The week's developments on AI and regulation, explained | 09.02.24

If you’re enjoying this briefing, sign up here — and share it with a friend. Reading time: ~3 minutes

This week, ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s secret AI drone project “White Stork” was leaked. The billionaire technologist has based these operations in Ukraine and plans to build military kamikaze drones so fast they’re ‘nearly impossible to shoot down’. 

Meanwhile, in the US AI lobbying is up 185% with researchers, engineers and practitioners across industries calling for increased regulation. Across the pond, the UK has invested over £100 million to support regulators and initiated a new timeline for them to stick to. 

We cover this, plus the expert's take on AI’s increasing threat to nutrition, the true dangers of global AI governance, and why researchers think AIs in bodies may be the key to AGI…

- Charlie and the Research and Intelligence Team

P.S. You can now register your interest for CogX Festival LA 6-9 May, where we’ll be talking all things AI, Impact, and Transformational Tech!

Ethics and Governance

🕹️Eric Schmidt's secret project to create AI “kamikaze” attack drones, with operations obscured across the US and Ukraine. The project, named ‘White Stork’ is focused on producing mass-manufacturable drones capable of autonomous visual targeting. 

⚖️AI lobbying spikes 185%, amidst calls for regulation, across 450 organisations, ranging from bigtech to pharmaceuticals and finance. This surge is in response to growing demands for AI regulation and the Biden administration's efforts to initiate rule codification. 

🇬🇧The UK government is enhancing its approach to AI regulation, offering over £100 million to support regulators, and foster research and innovation. Key regulators are tasked with outlining their strategies by April's end to address AI's risks and opportunities. 

🤝Inside OpenAI’s plan to make AI democratic. OpenAI's $1 million "Democratic Inputs to AI" program aims to discover how a wide public consensus can guide AI's ethical and operational standards, representing their efforts to balance innovation with public input.

AI Dilemmas

🍎Should we worry about nutrition AI? AI apps can now offer innovative, personalised diet tracking, yet nutritionists stress the importance of human expertise. Professional guidance, experts say, is vital for effective dietary management and irreplaceable by technology.

🗳️Yet another deepfake threatens the US elections. An audio deepfake of a candidate claiming to have rigged the election has gone viral, prompting US officials to warn the electorate in advance of the presidential election. Will they develop sufficient legislation in time?

Insights & Research

🐺 The real wolf threatening news is AI. Jim Albrecht warns of the risk gen-AI to traditional news consumption. Instead of relying on human journalists, AI can now produce its own content, leading to a future of AI-produced conversations, over traditional news articles. 

🌎 The danger of global AI governance. Andy Kessler warns of government overreach and the loss of human freedom, criticising Altman and Gates’ proposition for a global regulatory body, highlighting the need to limit executive power and preserve market-driven progress.

🤖 Why Embodied AI (E-AI) is the key to AGI. This paper, drawing for philosophy and robotics, highlights the necessity for AI agents to learn from dynamic real-world interactions, aiming to craft systems that are adept at navigating and innovating in complex scenarios.

🧠 Exploring the emotional intelligence of gen-AI. This study compares AI's responses to human reactions to gauge its ability to understand and respond to events similarly. A new architecture is introduced to improve AI's contextual comprehension, with promising results.

In case you missed it

Ray Kurzweil Q&A on AI, the singularity and human-machine integration:

✍️ Enjoying this newsletter?  Subscribe to our free weekly briefings on Preparing for AI, Cinema & AI, The Race to Net Zero, AI & DeepTech and The Future of Work

🚀 Remember to register your interest for CogX Festival LA 6-9 May!