Google’s controversial Olympic Gemini ad is new reality even if people hate it
If you have tuned in to any part of the Olympics, chances are you’ve seen Google’s Gemini advertisement titled, “Dear Sidney.” In it, a father talks about his daughter’s admiration for track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
“She wants to show Sydney some love and I’m pretty good with words but this has to be just right,” the father narrates. “So Gemini, help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how inspiring she is.”
Google’s campaign to feature its Gemini chatbot on the world stage is coming with a world of backlash. The company even turned off comments for the YouTube video.
The criticism is not just coming from keyboard warriors.
“It is one of the most disturbing commercials I’ve ever seen,” he wrote. “Instead of guiding her to use her own words and communicate authentically, he is teaching her to rely on AI for this critical human skill.”
“If you encourage kids to run to AI to spit out words because their writing isn’t great yet, how are they supposed to learn?” NPR Host Linda Holmes posted. “I’m just so grossed out by the entire thing.”
Google has tried to clarify its goal with the ad, saying, “We believe that AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it. Our goal was to create an authentic story celebrating Team USA. It showcases a real-life track enthusiast and her father and aims to show how the Gemini app can provide a starting point, thought starter, or early draft for someone looking for ideas for their writing.”
The ad does specifically say, “Here’s a draft to get you started.”
For all the cries about the father shirking his responsibilities and the daughter not learning to write, the fact is chatbots are changing the game. People are using them in and out of the workplace and they will certainly transform the workflows of the next generations.
Remember when teachers used to say, “You aren’t always gonna have a calculator in your pocket.” How’d that work out?
But marketers are walking a tightrope when it comes to selling the technology message without horrifying humans. Look no further than Apple’s face plant with its ad, “Crush!” They meant to highlight how thin their new iPad is. Instead, they showed themselves crushing human creativity.
For the daughter in the Gemini ad who may or may not have used a chatbot to write a fan letter, she could have instead asked Gemini when McLaughlin-Levrone will be competing in the Olympics, in which case, she’d be ready to tune in starting Sunday, Aug. 4.
Update: On Friday, Aug. 2, Axios reported that Google announced it is pulling the ad from its TV rotation. The ad, however, can still be viewed on the company’s YouTube account.
“While the ad tested well before airing, given the feedback, we have decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation,” a Google spokesperson told Axios.
Reply while you sleep: Instagram lets you create an AI version of yourself
Imagine: You direct message your favorite Instagram influencer and a reply comes back lightning fast. You didn’t even think they checked their DMs! But it might not be a real person behind that personalized message, even if it sounds just like them.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked about the latest rollout in a chat with NVIDIA’s CEO.
“There’s kind of a fundamental issue here where there’s just not enough hours in the day, right? It’s like, if you’re a creator, you want to engage more with your community, but you’re constrained on time. And similarly, your community wants to engage with you, but it’s tough,” Zuckerberg said. “So the next best thing is allowing people to basically create these artifacts, right? It’s an agent, but you train it on your material to represent you in the way that you want.”
“It’s a very creative endeavor, almost like a piece of art or content that you’re putting out there,” he continued. “It’s to be very clear that it’s not engaging with the creators themselves, but I think it’ll be another interesting way, just like how creators put out content on these social systems, to be able to have agents that do that.”
Zuckerberg touched on some of the issues surrounding these AI versions of people, like labeling so people know they’re not actually interacting with the creator, but an AI agent.
Meta’s AI Studio also allows people to create their own AI chatbots, and is on top of Meta’s main chatbot offering, Meta AI.
“It’s all part of this bigger view that we have that there shouldn’t just be one big AI that people interact with,” he said. “We just think that the world will be better and more interesting if there’s a diversity of these different things.”
There are some apparent concerns regarding the advancement of AI. Privacy is a major one. Meta is already using people’s posts and data to develop its AI systems, though users can opt out. Creating a unique AI chatbot comes with privacy sacrifice: How much data is one willing to hand over to replicate oneself?
