TikTok is letting users shut off its algorithm

Aug 15, 2023

⚡ Today’s Highlights

📰 News: TikTok is letting users shut off its algorithm
💰 Funding: Anthropic raised $100M
🌎 Content: Werner Herzog narrated a book of poetry written entirely by AI and you’ve gotta hear it

📰 Today's Top Stories

TikTok Is Letting People Shut Off Its Infamous Algorithm

(7 min read) (Source: WIRED)

TLDR: TikTok is enabling users in the European Union to opt out of its algorithmic content selection, driven by the EU’s revision of its Digital Services Act to accommodate recent developments in AI.

This decision empowers users to control their experience, but broader efforts are needed to safeguard mental privacy and address manipulation in the digital landscape.
Global action is required to establish comprehensive legal frameworks, impact assessments, and incentives that protect users and ensure responsible AI use.

The Big Picture: The TikTok policy change represents a step towards empowering users to maintain control over their cognitive experiences in the digital realm. As AI algorithms continue to influence users' thoughts and behaviors, the need for robust legal frameworks, transparency, and accountability mechanisms becomes evident. This highlights the ongoing challenge of balancing technological advancement with individual rights, underlining the necessity for international collaboration to shape a digital landscape that respects cognitive liberty.

New York Times drops out of AI coalition

(2 min read) (Source: Semafor)

TLDR: In April, Chairman of IAC and Expedia Group Barry Diller initiated an effort against AI platforms by proposing lawsuits against companies using publishers' data in AI models.

IAC, along with major publishers like The New York Times, News Corp., and Axel Springer, created a coalition aiming to collectively negotiate terms with major tech companies regarding the use of their content for training artificial intelligence models.
Yesterday it was announced that The New York Times opted out of the consortium. The absence of the New York Times is a setback for Diller's efforts to create a united front against tech giants like Google and Microsoft, as the coalition of publishers push for appropriate terms and compensation.
This move by the New York Times increases the likelihood that publishers might individually strike agreements with tech companies, exemplified by the Associated Press' deal to license its news archive to OpenAI.

The Big Picture: There is growing tension between media companies and tech giants over AI content usage. As AI becomes more integral to content creation and curation, negotiations about intellectual property, compensation, and control over content will take center stage.

Saudi Arabia and UAE race to buy Nvidia chips to power AI ambitions

(7 min read) (Source: Financial Times)

TLDR: Saudi Arabia and the UAE are acquiring thousands of NVIDIA's high-performance chips to boost their AI capabilities and establish themselves as leaders in the space.

Saudi Arabia purchased around 3,000 NVIDIA H100 chips via the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, while the UAE secured NVIDIA chips and developed its open-source large language model called Falcon.
As tech giants worldwide compete for limited chip supplies, countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE's push to establish AI dominance reflects their ambition to control AI-driven economic growth.

How Amazon continues to improve the customer reviews experience with generative AI

(3 min read) (Source: About Amazon)

TLDR: Amazon announced it is using generative AI to create short summaries of customer reviews, highlighting product features and sentiments mentioned in the reviews.

The AI-powered summaries will be available on product detail pages and will be complemented by clickable buttons for key product attributes.
The company aims to enhance customer understanding of reviews, but challenges related to fake reviews remain. Amazon addresses this by summarizing only verified purchase reviews and investing in AI and expert investigators to proactively detect and prevent fake reviews.

👀 More Reading:

Generative AI-nxiety (Harvard Business Review)
What Happens When You Let a Chatbot Plan Your Meals (The Wall Street Journal)
How FraudGPT presages the future of weaponized AI (VentureBeat)
AI is setting off a great scramble for data (The Economist)
Why the Great AI Backlash Came for a Tiny Startup You’ve Probably Never Heard Of (WIRED)
The $900,000 AI Job Is Here (The Wall Street Journal)

💰 Funding News

1. Anthropic, the AI startup, which is a competitor to OpenAI, and specializes in developing advanced AI technology, including language models and AI assistants, raised $100M in funding.

Round led by SK Telecom (SKT), a major mobile carrier in South Korea.
Funding is for supporting the joint development of a multilingual LLM with SK Telecom. The collaboration seeks to leverage Anthropic's AI expertise and SKT's telecommunications experience to create innovative AI solutions tailored for telcos, aiming to establish leadership in the AI ecosystem.

🌎 Fresh Content

1. “I Am Code” is a new book of poetry written entirely by AI. For the audiobook, the editors thought the perfect voice would be none other than legendary documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Hear him narrate some of these poems and learn why the editors selected him as their only choice.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/style/werner-herzog-ai-poetry.html

2. Justin Kan, founder of Twitch, shared his thoughts on all the investing activity happening in AI as well as some helpful frameworks that you can use to evaluate AI startup ideas and investment opportunities.

3. In a rare interview, Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei sat with Dwarkesh Patel to cover a wide range of topics.

They start with Dario’s background in the space and what piqued his interest into studying and developing AI systems. They then cover what it takes to scale these systems and mechanistic interpretability will allow us to better understand what is happening inside the black-box.

From there they cover the economic usefulness of AI systems, some of the existential risks posed by these systems, and then have a lengthy discussion about how best to pursue alignment.

This is a must watch for anyone interested in learning how one of the most influential leaders in AI is thinking about the looming threats and risks as well as how he plans on guiding his organization in this new era.