne® Insights, a new AI-powered tool aimed at boosting financial smarts and shrinking the racial wealth gap. This isn't your run-of-the-mill banking tool; it’s like a money coach in your pocket, sending reminders to pay bills, offering tips to save more, and crafting personalized plans to get out of debt.
Kevin Cohee, the big boss at OneUnited Bank, is all in, saying this tool is a game changer for helping folks make smarter money moves. And it’s clear there’s a real need for it. A TIAA Institute report reveals that a lot of folks, especially African Americans, could use a helping hand when it comes to financial know-how. We're talking only 38% of African American adults nailing the questions on a financial literacy test. And when it comes to the pocketbook, there’s a stark contrast: Black families are making about $35,400 to white families’ $61,200.
TikTok, Snapchat and others sign pledge to tackle AI-generated child sex abuse images
A bunch of big tech companies, including TikTok, Snapchat, and Stability AI, just promised to join forces and deal with a real nasty problem: child abuse images made by AI. The UK made this big announcement and got 27 groups, including the US, Germany, and Australia, to sign this pledge. This all happened right before a big worldwide meeting in the UK about keeping AI safe.
The statement is pretty clear: "We're gonna keep talking and innovating to fight child abuse in the AI world. We're committed to using AI the right way to tackle this issue and we'll work together to make sure AI doesn't make the problem too big to handle."
The Internet Watch Foundation shared some scary stats, showing almost 3,000 of these awful AI-made images being shared on one dark web forum. Susie Hargreaves from IWF said we've gotta act now and show we mean business in stopping the misuse of AI before it gets any worse.
AI is making it impossible to tell whether an email is a scam or not
Scammers are sending a crazy number of fake emails every day, and it's getting harder to tell which ones are legit and which ones are out to get you. Thanks to AI getting smarter, these phishing scams are now more on point, mimicking how real people talk and write. Experts are sounding the alarm, saying we all need to step up our game in spotting these sneaky emails.
Paul Mardling, a big tech guy at Redcentric, lays it out straight: AI is a game-changer for cyber crooks, letting them personalize their attacks like never before. They can make scam emails look and sound just like the real deal. Governments worldwide are scrambling to figure out how to deal with this new threat, talking it out at the International AI Safety Summit.
Brain Mysteries Deciphered through AI’s Self-Learning Models
Scientists at MIT think our brains might learn about the world in a way similar to how some computer programs learn. Imagine your brain is like a computer trying to figure out a picture puzzle without anyone telling it what the picture is. It just looks at the pieces and tries to figure out what's what. That's kind of how this learning method, called "self-supervised learning," works.
The MIT peeps used this computer learning trick and found out the computer's "brain activity" looked a lot like an animal's brain when it was doing the same thing. It’s like teaching a computer to play a video game and then realizing the computer is thinking (in its own computer-y way) just like a human would.
One of the studies even showed that computers could kind of think like how we think animals do when navigating around, using something called "grid cells." These cells help animals know where they are, kind of like a built-in GPS.
What's the big deal? Well, if we can make computers think more like our brains, it could help us understand our own noggins better. Plus, if our brain and these computer programs are similar, maybe we can learn tricks from one to help the other.
AI skills can increase worker salary as much as 40%, says study
A recent study by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) says that having AI skills can beef up a person's paycheck by as much as 40%. They checked out over 25,000 workers and a ton of skills. Turns out, knowing stuff about AI, like machine learning, can make you some extra dough. But, it's not just about one skill. If you know data science, which is a hot skill right now, and pair it with other top skills, you're golden.
Dr. Fabian Stephany from OII mentioned to Verdict that he doesn’t think AI is going to take everyone's job. Instead, it's like AI is giving people tools to do their jobs even better. And here's the kicker: more and more jobs outside of the tech world, like in law or design, need folks who understand AI.
However, there's a twist. Companies are scrambling to find people who know their way around AI. About 15% of businesses have already jumped on the AI bandwagon, according to a 2023 survey. And some big shots, like the tech chief at Fujitsu, are saying there might be a big shortage of AI pros soon because everyone wants them and there aren’t enough to go around.
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