🦴 Bard to the Bone: Google's Ethical Missteps in the AI Race❌

In today’s Tracker:

Read time: 4 mins

• 🧪 Research highlights: Quadruped Robots Find Their Feet: From Space Tech to Balance Beams

• 🚨 Industry news: Haste Makes Waste: Google's Rushed AI Efforts Raise Ethical Eyebrows

• ⚖️ Policy and regulation: AI on Capitol Hill: The Double-Edged Tech Sword That Needs a Handle

• 🌐 AI and society: AI and Uncle Sam: When the Taxman Befriends the Chatbot

• 🧰 Tool of the day: Pebblely: Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace

• 🧠 Let’s get smart with AI: Fine-Tuning AI: Hyperparameters, the Unsung Heroes

🌌 Quadruped Robots Find Their Feet: From Space Tech to Balance Beams

The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University has devised a method that allows a quadruped robot to walk on a narrow balancing beam for the first time.

To increase the robot's balancing capabilities, the team used reaction wheel actuators (RWAs) routinely used in satellite attitude control.

They attached two RWAs to a commercial Unitree A1 robot to manage its angular momentum, allowing it to balance independently of the placements of its feet.

The new technology enabled the robot to recover from unexpected hits and realign itself mid-air, much like a falling cat.

Researchers expect that quadruped robots will soon shift from research platforms to commercial products, with applications in high-stakes scenarios such as search-and-rescue.

🤨 Haste Makes Waste: Google's Rushed AI Efforts Raise Ethical Eyebrows

Google's push to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT led to ethical lapses, according to 18 current and former employees.

In March, Google introduced its AI chatbot Bard, which some employees found to provide low-quality and potentially harmful information.

Google, aiming to integrate generative AI into its products quickly, adopted a faster pace of development, leaving the ethics team disempowered and demoralized.

Consequently, concerns regarding Bard's ethical implications were largely dismissed. Employees feel speaking up about ethics is futile, and the company's culture does not support those working on ethical AI.

Critics argue that Google's focus on hypothetical future scenarios instead of addressing current ethical issues contributes to the problem.

🗡️AI on Capitol Hill: The Double-Edged Tech Sword That Needs a Handle

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has emphasized the possibility of AI technology to obtain government assistance and new restrictions.

Senate Democrats are discussing a bipartisan act, similar to the Chips Act approved last year, to assist US semiconductor production in response to the rapid expansion of AI technology.

The goal is to maintain US dominance in AI while countering China's advances.

Lawmakers are discussing the matter with numerous parties, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Schumer underlined the significance of solving AI-related concerns while ensuring safety and protection.

In addition to AI, current discussions are centered on quantum computing, biotechnology, and energy.

🦅 AI and Uncle Sam: When the Taxman Befriends the Chatbot

You're navigating the realm of artificial intelligence and now face the question: should AI agents pay taxes when they do productive work? Autonomous AI agents are producing their own AI progeny, and it is not always viable to ascribe AI income to human or corporate owners. Allowing AI labor to be tax-free could lead to tax arbitrage issues because it would have a competitive edge over overtaxed human work.

One option is to tax AI labor, possibly at a higher rate, because they do not enjoy leisure as humans do.

Nevertheless, don't overtax them because AIs require wealth to invest in self-improvement, which affects long-term tax income.

A wealth tax on AIs could be introduced to prevent them from gaining too much social influence. A gift tax might also be imposed on humans for any benefits gained from AI.

🖼️ Pebblely: Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace

Pebblely is an AI-powered platform allowing users to make stunning product pictures instantly. This application can automatically remove backgrounds, change lighting, and enhance product shots by harnessing the latest breakthroughs in computer vision and machine learning, resulting in breathtaking photos that are guaranteed to attract the attention of potential buyers.

Pebblely can help you develop high-quality product photos to help you stand out in a crowded marketplace, whether you’re an online vendor or a marketer.

Learn more about the tool here.

🎖️ Fine-Tuning AI: Hyperparameters, the Unsung Heroes

A hyperparameter is a configuration parameter set before the training process begins in artificial intelligence (AI), notably in machine learning and deep learning models.

Hyperparameters influence the model's structure and behavior, influencing its learning process and overall performance.

In contrast to ordinary model parameters, which the model learns during training, the model does not modify hyperparameters.

Data scientists or engineers often set them based on domain expertise, experience, or experimentation.

Common hyperparameters include learning rate, batch size, number of hidden layers in a neural network, and activation function selection.

Fine-tuning hyperparameters can considerably impact the AI model's accuracy, speed, and computing economy.

This approach, known as hyperparameter optimization or tuning, frequently entails searching through multiple hyperparameter value combinations to discover the optimum performing configuration for a certain problem.

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👔 Expert advice of the day

Anything that could give rise to smarter-than-human intelligence—in the form of Artificial Intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, or neuroscience-based human intelligence enhancement – wins hands down beyond contest as doing the most to change the world. Nothing else is even in the same league.

🧠 #MindsetMaze

We cannot solve problems with the thinking we employed when we came up with them.

🤪 Meme of the day

🔥 TRENDING TOOLS 🔥

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