Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service.

In an introduction to a special issue of the journal First Monday on topics related to AI andpower, researchers Jenna Burrell and Jacob Metcalf argue that "what can and cannot be said inside of mainstream computer science publications appears to be constrained by the power, wealth, and ideology of a small cohort of industrialists. The result is that shaping discourse about the AI industry is itself a form of power that cannot be named inside of computer science." The papers in the journal go on to interrogate the epistemic culture of AI safety, the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence how to debunk robot rights, and more.

To learn more about some of the ideas in the special issue, Justin Hendrix spoke to Burrell, Metcalf, and two of the other authors of papers included in it: Shazeda Ahmed and mile P. Torres.

A transcript of the discussion is forthcoming.

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Podcast: Resisting AI and the Consolidation of Power | TechPolicy.Press - Tech Policy Press

As New York state works to cement its place as a leader in artificial intelligence, experts in the field gathered in Albany for a discussion organized by the Business Council of New York State on how to best use the technology in the business world.

While a business-focused conference, when it comes to AI, it's difficult not to get into political implications whether its how the rise of artificial intelligence is impacting political communications, or how leaders are trying to shape the ways in which the technology will impact New Yorks economy.

Keynote speaker Shelly Palmer, CEO of tech strategy firm the Palmer Group and Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, emphasized that when it comes to AI, whether in government, the private sector, or day-to-day life, the key is staying ahead of the curve.

AI is never going away. If youre not on top of what this is, other people will be, he said. Thats the danger for everyone, politicians and people alike, if youre not paying attention to this.

New York is making strides to do that.

In the state budget are initiatives to create a state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence Computing Center at the University at Buffalo to help New York stay ahead and attract business.

Ive said whoever dominates this next era of AI will dominate history and indeed the future, Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a roundtable to discuss the Empire AI consortium this week.

Palmer said outside of the political sphere, dominating AI will be key for individuals, too.

AI is not going to take your job, he said. People who know how to use AI better than you are going to take your job, so the only defense you have is to learn to work with an AI coworker to learn to work with these tools. Theyre not scary, as long as you give yourself the opportunity to learn.

Also of concern are the implications when it comes to politics and the spread of misinformation.

Palmer acknowledged that AI presents new and more complex challenges, but argued that people are routinely duped by less-sophisticated technology, citing a slowed down video of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that falsely claimed to show the California Democrat intoxicated.

Pulling information from a variety of sources with a variety of political bias, he emphasized that its up to users to learn about the technologys limitations.

Youre giving more credit to the technology than the technology deserves, he said. When people have a propensity to believe what they want to believe from the leaders they trust, youre not going to change their minds with facts.

Also in the budget is legislation to require disclosures on political communications that include deceptive media.

Hesitant to fully endorse such legislation, Palmer stressed that any regulation needs to be able to keep up with the fast-paced development of AI.

If elected officials would take the time to learn about what this is, they could come up with laws that can keep pace that the technology is changing, then it would make sense," he said. "I dont think you can regulate today through the lens of today, looking at the present and predicting the future. Every morning I wake up and something new has happened in the business.

That said, the effort to include those regulations in the state budget was a bipartisan one. State Senator Jake Ashby argued that there is still work to be done.

"While I'm pleased my bipartisan proposal to require transparency and disclosure regarding AI in campaign ads was adopted in the budget, I will continue to push for harsh financial penalties for campaigns and PACs that break the rules, he said. We need to make sure emerging technologies strengthen our democracy, not undermineit.

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AI experts gather in Albany to discuss business strategies - Spectrum News

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Generative artificial intelligence (AI)can positively impact most people's workflows, regardless of their industry. However, despite many generative AI tools being readily accessible, most people don't know how to apply them to their work. That's where Google's new AI course can help.

On Friday, Google launched its new AI Essentials course, which teaches working professionals how to implement generative AI in their day-to-day to boost productivity.

Also: Google releases two new free resources to help you optimize your AI prompts

The course takes less than ten hours to complete and includes videos, readings, and exercises. Once users complete the course, they will earn a certificate from Google that can be shared with employers, networks, social platforms, and more.

The full course is available on Coursera for $49. If you are hesitant about spending the money, ZDNET plans on taking the course in the upcoming week and will share our review of its effectiveness soon.

