Getting AI Right | Twitter Blues | Not for China| Time Capsule
Stuff that matters.
Taking the long view (Credit: Lance Ulanoff)
Getting AI Right
Last week, The White House cooked up a non-binding set of Bill of Rights, not an update to the original Bill of Rights, but one devoted to Artificial intelligence and ensuring that its expansion and use doesn’t one day result in a Terminator-style Armageddon.
It has five key components:
You should be protected from unsafe or ineffective systems.
This is a nice, broad statement that seems to cover both the AIs that are just doing their jobs and the ones that just do their jobs while ruining yours. It’s not so much a rule as it is a guideline that someone, somewhere, should figure out how to protect us from the unfettered growth of AI.
You should not face discrimination by algorithms and systems should be used and designed in an equitable way
This is less of an obvious statement than you might think since AIs were developed for much of this century without any thought to bias. No one seemed to realize that because of the lack of diversity in the tech industry many of these systems would discriminate against people who didn’t look or live like the programmers. The good news is that most people now know this and may already be trying to follow this new non-enforceable rule.
You should be protected from abusive data practices via built-in protections and you should have agency over how data about you is used.
This one is interesting because I think it’s more about vast data collection than AI, per se. We give away a lot of our personal data on a minute-by-minute basis to all sorts of online services, retail stores, online pyramid schemes, and SPAM call scammers. This guidance wants us to at least have some control over the data we can’t help but share. It’s a weak bit but probably still worth putting in a non-binding document.
You should know that an automated system is being used and understand how and why it contributes to outcomes that impact you.
This is the “Surprise! I’m an AI,” part of the rule book. So many systems are now using AI to manage, honestly, a lot of things that average people will never touch. On the other hand, content you read on various sites might’ve been written by an AI or that art you just admired might’ve been created by an AI, or the video of Hugh Jackman riding a whale might be a deepfake. And you might not know. This rule seeks to make all this stuff more transparent.
You should be able to opt out, where appropriate, and have access to a person who can quickly consider and remedy problems you encounter.
This is the tech support part of the White House document that might push companies to offer a faster route out of the chatbot merry-go-round. Instead of speaking to support tech “Chad,” who is actually comprised of ones and zeros, you could hit one link and instantly be connected with Holly. Oh wait, Holly is a hyper-realistic video avatar with no human blood in her digital veins.
In any case, I appreciate the White House’s efforts and hope that these non-rules spark some real conversation that leads to more binding rules.
By the way, if you don’t think AI needs rules, you should take a look at this.
Twitter Blues
Elon Musk and Twitter are back to heading down the aisle. Maybe.
If they get it done, Musk may attempt to transform Twitter into a do-everything platform similar to what Weibo is in China, not just a social media platform, but a chat app and, among other things, maybe a massive shopping destination that could rival Amazon.
This might ruin Twitter or save the brand and propel it to something beyond the next level. My take is it’s more than Twitter can bear, and people don’t like apps - at least in the US - that try to do everything. I think Facebook’s recent travails are proof of that.
Still, it’s clear to me that Twitter may not survive if it doesn’t grow and if can’t compete with, for instance, the TikTok’s of the world.
Not made for China
Speaking of TikTok, the US just enacted to pretty sweeping anti-China tech rules that will bar everyone from selling the country high-end chips and tech that might be used in espionage, weapons systems, nuclear weapons, etc.
It could have an impact on China’s ability to build new AI-based systems and, interestingly could impact TikTok.
For those that don’t know, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. There have long been concerns about what TikTok might be using our data for, but also worries about its powerful algorithms, driven by powerful technology, possibly stuff ByteDance bought from American companies.
Will these new rules slow TikTok’s roll?
Time capsule
20 years ago, I helped organize my 20th High School Reunion. I was in charge of tech. We had spreadsheets for students, addresses, and mailing lists, and sent invitations via physical mail. We collected physical checks. We gathered old photos, scanned them, and I made a PowerPoint slideshow and burnt it on a CD. Then I put that CD in a laptop and connected it to a hefty protector that I carted to the event. We hired an expensive DJ to spin 80s tunes. We shared photos of the event via email.
This year, I steered clear of planning but noted how, during my 40th high school reunion that there was no laptop, just a TV running through photos from a flash drive. We never got physical invitations. Everything was organized through Facebook and paid via Venmo and PayPal. The music? A four-hour Spotify playlist on a laptop connected to the venue’s sound system. Photos of the night appeared in real-time on Instagram and Facebook.
What a difference two decades make.
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