In a study, people who reported using social media more than two hours a day had double the odds of reporting social isolation compared to those who are on social media less than 30 minutes a day.
“With generative AI, I think we’re going to quickly move into the zone where not only is the majority of the content that you see today on Instagram just recommended to you from stuff that’s out there in the world that matches your interests, whether or not you follow the people, I think in the future, a lot of the stuff is going to be created with these tools, too,” Zuckerberg said.
Here’s what happened when Americans received $1,000 a month in 3-year study
Years ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman set out to discover what would happen if people were given cash every month with no strings attached. This week, the results are in from the largest universal basic income study in the U.S., though how it went depends on how one interprets the findings.
Right-leaning Reason writes, “Bad News for Universal Basic Income: Researchers found that giving people $1,000 every month for three years resulted in decreased productivity and earnings, and more leisure time.”
Keeping in tune with Straight Arrow News‘ mission of unbiased, straight facts, let’s take a look at the facts from the research paper itself.
The ground rules
Researchers randomly selected 1,000 low-income people to receive $1,000 per month with no conditions for three years. A separate control group of 2,000 people received $50 per month to participate in the research.
The people in this study had an average household income of $29,900 in 2019, so $1,000 a month translated to a 40% increase in household income.
In 2016, Sam Altman wrote about launching the Basic Income Project and his desire to answer some theoretical questions about it.
“Do people sit around and play video games, or do they create new things?” Altman asked. “Are people happy and fulfilled? Do people, without the fear of not being able to eat, accomplish far more and benefit society far more? And do recipients, on the whole, create more economic value than they receive?”
The results
Excluding the free money received, individual income fell by about $1,500 per year, or 5%. It led to a 2 percentage point decrease in labor market participation and people worked roughly 1.3-1.4 fewer hours per week.
So what did they do with that extra time? Researchers saw the largest increase in leisure time, followed by smaller increases in transportation – people are driving around doing more – and time spent on finances.
Researchers found no impact on the quality of employment. They did see hints that people were thinking about entrepreneurial endeavors and there were some signs younger participants were investing more in education.
There are more results in the paper.
Overall, the negative effects on labor supply do not appear to be offset by other productive activities, and we do not observe people getting better jobs over the 3-year duration of the program. 33/https://t.co/KqT7Z9pw3Upic.twitter.com/neOXj135eF
Researcher Eva Vivalt wrote, “Overall, the negative effects on labor supply do not appear to be offset by other productive activities, and we do not observe people getting better jobs over the 3-year duration of the program.”
The study concluded, “While decreased labor market participation is generally characterized negatively, policymakers should take into account the fact that recipients have demonstrated–by their own choices–that time away from work is something they prize highly.”
Universal basic income is a hot topic in Silicon Valley. That’s because the tech world is actively developing AI that could make some jobs obsolete.
“There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better,” Elon Musk said in 2017. “What to do about mass unemployment? This is gonna be a massive social challenge. And I think, ultimately, we will have to have some kind of universal basic income. I don’t think we’re gonna have a choice.”
“These are not things I wish would happen,” Musk continued. “These are simply things that probably will happen.”
Altman, who was behind this study, said that while UBI is not a full solution, it’s a component that should be pursued in the face of AI advancement.
“As a cushion through a dramatic [employment] transition,” he said of UBI. “And the world should eliminate poverty if able to do so. I think it’s a great thing to do as a small part of the bucket of solutions.”
The idea of paying people with no conditions is incredibly expensive – the Tax Foundation said Andrew Yang’s $1,000-per-month proposal would cost $2.8 trillion per year. And many believe it’s an affront to capitalism.
“This is straight out of the Karl Marx playbook. This is not out of the Adam Smith playbook,” radio host Dave Ramsey said during his show last year. “Karl Marx, Father of Communism. Adam Smith wrote the Tome that we were all required to read on capitalism if we took economics. My friend Art Laffer, one of the leading economists in the world, says, ‘If you pay people not to work, please expect them to not work.’”
