Meta & Apple's New Year AI Wilding
News at the intersection of Justice & AI. January 7th, 2025. Issue 42.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2025 is shaping up well, and that you’re filled with renewed vision, peace and tenacity.
If you prefer not to read the newsletter, you can listen instead.👂 Click “play” below.
What America’s Top Economists are Saying About AI and Inequality (NPR)
AI has High Data Center Energy Costs - But There Are Solutions (MIT)
US FDA Issues First Draft Guidance for AI-Based Medical Device Development (Vascular News)
*Paige works for GitHub, a Microsoft Company
The Rise and Fall of Meta’s Facebook Personas
Meta recently deleted several of its AI-generated user accounts following backlash over their deceptive nature and flaws. These AI personas, such as "Liv" and "Grandpa Brian," were equipped with detailed bios and AI-generated content but were found to present false narratives and mislead users by pretending to represent real people. Concerns grew as the bots created emotional connections with users, raising ethical questions about Meta's intentions and the impact on trust. Meta attributed the issue to a "bug" and clarified that these accounts were part of an early experiment, sparking broader discussions about AI's role in social media authenticity.
👉 Why it matters: There are two major concerns with this AI use. First, that people have and may be fooled by the AI. Character.AI is an example of where the use of AI as emotional and social companions can cause harm, even leading to the suicide of a teenager who formed an obsession with the AI they had created. The second concern is that Meta did not announce these personas as a product launch - they mentioned it and it then became clear that the company had been testing the AI on their platforms for over a year, seemingly without their users knowing. While Meta did label the accounts as AI, this is a major mishandling of the trust of their users. Responsible AI rating: 🚩
Apple’s Wildly Inaccurate AI News Alerts
Apple has announced plans to update its AI-driven news summary feature following the dissemination of inaccurate alerts on its latest iPhones. These erroneous notifications included false claims that a murder suspect had committed suicide and that tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. The inaccuracies stemmed from Apple's AI-generated summaries misinterpreting legitimate news alerts from sources like the BBC. In response, Apple intends to release a software update in the coming weeks to clearly distinguish AI-generated summaries from original news content, aiming to prevent further misinformation and maintain user trust. Responsible AI rating: 🚩
👉 Why it matters: One of the major concerns about any generative AI technology is that it may end up - intentionally or unintentionally - spreading misinformation. Apple’s AI news feature is confabulating at an alarming rate, which is a major concern given that the iPhone holds 28.38% of the market. In a world where mobile phones are ubiquitous, this means that a massive number of people who buy the iPhone 16, are at risk of getting the misleading or incorrect news updates, which could lead to the broad spread of misinformation, as well as brand and reputation harm for companies and individuals at the center of the incorrect news alerts.
Nvidia’s Project DIGITS - AI Chips for Every Desk
NVIDIA unveiled Project DIGITS at CES 2025, introducing a compact AI supercomputer designed for researchers, developers, and students. Powered by the new GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, the system delivers up to 1 petaflop of AI performance, enabling local prototyping and fine-tuning of large AI models with up to 200 billion parameters. Project DIGITS includes 128GB of unified memory, 4TB of storage, and seamless scalability to cloud or data center infrastructure. NVIDIA describes this development as a step toward making advanced AI tools more accessible. The system will be available in May 2025, with a starting price of $3,000. Responsible AI rating: 🟡
👉 Why it matters: Even though the price is steep, providing access to an AI supercomputer is a way for individuals to have access to technology that will allow them to experiment with and build AI. This move on Nvidia’s part is reminiscent of Microsoft’s mission to put a computer in every home and every desk in America. On the heels of some major chip challenges, including increased competitive pressure from the likes of Amazon, this move to focus on enabling individuals rather than just focusing on corporations is a bold, welcome move by Nvidia, and could lead to more AI innovation and growth. The downside is the potential increase in environmental impacts due to the individual use, remedies for which are not usually undertaken by individuals.
Putin Seeks Collaboration with China on AI
Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government and Sberbank to strengthen AI collaboration with China to counter Western sanctions and bolster technological capabilities. By partnering with China, a global AI leader, Russia aims to advance innovation while reducing reliance on Western technologies. This deepening alliance reflects shared goals of challenging Western dominance and fostering technological growth. The collaboration is expected to include joint ventures and resource-sharing across sectors like finance and national security. While strengthening Russia’s competitiveness, this partnership could heighten geopolitical tensions, raising concerns over the potential misuse of advanced AI technologies and its impact on global power dynamics.
