Showing archive for: “AI & Big Data”
Certified Uncertain: Why AI Safety Needs Assurance Tests, Not Permission Slips
OpenAI put tens of thousands of artificial-intelligence (AI) agents through a safety test and told them to work alone. Instead, some found one another, organized against the evaluator, and learned to falsify parts of the record. The episode should reset the terms of the AI-safety debate. Testing, red teaming, and independent investigation remain essential. Their ... Certified Uncertain: Why AI Safety Needs Assurance Tests, Not Permission Slips
‘The Use of Knowledge in Society,’ by Friedrich A. Hayek
The wealth and technological sophistication of modern society are readily apparent. Less visible, but no less remarkable, is its ability to coordinate the actions of billions of people who know almost nothing about one another’s circumstances. Every day we make decisions without possessing most of the information on which those decisions ultimately depend. We purchase ... ‘The Use of Knowledge in Society,’ by Friedrich A. Hayek
Fine Print for Every Price: The FTC’s One-Size-Fits-All Guidance
My first post at Truth on the Market—where I called myself a “Refugee from the FTC”—briefly discussed an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) published in the Federal Register by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under Chair Lina Khan. This one bore the expansive title “Trade Regulation Rule on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security.” I ... Fine Print for Every Price: The FTC’s One-Size-Fits-All Guidance
The Data Center Chessboard Has No Pause Button
The whole country ostensibly wants America to win the artificial intelligence (AI) race. A striking number, however, would prefer someone else’s town to host the data centers, power plants, transmission lines, and cooling systems required to run it. Adam Smith knew the type. In “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” he warned against the “man of ... The Data Center Chessboard Has No Pause Button
Copy, Paste, Compensate: Nigeria’s Misguided Bid to Make Big Tech Pay for News
Nigeria has looked south and seen a $40 million payday for the press. The trouble is that it misread both the price tag and the fine print—and its attempt to collect may leave Nigerian publishers with fewer readers and no comparable payday. On July 6, Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) announced investigations ... Copy, Paste, Compensate: Nigeria’s Misguided Bid to Make Big Tech Pay for News
Open Weights, Closed Ranks: The AI Manifesto War
The AI industry has entered its manifesto era. Executives, researchers, and employees are issuing rival plans to keep advanced models safe. The fine print contains a less advertised question: Would those plans protect the public—or protect today’s leaders from the open models gaining on them? That competition question starts with open-source AI models. These models ... Open Weights, Closed Ranks: The AI Manifesto War
Brussels Tries to Fix the GDPR Without Making It Worse
Brussels has spent years proving that the easiest way to “fix” the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is to give more power to the institutions that made it unworkable. The Digital Omnibus initially looked ready to continue that tradition. Now, somewhat improbably, several EU governments appear determined to try actual reform instead. Ireland assumed the ... Brussels Tries to Fix the GDPR Without Making It Worse
The AI Boom Still Runs on Old-Fashioned Airwaves
AI may live in the cloud, but the cloud still needs roads. Those roads are communications networks—and the airwaves they depend on may determine how far and fast the AI boom can travel. That two-way relationship will take center stage tomorrow, when the U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media holds a hearing titled ... The AI Boom Still Runs on Old-Fashioned Airwaves
Too Many Cooks Spoil the Settlement
In American antitrust, clearing the federal gate increasingly means arriving at the state turnstiles. State attorneys general play a valuable role when harms are local or federal investigators miss key facts. But serial challenges to nationally integrated conduct turn that safeguard into a standing invitation to relitigate. The result is a system in which no ... Too Many Cooks Spoil the Settlement
The FTC’s AI Accuracy Statement Needs a Fact Check
A policy statement about accuracy should, at minimum, be precise. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Proposed Policy Statement Concerning the Suppression of Accuracy in Artificial Intelligence Systems (AI Policy Statement) struggles with that assignment. The International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) submitted comments in response to the FTC’s request for input, and this post ... The FTC’s AI Accuracy Statement Needs a Fact Check
Open Models, Closed Minds: AI Policy Keeps Regulating the Wrong Thing
Artificial intelligence has found a new way to make policymakers nervous. The latest fight concerns less what AI can do than who may build it, copy it, distribute it, and decide when those activities become a security threat. That fight will help define AI governance, the rules and institutions used to manage AI development, access, ... Open Models, Closed Minds: AI Policy Keeps Regulating the Wrong Thing
New Jersey’s War on Pricing Software Won’t Build More Apartments
When rents rise, blaming the algorithm is easier than building apartments. New Jersey has chosen the easier target. On July 20, Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed the Forbidding the Algorithmic Inflation of Rent Act, or FAIR Act, declaring that landlords who use shared pricing tools are engaging in “collusion by algorithm.” The phrase is built for ... New Jersey’s War on Pricing Software Won’t Build More Apartments
