This week…
Back on the chat bot train.
Here’s a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
People keep anthropomorphizing AI. Here’s why
Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor on AI Snake Oil:
People have been anthropomorphizing AI at least since ELIZA in the 1960s, but the new Bing chatbot seems to have kicked things up a notch.
This matters, because anthropomorphizing AI is dangerous. It can make the emotionally disturbing effect of misbehaving chatbots much worse. Besides, people might be more inclined to follow through if the bot suggests real-world harm. Most importantly, there are urgent and critical policy questions on generative AI. If ideas like “robot rights” get even a toehold, it may hijack or derail those debates.
Not to be dramatic, but.
For tech giants, AI like Bing and Bard poses billion-dollar search problem
Jeffrey Dastin and Stephen Nellis for Reuters:
What makes this form of AI pricier than conventional search is the computing power involved. Such AI depends on billions of dollars of chips, a cost that has to be spread out over their useful life of several years, analysts said. Electricity likewise adds costs and pressure to companies with carbon-footprint goals.
The process of handling AI-powered search queries is known as “inference,” in which a “neural network” loosely modeled on the human brain’s biology infers the answer to a question from prior training.
In a traditional search, by contrast, Google’s web crawlers have scanned the internet to compile an index of information. When a user types a query, Google serves up the most relevant answers stored in the index.
Alphabet’s [John] Hennessy told Reuters, “It’s inference costs you have to drive down,” calling that “a couple year problem at worst.”
Voice actors are training the AI that will replace them
Lucía Cholakian Herrera and Facundo Iglesia for Rest of World:
Many companies offer AI dubbing in Spanish, though few of those making inroads in Latin America are originally from Spanish-speaking countries. Each offers a slightly different twist on the art of dubbing: Tel Aviv-based Deepdub promises synthetic voices that replicate the whole range of human emotions, suitable for TV series and movies, while London-based Papercup targets nonfiction content for the likes of the BBC, Sky News, and the Discovery Channel. Seoul-based Klling, for its part, told Rest of World it combines AI dubbing with deepfake technology, where actors lip-sync to computer-generated voices. Despite their differences, all of these companies publicly defend their product as a cheaper and faster alternative to human voice actors.
What I read, listen, and watch…
I’m reading how to say ‘I love you’ in Bangla by Tauheed Zaman on Catapult. I don’t think this is a problem monolinguals can relate to, but expressing certain feelings can seem strikingly poetic in one language and incredibly cringey in another. I don’t even think certain thoughts in certain languages because I would physically wince. You may argue that maybe I don’t have a rich vocabulary. But consider this, and make peace with it: [In this language there are] A thousand words to describe the smell of rice but not one for romance; yet [in this culture] food is love, and rice is a staple.
I’m listening to ‘The Consequences of Leaving Tech to the Private Sector’ on Tech Won’t Save Us with Rosie Collington, hosted by Paris Marx.
I’m watching Ukraine’s iron diplomacy on CBC’s The National.
I’m also watching The Whale (2022). “…I felt saddest of all when I read the boring chapters that were only descriptions of whales, because I knew that the author was just trying to save us from his own sad story, just for a little while. This book made me think about my own life, and then it made me feel glad for my—.”
Reviews, opinion pieces, and other stray links:
Why TikTok sleuths descended on Nicola Bulley’s village by Marianna Spring for BBC.
Facial recognition might make airports a breeze—at a cost by Craig Lord for Global News.
From words to wonders? Digital strategist Nic Newman talks generative AI and journalism by Benjamin Bathke for DW.
Chart of the week
While most other print circulations in the UK fell, Private Eye’s went up by 5 per cent. That’s according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, as reported by Bron Maher for Press Gazette. The Eye bucks the trend by not making digital circulation available (only ‘teasers’). People still pay for good writing.
Ps. I only ever ask for the latest issue of the Eye whenever someone returning from the UK asks me if I want any souvenirs.