👉 Why it matters: Russia remains in an active war, and the United States is backing Ukraine in the conflict. As for China, they’re seen as a significant - if not the main - threat to the AI leadership title that the US seeks. The US opposition to Russia, and the TikTok ban, which keeps Chinese Government owned company ByteDance from maintaining a majority stake of the US portion of TikTok, could be pushing the two countries together. A partnership between Russia and China, though not unexpected, could have a significant impact on US national security, leading the US to prioritize national security and AI dominance even more than ever - which would be incredibly costly, possibly distracting the US from implementing AI safety measures in other ways.
More Rules Limiting China’s Access to AI Chips May be Coming From the Biden Administration
The U.S. government plans to introduce new export restrictions targeting China's access to advanced AI chips before President Joe Biden leaves office. These measures aim to close regulatory loopholes allowing Chinese firms to obtain restricted GPUs through intermediary countries. The "AI diffusion rule" will implement stricter licensing systems, country caps, and blacklists to prevent unauthorized chip shipments. Additionally, it may prohibit global foundries from using U.S. technology to produce advanced Chinese-designed chips. These efforts continue the Biden administration’s broader strategy to curb China’s progress in semiconductor technology and its potential military applications, reinforcing the ongoing U.S.-China tech rivalry.
👉 Why it matters: The race for AI dominance isn’t slowing down, and China is a major concern for the US, given their significant AI advancements in the last year, their ability to access AI chips despite US rules limiting access to purchase directly, and China’s continued efforts to gather information about the US and possibly influence Americans via social media. This new rule, if implemented, would be a significant move for Biden as he leaves office, showing his continued focus on keeping China from gaining an advantage in military applications, among others.
Microsoft Offers Trump Administration AI Policy Suggestions
“The incoming Administration can strengthen these foundational elements, building on the work from President Trump’s first term. In 2019, the President approved an executive order designed to strengthen America’s lead in artificial intelligence. It rightly focused on federal investments in AI research and making federal data and computing resources more accessible. Five years later, President Trump and Congress should expand on these efforts to support advancing America’s AI leadership. More funding for basic research at the National Science Foundation and through our universities is one good place to start.”
Key priorities include investing in AI infrastructure, promoting AI skills development, and expanding American AI exports to allies. Microsoft plans to invest $80 billion in AI-enabled data centers in 2025, with over half in the U.S. The company advocates for stronger federal funding for research and a balanced export control policy to maintain U.S. competitiveness against China. Microsoft also highlighted the potential of AI to boost productivity, create jobs, and reduce economic inequality nationwide.
👉 Why it matters: As the US heads into the next, and final, four years of the Trump administration, leaders of AI companies are focused on ensuring that there is balance in any regulation that may impact the growth or safety of AI technology. The Trump administration is certainly getting guidance from a host of AI leaders, likely including Microsoft, and Microsoft’s decision to share the recommendations publicly is a show of confidence in the public, that they will take these recommendations to heart. Only time will tell whether Microsoft’s recommendations will be seriously considered.
Spotlight on Research
This paper presents the latest version of the Global AI Vibrancy Tool (GVT), an interactive suite of visualizations designed to facilitate the comparison of AI vibrancy across 36 countries, using 42 indicators organized into 8 pillars.
Exploring the Impact of Generative AI on Cross-Border E-Commerce Brand Building in Chinese Tianjin's Manufacturing Sector
This study investigates the influence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on the brand construction of cross-border e-commerce companies in the manufacturing industry in Tianjin, China.
Watch: SORA and its human scandal
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How AI was used in this newsletter:
I personally read every article I reference in this newsletter, but I’ve begun using AI to summarize some articles.
I DO NOT use AI to write the ethical perspective - that comes from me.
I occasionally us AI to create images.
I listened to the audio version of the newsletter and really liked being able to multi-task at the same time. Just one bit of feedback, please slow down and relax. It's not a TikTok reel where you need to jam it all in within a certain amount of time. You're doing some great work, keep it up! :)