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My friends, happy Wednesday! Had to handle some post-Iowa caucus business for the blog and show, so pardon my delay with this week’s Tuesday Tech Drop, my rundown of the biggest stories at the intersection of technology and politics. I’m going to call this installment the Wednesday Web Review to keep the alliteration going. But we’ll be back on schedule next week.
Nonetheless, here it is!
Disinformation dangers
The World Economic Forum says misinformation and disinformation pose the biggest threat to the global economy in the short term.
“Divisive factors such as political polarization and economic hardship are diminishing trust and a sense of shared values,” the WEF wrote in its annual risks report. “The erosion of social cohesion is leaving ample room for new and evolving risks to propagate in turn.”
Read more in The Guardian.
X denied
A federal appeals court has decided not to rehear a case brought by X, which was seeking to overturn a ruling that required the Elon Musk-owned platform to comply with a warrant granting federal prosecutors access to former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
Read more at CNBC.
High-tech teamwork
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., have created a “working group” on artificial intelligence that will focus on how AI affects the financial services and housing industries.
Read more in The Hill. (And for more on how AI can be used to discriminate against marginalized Americans in various industries — including housing — read this post of mine.)
No laughing matter
My MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim reported on the AI-generated “comedy special” that’s meant to sound like a George Carlin performance. The creepy, hourlong video received backlash from people disturbed by the use of a deceased artist’s voice to create seemingly new content. And that list of critics includes the comedian’s daughter, Kelly Carlin, who wrote on X: “No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again.”
Read more at MSNBC.
Judge stalls social media law
A federal judge paused an Ohio law that would require social media platforms to obtain parental consent before accounts are opened for children younger than 16. The judge called the law a “breathtakingly blunt instrument for reducing social media’s harm to children.” The ruling came after a lawsuit filed by a tech industry group known as NetChoice, whose members include Google, TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
Read more at CNN Business.
Senate steps into NYT’s bot battle
Last week, the Senate held a hearing on AI and the “future of journalism,” on the heels of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by The New York Times against Microsoft and ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI. The panelists included news industry executives and journalism experts, who spoke about the commercial and ethical impacts of generative AI using journalistic works to form responses to users.
Read more at Ars Technica.
OpenAI issues clarification
OpenAI clarified that its policy forbids its tools from being used “to harm people, develop weapons, for communications surveillance, or to injure others or destroy property” after The Intercept reported that the company had changed its policy regarding the use of ChatGPT for “military and warfare.” Although the company says that its tools aren’t authorized for harmful uses, it says that there are still “national security use cases that align with our mission.”
Read more at TechCrunch.