US Ex-President Barack Obama Talks About The Dangers Of AI + Meta Bans Political Campaigns Using AI + Google's New Investment In AI
Good evening!
Welcome to the 56th edition of the Quantumics Weekly Roundup.
In this edition, we’ll take a deep dive into the latest AI trends.
And as usual, we’ll explore the latest news and information in data and AI, business, and tech.
Let’s go!
“AI Might Lead To Many Problems”, Says Ex-US President Barack Obama
A group of experts emphasized the need for greater measures to address the potential harm caused by AI and its role in exacerbating the marginalization of people of color. This warning was issued during a panel discussion at the Obama Foundation's Democracy Forum, an annual event focused on promoting equity in society, with this year's theme being the advancements and challenges of AI.
During a panel titled "Evaluating the Impact of AI on Human Progress," Alondra Nelson, a social science professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, pointed out that AI tools can make mistakes and even perpetuate discrimination. She highlighted that there is already evidence showing how these tools can discriminate and magnify biases that exist in society, which are significant problems we are currently grappling with.
In a 2021 research paper authored by AI experts, it was revealed how large language models can reinforce racism and other forms of oppression. These models often rely on training data that overrepresents privileged groups, resulting in encoded biases such as racism, misogyny, and ableism.
Moreover, in the past year, there have been multiple instances where Black individuals were mistakenly identified by facial recognition technology, which is based on AI, leading to unjust criminalization. For instance, Randall Reid in Georgia was falsely arrested and jailed in 2022 due to a facial recognition technology error that linked him to theft.
In his keynote address at the forum, former President Barack Obama expressed his encouragement regarding the recently signed executive order on AI by the Biden administration. This executive order established comprehensive federal oversight and investment in AI technology and had the benefit of Obama's advisory input. However, he also acknowledged that there are significant risks associated with the advancement of AI.
Meta Restricts Political Advisers From Using AI Tools
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has decided to restrict the use of its new generative AI advertising products for political campaigns and advertisers in regulated industries. This move comes as a response to concerns from lawmakers who have warned that these AI-powered tools could potentially amplify the spread of election misinformation.
Meta officially announced this decision by updating its help centre on Monday night. While Meta's advertising standards already prohibit ads containing content debunked by the company's fact-checking partners, there were no specific rules in place regarding the use of AI in advertising until now.
Meta has implemented a policy restricting the use of its new Generative AI advertising tools in Ads Manager. Advertisers who are running campaigns related to Housing, Employment, Credit, Social Issues, Elections, Politics, Health, Pharmaceuticals, or Financial Services are currently not permitted to utilize these Generative AI features. The company believes that this approach will enable them to better understand potential risks and develop appropriate safeguards for the use of Generative AI in ads, particularly those related to sensitive topics within regulated industries.
This policy update comes approximately a month after Meta, the world's second-largest digital advertising platform, announced its plans to expand advertisers' access to AI-powered advertising tools. These tools have the capability to instantly create backgrounds, make image adjustments, and generate variations of ad copy in response to simple text prompts.
Google Is Planning To Invest In An AI Startup Character.AI
Google, under Alphabet (GOOGL.O), is currently in discussions to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Character.AI, a rapidly growing AI chatbot startup. Character.AI is seeking capital to further train its models and meet the increasing demand from users, according to two sources who were briefed on the matter.
The investment may be structured as convertible notes, as mentioned by a third source. This investment would strengthen the existing partnership between Character.AI and Google, where Character.AI utilizes Google's cloud services and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) for training its models. Both Google and Character AI have not responded to requests for comments.
Character.AI, founded by former Google employees Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, offers users the ability to engage in conversations with virtual versions of celebrities such as Billie Eilish or anime characters. Users can also create their own chatbots and AI assistants using the platform. While Character.AI is free to use, it offers a subscription model priced at $9.99 per month for users who want to bypass virtual queues and access chatbots more quickly.
Character.AI's chatbots offer a range of roles and tones to choose from, and they have found strong appeal among users aged 18 to 24, who account for approximately 60% of the website's traffic, as indicated by data from Similarweb. This demographic is playing a crucial role in positioning Character.AI as a provider of more entertaining and engaging personal AI companions compared to other AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard.
The company had previously reported that its website received 100 million monthly visits within the first six months since its launch, highlighting its rapid growth and popularity among users seeking interactive and enjoyable AI companions.