News That Caught Our Eye #27: September 9, 2024

Published on January 1, 1970

Summary

In the news this week: US seizes Russian websites used in bid to influence elections; how AI is transforming farming; and the latest stories about technology companies integrating AI in education. Learn more in this edition of News That Caught Our Eye, our weekly list of stories about AI and democracy.

News That Caught Our Eye

The good, the not-so-good, and the ugly of the UN’s blueprint for AI

Cameron F. Kerry on August 29, 2024 in Brookings

“In the “AI summer” of recent years, centers of artificial intelligence (AI) policymaking have blossomed around the globe as governments, international organizations, and other groups seek to realize the technology’s promise while identifying and mitigating its accompanying risks. Since Canada became the first country to announce a national AI strategy in 2017 and then led G7 adoption of a “common vision for the future of artificial intelligence” in 2018, at least 70 countries have developed AI strategies, almost every multilateral organization also has adopted a policy statement on AI, and the Council of Europe identifies some 450 AI governance initiatives from a wide variety of stakeholders. This worldwide flurry reflects how much generative AI models and the explosive uptake of ChatGPT have captured mainstream attention.Now, the United Nations (UN) aims to impose order on this expanding landscape. Secretary General António Guterres—a prominent voice in calling for a global body to govern perceived existential risks of emerging foundational AI models—initiated a global digital compact to be finalized alongside this September’s UN General Assembly.”

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News That Caught Our Eye

US, Britain, EU to sign first international AI treaty

on September 5, 2024 in Reuters

“The first legally binding international AI treaty will be open for signing on Thursday by the countries that negotiated it, including European Union members, the United States and Britain, the Council of Europe human rights organization said.The AI Convention, which has been in the works for years and was adopted in May after discussions between 57 countries, addresses the risks AI may pose, while promoting responsible innovation”

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News That Caught Our Eye

Law enforcement agencies need standardized AI field testing, presidential advisers say

Matt Bracken on September 4, 2024 in Fedscoop

“Though President Joe Biden’s AI executive order “explicitly requires real-world testing” of AI tools, Bambauer said there wasn’t a “standardized approach to testing AI” in federal policing. The subcommittee decided that recommendations on AI field testing would fill an important gap. Bambauer and her colleagues then went on a fact-finding mission with local law enforcement to find out how big a lift field testing might be. In a visit with the Miami Police Department — where subcommittee member Armando Aguilar serves as assistant chief — Bambauer said she expected to find a skeptical force concerned with too many testing protocols gumming up their work.”

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News That Caught Our Eye

AI worse than humans in every way at summarising information, government trial finds

Cam Wilson on September 3, 2024 in Crikey

“Artificial intelligence is worse than humans in every way at summarising documents and might actually create additional work for people, a government trial of the technology has found. Amazon conducted the test earlier this year for Australia’s corporate regulator the Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) using submissions made to an inquiry. The outcome of the trial was revealed in an answer to a questions on notice at the Senate select committee on adopting artificial intelligence. The test involved testing generative AI models before selecting one to ingest five submissions from a parliamentary inquiry into audit and consultancy firms. The most promising model, Meta’s open source model Llama2-70B, was prompted to summarise the submissions with a focus on ASIC mentions, recommendations, references to more regulation, and to include the page references and context.”

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AI and Elections

AI’s impact on elections is being overblown

Felix M. Simon, Keegan McBride, and Sacha Altay on September 3, 2024 in MIT Technology Review

“While there will be more elections this year where AI could have an effect, the United States being one likely to attract particular attention, the trend observed thus far is unlikely to change. AI is being used to try to influence electoral processes, but these efforts have not been fruitful. Commenting on the upcoming US election, Meta’s latest Adversarial Threat Report acknowledged that AI was being used to meddle—for example, by Russia-based operations—but that “GenAI-powered tactics provide only incremental productivity and content-generation gains” to such “threat actors.” This echoes comments from the company’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, who earlier this year stated that “it is striking how little these tools have been used on a systematic basis to really try to subvert and disrupt the elections.”

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AI and Elections

California lawmakers approve legislation to ban deepfakes related to elections

Tran Nguyen on September 1, 2024 in AP

“Lawmakers approved legislation to ban deepfakes related to elections and require large social media platforms to remove the deceptive material 120 days before Election Day and 60 days thereafter. Campaigns also would be required to publicly disclose if they’re running ads with materials altered by AI.”

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AI and Elections

Venezuela's newest news agency says AI anchors protect reporters amid government crackdown

Maria Paula Laguna on September 2, 2024 in Reuters

“They were created as part of an initiative dubbed "Operation Retweet" by Colombia-based organization Connectas, led by director Carlos Huertas, to publish news from a dozen independent media outlets in Venezuela and in the process protect reporters as the government has launched a crackdown on journalists and protesters. "We decided to use artificial intelligence to be the 'face' of the information we're publishing," Huertas said in an interview, "because our colleagues who are still out doing their jobs are facing much more risk." At least 10 journalists have been arrested since mid-June and eight remain imprisoned on charges including terrorism, according to Reporters Without Borders. "Here, using artificial intelligence is... almost like a mix between technology and journalism," Huertas said, explaining the project looked to "circumvent the persecution and increasing repression" from the government as there would be no one who could face arrest.”

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AI and Elections

$7.5 million grant to guard against AI-driven misinformation

Kevin Fryling on September 4, 2024 in News at IU

“Indiana University researchers will lead a multi-institutional team of experts in areas such as informatics, psychology, communications and folklore to assess the role that artificial intelligence may play in strengthening the influence of online communications — including misinformation and radicalizing messages — under a $7.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. The project is one of 30 recently funded by the department’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, which supports basic defense-related research projects.”

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AI and Problem Solving

How we’re using AI to help cities tackle extreme heat

Mansi Kansal and David Fork on September 4, 2024 in The Keyword Google blog

“To lower city temperatures and keep communities healthy, Google Research is continuing its efforts to use AI to build tools that help address extreme heat. Our new Heat Resilience tool applies AI to satellite and aerial imagery, helping cities to quantify how to reduce surface temperatures with cooling interventions, like planting trees and installing highly reflective surfaces like cool roofs.”

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AI and Problem Solving

4 Impactful Ways AI is Transforming Farming

Krishna Kumar on September 5, 2024 in AI Business

“AI has become an integral part of our daily lives. Whether we're buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a trip or dining out, AI is there, influencing our decisions and actions. Life ten years ago seems to belong to a bygone era. This isn't an exaggeration – AI is driving decades of progress in just a few years. As AI continues to evolve, it's essential that its growth remains responsible and ethical. However, there are sectors like agriculture and food that stand to benefit immensely from this AI-driven paradigm shift. The impact of AI on these industries is not just transformative; it's revolutionary. AI-enabled food systems are having profound effects on our society, economy, environment and humanity at large. AI is not just changing how we live, it's shaping a better future for all of us.”

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AI and Problem Solving

New DOD supercomputer designed to thwart chem and bio threats

Brandi Vincent on September 5, 2024 in Defensescoop

“The Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration recently inaugurated a new supercomputer in California, via a joint pursuit envisioned to expand U.S. computing capacity and simultaneously generate additional chemical and biological defense capabilities. Hosted at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the system is funded by DOD’s Chemical and Biological Defense Program, and officials plan to soon open it up for use by the military, other federal agencies, allied and partner governments, and key collaborators in academic and industry.”

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