Whats up and welcome to Eye on AI. In as we speak’s version…What teenagers are saying about AI; Perplexity begins experimenting with advertisements; Greg Brockman returns to OpenAI; and a Sotheby’s AI artwork public sale blows previous expectations.
As AI quickly adjustments industries, behaviors, and the way society capabilities, adults can transfer ahead having identified the world earlier than and after AI. Youngsters, however, are staring down an maturity they know will look nothing like that of generations earlier than. As they type relationships, develop their sense of self, put together to search for work, and navigate an web and media panorama shaken by AI, they are going to be significantly impacted by the choices tech firms and lawmakers make—or don’t make—about AI as we speak.
The Middle for Youth, a youth-led analysis group related to the nonprofit Challenge Liberty, has dubbed as we speak’s youngsters “Era AI.” Led by two teenagers, the middle this week printed outcomes from a survey of over 1,000 U.S. teenagers about their utilization, opinions, and fears of AI, including to a rising physique of analysis on the affect of AI on younger individuals. The findings are an attention-grabbing look into how they’re utilizing AI as we speak and their fears for a way AI will have an effect on them tomorrow.
Round half of teenagers are utilizing AI often
In accordance with the survey, 47% of teenagers are utilizing AI instruments like ChatGPT a number of instances every week or extra. It doesn’t go into what they’re utilizing AI for, however different stories have shed some gentle on this. One from nonprofit Widespread Sense Media—which discovered related utilization charges—says that teenagers are primarily utilizing chatbots and AI search engines like google and yahoo over picture and video producing instruments, leaning on them for homework, staving off boredom, and translation. One other report printed by Hopelab and Harvard that targeted on younger individuals ages 14 via 22 equally describes how they’re utilizing AI for schoolwork, leisure, companionship, and steerage—particularly in relation to questions they view as embarrassing or wouldn’t wish to ask adults. It warns that “as generative AI use turns into extra ubiquitous, adults ought to know that it might change into the place teenagers go first.”
The Hopelab survey covers a barely bigger age vary and cites a a lot decrease fee of AI utilization (solely 15% use AI instruments weekly or extra, it says). But, the warning about AI being the primary place teenagers could go hits laborious in gentle of the demise of Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old from Florida who killed himself after turning into more and more obsessive about a Character.ai chatbot and counting on it for emotional assist and steerage.
From self worth points to sextortion scams, society remains to be reeling from how social media has impacted the primary technology of teenagers that grew up with platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, which dominated youth digital and social experiences with out regulation or correct safeguards. All these surveys could really feel redundant, however as we discovered from the social media period, these are the forms of impacts that have to be understood sooner somewhat than later.
Teenagers need regulation, not an AI takeover
The overwhelming majority of teenagers view AI dangers as a prime concern for presidency regulation. In accordance with The Middle for Youth and AI survey, 80% stated AI dangers are essential for lawmakers to handle, rating larger than social inequality (78%) and local weather change (77%). Solely healthcare entry and affordability ranked larger, each at 87%.
Particularly, they’re fearful about misinformation, deep fakes, mass surveillance, privateness violations, and AI taking on—throughlines that emerged within the Hopelab survey as effectively. Quotes shared from survey respondents within the Middle of Youth AI report present teenagers expressings issues that they by no means know if what they see on-line is actual or AI-generated, that there can be no jobs obtainable for them to work, and that we’ll lose what makes us human.
“I simply hope that as AI will get extra highly effective, we don’t lose contact with what makes us human. I don’t wish to reside in a world the place every thing is simply automated and we’re not wanted anymore,” stated one 17-year-old respondent.
And with that, right here’s extra AI information.
Sage Lazzaro
sage.lazzaro@advisor.fortune.com
sagelazzaro.com
AI IN THE NEWS
OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are hitting a wall in growing extra superior normal AI fashions. Following reporting from The Data that OpenAI’s upcoming Orion mannequin didn’t surpass the capabilities of GPT-4 on some duties, new reporting exhibits it’s not the one agency hitting a wall. The newest fashions being developed inside Google and Anthropic are additionally falling wanting expectations and failing to offer the identical leaps ahead seen between earlier mannequin generations, Bloomberg and The Data reported. Timelines for releases are being pushed, elevating doubts concerning the large investments being made into AI. The companies are searching for new approaches because the “larger is best” strategy seemingly involves an finish,
Perplexity will start experimenting with advertisements on its platform this week. The advertisements can be formatted as “sponsored follow-up questions” and can be generated by AI, not written by the manufacturers. The advertisements will initially roll out to U.S. customers with Certainly, Complete Meals, Common McCann and PMG among the many first advertisers. You possibly can learn extra in TechCrunch.
OpenAI president Greg Brockman returns from go away of absence. Brockman stepped away in August, elevating issues he won’t return and could be one more govt to flee from the corporate this yr. He shared on X that he’s again, and in an inside memo, instructed employees he’s In working with Sam Altman to create a brand new position by which he’ll deal with important technical challenges, in accordance with Bloomberg.
The EU begins a session on definitions of AI and unacceptable dangers. The European Union’s new AI Workplace introduced that it was launching a multi-stakeholder session on how the definition of AI within the EU AI Act may have to vary sooner or later. It’s also calling for stakeholders to offer examples of AI functions and makes use of which may pose an unacceptable danger.
FORTUNE ON AI
Elon Musk’s xAI security whisperer simply turned an advisor to Scale AI —by Sharon Goldman
Europe’s AI trade watches Trump’s return with a mixture of concern and hope —by David Meyer
Unique: Tessl price a reported $750 million after newest $100 million funding to assist it construct ‘AI native’ software program improvement platform —by Jeremy Kahn
AT&T’s CEO says AI could trigger energy shortages and it could possibly be ‘the subsequent large social concern in america’ —by Orianna Rosa Royle
Glassdoor CEO talks concerning the hottest jobs within the AI growth—and the one job he thinks is phasing out —by Emma Burleigh
This United Nations AI official explains why she doesn’t need a global company for AI —by Emma Burleigh
AI CALENDAR
Nov. 19-22: Microsoft Ignite, Chicago
Nov. 20: Cerebral Valley AI Summit, San Francisco
Nov. 21-22: International AI Security Summit, San Francisco
Dec. 2-6: AWS re:Invent, Las Vegas
Dec. 8-12: Neural Data Processing Programs (Neurips) 2024, Vancouver, British Columbia
Dec. 9-10: Fortune Brainstorm AI, San Francisco (register right here)
Jan. 7-10: CES, Las Vegas
EYE ON AI NUMBERS
$1.08 million
That’s how a lot an AI-created portrait of AI pioneer Alan Turing offered for in a Sotheby’s public sale final week. The public sale home had estimated it might go for between $120,000 and $180,000.
It’s not the primary such sale of AI-created artwork however was a primary for Sotheyby’s and distinctive in that, not like most AI artwork that’s generated digitally by text-to-images fashions, this piece was additionally painted on canvas by an AI robotic. I previewed the public sale within the e-newsletter a couple of weeks in the past, discussing what it means for debates round whether or not AI might be credited as an artist and the bigger, growing criticisms of the observe by human artists, and the way software program firms try to money in.