Again, the people from this study did still work – try living off $12,000 a year – but they did take off a little more than an hour per week.
Rep. Wexton who lost ability to speak delivers speech with AI
Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., lost her ability to speak within the last year due to Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) but she is now able to use her own voice again. On Thursday, July 25, she gave a speech on the House floor, but it was different — it was played with artificial intelligence (AI).
When Wexton won her seat in 2018, she was all smiles and applause. She cast her ballot in the 2020 election with no visible issues.
Wexton first announced she had Parkinson’s in April 2023.
“I’m doing well,” Wexton said in her first announcement. “I’ve got a positive attitude and have the strong support of so many family, friends and loved ones.”
She then discovered she had progressive supranuclear palsy, which she describes as “Parkinson’s on steroids.” She began delivering speeches using AI in May.
During her most recent address, Wexton explained her new challenges and those yet to come.
“Rather than striding confidently onto the House floor to vote, I gratefully accept rides across Independence Avenue, and yes I get the irony, from my office to the Capitol,” Wexton said. “I rely on a walker to get around, and in all likelihood, before my term ends I will appear on the House floor for votes in a wheelchair.”
Wexton is not running for reelection, so she will end her tenure in Congress in January. She said she’s determined to use her platform for the millions of Americans who have conditions that make it harder for them to move, speak or otherwise function in their everyday lives. She’s also working hard to stay positive.
“I used to be one of those people who hated the sound of my voice,” Wexton said in her speech Thursday. “When my ads came on TV, I would cringe and change the channel. But you truly don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Because hearing the new AI of my old voice for the first time was music to my ears. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and I cried tears of joy.”
UCSC’s next-gen AI model could save energy, transform how world uses tech
Researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz, UC Davis, LuxiTech and Soochow University made significant strides in revolutionizing AI technology by eliminating the need for matrix multiplication (MatMul) in language models. The breakthrough, detailed in the paper “Scalable MatMul-free Language Modeling,” could reduce both environmental impact and operational costs associated with AI systems.
“AI is pretty damn expensive, and we don’t seem to be hitting any walls,” Jason Eshraghian, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCSC, said. “There are estimates that ChatGPT costs something like 700,000 bucks a day just to serve all the many requests, all the many users.”
Eshraghian is leading efforts to make artificial intelligence more sustainable.
“We can just go straight to the language model, see what is the pain point, what is the bottleneck? What is the most expensive operation in that? And that’s matrix multiplication,” he said.
His team developed a groundbreaking approach to AI processing by eliminating the energy-intensive matrix multiplication common in AI models.
“So imagine you just have a huge list of numbers and, you know, maybe those numbers represent words or sentences or entire textbooks,” Eshraghian said. “Imagine you take one of those numbers, and that number has to interact with every single other number that is available to. Then you hop to the next number, and that number has to interact with every other number available to you. When I say interact, I’m saying you have to do some mathematical process. Every process costs energy.”
By eliminating these labor-intensive calculations, the team managed to run a billion-parameter AI model — comparable to Meta’s Llama 2 chatbot — on just 13 watts, roughly the energy used by a single light bulb.
“Every word has some relationship with every other word, and so calculating that is expensive,” Eshraghian said. “Meanwhile, humans and brains don’t really do that, right? Like you’re parsing everything I’m saying word by word. As I say it, it’s not like I have a whole sentence ready and I push it at you. We’re doing things sequentially over time. And by using time in this computation, that’s one of the key approaches that we took to reducing the energy burden of language models.”
Inspired by a study from Microsoft, the UC Santa Cruz team designed custom hardware to optimize these energy-efficient operations. Their prototype operates 25% faster and uses 10 times less memory than standard AI models.
Eshraghian believes this innovation could transform how we use AI, enabling complex algorithms to run on everyday devices without the need for heavy infrastructure.
