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The U.S. Needs to ‘Get It Right’ on AI – TIME

Artificial intelligence has been a tricky subject in Washington.

Most lawmakers agree that it poses significant dangers if left unregulated, yet there remains a lack of consensus on how to tackle these concerns. But speaking at a TIME100 Talks conversation on Friday ahead of the White House Correspondents Dinner, a panel of experts with backgrounds in government, national security, and social justice expressed optimism that the U.S. government will finally get it right so that society can reap the benefits of AI while safeguarding against potential dangers.

We can't afford to get this wrongagain, Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Biden Administration, told TIME Senior White House Correspondent Brian Bennett. The government was already behind the tech boom. Can you imagine if the government is a user of AI and we get that wrong?

Read More: A Call for Embracing AIBut With a Human Touch

The panelists agreed that government action is needed to ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of safe AI innovation. But the rapidly evolving field has raised a number of concerns that cant be ignored, they noted, ranging from civil rights to national security. The code is starting to write the code and thats going to make people very uncomfortable, especially for vulnerable communities, says Van Jones, a CNN host and social entrepreneur who founded the Dream Machine, a non-profit that fights overcrowded prisons and poverty. If you have biased data going in, you're going to have biased decision-making by algorithms coming out. That's the big fear.

The U.S. government might not have the best track record of keeping up with emerging technologies, but as AI becomes increasingly ubiquitous, Young says theres a growing recognition among lawmakers of the need to prioritize understanding, regulation, and ethical governance of AI.

Michael Allen, managing director of Beacon Global Strategies and Former National Security Council director for President George W. Bush, suggested that in order to address a lack of confidence about the use of artificial intelligence, the government needs to ensure that humans are at the forefront of every decision-making process involving the technologyespecially when it comes to national security. Having a human in the loop is ultimately going to make the most sense, he says.

Asked how Republicans and Democrats in Washington can talk to each other about tackling the problems and opportunities that AI presents, Young says theres already been a bipartisan shift around science and technology policy in recent yearsfrom President Bidens signature CHIPS and Science Act to funding for the National Science Foundation. The common theme behind the resurgence in this bipartisan support, she says, is a strong anti-China movement in Congress.

There's a big China focus in the United States Congress, says Young. But you can't have a China focus and just talk about the military. You've got to talk about our economic and science competition aspects of that. Those things have created an environment that has given us a chance for bipartisanship.

Allen noted that in this age of geopolitical competition with China, the U.S. government needs to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence. He likened the current moment to the Nuclear Age, when the U.S. government funded atomic research. Here in this new atmosphere, it is the private sector that is the primary engine of all of the innovative technologies, Allen says. The conventional wisdom is that the U.S. is in the lead, were still ahead of China. But I think that's something as you begin to contemplate regulation, how can we make sure that the United States stays at the forefront of artificial intelligence because our adversaries are going to move way down the field on this.

Congress is yet to pass any major AI legislation, but that hasnt stopped the White House from taking action. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to set guidelines for tech companies that train and test AI models, and has also directed government agencies to vet future AI products for potential national security risks. Asked how quickly Americans can expect more guardrails on AI, Young noted that some in Congress are pushing to establish a new, independent federal agency that can help inform lawmakers about AI without a political lens, offering help on legislative solutions.

If we dont get this right, Young says, how can we keep trust in the government?

TIME100 Talks: Responsible A.I.: Shaping and Safeguarding the Future of Innovation was presented by Booking.com.

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The U.S. Needs to 'Get It Right' on AI - TIME

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Big Tech keeps spending billions on AI. There’s no end in sight. – The Washington Post

SAN FRANCISCO The biggest tech companies in the world have spent billions of dollars on the artificial intelligence revolution. Now theyre planning to spend tens of billions more, pushing up demand for computer chips and potentially adding new strain to the U.S. electrical grid.

In quarterly earnings calls this week, Google, Microsoft and Meta all underlined just how big their investments in AI are. On Wednesday, Meta raised its predictions for how much it will spend this year by up to $10 billion. Google plans to spend around $12 billion or more each quarter this year on capital expenditures, much of which will be for new data centers, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said Thursday. Microsoft spent $14 billion in the most recent quarter and expects that to keep increasing materially, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said.

Overall, the investments in AI represent some of the largest infusions of cash in a specific technology in Silicon Valley history and they could serve to further entrench the biggest tech firms at the center of the U.S. economy as other companies, governments and individual consumers turn to these companies for AI tools and software.

The huge investment is also pushing up forecasts for how much energy will be needed in the United States in the coming years. In West Virginia, old coal plants that had been scheduled to be shut down will continue running to send energy to the huge and growing data center hub in neighboring Virginia.

