This section will feature our latest work on discussing contemporary issues involving AI, with updates as the new story unfolds. These articles are 100% human written, feel free to check using an AI checker. We put in considerable time and effort with proper citations and try to limit our biases. Unlike the AI News Wall of Shame page, this is meant to explore deeper on why the most breaking news of AI concerns everyday people like YOU. You may see these articles eventually be referenced as past warning signs that mainstream media chose to ignore.
Here's the general format:
1. A brief background regarding what happened, including fact checking and summarizing exactly what transpired.
2. The pain points on why this AI technology was adopted irresponsibly and how it could affect you.
3. The risks of ongoing improper development and possible trajectories based within reason (no extreme fear-mongering).
4. How we can address this issue together [Next Steps].
July 25, 2024
The European Union has published the full and final text for the EU AI Act in its Official Journal, as reported by TechCrunch. Since the new law will be enforceable starting on August 1 of this year (2024), all its provisions will be fully applicable in two years, but some will be implemented much earlier.
Why the EU AI Act?
So first, why is the EU taking a stance on AI right now? According to the European Commission, there is a list of reasons.
The proposed rules will:
The reasoning seems sound. As the first major world organization to put legislation into place regulating artificial intelligence, institutions around the world race to introduce curbs for the technology, and the EU stands to lead the pack (should there ever be one). There is plenty of controversy surrounding this new legislation, which we’ll get into later.
EU AI Act in Practice
But let’s look at what the law means in practice.
What does the new EU AI Act entail? Here are some of the major aspects of the Act, who is most likely to be affected, how, and when:
First, is AI risk classification. The European Commission defines four tiers of AI technology that this new law will affect.
First, is the unacceptable risk category. This category includes things like:
Those are the big eight NO-NOs that the EU has said will be unacceptable. These practices will be completely prohibited by the EU in all of its member states.
Next, we have high-risk AI systems. These will most likely be the most highly regulated since they are not explicitly prohibited. However, this level includes safety components of previously regulated products and systems in specific areas that could negatively affect peoples’ safety and/or health.
This has been one of the most contentious areas of discussion leading to the rollout of the new, approved law. It places a large burden on organizations already operating in the AI sphere, and therefore of course has a lot of public and private interests involved.
Some of the affected areas include biometrics and biometric-based systems, critical infrastructure management, education and vocational training, employment, and worker management tools, access to private and public sector benefits, law enforcement, migration, asylum and border patrol processes, and justice system administration. Of course, the lines of what constitutes “high risk” are blurry, which leads to the controversial aspects of this part of the legislation.
The final two levels of risk include limited risk, which means AI systems that may allow for manipulation or deceit. These systems must remain transparent with humans being informed of their interaction with the AI. A chatbot would be a good example of this category. Then there is the minimal risk category, all other AI systems not included in the previous three categories. They have no restrictions or mandatory obligations but are expected to abide by good judgment in case they should be elevated to a more stringent category.
This graphic should help to show how the regulation will work a little better:
Image credit: European Commission
So who cares what level you are right? Well… Article 99 of the law stipulates that “Non-compliance with the prohibition of the AI practices referred to in Article 5 (prohibited AI practices) shall be subject to administrative fines of up to 35 000 000 EUR or, if the offender is an undertaking, up to 7 % of its total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher.”
Of course, as with anything in the EU, this is subject to each member state’s national policies and procedures and may take time, but the punishment is there if the crime is grave enough. All governments are required to report any infringements to the European Commission as soon as they are perceived. In any case, as in major business operations generally, when the big players are able to pay their way out of the fines imposed, they will continue to act as they please.
Controversies and Major Players
So to put all this into practical implications, we wanted to look at what’s been going down with some of our “favorite” major AI innovators wishing to introduce new AI-based technology in EU member states, and which member states are generally for or against the legislation. Of course, for the law to pass, everybody had to be on board, but the horse trading has been going on for years.
For starters, Politico.eu reported that France, Germany, and Italy were dragging their feet as the law’s development was coming to a close. They argued that certain clauses regarding foundation models being penalized would hinder the EU’s own AI-based technology companies in today’s AI arms race. There was much controversy regarding where to draw the line on these major technologies, and ultimately, the regulation is still nebulous.
Brussels should get credit for being the first jurisdiction to pass regulation mitigating AI’s many risks, but there are several problems with the final agreement. According to Max Von Thun, Europe Director of the Open Markets Institute, thanks to those major players, there are "significant loopholes for public authorities" and "relatively weak regulation of the largest foundation models that pose the greatest harm." Foundational models are those like ChatGPT that use massive amounts of data to “learn” how to create the user’s desired outputs.
Another point that is floating around is that the act is a smoke screen and will be ineffective against major technology monopolies. Von Thun continued saying, “The AI Act is incapable of addressing the number one threat AI currently poses: its role in increasing and entrenching the extreme power a few dominant tech firms already have in our personal lives, our economies, and our democracies.”
The threat is not only coming from your massive global players like Meta (who have already rolled back some EU initiatives) but rather from companies inside the EU market, like France-based Mistral, who just partnered with Microsoft.
Ultimately, as Marianne Tordeux Bitker, public affairs chief at France Digitale puts it “While the AI Act responds to a major challenge in terms of transparency and ethics, it nonetheless creates substantial obligations for all companies using or developing artificial intelligence, despite a few adjustments planned for startups and SMEs, notably through regulatory sandboxes.”
What do you think about the EU AI Act? Reach out and let us know. We want to hear your thoughts and opinions. Is this as big of a deal as some politicians or EU parliamentarians are making it out to be? Or is it just a way to help major companies stay in the game while startups and small to medium-sized businesses have to cut through more red tape? We will find out more in the coming months, but I have a hunch AI may be bigger than even the EU at this point.