“Computer scientists are only limited by the hardware available to them,” he said. “And so if the hardware is there, then people will push it to the edge of its limit. So it would be able to do a hell of a lot more for the same computer as GPT-4 at that point.”
The good and bad of AI voice generation in sports, entertainment, elections
People can expect legendary performances at the 2024 Olympics — and not just from the athletes. Play-by-play announcer Al Michaels, who has helped voice nearly a dozen Super Bowls, is contributing a clone of his voice to assist with NBC’s coverage.
NBC is the latest entity to introduce audience to AI voice technology, and many are skeptical about it. Michaels himself said the proposal was “a little bit frightening,” but changed his tune when he heard his copy “speak.”
The network said there will be a team of human editors who will review any AI content before it is released.
But what happens when it’s a musician getting copied without their permission? Artificial intelligence has been used to bring back the vocals of dead artists.
Singer Sheryl Crow recently spoke out about this practice, criticizing Drake for using AI to recreate the voices of Kendrick Lamar and late rapper Tupac in his song “Taylor Made” released in April. The diss track was ultimately pulled after Tupac’s estate threatened to sue.
The debate continues elsewhere in the entertainment industry. Major record companies are now suing music generation companies, accusing them of using copyrighted sounds and songs to train their AI services.
The controversy over AI has also spread into politics, where experts warn that voice generation could have a major impact on the 2024 presidential election. In January, many voters in New Hampshire received a robocall featuring the fake voice of Joe Biden telling them not to vote in the state’s primary.
There are tools people can use to help make sense of the different voices, however, much like the technology, they are still evolving.
The best bet may be to just listen closely. Audio recordings created by a live person tend to sound more natural and varied, compared to AI-generated voices that are more likely to be very clear.
Toys‘R’Us uses OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora to create short film
Toys”R”Us is known for the slogan “I don’t want to grow up,” but now the toy brand is growing with the times. It used AI to make its latest promotional video.
Kim Miller, CMO of Toys“R”Us Creative Studios, told CNN that the concept originated after she attended a brand storytelling group. She shared with the host her desire to do something “fun” and “different” for their next project, which focused on the founder’s origin story.
Toys”R”Us released the video at an advertising event in France, saying it is the first ever brand film created by the technology. While Sora is not yet publicly available, the toy chain partnered with creative agency Native Foreign, an early tester of the AI model.
London cinema cancels screening of film written by ChatGPT after backlash
A London cinema has cancelled the world premiere of a film following backlash it received over being written by ChatGPT. The film, “The Last Screenwriter,” shows the saga of a screenwriter faced with the task of working with an AI system whose skills match his own.
The movie’s human director, Swiss filmmaker Peter Luisi, said his film is meant to start a conversation about artificial intelligence and its impact on the entertainment industry.
However, when Prince Charles Cinema posted on social media it would be screening the “first feature film written entirely by AI,” the theater was hit with comments denouncing the decision.
— Prince Charles Cinema (@ThePCCLondon) June 18, 2024
“The feedback we received over the last 24 hours once we advertised the film has highlighted the strong concern held by many of our audience on the use of AI in place of a writer which speaks to a wider issue within the industry,” the cinema said in an update on June 18.
In 2023, Hollywood actors and screenwriters went on strike, and one of the main sticking points was the role of AI in entertainment.
In an interview with Screen Daily, Luisi said he had hoped the London theater hadn’t been scared off from holding the screening “just because a few people are upset.” The filmmaker added, “you can never do anything that everyone likes, especially with this subject.
Luisi said he will be releasing the full film online, along with the script that was fully generated by AI. He will also include the step-by-step process of how the film all came together.
“As a screenwriter, I have worked hard to craft characters that are complex and relatable, with dialogue that is both sharp and natural,” ChatGPT — the screenwriter — posted in a statement on the film’s website. “Ultimately, I hope that this film will be a reminder that while technology can augment and improve our work, it can never replace the unique and irreplaceable qualities of human creativity.”