Were very committed to making the investments required to keep us at the leading edge, Googles Porat said on a Thursday conference call. Its a once-in-a-generation opportunity, Google CEO Sundar Pichai added.

The biggest tech companies had already been spending steadily on AI research and development before OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022. But the chatbots instant success triggered the big companies to suddenly ramp up their spending. Venture capitalists poured money into the space, too, and start-ups with just a handful of employees were raising hundreds of millions to build out their own AI tools.

The boom pushed up prices for the high-end computer chips necessary to train and run complex AI algorithms, increasing prices for Big Tech companies and start-ups alike. AI specialist engineers and researchers are in short supply, too, and some of them are commanding salaries in the millions of dollars.

Nvidia the chipmaker whose graphic processing units, or GPUs, have become essential to training AI expects to make around $24 billion this quarter after making $8.3 billion two years ago in the same quarter. The massive increase in revenue has led investors to push the companys stock up so much that it is now the worlds third-most valuable company, after just Microsoft and Apple.

Some of the AI hype from last year has come back to Earth. Not every AI start-up that scored big venture-capital funding is still around. Concerns about AI increasing so fast that humans cant keep up seem to have mostly quieted down. But the revolution is here to stay, and the rush to invest in AI is already beginning to help grow revenue for Microsoft and Google.

Microsofts revenue in the quarter was $61.9 billion, up 17 percent from a year earlier. Googles revenue in the quarter rose 15 percent to $80.5 billion.

Interest in AI has brought in new customers that have helped boost Googles cloud revenue, leading to the company beating analyst expectations. Shares shot up around 12 percent in aftermarket trading. At Microsoft, demand for its AI services is so high that the company cant keep up right now, said Hood, the CFO.

For Meta, the challenge is building AI while also assuring investors it will eventually make money from it. Whereas Microsoft and Google sell access to their AI through giant cloud software businesses, Meta has taken a different track. It doesnt have a cloud business and is instead making its AI freely available to other companies, while finding ways to put the tech into its own social media products. This month, Meta integrated AI capabilities into its social networks, including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Investors are skeptical, and after the company raised its prediction for how much money it will spend in 2024 to as much as $40 billion, its stock fell over 10 percent.

Building the leading AI will also be a larger undertaking than the other experiences weve added to our apps, and this is likely going to take several years, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call Wednesday. Historically, investing to build these new scaled experiences in our apps has been a very good long-term investment for us and for investors who have stuck with us.

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Big Tech keeps spending billions on AI. There's no end in sight. - The Washington Post

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A Baltimore-area teacher is accused of using AI to make his boss appear racist – NPR

Dazhon Darien had allegedly used the Baltimore County Public Schools' network to access OpenAI tools and Microsoft Bing Chat before the viral audio file of Pikesville High School Principal Eric Eiswert spread on social media. Michael Dwyer/AP hide caption

Dazhon Darien had allegedly used the Baltimore County Public Schools' network to access OpenAI tools and Microsoft Bing Chat before the viral audio file of Pikesville High School Principal Eric Eiswert spread on social media.

A Maryland high school athletic director is facing criminal charges after police say he used artificial intelligence to duplicate the voice of Pikesville High School Principal Eric Eiswert, leading the community to believe Eiswert said racist and antisemitic things about teachers and students.

"We now have conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic," Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough told reporters during a news conference Thursday. "It's been determined the recording was generated through the use of artificial intelligence technology."

Dazhon Darien, 31, was arrested Thursday on charges of stalking, theft, disruption of school operations and retaliation against a witness after a monthslong investigation from the Baltimore County Police Department.

Attempts to contact Darien or Eiswert for comment were not successful.

The wild, headline-making details of this case aside, it emphasizes the serious potential for criminal misuse of artificial intelligence that experts have been warning about for some time, said Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in digital forensics.

Farid said he helped analyze the recording for police. Baltimore County police also consulted with another analyst and experts at the FBI. Their conclusion was that the recording was suspicious and unlikely to be authentic.

For just a few dollars, anyone can harness artificial intelligence to make audio and visual deepfakes. Stakes are high, but deepfake detection software doesn't always get it right.

This Baltimore-area case is not a canary in the coal mine. "I think the canary has been dead for quite awhile," Farid said.

"What's so particularly poignant here is that this is a Baltimore school principal. This is not Taylor Swift. It's not Joe Biden. It's not Elon Musk. It's just some guy trying to get through his day," he said. "It shows you the vulnerability. How anybody can create this stuff and they can weaponize it against anybody."

