What I’m Reading - 4/7/24
Happy Sunday, everyone. I won’t lie; I’ve been utterly exhausted lately, and that has frustrated the heck out of me. I feel so lazy and unproductive. I’m trying to snap out of it by being chill this weekend, just reading and taking naps.
A lot is going on, though. Of particular interest to me this week have been stories and discussions I’ve been having with people about how companies are scrambling to get data to train AI models.
New York Times: How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I.
Reuters: Inside Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data
Wall Street Journal: For Data-Guzzling AI Companies, the Internet Is Too Small
This will become more of a thing, and it’s been fun to learn about the types of data needed to train models. I’ll probably write more about this at some point.
In the meantime, I have two flags for you before we get to the links.
First, a new initiative is seeking to discover how Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are being used, experimented with, or thought about by the think tank community.
Wonkcomms is asking research and communications professionals in think tanks to respond to a new survey aimed at providing a better understanding of how think tanks are adopting AI.
The questionnaire and further information can be found here:
https://wonkcomms.typeform.com/to/VjosZn3B
The anonymous survey is intended to be a first step to connecting think tank communicators to the advice, support and case studies they might find useful to adopt AI at their work.
Survey closes 12.00 (GMT) Friday 19 April.
Also, we're hiring at Duco! Let me know if you have any questions about any of these roles:
Tech Policy Manager: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3878354672/
Tech Policy Senior Associate: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3876922556/
Senior Director, Digital Threats & Intelligence: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3872799505/
Business Lead: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3873101190/
Business Assistant: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3873100124/
Tech Policy Associate: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3867554842/
Have a great day!
Please support the curation and analysis I’m doing with this newsletter. As a paid subscriber, you make it possible for me to bring you in-depth analyses of the most pressing issues in tech and politics.
What I’m Reading
New York Times: Turkey’s Opposition Strikes Elections Blow to Erdogan’s Party
NPR: Using AI to detect AI-generated deepfakes can work for audio — but not always
Meta: Our Approach to Labeling AI-Generated Content and Manipulated Media
Meta: Leading the Way in Governance Innovation With Community Forums on AI
Sequoia: Generative AI’s Act Two
Platformer: The ad model is coming to AI
The Verge: Yahoo is buying Artifact, the AI news app from the Instagram co-founders
MIT Technology Review: What’s next for generative video
Financial Times: US and UK sign landmark agreement on testing safety of AI
The Daily Show: Jon Stewart On The False Promises of AI
Latika Bourke: I visited four countries to learn about disaster resilience, here's what I learnt
Washington Post: How Republicans texted and emailed their way into a money problem
Gary Marcus: An unending array of jailbreaking attacks could be the death of LLMs
TrustLab: Panicking Responsibly with Katie Harbath, Chief Global Affairs Officer at Duco Experts
Knight First Amendment Institute: Jawboning in 2025
Elections Group: Covering Elections and Voting in 2024: A Media Guide
Politico: What Liberals Get Wrong About ‘White Rural Rage’ — Almost Everything
Microsoft: China tests US voter fault lines and ramps AI content to boost its geopolitical interests
Foreign Policy: S. Jaishankar, India's Foreign Minister, Executes Modi's Strong-Willed Foreign Policy
New York Times: China’s Advancing Efforts to Influence the U.S. Election Raise Alarms
Engadget: How WhatsApp became the world’s default communication app
Deborah Im: Working abroad as an American
Please support the curation and analysis I’m doing with this newsletter. As a paid subscriber, you make it possible for me to bring you in-depth analyses of the most pressing issues in tech and politics.