Here’s what you’ll find in this week’s AI update:
- US secures voluntary commitment from Big Techs to manage AI risks
- US SEC Chairman warns of financial risk from AI
- Israel uses AI systems in Military Operations
- Taiwan releases draft AI regulations for civil servants
- Apple Joins Race to Develop its AI Chatbot ‘AppleGPT’
US SECURES VOLUNTARY COMMITMENT FROM BIG TECHS TO MANAGE AI RISKS
On July 21, in a press release, the White House confirmed that it had secured a voluntary commitment from seven leading AI companies including Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI to promote human-centric AI. This voluntary commitment focuses on three principles – ensuring products are safe before introducing them to the public, building systems that put security first, and earning the public’s trust.
The press release emphasized the importance of an international framework, and stated that the US has consulted on voluntary commitments from various countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, the UAE, and the UK.
US SEC CHAIRMAN WARNS OF FINANCIAL RISK FROM AI
On July 17, Gary Gensler, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), raised concerns surrounding the increasing use of AI – particularly to the global financial stability as a result of the herding behavior exhibited by technology companies. In his speech, Gensler emphasized on the need to update the existing laws and regulations to address these challenges and ensure a competitive, transparent, and fair market.
The SEC Chairman also highlighted the impact of AI on intellectual property and data privacy, while noting that the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike seeks to address some of these issues.
ISRAEL USES AI SYSTEMS IN MILITARY OPERATIONS
According to a Bloomberg Report, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are using AI to select airstrike targets and coordinate wartime logistics in its occupied territories. An official stated that the IDF now employs an AI recommendation system that can process enormous amounts of data to select airstrike targets.
Despite human operators overseeing and approving the AI-suggested targets, there are currently no international or national regulations that limit the technology, according to an IDF official.
TAIWAN RELEASES DRAFT AI REGULATIONS FOR CIVIL SERVANTS
On July 18th, 2023, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) of Taiwan released draft regulations governing the use of AI tools by civil servants.
The proposed regulations, titled “Guidelines for the Executive Yuan and its Agencies on the Use of Generative AI,” requires civil servants to submit risk-assessment reports and objectively evaluate AI use; prohibit the use of AI for sensitive materials and data collection; increase public awareness of AI-driven policies; and ensure personal data protection and copyright enforcement.
The draft is open for public comments until July 28.
APPLE JOINS RACE TO DEVELOP ITS AI CHATBOT ‘APPLEGPT’
On July 19, Bloomberg reported that Apple was developing its own AI framework to create a large language model – which is internally being referred to as ‘AppleGPT’ in an attempt to catch up with its competitors. The chatbot is similar to Bard, ChatGPT, and Bing, and is built using Apple’s Ajax, which is built upon Google’s JAX machine learning framework. Apple’s stock reportedly reached a record high after the release of Bloomberg’s report.
Authors: Shantanu Mukherjee, Anushka Iyer, and Vishnu Rao.
