Enough has happened already to do another AI roundup. First, from the Verge:
The White House announced more funding and policy guidance for developing responsible artificial intelligence ahead of a Biden administration meeting with top industry executives.
The actions include a $140 million investment from the National Science Foundation to launch seven new National AI Research (NAIR) Institutes, increasing the total number of AI-dedicated facilities to 25 nationwide. Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and other companies have also agreed to allow their language models to be publicly evaluated during this year’s Def Con. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) also said it would publish draft rules this summer for how the federal government should use AI technology.
And the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said it will request information from the public regarding how such tools are used to “surveil, monitor, evaluate and manage” workers.
The FTC is looking for ways that rapidly advancing artificial intelligence could be used to violate antitrust and consumer protection laws it’s charged with enforcing. This is from an op-ed in the New York Times this week: “Although these tools are novel, they are not exempt from existing rules, and the F.T.C. will vigorously enforce the laws we are charged with administering, even in this new market.”
Microsoft upgraded its Bing chatbot. Additions include image and video answers, restaurant bookings, chat history, and smarter Microsoft Edge integration. These new features also coincide with Microsoft making Bing Chat available for anyone to try, moving from private to public preview, with plugins coming soon. And, they’ve added Actions – completing tasks without going back and forth between sites.
Why do we care?
This weekend’s bonus episode dives more into the value providers can offer around IA, so I’ll leave that discussion to the weekend. Instead, what I want to consider today is how there are existing frameworks that will apply. The FTC is correct – while new, existing rules apply.