Since all things related to AI (artificial intelligence) seem to change in an instant, I will be sharing what I have found interesting or important here on the blog periodically.
July’s news has been coming at us hard and fast. One thing to know is that Meta (the company who owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) has jumped into the AI arena with both feet and in a big way.
Meta is hoping to be a development platform of choice and opted for accessibility and transparency by making its platform open source. This move is a game changer, according to TechRound:
Open source signifies more than just free access to the software code. It embodies a philosophy of collective input and shared growth, allowing users from all walks of life to contribute to the software’s development, discover bugs, and suggest improvements. In the world of AI, this is particularly significant as it allows for faster innovation, more robust scrutiny of algorithms, and, importantly, can serve to democratise the field of AI.
By going open source, Meta has invited the global developer community to contribute and innovate on its AI platform. It’s a move that encourages transparency and accessibility, shifting away from the typically walled gardens of tech giants.
In an effort to improve transparency around what content has been created using AI programs, the big tech companies committed to adding a watermark to AI-generated content. According to this article:
A group of leading tech companies have pledged to the White House to make AI safer, including adding a watermark so it’s clear when the technology has been used, the Biden administration announced Friday. The move is intended to help users identify AI-generated content such as deep-fake videos and manipulated audio. The seven companies, including Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, OpenAI and LinkedIn parent Microsoft, say they’ll invest in cybersecurity and test their products prior to release and report ways to reduce risk. They also pledged to use AI to help with climate change and medical research.
One of the trickiest aspects about AI technology and the way the programs are trained is potential violation of copyright. It took me almost two years to write my book. It is conceivable that someone could train a program with my writing and turn out a derivative work and market it as their own.
Sarah Silverman is suing Open AI and Meta for copyright infringement. According to this article on The Verge:
Comedian and author Sarah Silverman, as well as authors Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey — are suing OpenAI and Meta each in a US District Court over dual claims of copyright infringement.
The suits alleges, among other things, that OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta’s LLaMA were trained on illegally-acquired datasets containing their works, which they say were acquired from “shadow library” websites like Bibliotik, Library Genesis, Z-Library, and others, noting the books are “available in bulk via torrent systems.”
I am not confident that authors will end up winning these lawsuits, but it is an important conversation and some protections for intellectual property and creators clearly need to be put in place.
Photo by Joseph Hersh on Unsplash
