Anatomy of a veto: smart glasses recording ban

SB1130 would have prohibited a person from operating a wearable recording device where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Opponents of the bill, including TechNet, argued that the bill was “unfair to businesses and customers.”

The letter returning the bill to the legislature argues that state laws currently prohibit people from recording other people. It also says the bill “defines wearable recording devices as “too broadly or imprecisely” and that this could lead to confusion and unintended consequences.”

TechCrunch. AP

Global AI anxiety crosses political spectrum

Politico.eu talks about the increases in AI anxiety that span the globe and political spectrum. A new POLITICO Poll finds that pluralities of adults in the U.S., Canada and Europe want to pause AI development regardless of their political leanings — and most believe there’s a real risk the technology could destroy humanity.

Restricting AI use in education

We’ve talked about big name law schools saying no to AI use. Just last week, a judge in Oklahoma was found to have used citations fabricated by AI in his court orders. European countries are prohibiting technology in classrooms and returning to books and handwriting.

Now we have two large school districts, NYC and LA, prohibiting AI in classrooms. Stateline

Interested in the AI graveyard?

Tech Crunch is talking about the AI projects that have been killed. “According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, about 42% of AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned.”

The AI graveyard includes Relay, AI workflow automation; OpenAI’s. Move to turn ChatGPT into a “super app”; Operator, an Open AI product that would search the web for you; Microsoft’s AI powered photographic memory tool; Notion Mail, AI email; Humane AI pin, a wearable AI device; Rabbit AI; Huxe, an AI audio app; Yupp a platform to compare AI answers from different AI models; and Figgs AI that made customizable AI characters for role-play.

The path to slow AI

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote a new blog post, that. Lays out 3 strategies to slow AI’s roll.

(1) involves “embedded evaluators” from third-party organizations like METR — evaluators who can verify that AI companies are actually following their pacing and safety commitments.”

(2) “leading AI companies “within democratic countries” to coordinate “common safety standards as well as limits on the rate of unchecked AI progress.”

(3) calls for “global coordination,” where the United States and its allies “attempt to coordinate with authoritarian governments, to the extent this is possible.” 

Tech Crunch