Technology
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Technology
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Are regulators prepared for AI arms race? | Tech companies are sprinting to roll out new generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools after the meteoritic rise of ChatGPT. Washington is taking notice. |
Microsoft and Google are angling to capture the AI market, with both companies backing chat tools recently: Microsoft through its ChatGPT investments and Google with its new Bard feature. The companies also made back-to-back announcements last week about plans to use AI-powered technology to boost their respective search engines. This year marks what Microsoft President Brad Smith has called an inflection point for AI, comparing it to 2007 for the smartphone or 1995 for the web — the years the new technologies exploded in popularity with the public.
Long operating in the shadow of the dominant search engine Google, Bing may see a boost from the new feature. Bing reached 31.7 million visits the day after Microsoft’s announcement last week, which is 15 percent higher than Bing’s average daily volume for the past six months, according to data estimated by SimilarWeb.
As the tech companies plow forward, regulators seem to be at the starting line of laying the groundwork of guardrails.
“Right now in the US there’s sort of a lot of things going on, but it’s very early. I think regulators and policymakers don’t have a good understanding of how some of these technologies work,” Rayid Ghani, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told The Hill.
That speed is not without concern. Experts said the arms race could lead companies to release tools before they may be ready. The clearest example of that risk is generative AI tools giving false information in results, or what the industry is dubbing “hallucinating.”
Even during Google’s demonstration of Bard last week, the tool gave the wrong response about discoveries made by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Key companies are also in talks with lawmakers and are urging D.C. against adding guardrails that would make them slow down. You can read more about those concerns in the full report at digital-stage.thehill.com. |
Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, with a fresh new look. We’re Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.
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How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future: |
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Senators emerged unified from a Tuesday hearing about the ways social media affects children and teenagers, pledging to tackle the issue in a divided Congress. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from a panel of advocates and experts, including Kristin Bride, the parent of a son who died by suicide in 2020 after receiving anonymous messages on a feature through Snapchat, and Emma Lembke, the founder of the Generation … |
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| The sole remaining Republican on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Tuesday she is resigning based on disagreements with how Democratic Chairwoman Lina Khan is leading the agency. Commissioner Christine Wilson announced her plans in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal, laying out her reasons that focus on concerns she raised over the progressive chairwoman’s leadership in what Wilson called her “noisy exit.” … |
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Republicans on Tuesday pushed back against President Biden’s nominee for an open seat on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Gigi Sohn, at her third nomination hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee. Sohn has appeared at two prior hearings to fill the long-vacant fifth seat on the FCC, which oversees interstate and international communications and has been deadlocked with just two Democrats and two Republicans … |
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Artificial intelligence flew an aircraft based on an F-16 fighter jet for more than 17 hours, the first time that AI was used to fly a tactical aircraft. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics said in a press release on Monday that its VISTA X-62A, a modified version of the F-16D Block 30 Peace Marble Il, made the flight in December as part of a series of tests. The release states that the VISTA, which stands for Variable In-flight … |
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Future of Tech: ChatGPT — Thursday, Feb. 16 | 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT
The tech world is experiencing major change with layoffs, cost-cutting and crypto casualties. Yet ChatGPT, the text-based generative AI tool from OpenAI, shows innovation is still very much alive. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), associate professor of Wharton School of Business Ethan Mollick and Margaret Mitchell, researcher & chief ethics scientist at Hugging Face, join The Hill to discuss.
RSVP to save your spot
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News we’ve flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics: |
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Social media giants struggle over disinformation |
The tech giants are struggling to combat disinformation online as the industry continues to face massive layoffs, The New York Times reports. |
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Female journalists targeted online |
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Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching: |
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Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing to examine the Federal Aviation Administration’s NOTAM system failure on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
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The Georgetown Center for Business and Policy will hold a virtual event Wednesday at noon in conversation with the AVP of Policy Communications at CTIA Doug Brake about tech companies’ quarterly earnings reports, 5G spectrum policy and Chinese spy balloons.
- The Cyber Threat Alliance will hold a webinar about mandatory cyber incident reporting requirements at 12 p.m. on Thursday.
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The Future of Privacy Forum will hold its annual summit on privacy papers for policymakers at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
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Branch out with other reads on The Hill: |
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Tesla workers in NY launch campaign to organize a union |
NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla workers at a factory in New York are launching a campaign to organize a union in New York. In a letter to management Tuesday, the Tesla Workers United organizing committee said that the employees are seeking a voice on the job at the plant in Buffalo and want to “build an even … |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Maybe they came from China. Maybe from somewhere farther away. A lot farther away. The downing of four aerial devices by U.S. warplanes has touched off rampant misinformation about the objects, their origin and their purpose, showing how complicated world events and a lack of information … |
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Other reads from The Hill |
Two key stories on The Hill right now: |
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Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) will lead a Senate investigation into why it took so long for the Defense Department to detect Chinese spy balloons that … Read more |
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Senior administration officials scrambled Tuesday to quell frustrations expressed by lawmakers about a lack of timely information concerning several … Read more |
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Opinions related to tech submitted to The Hill: |
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You’re all caught up. See you tomorrow! |
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