Google said it will also make the course available through nonprofits, schools, and companies. For example, Miami Dade College is providing the course to all its AI degree program students, and Google and CitiGroup will offer the course to their employees to help upskill them in AI.

If you are an educator interested in learning more about how you can implement AI in your workflow, Google recently launched a free Generative AI Educators course in partnership with MIT. The course is intended to help educators learn how to use generative AI to save time, enhance lessons, and more.

Also:7 reasons I use Copilot instead of ChatGPT

In addition to launching the new course, Google also announced a $75 million AI Opportunity Fund intended to help Americans learn essential AI skills through grants given to workforce development and education organizations. Those organizations will then provide AI training to "rural and underserved communities, educators and students, public sector, nonprofit leaders and small businesses at no cost," according to the release.

AI literacy is a critical part of successfully deploying AI tools because it allows people to get the most out of the technology. Courses like these not only help users become more competitive in the job market but also help them learn how to apply AI elsewhere in their lives. Interested in a free AI course? Check outZDNET's list of best free AI courses.

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Ready to implement AI at work? Google has a new course for that - ZDNet

Baltimore County Police arrested Pikesville High Schools former athletic director Thursday morning and charged him with crimes related to the alleged use of artificial intelligence to impersonate Principal Eric Eiswert, leading the public to believe Eiswert made racist and antisemitic comments behind closed doors.

Dazhon Darien, 31, was apprehended as he attempted to board a flight to Houston at BWI Airport, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. Darien was stopped for having a gun on him and airport officials saw there was a warrant for his arrest. Police said they did not know whether Darien was trying to flee.

Darien was charged with disrupting school activities after investigators determined he faked Eiswerts voice and circulated the audio on social media in January, according to the Baltimore County States Attorneys Office. Dariens nickname, DJ, was among the names mentioned in the audio clips authorities say he faked.

The audio clip ... had profound repercussions, police wrote in charging documents. It not only led to Eiswerts 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.

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Police say Darien made the recording in retaliation after Eiswert initiated an investigation into improper payments he made to a school athletics coach who was also his roommate. Darien is also charged with theft and retaliating against a witness.

Darien was allowed release on $5,000 bond and waived an attorney at an initial court appearance, according to court records. Attempts to reach him by phone and at his home were unsuccessful.

Eiswerts voice, which police and AI experts believe was simulated, made disparaging comments about Black students and the surrounding Jewish community and was widely circulated on social media.

Questions about the audios authenticity quickly followed. Police wrote in charging documents that Darien had accessed the schools network on multiple occasions in December and January searching for OpenAI tools, and used Large Language Models that practice deep learning, which involves pulling in vast amounts of data from various sources on the internet, can recognize text inputted by the user, and produce conversational results. They also connected Darien to an email account that had distributed the recording.

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Many current and former students believed Eiswert was responsible for the offensive remarks, while former colleagues denounced the audio and defended Eiswerts character. Eiswert himself has denied making those comments and said the comments do not align with his views.

The audio, posted to the popular Instagram account murder_ink_bmore, prompted a Baltimore County Public Schools and Baltimore County Police investigation. Eiswert has not been working in the school since the investigation began.

The voice refers to ungrateful Black kids who cant test their way out of a paper bag and questions how hard it is to get those students to meet grade-level expectations. The speaker uses names of people who appear to be staff members and says they should not have been hired, and that he should get rid of another person one way or another.

And if I have to get one more complaint from one more Jew in this community, Im going to join the other side, the voice said.

Darien was being investigated as of December in a theft investigation that had been initiated by Eiswert. Police say Darien had authorized a $1,916 payment to the schools junior varsity basketball coach, who was also his roommate, under the pretense that he was an assistant girls soccer coach. He was not, school officials said.

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Eiswert determined that Darien had submitted the payment to the school payroll system, bypassing proper procedures. Darien had been notified of the investigation, police said.

Police say the clip was received by three teachers the night before it went viral. The first was Darien; a third said she received the email and then got a call from Darien and teacher Shaena Ravenell telling her to check her email. Ravenell told police that she had forwarded the email to a students cell phone, who she knew would rapidly spread the message around various social media outlets and throughout the school, and also sent it to the media and the NAACP, police said.