Darien's alleged scheme began in January in an attempt to retaliate against Eiswert, investigators wrote in the charging documents provided to NPR. The two men were at odds with each other over Darien's "work performance challenges," police wrote.

Eiswert launched an investigation into Darien in December 2023 over the potential mishandling of $1,916 in school funds. The money was paid to a person hired as an assistant girl's soccer coach, but the person never did the job, according to police.

Further, Eiswert had reprimanded Darien for firing a coach without his approval.

Eiswert had told Darien that his contract was possibly "not being renewed next semester," according to the arrest warrant.

The Baltimore County police launched their investigation into the alleged AI-generated recording of Principal Eiswert in January. Julio Cortez/AP hide caption

The Baltimore County police launched their investigation into the alleged AI-generated recording of Principal Eiswert in January.

On Jan. 17, detectives found out about the voice recording purporting to be of Eiswert that was spreading on social media. The recording, which can still be found online, allegedly caught Eiswert saying disparaging comments.

"The audio clip, the catalyst of this investigation, had profound repercussions," the charging documents read. "It not only led to Eiswert's temporary removal from the school but also triggered a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school. The recording also caused significant disruptions for the PHS staff and students."

The school was inundated with threatening messages and Billy Burke, head of the union that represents Eiswert, said the principal's family was being harassed and threatened, according to reporting from the Baltimore Banner.

Eiswert told police from the start of the investigation that he believed the recording was fake.

Darien was taken into custody Thursday morning at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport after attempting to board a flight to Houston, Chief McCullough said.

Security stopped Darien over a gun he packed in his bags and when officers ran his name in a search they found he had a warrant out for his arrest, McCullough said.

Darien was released on a $5,000 unsecured bond. His trial date is scheduled for June 11.

After following this story, Farid is left with the question: "What is going to be the consequence of this?"

He's been studying digital manipulation for more than 20 years and the problems have only gotten "much bigger and the consequences more severe."

Eiswert has been on leave since the audio recordings went public. Pikesville High School has been run by district staff since Eiswert left and the plan remains to keep those temporary administrators on the job through the end of the school year, said Myriam Rogers, the superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools.

As for Darien, Rogers said, "We are taking appropriate action regarding the arrested employee's conduct up to and including a recommendation for termination."

Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski said during Thursday's press conference that this case highlights the need "to make some adaptions to bring the law up to date with the technology that was being used."

Farid said there remains, generally, a lackluster response from regulators reluctant to put checks and balances on tech companies that develop these tools or to establish laws that properly punish wrongdoers and protect people.

"I don't understand at what point we're going to wake up as a country and say, like, why are we allowing this? Where are our regulators?"

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A Baltimore-area teacher is accused of using AI to make his boss appear racist - NPR

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Racist AI Deepfake of Baltimore Principal Leads to Arrest – The New York Times

A high school athletic director in the Baltimore area was arrested on Thursday after he used artificial intelligence software, the police said, to manufacture a racist and antisemitic audio clip that impersonated the schools principal.

Dazhon Darien, the athletic director of Pikesville High School, fabricated the recording including a tirade about ungrateful Black kids who cant test their way out of a paper bag in an effort to smear the principal, Eric Eiswert, according to the Baltimore County Police Department.

The faked recording, which was posted on Instagram in mid-January, quickly spread, roiling Baltimore County Public Schools, which is the nations 22nd-largest school district and serves more than 100,000 students. While the district investigated, Mr. Eiswert, who denied making the comments, was inundated with threats to his safety, the police said. He was also placed on administrative leave, the school district said.

Now Mr. Darien is facing charges including disrupting school operations and stalking the principal.

Mr. Eiswert referred a request for comment to a trade group for principals, the Council of Administrative and Supervisory Employees, which did not return a call from a reporter. Mr. Darien, who posted bond on Thursday, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Baltimore County case is just the latest indication of an escalation of A.I. abuse in schools. Many cases include deepfakes, or digitally altered video, audio or images that can appear convincingly real.

Since last fall, schools across the United States have been scrambling to address troubling deepfake incidents in which male students used A.I. nudification apps to create fake unclothed images of their female classmates, some of them middle school students as young as 12. Now the Baltimore County deepfake voice incident points to another A.I. risk to schools nationwide this time to veteran educators and district leaders.

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Racist AI Deepfake of Baltimore Principal Leads to Arrest - The New York Times

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Pope to take part in G7 summit in June to talk Artificial Intelligence – Crux Now

ROME Adding to what was already a busy papal schedule for 2024, the Vatican confirmed Friday that Pope Francis will participate, in person, in a G7 summit scheduled for the southern Italian region of Puglia June 13-15.

