29th April 2024

Scientific American takes a look at AI and the hidden human labour. The phenomenon is known as "fauxtomation” because it “hides the human work and also falsely inflates the value of the ‘automated’ solution,” according to Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics program at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Source: Scientific American.

Scharon Harding at Ars Technica takes a look at the increasing incorporation of generative AI into pre-existing technological hardware and software. Harding concludes: "There are times when AI can improve a gadget. But over the next months and years, I expect that more devices that aren't necessarily better with AI integration will advertise questionable features related to the tech." Source: Ars Technica.

The Verge report on the agreement between the Financial Times and OpenAI to license its content and develop AI tools. Expect there to be more developments on how the Financial Times incorporates generative AI in the weeks and months ahead. Source: The Verge.

OpenAI are facing a privacy complaint in the European Union targetting the "inability of its AI chatbot ChatGPT to correct misinformation it generates about individuals". TechCrunch notes that it is possible to request for incorrect personal data to be removed, but it doesn't necessarily follow that it will be:

OpenAI’s privacy policy states users who notice the AI chatbot has generated “factually inaccurate information about you” can submit a “correction request” through privacy.openai.com or by emailing dsar@openai.com. However, it caveats the line by warning: “Given the technical complexity of how our models work, we may not be able to correct the inaccuracy in every instance.”

In that case, OpenAI suggests users request that it removes their personal information from ChatGPT’s output entirely — by filling out a web form.

Source: TechCrunch

Finally, Dev Ittycheria, CEO of the tech company MongoDB, argues that there is currently too much hype around generative AI in an interview with TechCrunch:

“My life has not been transformed by AI,” he said. “Yes, maybe I can write an email better through all those assistants, but it’s not fundamentally transformed my life. Whereas the internet has completely transformed my life.”

Source: TechCrunch