She did not mention receiving it from Darien until confronted about his involvement. Ravenell has not been charged with a crime and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Both Darien and Ravenell have submitted their resignations to the school system, according to an April 16 school board document. The resignations are dated June 30.

Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers said school system officials are recommending Dariens termination. She would not say, however, if the other employees named in the charging documents, including Ravenell, are still working at the school.

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Rogers in January called the comments disturbing and highly offensive and inappropriate statements about African American students, Pikesville High School staff, and Pikesvilles Jewish community.

Rogers said Kyria Joseph, executive director for secondary schools, and George Roberts, a leadership consultant for the school system, have been running Pikesville High School since the investigation started. They will continue to do so for the remainder of the year. She said they will work with Eiswert to determine his duties for next school year.

Billy Burke, head of the Council of Administrative & Supervisory Employee, the union that represents Eiswert, was the only official to suggest the audio was AI-generated.

Burke said he was disappointed in the publics assumption of Eiswerts guilt. At a January school board meeting, he said the principal needed police presence at his home because he and his family had been harassed and threatened. Burke had also received harassing emails, he said at the time.

I continue to be concerned about the damage these actions have caused for Principal Eiswert, his family, the students and staff of Pikesville High School, and the Black and Jewish community members, Burke said in a statement on Thursday. I hope there is deliberate action to heal the trauma caused by the fake audio and that all people can feel restored.

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Police said the schools front desk staff was inundated with phone calls from parents and students expressing concern and disparaging remarks toward school staff and administrators. The flood of calls made it difficult to field phone calls from parents trying to make arrangements for their children and other school functions, officials told police.

The school leadership expressed that staff did not feel safe, which required an increase in police presence at the school to address safety concerns and fears, police said.

Teachers, under the impression the recording was authentic, expressed fears that recording devices could have been planted in various places in the school, police said.

The recordings release deeply affected the trust between teachers and the administration, police said. One individual shared that they fielded sensitive phone calls in their vehicle in the parking lot instead of speaking in school.

Hate has no place and no home in Baltimore County, said Johnny Olszewski Jr., the Baltimore County executive.

He called the developments of AI deeply concerning and that its important for everyone to remain vigilant for anyone using the technology for malicious reasons. There should also be more investment in technology that identifies any inauthentic recording made with AI, he said.

Experts in detecting audio and video fakes told The Banner in March that there was overwhelming evidence the voice is AI-generated. They noted its flat tone, unusually clean background sounds and lack of consistent breathing sounds or pauses as hallmarks of AI. They also ran the audio through several different AI-detection techniques, which consistently concluded it was a fake, though they could not be 100% sure.

The police also sought the expertise of two professors familiar with AI detection to assist in their investigation. Catalin Grigoras, a forensic analyst and professor at the University of Colorado Denver, concluded that the recording contained traces of AI-generated content with human editing after the fact, which added background noises for realism, the charging documents stated.

Hany Farid from the University of California, Berkeley, whos also an expert in forensic analysis, determined the recording was manipulated, and multiple recordings were spliced together, according to the documents.

AI voice-generation tools are now widely available online, and a single minutes recording of someones voice can be enough to simulate it with a $5-a-month AI tool, the Nieman Journalism Lab reported in February.

There are few regulations to prevent AI imitations, called deepfakes, and few perpetrators are prosecuted.

Cindy Sexton, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, said AI should be a concern for everyone, especially educators.

She said the National Education Association is working to address their concerns, but in the meantime, shes not sure what else should be done.

We have to do something as a society, but what is that something is of course the big question, Sexton said

Baltimore County States Attorney Scott Shellenberger said this is the first time this type of case has been taken up by the district. And its one of the first his office was able to find around the nation.

There were some legal statutes they used that were right on point, he said, but the charge of disrupting school activities only carries a six-month sentence.

It seems very clear to me that we may need to make our way down to Annapolis in the legislature next year to make some adaptions to bring the law up to date with the technology that was being used, he said.

Baltimore Banner staff writers Cody Boteler and Kaitlin Newman contributed to this report.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Hany Farids name.