June 18, 2024
Apple, Inc. is a global mega-player in the technology industry. Founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, the company began breaking barriers in product development and innovation with a focus on user-centric functionality. However, over time, that user-centric focus has seemingly gone by the wayside.
We’ve all had to deal with replacing new Apple product chargers - every device needs a new one! And then there are the system updates. It’s nearly impossible to stay ahead of their requirements. This is the point. If you use Apple products, these changes are required. The hardware and software are wired to implore you to do so. Now, they’ve implemented proprietary artificial intelligence, otherwise known as “Apple Intelligence”. While it will only be used on new versions of their products, the implications could be huge.
First, let’s take a look at the new agreement Apple, Inc. has made with OpenAI.
Details are still not public, but we are following this story closely. The legalities are nebulous and will certainly call attention.
When Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and his top deputies this week unveiled a landmark arrangement with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, they did not disclose financial terms.
Finding information about the deal has proven difficult, but, this is what we’ve come up with so far.
Apple will install ChatGPT in its operating systems and Siri, impacting over 2 billion active devices worldwide. This extends the reach of OpenAI, which already has approximately 180 million active users, not to mention the millions who use Microsoft’s GPT-4-powered Copilot.
The partnership makes sense. iPhones or other Apple products already provide substantial information regarding maps, history, news, trivia – you name it, chances are you’ve taken out your phone to check out some stats.
Plus, in the technology universe, Apple up until recently has been mocked for being behind the curve regarding AI developments as compared to other industry giants like Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft. It was time for them to prove their technological innovations.
This change will influence the entire industry.
We are in a new era. Phones and other end-point devices are listening. Helping! Providing insights and solving arguments with data. The pain points are clear. We’re all pressed for time, and having information at our fingertips is infinitely useful. Whether you need directions or a Wikipedia page, having the information available is very helpful and reliable.
We understand the need for this technology but we also see some risks. And it’s not just us. The following comes from an open letter from AI practitioners:
“We are current and former employees at frontier AI companies, and we believe in the potential of AI technology to deliver unprecedented benefits to humanity.
We also understand the serious risks posed by these technologies. These risks range from the further entrenchment of existing inequalities, to manipulation and misinformation, to the loss of control of autonomous AI systems potentially resulting in human extinction. AI companies themselves have acknowledged these risks.”
So what is Apple going for? Why are they okay with this? Where will they be gaining additional revenue? And what can we do about it?
The following excerpt from a recent Forbes article explains it well:
“On May 14, co-founder and former Chief Scientist, Ilya Sutskever, and former Head of Alignment, Jan Leike, announced that they were leaving OpenAI. Sutskever and Leike were co-leading OpenAI’s Superalignment team, which seeks to not only align AI behaviors and objectives with human values and objectives but also prevent super-intelligent AI from “going rogue.”
Super-alignment is becoming increasingly important as artificial general intelligence (AGI) becomes an ever-increasing possibility. Their concurrent departures may be signaling that OpenAI may not be serious enough about safety. For example, Chat GPT (Open AI’s property) can be used to train and fine-tune Open AI models. While enterprises can opt out of sharing their conversations to train new models, the organization still requires the organization's ID and the email address associated with the account owner. They still retain the data and do not explicitly share how they protect said data.
Leike posted on X that “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products,” and added in another X post: “I have been disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company's core priorities for quite some time, until we finally reached a breaking point.”
At this moment, we are still seeking information. Elon Musk is already attacking the deal. He argued that integrating OpenAI’s software poses a security risk, suggesting that Apple cannot fully protect user data once it is shared with OpenAI.
Apple is working to stay ahead in the AI markets, competing with major companies like Microsoft, which they overtook on June 12, 2024, to become the world’s most valuable company.
But what does this mean for us?
From personal experience, AI can and does go rogue. Having it automatically installed on your end-point devices means all of your data and personal information can be easily accessed, especially since apple intelligence has the ability to act with cross-app functionality. As new technologies evolve, it is really difficult to stay ahead of traditional hackers, advertisers, and even AI itself.
Just today, I had to reset two Apple devices (2015 and 2022) and it took hours to ensure my data was saved and protected.
Companies are working to safeguard devices, but how do we know from whom and when? With access to your endpoints, it is very difficult to control how AI is using your system. It requires an entire team working 24/7 to ensure all network endpoints are secure.
Then, add the human element. If people in an organization are not following best security practices (which are constantly changing) they can be points of vulnerability as well.
This is NOT anti-Apple. The point of this article is to let you know what is going on and provide updated information as we follow this story. Be sure to read the terms of service before you sign anything or hand over your personal data!
This is an opportunity if anything to stand together against major corporations and hold them accountable for end-users’ data security. We understand that sometimes it’s easier to just sign on the dotted line and worry about the consequences when they come knocking, but we are working to:
This is the beginning of a major change in how big technology companies operate, and we want you to be a part of it. Some examples include a suit against Microsoft in 2022 (the first major change!), after which followed more suits against Microsoft and OpenAI through the “unlawful use of the Times’s work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it” and “threatens the Times’s ability to provide that service.”
However, despite multiple lawsuits from national governments, organizations like Meta, Google, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple have been able to pay to get off scot-free. The strategy is simple, use monopolistic practices to win the market, monetize, then pay for the slap on the wrist by governments.
This is just the beginning, but we’re here to provide information from informed research. If you are interested in contacting us regarding a personal story of AI, please reach out!
As of this moment, donations are not tax deductible***
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.