Despite the cancellation, Luisi thinks it is important for everyone to take a look at the movie. He said it should help the cause of screenwriters, and noted that “people might be astonished that you can write a movie already without a person.”
Cruz’s ‘Take It Down Act’ will force social media to pull deepfake intimate images
Elliston Berry was a 14-year-old high schooler when another student used AI to create deepfake sexually explicit images of her and other girls, then posted them on Snapchat. It ultimately took a phone call from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to get the images removed from the social media app.
“I dreaded school and was anxious to even step foot on campus,” Elliston said during a press conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday, June 18. “Although the student left school, which allowed me to feel more confident about attending classes, there will always be a fear that these photos will resurface.”
According to Elliston’s mother, the perpetrator acted with malice and intended to “ruin” the girls. He was charged with sale, distribution, and display of harmful material to a minor and given probation.
“When he turns 18, his record will be expunged,” Anna McAdams, Elliston’s mother, said. “He will walk away unscathed. However, our girls will forever live in fear that when they apply for a job or college these pictures might resurface. There needs to be consequences for what he did.”
Cruz introduced the Take it Down Act to create harsher penalties for both the perpetrator and tech companies if they don’t remove the content.
Those convicted of creating and posting the intimate material could be sentenced to two years in prison if it’s an image of an adult and three years if it’s an image of a child.
The bill would also require social media companies to remove the images within 48 hours after receiving a request from a victim. If the company fails to make a good faith effort, it can be considered an unfair or a deceptive act under the Federal Trade Commission Act, which is enforced by the FTC.
“It can be maddening dealing with big tech and trying to get these images, these fake images of your child, taken down,” Cruz said. “And Big Tech, over and over again, has demonstrated an arrogance, an imperiousness, a lack of accountability.”
Cruz said the bill is partially modeled off U.S. copyright laws because when someone posts copyrighted material on a platform, it is taken down almost immediately and the user can be subject to a lifetime ban.
“If you upload a clip from Disney or pop song, it’s gone in a heartbeat, risking an immediate ban from the platform,” Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said. “Yet if you upload a rape, or hide a camera in a locker room or create a deep fake pornographic image, you can do so without scrutiny.”
States have their own laws protecting people from non-consensual intimate imagery, but only 20 state laws specifically deal with deepfake images. This bill will cover deepfakes on the national level and adds the requirement that social platforms remove the content.
“Think back to what it’s like to be in junior high and high school, and that insecurity, that discomfort that we all have in our own skin, and then ask you to consider what these girls have been through,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said.
Multiple bills addressing non-consensual intimate images have been brought forward for consideration. It is unclear which, if any, have enough support to become law. Cruz’s bill has 12 bipartisan co-sponsors. Whichever bill ultimately moves forward will likely have parts of each proposal and become part of a larger package to protect kids online.
Putin, Kim sign comprehensive partnership agreement in North Korea
Russian President Vladimir Putin receives a grand welcome from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as the two leaders strengthen their partnership. And tense moments during the White House briefing as someone appeared to faint as dangerous temperatures grip the nation’s capital. These stories and more highlight The Morning Rundown for Wednesday, June 19, 2024.
Putin, Kim sign comprehensive partnership agreement in North Korea
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive partnership agreement on Wednesday, June 19, strengthening the ties between the two countries as Putin visits the north for the first time in 24 years. Putin was welcomed by Kim with a lavish ceremony filled with music and cheering crowds around midday local time.
The two then headed off for a summit where Putin thanked Kim for the North’s support in Russia’s war with Ukraine, adding Moscow is fighting the “imperialist policy” of the United States and its allies. In reply, Kim promised “full support and solidarity” to Russia in what he calls Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The two leaders sat down for a two-hour meeting before signing the partnership agreement. Putin said the agreement includes a pledge that the nations help each other if either one is attacked.
The two countries are strengthening their relationship as both face multiple global sanctions — North Korea over its weapons program and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
U.S. officials believe North Korea is providing weapons to Russia in the war. Both Russia and North Korea deny those allegations.
