76% of Americans Think AI Could Cause Human Extinction

Plus a new $20M DARPA cybersecurity competition

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
August 10, 2023

The AI Breakdown First Five - Thursday August 10, 2023

Today on the First Five:

  • 5. AI Shopping Bot Suggests Recipe That Would Make Chlorine

  • 4. Disney Digs In to AI

  • 3. China Buying Frenzy Places $5B in AI Chip Orders

  • 2. DARPA Launches $20M AI Cybersecurity Competition

  • 1. 76% of Americans Think AI Could Cause Human Extinction

5. AI Shopping Bot Suggests Recipe That Would Make Chlorine

One creative grocer in New Zealand released an app to try to help its customers get creative with the ingredients they had leftover in their house. When they started adding non food items, however, things went off the rails. For example: it’s suggestion for an “aromatic water mix” which it called “the perfect nonalcoholic beverage to quench your thirst and refresh your senses,” but which would actually just be chlorine gas!

Supermarket AI meal planner app suggests recipe that would create chlorine gas

Pak ‘n’ Save’s Savey Meal-bot cheerfully created unappealing recipes when customers experimented with non-grocery household items

www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/10/pak-n-save-savey-meal-bot-ai-app-malfunction-recipes

4. Disney Digs In to AI

In the heightened shadow of the WGA and SAG strikes, any entertainment company talking about AI is getting serious incredulous attention. Last week it was Netflix; this week it’s the Mouse, with a dozen or so AI-related job listings and a report from Reuters that the company is exploring how AI can help them reduce costs.

3. China Buying Frenzy Places $5B in AI Chip Orders

Worried that the US might soon clamp down with even further restrictions, major Chinese companies have placed a flurry of orders for AI chips. According to sources close to the matter, Baidu, Tencent, ByteDance, and Alibaba have placed orders worth $1B for the rest of 2023 and around $4B for 2024.

2. DARPA Launches $20M AI Cybersecurity Competition

The AI Cyber Challenge is a new 2-year White House/DARPA competition to get teams of developers to uncover critical vulnerabilities and build cybersecurity solutions for the AI era. Big labs from Google, Anthropic and Microsoft will also be participating and $20m in prizes are up for grabs.

1. 76% of Americans Think AI Could Cause Human Extinction

One hell of a survey just came out that showed some serious fear among Americans about AI. The study was conducted by YouGov and initiated by a new AI safety policy group the AI Policy Institute. Is this the bipartisan issue pols have been looking for?

BONUS: Stanford Smallville Study Now Open Source

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Signing off from the future’s past - NLW