Senators questioned Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, about potential threats posed by artificial intelligence (AI), such as privacy invasion and manipulation of citizens. Altman reportedly agreed with their concerns and expressed the importance of being wary of these issues.
New York University professor Gary F. Marcus and IBM’s Chief Privacy and Trust Officer, Christina Montgomery, expressed their apprehension over the unregulated realm of AI during their testimonies. Both highlighted the potential threat posed by Microsoft, a lead investor of OpenAI, but stopped short of advocating for a total halt in AI development or distribution.
The Senate hearing covered a gamut of issues, including potential election fraud, job displacement, children’s usage of AI, and copyright protections for creators. There was also a palpable sense of regret among several senators, including Senator Blumenthal, regarding the insufficiencies of Section 230, which they felt failed to hold social media companies accountable for harm inflicted on Americans. Constitutional AI was mentioned several times.
So, what is constitutional AI? The development of AI systems in a way that respects and upholds constitutional principles. This could involve incorporating principles like freedom of speech, privacy, or due process into the design and operation of AI system. It incorporates a set of legal or ethical guidelines for AI that have been formalized in a manner similar to a constitution.
These guidelines could potentially establish rights and responsibilities for AI systems, or for humans who interact with AI.
Will Google be able to compete with ChatGPT?
Google has failed many times in the past. Remember Google+? The 8 year venture into social media with Google+ was a complete bust. Take a look at the 30+ Google failures.
If you exclude Google Ads, most of Google’s successful products came from acquisitions such as, Android in 2005, Youtube in 2006, Motorola in 2011, and many others. Take a look at Google’s 256 acquisitions from 2001-2022.
Even after the big announcements at Google I/O last week, ChatGPT continues to outpace Google, Meta, and others chasing dominance in AI. Take a look at this Google Trends graphic. Competitors such as Anthropic, IBM, Amazon, Apple, and others are all working on expanding their AI departments.
Google I/O highlights related to AI
Chatbot-Style Answers in Search: Google is introducing an experimental version of its web search that incorporates ChatGPT-style text generation. AI-generated text will appear above the usual links and ads in response to some queries, summarizing information drawn from across the web4.
AI Boost for Android: Google is incorporating more AI features into its mobile operating system, Android. This includes AI wallpapers, which allow users to change the art styles of photos and create interactive, moving backgrounds, as well as the generative features of Google’s Bard chatbot being integrated into Android messaging5.
AI Creation Tools in Workspace: Google is integrating AI into its Workspace apps like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Duet AI for Workspace can use Google’s generative AI to create job descriptions, write creative stories, auto-generate spreadsheets, and build out whole presentations6.
Magic Editor: An update to Google’s photo-editing feature Magic Eraser, now called Magic Editor, will allow users to make extensive edits to their photos. The tool is described as a quick mobile version of Photoshop and will be available later this year.
