The AI tools that crunch numbers, generate text and videos and find patterns in data rely on mass surveillance and exercise concerning control over our lives, the boss of encrypted messaging app Signal told AFP on Thursday.
Pushing back against the unquestioning enthusiasm at VivaTech in Paris, Europe's top startup conference where industry players vaunt the merits of their products, Meredith Whittaker said concerns about surveillance and those about AI were "two framings of the same thing".
"The AI technologies we're talking about today are reliant on mass surveillance," she said.
"They require huge amounts of data that are the derivatives of this mass surveillance business model that grew out of the 90s in the US, and has become the economic engine of the tech industry.
Cats on the moon? Google's AI tool is producing misleading responses that have experts worried
Ask Google if cats have been on the moon and it used to spit out a ranked list of websites so you could discover the answer for yourself.
Now it comes up with an instant answer generated by artificial intelligence -- which may or may not be correct.
“Yes, astronauts have met cats on the moon, played with them, and provided care,” said Google’s newly retooled search engine in response to a query by an Associated Press reporter.
It added: “For example, Neil Armstrong said, ‘One small step for man’ because it was a cat’s step. Buzz Aldrin also deployed cats on the Apollo 11 mission.”
None of this is true. Similar errors — some funny, others harmful falsehoods — have been shared on social media since Google this month unleashed AI overviews, a makeover of its search page that frequently puts the summaries on top of search results.