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Ex-athletic director accused of framing principal with AI arrested at airport with gun - The Baltimore Banner

Hello and welcome to Eye on AI.

The pursuit to use AI to discover new life-saving drugs got a big boost this week when a new company, Xaira Therapeutics, emerged from stealth with $1 billion in funding. The San Francisco-based firm aims to create AI models to develop new ways to connect biological targets and engineered molecules to human diseases. Its led by Genentechs former chief scientific officer and was incubated by Foresite Labs and Arch Venture Partnersthe latter of which says Xaira is the largest initial funding commitment the firm has ever made in its 30 years of investing.

Any funding round with a Bespecially for an early-stage companyrepresents a big bet and a lot of hope. Aspirations are particularly high for the use of AI in drug discovery. While the upside of models that can create videos, music, and other creative works is still fuzzy (and in some ways even feel threatening), the societal benefits of breakthroughs in medicine that could help people live longer, healthier lives, and reduce suffering are crystal clear. Its one of the use cases for AI Ive been most interested in for this reason. Even my grandmother, who within the last year or so started hearing about AI on shows like 60 Minutes, tells me that while shes very worried about AI, shes hopeful for what it could do to advance medical research and help people with conditions like Dementia.

These pursuits are still in their very early days, but there are efforts underway, deals being made, and some signs of success. Data analysis firm StartUs Insights identified 463 AI startups working on drug discovery. Pharmaceutical behemoths are also pouring money into AI drug development effortsjust yesterday, Moderna announced a partnership with OpenAI to further incorporate AI into its drug discovery and development processes. Last year, BioNTech and Eli Lilly acquired AI drug discovery startups InstaDeep ($680 million) and XtalPi ($250 million), respectively. Big Tech is also diving in. Microsoft has partnered with Novo Nordisk and Google has released AI tools aimed specifically at helping pharmaceutical and biotech firms advance drug discovery and development. Last month also saw the first AI-targeted and AI-designed drug reach Phase II clinical trialsa drug developed by startup Insilico Medicine to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

How AI can bolster drug discovery was also a hot topic at Fortunes Brainstorm AI conferences in San Francisco late last year and last week in London. During a breakout session focused on AIs role in drug discovery and clinical trials at the San Francisco conference, Amgen VP of digital, technology, and innovation Skott Skeller said this is a hinge moment for the biopharmaceutical industry thats changing how drugs are developed.

I often think, and someone once told me, that discovery and bringing drugs to market is all around identifying the cause of biology, poring over the chemistry, and then innovating like crazy to get that therapy to patients, added Rory Kelleher, Nvidias global head of life sciences business development. Think about itAI can be implemented at every stage of that pipeline. And so were thinking about, how do we democratize those capabilities so that we can decrease the failure rate? If you decrease the failure rate, you reduce the cost and time it takes to market. And there are thousands of diseases with unmet needs.

At this point, its important to note that AI isnt a total silver bullet for drug discovery. While AI can drastically speed up finding promising compounds to make drugs, a lot of time-consuming and expensive steps of the process will still be required. For example, drugs will still need to be tested in wet labswhere theyre analyzed using physical samplesgo through clinical trials, and gain FDA approvals. Still, AI has the potential to massively streamline that first step and make it possible to find targets that might not have been discovered otherwise.

AIs potential for health care doesnt stop at drug discovery, however. Researchers are also examining how AI can bolster health care-focused robotics, analyze data to help make the best decisions for a patients care, aid in preventative health, and so many more facets of health care. As covered in Tuesdays Eye on AI, startup Profluent AI this week demonstrated the first successful precision editing of the human genome with a programmable gene editor designed using AI. AI is also already being used widely in diagnosis, where multiple studies have shown it performs faster and more accurately than humans. One AI program for detecting breast cancer reliably interprets patient data 30 times faster than a human doctor and with 99% accuracy.

And with that, heres more AI news.

Sage Lazzaro sage.lazzaro@consultant.fortune.com sagelazzaro.com

Meta stock drops 16% after reporting spiking AI expenses. While the company saw revenue grow by 27% compared to the same period last year, Meta also reported it's increasing spending in order to accelerate its AI roadmap and that it will take years for the company to make money from the technology, Fortunes Alexei Oreskovic reported. Metas capital expenditures for 2024 are now expected to range between $35 billion to $40 billion, an increase over a prior forecast of $30 billion to $37 billion that seems to have investors wary. On the upside, once our new AI services reach scale, we have a strong track record of monetizing them effectively, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. Microsoft and Alphabetwhose earnings reports will also be all about AIare set to report today after the market closes.

