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Joe Rogan Issues Warning After AI-Generated Version of His Podcast Surfaces
Joe Rogan has warned of the growing threats posed by artificial intelligence (AI) after a version of his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” was created entirely through the use of AI technology, sparking concern among listeners. “This is going to get very slippery, kids,” Rogan wrote on Twitter on April 11 in response to a video of the fake show shared on the social media platform by content creator Farzad Mesbahi.
The fake video is titled “Joe Rogan AI Experience Episode #001” and features “guest” Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the creator of the artificial intelligence system ChatGPT.
Throughout the fake podcast, the AI-generated host “Rogan” and AI-generated guest “Altman” discuss various subjects including the future of AI, ethical issues surrounding such advanced technology, whether or not advanced AI could take jobs away from American workers, and, rather ironically, concerns regarding fake AI content, among other issues.
Rogan fans expressed their concerns over the AI-generated show, with many noting how realistic it is. Others shared their worries about the pace at which AI technology is progressing. The video comes as experts have warned of limited planning and management regarding advanced AI systems despite companies in recent months racing to deploy more powerful AI technologies.
Amazon Leaps Headlong Into the AI Rat Race
If you thought big daddy Amazon would stay out of the AI rat race, then you’d be wrong. The online retail giant is initially staying away from any user-side generative AI to start and is instead offering a business-centric model through its Amazon Web Services.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Amazon had finally decided to join its big tech brothers Microsoft, Google, and Meta in the AI shoving match. According to the report, Amazon isn’t really offering its own AI, but is sitting back and offering a “neutral platform” for businesses to incorporate separate AI models.
AWS is going to offer access to Anthropic’s Claude chatbot, Stability AI’s image generation services, and AI21 Labs’ large language model that powers programs like Wordtune Spices. There’s also Amazon Titan, the company’s own language model, but according to the report Amazon isn’t designing its own ChatGPT-like interface.
All this means the online retail giant isn’t putting any multi-billion dollar investments into a separate company like Microsoft has with OpenAI or sinking billions of dollars into generative artificial intelligence like Google and Meta have. The only direct competition is Amazon’s new CodeWhisperer, a generative AI model used to generate code. Microsoft’s similar GitHub CoPilot has already been sued by developers who say Microsoft blatantly ignored their code license.
Several News Organizations Go Silent on Twitter After Elon Musk Adds ‘Government-Funded Media’ Label to Some Accounts
Elon Musk‘s decision to label some news organizations as “government-funded media” on Twitter has led to various outlets quitting the platform.
Twitter on Sunday added the label to some media accounts, including NPR and the BBC. Twitter’s label has prompted at least four other news organizations to go silent on Musk’s platform.
Public Broadcasting Service, a U.S. broadcaster, told Axios it stopped sharing posts from its Twitter account after the “government-funded media” label was added to its account over the weekend.
Mayor Adams and NYPD Unveil Dystopian Robot Dog to Fight Crime
Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Police Department have reintroduced the controversial robotic dog for surveillance patrols, and there’s another surprise this time: an R2-D2-style robot. These robots are set to debut in Times Square, making this already bustling area of the city appear even more than dystopian ever.
According to local news ABC 7, Mayor Adams said Tuesday he is modernizing the NYPD with the latest technology to fight crime.
The return of the $74,000 Boston Dynamics’ four-legged robotic dog called “Digidog” is set to assist the NYPD in investigating high-risk or hazardous incidents. Digidog first appeared on the streets in 2020 and was shelved months later after civil rights advocates called the technology ‘aggressive policing.’
Besides the robotic canine, the NYPD will add a K5 Autonomous Security Robot to its force and the StarChase GPS system. Think of the K5 robot as Robocop; Its R2-D2 style with real-time situational awareness and cameras will allow the NYPD to monitor streets. There’s yet to be a word if the police will be operating facial tracking software from the robot’s cameras.
Bill Would Let Parents ‘Opt Out’ of School Mask Mandates
Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday advanced legislation aimed at letting parents bypass requirements for students to wear face masks in school.
The House Health Committee approved the legislation that harkens back to disputes over public health orders during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill says parents of a student at a K-12 school have the right to “opt his or her child out” of any policy for students to wear a face covering at school, at a school function, on a school bus or at a school bus stop.
The bill now moves to the full Alabama House of Representatives for debate. “This is a parental rights bill,” Republican Rep. Chip Brown, the sponsor of the bill, told the committee. “It’s a bill that basically says, as a parent, that I should make the health decisions for my children, not the state.”
Two Million People Bolted From America’s Major Cities Since the Lockdowns
Millions of people left major cities in the United States between 2020 and 2022, years dominated by government lockdown policies and elevated crime rates, according to an analysis released last week by the Economic Innovation Group.
Data released by the Census Bureau at the end of last month demonstrate that counties home to major cities in California, Illinois and New York witnessed the nation’s most stark numeric population decline last year, while those home to major cities in Arizona, Texas, and Florida saw the largest numeric population growth.
Los Angeles County, California, lost more residents than any other county in the United States as the population fell by 91,000 between July 2021 and July 2022. Cook County, Illinois, whose county seat is Chicago, saw its population decrease by 68,000 over the same time horizon.
Population trends correspond with the cities and states which enforced aggressive lockdown mandates. California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom only reversed the state of emergency established amid the spread of COVID as late as February 2023, while Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot informed unvaccinated residents as late as December 2021 that their “time is up” and said her health mandates were “inconvenient by design.”
Exclusive: Most People Are Put Off by TikTok’s Personal Data Gathering
People have strong feelings about TikTok harvesting and accessing sensitive data about them, according to our survey of 1,000 TechRadar Pro readers (500 in the U.S. and 500 in the U.K.).
We found that the majority of those that use the platform do care if the company tracks their biometric data, the way they look, or if it harvests the data generated through their devices’ sensors.
What’s more, the majority of those using the platform would either be “very nervous” or “cautious” about the possibility of TikTok accessing their sensitive data. When asked if they thought TikTok gathered more sensitive data compared to other social media companies, the majority on both sides of the pond said they didn’t know, and some also added that it didn’t really matter.
AI Experts Urge E.U. to Tighten the Reins on Tools Like ChatGPT
A group of prominent artificial intelligence researchers is calling on the European Union to expand its proposed rules for the technology to expressly target tools like ChatGPT, arguing in a new brief that such a move could “set the regulatory tone” globally.
The E.U.’s AI Act initially proposed new transparency and safety requirements for specific “high-risk” uses of the software, such as in education or law enforcement. But it sidestepped so-called “general purpose” AI, like OpenAI’s popular chatbot, which can serve many functions.
Now, as tech companies rush to integrate AI into more everyday products, a group of top AI scholars is calling on E.U. officials to treat tools like ChatGPT as “high risk,” too.
The brief, signed by former Google AI ethicist Timnit Gebru and Mozilla Foundation President Mark Surman, among dozens of others, calls for European leaders to take an “expansive” approach to what they cover under their proposed rules, warning that “technologies such as ChatGPT, DALL-E 2, and Bard are just the tip of the iceberg.”
While chatbots like ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bard are currently generating significant attention, the group cautioned policymakers against focusing too narrowly on them, which “would ignore a large class of models which could cause significant harm if left unchecked.”
