Voluntary AI Principles & Google DeepMind's Framework, Axon's DraftOne and State Department's AI

[00:00:02] It's Tuesday, May 21st, 2024, and I'm Dave Solp. Three things to know today.

[00:00:07] The Biden administration introduces voluntary AI principles for worker interaction and data use.

[00:00:14] AI enhances efficiency in law enforcement and government records management.

[00:00:19] And half of IT partners anticipate revenue from sustainable solutions by 2024, despite challenges.

[00:00:27] This is the Business of Tech.

[00:00:31] So I want to acknowledge the rapid-fire announcements coming out of Microsoft Bill.

[00:00:36] Microsoft's CoPilot Plus PC push focuses on improved ARM support rather than just AI.

[00:00:42] There's a revamped Surface devices and partnerships with Dell, Asus, and HP,

[00:00:47] contributing to the development of a decent mobile PC platform.

[00:00:50] There's a lot of significant upgrades in Windows for ARM systems

[00:00:54] and a new emulator that is faster than Apple's Rosetta 2.

[00:00:58] And I'm still sifting through it all to answer why do we care, so look for that later in the week.

[00:01:04] Instead, I'll turn to other AI-related stories.

[00:01:09] Actress Scarlett Johansson is threatening legal action against OpenAI,

[00:01:13] alleging that the company copied her voice for its conversational AI system after she declined to license it.

[00:01:20] OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked Johansson to be the system's voice, but she declined.

[00:01:26] OpenAI later released a demo featuring a voice called Sky,

[00:01:30] which many argued sounded eerily similar to Johansson's character in the movie Hell.

[00:01:35] OpenAI has since suspended the Sky voice and apologized to Johansson.

[00:01:40] Other fallout? OpenAI's GPT-4-0 has faced issues with its Chinese tokens.

[00:01:46] The tokens used for parsing and compressing Chinese prompts were found to be filled with spam and porn phrases,

[00:01:53] likely due to insufficient data cleaning and filtering before training the tokenizer.

[00:01:58] These meaningless phrases can cause the chatbot to fail to understand their meanings

[00:02:02] and be exploited to generate unrelated or unsafe answers.

[00:02:06] The problem of polluted tokens is not unique to Chinese and can also occur in other languages.

[00:02:13] Proper data cleaning and filtering are necessary to address the issue

[00:02:16] and ensure the accuracy and safety of language models.

[00:02:20] And despite all that, OpenAI's launch of GPT-4-0 has resulted in the biggest ever spike in revenue for the ChatGPT mobile app.

[00:02:29] Despite being freely available on the web,

[00:02:31] the new model's capabilities and features have driven increased demand for OpenAI's paid subscription,

[00:02:37] leading to a significant increase in net revenue.

[00:02:40] The app earned $4.2 million in net revenue from April 13th to 17th,

[00:02:44] with the majority coming from the Apple App Store and the U.S. market.

[00:02:49] The Biden administration has released a list of principles for workers' interactions with artificial intelligence,

[00:02:55] focusing on responsible use of workers' data, upskilling support, and transparency in AI deployment.

[00:03:02] The principles are voluntary and follow previous non-binding commitments from AI companies.

[00:03:07] Microsoft and Indeed have agreed to these principles,

[00:03:10] and the administration welcomes further commitments from other technology companies.

[00:03:15] Google DeepMind has released a framework for addressing the dangers of AI models.

[00:03:20] The framework involves re-evaluating models as computing power increases and implementing early warning evaluations.

[00:03:27] DeepMind plans to collaborate with other companies and implement auditing tools by 2025.

[00:03:33] The Frontier Safety Framework aims to address concerns about AI capabilities

[00:03:37] and is part of efforts by major tech companies to mitigate AI risks.

[00:03:43] Why do we care?

[00:03:45] Do you own your voice? Consider the question.

[00:03:48] Intellectual property law says you own your likeness, but what if it's just similar?

[00:03:53] Midler v. Ford, the landmark case where singer Bette Midler sued Ford for using a sound-alike voice in a commercial without her permission.

[00:04:02] The court ruled in her favor, recognizing voice imitation as a violation of her right of listening.

[00:04:09] Or White v. Samsung Electronics America, which primarily involved likeness

[00:04:14] but has implications for voice ownership and the use of one's persona in advertising.

[00:04:19] Yet those don't necessarily cover replicas and deepfakes, pointing us to the coming shakeout.

[00:04:26] For providers, let me highlight two more frameworks of note, including one for employers about workers.

[00:04:32] It's a consulting bonanza.

[00:04:34] And knowing the potential flaws in language models continues to be an area of knowledge to invest in.

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[00:05:19] If I'm talking about AI, gotta discuss some use cases.

[00:05:23] Axon's DraftOne is a new product that utilizes OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo to generate police reports from officers' body cam audio automatically.

[00:05:33] While it aims to make police work more efficient, concerns about bias, accuracy, and the role of AI in policing have been raised.

[00:05:40] The tool allows officers to generate a draft narrative by selecting the incident type and charge severity,

[00:05:47] then proofreading, making corrections, and signing off on its accuracy.

[00:05:50] However, critics argue that outsourcing official narratives to technology may undermine transparency and accountability in law enforcement.

[00:05:59] The State Department has utilized artificial intelligence and machine learning to streamline records management and improve the declassification process.

[00:06:08] Through pilot projects, the department achieved significant time and cost savings by using machine learning to review and categorize cables for declassification.

[00:06:18] They also enhanced the Freedom of Information Act process by leveraging AI-driven search algorithms and automating customer engagement.

[00:06:26] Lessons learned include starting small, fostering collaboration, and continuously training the machine learning model.

[00:06:34] The Wall Street Journal dove into artificial intelligence being used to replace humans in various tasks,

[00:06:40] such as modeling clothes and participating in clinical trials.

[00:06:44] AI systems can generate digital twins of individuals based on their characteristics,

[00:06:49] allowing them to predict how they would look, behave, and be affected by certain factors.

[00:06:54] Startups like AI Fashion, BroxAI, and Unlearn are utilizing this technology for fashion campaigns, focus groups, and clinical trials.

[00:07:04] While concerns about the future of human work arise, these companies emphasize that humans still play a vital role and can be compensated for sharing their data.

[00:07:13] Consulting firm Gartner predicts that companies might have digital twins for all their customers within the next 5-10 years.

[00:07:22] Why do we care?

[00:07:24] The reporting on police reports gives you insight into examples, too, it's worth spending some time with.

[00:07:30] So, too, with the usefulness of records management.

[00:07:33] I'll continue to highlight good use cases to inspire your thinking.

[00:07:39] The sustainable IT services market shows progress, with 50% of partners worldwide expecting to generate revenue from sustainability solutions in 2024.

[00:07:51] However, challenges remain, such as the need for dedicated roles for sustainability and limited tracking of supply chain emissions.

[00:07:59] The focus should shift toward promoting the economic benefits of sustainable IT services, including cost reduction and improved profit margins.

[00:08:07] The convergence of IT, operational technology, and energy management prevents a significant revenue opportunity for technology MSPs.

[00:08:16] Why do we care?

[00:08:18] I wanted to give you the heads up to the discussions.

[00:08:21] Energy costs will increasingly be a line item to consider with customers, and the larger the organization, the more this becomes highly impactful.

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[00:09:21] Thanks for listening. Today is National Memo Day.

[00:09:24] How many memos still get written?

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[00:09:52] The Business of Tech is written and produced by me, Dave Sobel, under ethics guidelines posted at businessof.tech.

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[00:10:29] Once again, thanks for listening to me.

[00:10:31] I will talk to you again on our next episode of the Business of Tech.