AI Top-of-Mind for Jan 26
Top-of-mind is a new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into the industry’s AI heavyweights. From the ‘Axios’ article:
· The Federal Trade Commission opened a broad new investigation of competition in the nascent AI industry by issuing orders to five key companies that they provide it with private information about their investment deals.
· The inquiry, aimed at Alphabet/Google, Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI and Anthropic, could lead to action by the regulator, which under chair Lina Khan has sought to pursue anti-monopoly measures in emerging tech markets.
· The companies have 45 days to respond to the agency’s order.
For creative, in a way, the ‘NY Times’ reports on growing issues with AI tools creating images almost identical to copyrighted material. It specifically looks at Midjourney 6, with one of the outputs below.
Also, on the dark side of creative, the ‘NY Times’ also looks at the slimy underbelly of social networks and the misuse of AI. You’ve got read the article about ‘obituary pirates’ to believe it. From the article:
Based on related searches, like “subway accident,” Mr. Khan could surmise how Mr. Sachman had died. Mr. Khan could then conduct a cursory search of his own around the internet for any biographical information, leading him to a LinkedIn page detailing Mr. Sachman’s work history. And finally, he could prompt an artificial intelligence tool called a large language model to create a short article.
As you’d imagine, the ‘short article’ can be crafted to make any conclusions that will maximize clicks (and Google ad dollars). Ambulance chasing in the age of AI!
On the policy front, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is looking into creating an auditing process for AI accountability. From the ‘Nextgov’ article:
During a Monday discussion at the Knight Foundation’s INFORMED 2024 conference, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said “I think one of the things that we’ve seen is, like financial audits for the financial accounting system, there is going to be a role to play for audits in the AI ecosystem.”
And now onto retail, where Walmart views itself as an ‘adaptive retailer.’ The article in ‘Supermarket News’ quotes Anshu Bhardwaj, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Walmart Global Technology and Walmart Commerce Technologies:
“I think what AI is now allowing us to do is go from an omnichannel retailer to becoming an adaptive retailer, and adaptive retailer basically means I can intersect you at the point of your convenience to get you what you want, how you want.”
Finally, I promise this will be the last CES summary. Tamarah Usher writing in ‘Medium’ walked the show floor with Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses. She details her top observations:
· Advanced AI Integration in Everyday Consumer Products
· Improvements in Gesture Control and Voice Assistance
· A Focus on Health and Technology for Aging Populations
· The Proliferation of Personal Robotics
· Continued Evolution of Deeply Immersive Experiences