U.S. soldier sentenced to nearly 4 years in Russian penal colony
A U.S. soldier has been sentenced to nearly four years in a Russian penal colony after being found guilty by a Russian court of stealing money from his girlfriend and threatening to kill her. Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black was sentenced to three years and nine months Wednesday.
The judge also ordered black to pay 10,000 rubles (about $115) in damages.
According to Russian media, Black partially admitted guilt to theft charges but not to the threats.
Black’s case is just the latest to go to sentencing in a string of Russian arrests of Americans, including two the U.S. has declared as wrongfully detained: former Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Person appears to faint from heat during White House press briefing
The record-breaking heatwave hitting the U.S right now is more than just sweltering — it’s downright dangerous. A scare at the White House in the middle of a daily press briefing is highlighting just how dangerous heat can be, even indoors.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stepped off the podium Tuesday, June 18, to check on someone who appears to have overheated, before returning to the briefing.
AccuWeather is reporting the high temperature reached 94 degrees in Washington Tuesday. It’s also expected to get hotter as the week goes on, with the National Weather Service predicting a potential high of 99 degrees by Saturday, June 22.
The heat in D.C. is part of a bigger heatwave sweeping over the eastern U.S. right now. Meteorologists say around 270 million people will experience temperatures at or above 90 degrees this week.
The heat is not the only big severe weather event facing the U.S. right now. At least one person has been confirmed dead in New Mexico as two wildfires continue to burn.
The fires forced thousands to quickly flee their homes and fire officials say more than 500 structures have been destroyed by those fires so far.
However, forecasters said incoming cooler weather and the chance of rain could bring some relief this week to firefighters battling the blazes.
The Texas coast is under a tropical storm watch as what could soon become the first named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season approaches. The National Hurricane Center said heavy, potentially flooding rain is expected, with as much as 15 inches possible.
Los Angeles school district moves to ban cell phones during school day
People saying, “Back in my day, we weren’t using cell phones in school” may soon see that as a reality because of a case in the second-largest school district in America.
The Los Angeles Unified School District board moved forward with a plan Tuesday, June 18, to ban cell phones all day on campus. They said the devices distract students from learning, lead to anxiety and allowed cyberbullying.
“I’ve been struck in prior years just how our students are glued to their cellphones, not unlike adults,” school board member Nick Melvoin said. “They’re surreptitiously scrolling in school, in class time, or have their head in their hands, walking down the hallways. They’re not talking to each other or playing at lunch or recess because they have their AirPods in.”
The ban could soon spread even further. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, vowed Tuesday to severely restrict the use of phones during the school day statewide.
The move comes on the heels of the U.S. Surgeon General’s op-ed in the New York Times Monday, June 17, calling on Congress to approve “tobacco style” warnings on social media.
Nvidia becomes most valuable company in the world
Move aside Microsoft and Apple — Nvidia is now the most valuable company in the world. Propelled by its role in artificial intelligence, the computer chipmaker jumped to the top on Tuesday.
The company’s share price rose more than 3%, giving the company an overall market valuation of $3.34 trillion.
Nvidia controls approximately 80% of the market for chips used to power AI systems.
In the first quarter of the year, the company saw its revenue rise to $26 billion — up from $7 billion from 2023.
Baseball great Willie Mays passes away at 93
The baseball world is mourning the loss of one of the most legendary players of all time: Willie Mays. Mays passed away Tuesday in the Bay Area at 93 years old.
Nicknamed the “Say Hey Kid,” Mays spent 22 seasons in the big leagues, the majority with the Giants — both in New York and San Francisco.
He was part of the 1954 World Series championship team, highlighted by his over-the-shoulder catch during Game 1. That catch is considered to be the greatest in baseball history.
Among those remembering Mays is baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, who called Mays “one of the best ever to play the game and even a better person.”
One of the best to ever play the game and even a better person. Thoughts and prayers are with Willie’s family and loved ones. https://t.co/kiyCbfBqOi