The AI model Microsoft pulled last week because it didnt get a safety test is still easily available. While the company deleted its WizardLM 2 model within hours of making it available after realizing it accidentally missed required safety testing prior to release, the move came too late. According to 404 Media, the model was downloaded during the brief window when it was available and quickly reuploaded to GitHub and Hugging Face, making it available for use anyway. The Github and Hugging Face pages for WizardLM 2 are still down, but it is incredibly easy to find multiple instances of it being reuploaded on the same platforms, reported 404 Media. The story is another example of some of the challenges that open-source AI models pose to safety and regulation.

Nvidia acquires AI infrastructure orchestration and management service Run:ai and AI model optimizer Deci. While terms of the deals havent been disclosed, TechCrunch reported Run.ai sold for $700 million. Founded in 2018, Tel Aviv-based Run:ai helps enterprises get the most out of their cloud computing resources when deploying AI. The move is an indication that Nvidia is looking to try to optimize highly energy-intensive data center computing loads amid rising concerns about the cost (with much of that being electricity) and carbon footprint of the generative AI boom. The Information also reported Nvidia is acquiring another Israeli AI infrastructure startup, Deci, that helps optimize AI models so they can run more efficiently on AI chips. You can read The Information story here.

Cargill leans on regenerative agriculture and generative AI to feed the planetby John Kell

Move over, 'Black Mirror'; the BBC is showing AI can be a force for good in mediaby Molly Flatt

The AI frenzy could fall flat as companies hoard chips without enough data centers to host them by Aroosh Thillainathan (Commentary)

The race for human-AI interaction usage data is onand the stakes are highby Jeroen Van Hautte (Commentary)

April 25: Microsoft and Alphabet report calendar Q1 earnings

May 7-11: International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) in Vienna

May 14: Google I/O conference

May 14: Stanford HAIs RAISE Health Symposium

May 21-23: Microsoft Build conference in Seattle

June 5: FedScoops FedTalks 2024 in Washington, D.C.

June 25-27: 2024 IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Singapore

July 15-17: Fortune Brainstorm Tech in Park City, Utah (Register here.)

July 30-31: Fortune Brainstorm AI in Singapore. (Register here.)

Aug. 12-14: Ai4 2024 in Las Vegas

Digital twins. Tech entrepreneur and investor Reed Hoffman yesterday shared a video to LinkedIn showing him interviewingand later being interviewed byan AI-generated version of himself, his digital twin. He said it was created with a custom GPT-based model trained on 20 years of his content including his podcast, interviews, and books hes written, and it mostly looked and sounded like him. Reed introduced that he was going to challenge ReedAI with some questions to see what it can do, how good the content is, and how close it is to what hed say. The dual interview, however, turned out to be a big softball.

Reed asked the AI Reed to explain one of his books in one sentence for various audiences (the smartest person in the world, 5-year-olds, StarkTrek fans) and in different styles (Jerry from Seinfeld) He asked for advice on his LinkedIn page and what role government should play in regulating AI. Overall, he thought his digital twin used too many buzzwords.

When AI Reed stepped into the interviewer role, human Reed launched into explaining why we need to embrace the AI cognitive industrial revolution and how it will elevate humanity. He also took issue with the fact that, according to him, the vast majority of people are only talking about the risks and not the benefits. Only once we realize how AI will elevate humanity can we bring in the risks, he said.

The longer the video goes on, the less it feels like an experiment and the more it feels like a glaring ad for AI optimism in disguise. Reed is, of course, on the boards of Microsoft and Inflection AI and has invested heavily in many AI startups as a partner at Greylock Ventures. Its a shame because I wouldve been really interested to see the model put to more tests. Either way, seeing a person side-by-side with an AI-generated version of themselves was eerie. Cue the sci-fi comparisons.

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Xaira Therapeutics $1 billion funding round shows the excitement about AI drug discovery - Fortune