🤖 Alibaba's AI Alchemy

AND: AI Gets a 'Fair Dinkum' Check

In today’s Tracker:

Duck’s tail: 3 shakes

  • 🧪 Research highlights: AI Hiring: Silver Bullet or Silicon Snake Oil for Workplace Bias?

  • 🚨 Industry news: Alibaba's New Ace in the Hole

  • ⚖️ Policy and regulation: AI Under the Aussie Eye: New Rules for Robots Down Under

  • 🌐 AI and society: Prosthetic Pens: The Dawn of AI in the Realm of Words

  • 🧰 Tool of the day: Dubb Your Podcast, Double Your Impact!

💼 AI Hiring: Silver Bullet or Silicon Snake Oil for Workplace Bias?

In December 2022, the Pew Research Center surveyed 11,004 U.S. adults regarding racial bias in the workplace and the prospective role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its mitigation.

The study revealed a broad consensus across racial and ethnic groups that racial bias persists in hiring practices and performance evaluations, albeit with varying perceptions of the problem's severity.

Most Black, Hispanic, Asian, and White Americans agreed that racial prejudice is a problem, with Black adults expressing the most concern. Despite these obstacles, some companies have begun using AI in their employment procedures in the hope that it will reduce human bias.

Although some skeptics fear that artificial intelligence could inadvertently perpetuate pre-existing prejudices, a substantial proportion of respondents who acknowledged racial bias as a problem in hiring believed that AI could potentially improve equity.

53% of this group believed that the increased use of AI in the recruiting process would result in more equitable practices, while 13% were concerned that it could exacerbate the problem.

Interestingly, despite the potential optimism surrounding AI's role in recruiting, 66% of Americans are hesitant to apply for a job with an employer that uses AI in this way, revealing a gap between the perceived potential benefits of AI and the actual comfort level with its use.

📱 Alibaba's New Ace in the Hole

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is integrating its highly advanced artificial intelligence system, Tongyi Qianwen, into its DingTalk messaging app and Tingwu meeting assistant.

This large language model (LLM) can analyze audio and video files and produce text summaries, enhancing these tools' functionality.

The public can now experience the new iteration of the meeting assistant, Tongyi Tingwu, which this AI powers.

Alibaba's initiative exemplifies the expanding use of AI systems in communication and productivity tools, which has the potential to increase productivity and provide users with innovative experiences.

🦘 AI Under the Aussie Eye: New Rules for Robots Down Under

In response to rising concerns about privacy and intellectual property, the Australian government has announced plans to introduce stricter regulations for artificial intelligence systems.

The proposed laws will cover a broad spectrum of technologies, including machine learning and robotics, and apply to Australian domestic and foreign companies.

The government is especially interested in examining the practices of prominent social media platforms, and failure to comply could result in hefty penalties.

🖊️ Prosthetic Pens: The Dawn of AI in the Realm of Words

The essay titled "Prosthetic Memories, Writing Machines" examines the function of AI as an external, increasingly intelligent form of memory that can expand the physical effects of writing systems on the human mind.

It discusses how writing systems, including AI, can serve as an extension of human cognitive capacities, thereby contributing to profound cultural transformations. It emphasizes that the narratives we create using these tools are just as important to cultural change as the tools themselves.

Through illustrative cases such as Ross Goodwin's AI-assisted road trip novel "1 the Road" and Vikram Chandra's intelligent storytelling software Granthika, the article highlights the potential of AI in creative writing, highlighting how it can assist in tasks such as world-building, establishing a symbiotic relationship between the writer and the intelligent database.

Furthermore, the article considers the evolution of writing as a mnemonic technology and argues that these AI tools are the next logical step in this progression.

It examines the history of writing, its impact on communication, cognition, and culture, and how it has allowed us to outsource individual and collective memory, thereby building the foundation for AI.

The essay concludes by examining how writing has transformed modes of thought and communication, offering the perspectives of literacy and orality scholars.

🎙️ Dubb Your Podcast, Double Your Impact!

Dubb, an AI-powered marketing assistant, can help podcasters develop marketing content for their broadcasts. It may convert podcast episodes into show notes, social media content, newsletter content, and transcripts. The application promises to save podcasters time and effort by automating the content creation process.

Learn more about the tool here.

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—John Wooden

Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made an effort to become the best of which you are capable.

Credit: speaklife595

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