According to a statement from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the pope will take part in a session of the G7 summit dedicated to artificial intelligence, a subject of mounting concern to this papacy.

The popes participation will mark the first time a pontiff has taken part in a G7 summit, which has been meeting on a regular basis since 1975 and is considered the most important annual gathering of the leaders of the major Western powers.

The Pontifical Academy for Life organized a summit in 2020 along with major global technology firms such as Microsoft and IBM, which produced a document known as the Rome Call for AI Ethics. More recently, Francis devoted his messages both for the 2024 World Day of Peace and also the World Day of Social Communications to the theme of artificial intelligence.

We carried a movement forward from the base, now the pope at the G7 will speak to governments, said Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

The Rome Call is premised in part on what the document calls algorethics, meaning an ethical code for the digital age.

Signatories committed to request the development of an artificial intelligence that serves every person and humanity as a whole; that respects the dignity of the human person, so that every individual can benefit from the advances of technology; and that does not have as its sole goal greater profit or the gradual replacement of people in the workplace, the document says.

Italian Father Paolo Benanti, an advisor to both the Vatican and the Italian government on AI issues, said the Rome Call for AI ethics demonstrates the wisdom of religions on the subject, so that a future of peace and prosperity can be assured for humanity.

In this context, the participation of the pope at the G7 in Puglia is of great importance, Benanti said.

The G7 summit brings together the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan, as well as the European Union.

This year Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7. It will mark the fifth time the summit has been held in Italy, with the most recent coming in Genoa in 2001, when the body was still known as the G8 with the participation of Russia.

Im convinced that the presence of His Holiness will give a decisive contribution to the definition of a regulatory, ethical and cultural framework for artificial intelligence, Meloni said in a video statement announcing the popes presence.

Last Wednesday, Pope Francis met the CEO of Cisco Systems, Chuck Robbins, who was in the Vatican to sign on to the 2020 Rome Call for AI Ethics.

Robbins said at the time that the Rome Call principles align with Ciscos core belief that technology must be built on a foundation of trust at the highest levels in order to power an inclusive future for all.

Recently, Paglia announced that a group of leaders of Asian religions will meet in Hiroshima, Japan, in July, in order to sign the Rome Call for AI Ethics. That summit follows a similar event in 2022 when Jewish and Muslim leaders signed on to the document.

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Pope to take part in G7 summit in June to talk Artificial Intelligence - Crux Now

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What the Biden administration’s artificial intelligence executive order means for radiology – Radiology Business

Gowda and co-authors do not believe the order will result in immediate change for the regular practice of radiology. However, they see significant regulatory shifts on the horizon, including several government agencies taking major enforcement action. The order applies to both computer-aided detection systems that help radiologists in clinical work, along with AI for noninterpretative uses such as administrative tasks and peer review.

Understandably, given their higher degree of patient risk exposure, the former will likely come under more intense scrutiny, the authors advised. CAD programs (such as those identifying subtle pulmonary nodules) are already subject to FDA premarket review as medical devices. This class of programs will now face additional quality, equity and output reproducibility requirements, although rescinding FDA clearance from products which have already received authorization is unlikely.

The administration plans to deploy Health and Human Services in some fashion to oversee data input into AI algorithms. This could include the mandated disclosure of training datasets used in development. Clinical radiologists and other AI developers seeking Medicare reimbursement for these products will likely need to incorporate security by design principles and ensure they comply with nondiscrimination laws, Gowda et al. noted. The feds also will expect academic radiology departments and large private practices to share data with the National AI Research Resource and make informed procurement decisions.

All of this is to be determined, as Octobers executive order does not spell the specific parameters and regulatory framework to begin increasing AI oversight. Its far from a silver bullet to cure what ails artificial intelligence, the authors noted, rather the order serves as aset of mobilization orders for federal agencies.

Radiologists themselves can and should play a key role in policy creation at every level, they wrote. The EO does not specify the composition of the HHS AI Task Force, which may very well include members of the public in the vein of FDA advisory committees. Outside of formal platforms, individual radiologists as well as the ACR as a body can provide active input during agency-led workshops, open conferences, and public comment periods. On a finer level, they are well positioned to influence institution- and enterprise-wide best practices, quality systems and data stewardship guidelines.

Read much more at the link below. Mass General radiologists Keith Dreyer, DO, PhD, and Bernardo Bizzo, MD, PhD, also co-authored the opinion piece.

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What the Biden administration's artificial intelligence executive order means for radiology - Radiology Business

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