Elon's xAI Master Plan

Plus Google Bard gets a massive upgrade

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
July 13, 2023

The AI Breakdown First Five - Thursday July 13, 2023

Today on the First Five:

  • 5. Adobe Says Let Artists Opt-Out at Senate Hearing

  • 4. China to Require License for Generative AI

  • 3. VP Harris Meets with Civil Rights Groups on AI

  • 2. Google Bard Gets a Slew of Updates

  • 1. Elon Joins the AI Race with xAI

5. Adobe Says Let Artists Opt-Out at Senate Hearing

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held an AI-themed hearing yesterday that included witnesses from Stability AI (currently being sued for IP violations by Getty), Adobe, Universal Music Group and more. Adobe said that they support giving artists the ability to opt-out of future AI model training.

Adobe tells Congress to give artists the right to block AI from training on their creative works

Members of the House were told by a top Adobe official that the company supports new rights for artists so their works aren't stolen or copied by AI.

www.foxbusiness.com/politics/adobe-congress-artists-block-ai-training-creative-works

4. China to Require License for Generative AI

China has finalized its generative AI rules after what insiders had described as waffling trying to find the line between CCP control on the one hand and tech innovation on the other. The new rules will require companies wishing to release generative AI models to get a license, which will itself require things like ensuring that the AI’s support socialist values. That said, it appears this version is less strict than the draft rules from April.

3. VP Harris Meets with Civil Rights Groups on AI

On the one hand, Vice President Kamala Harris meeting with civil rights and consumer protection groups about how to navigate AI’s downsides and capture its upsides is encouraging. On the other hand, her comments (“word salad,” to use the term most being thrown around) don’t exactly inspire confidence…

2. Google Bard Gets a Slew of Updates

Google Bard has just announced a big slate of updates that all amount to making it more functional for every day use. These include: support for 40 languages; the ability to have Bard speak its answers; one-click adjustment of Bard responses based on the length or tone you desire; pinned conversations for easy return; more customized code exports; response sharing; and image prompting (think getting a caption for a photo). Oh, and it’s now available in Europe. Phew!

1. Elon Joins the AI Race with xAI

The main, the myth, the main-character-syndrome legend. Elon Musk was never going to be content to let everyone else have all the fun. Yesterday, Elon announced xAI, a new AI company with the cryptic mission to “understand the nature of the universe.” While we don’t know yet what its plans are, people are taking note of two big things: 1) Twitter’s trove of multimodal data; 2) the heavy-hitters on the team.

BONUS: Open source companion repo for AI

If you’re building in AI, this new resource from a16z could be your best friend

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Signing off from the future’s past - NLW