Generative AI Concerns, New York Gets $100M for Broadband, FCC Funding Students
There is widespread concern about the race to create more powerful AI tools without guardrails.
Tim Su
March 30, 2023 – Billionaire CEO and artificial intelligence investor Elon Musk is among hundreds of industry experts who signed an open letter this week calling for a six-month pause on artificial intelligence experiments and called on a shared set of safety protocols for the rapidly advancing technology.
“Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable,” said the letter, which calls for the implementation of “a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts.
“This does not mean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities,” the letter added.
The letter comes a week after the release of Google’s own generative AI tool, called Bard, and weeks after the latest version of OpenAI’s tool, ChatGPT-4, which has marveled observers for its ability to create things like novels and games from basic user inputs.
The letter notes that it’s concerned about the race to create AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.
Lawmakers and regulators have been concerned about these AI tools because of the datasets used to train them. The models will reflect whatever biases, inaccuracies and otherwise harmful content was present in the training data, with users having been able to get the chatbot generate offensive material.
New York gets $100M from Capital Projects Fund
The Treasury Department is allocated $100 million from the Capital Projects Fund to connect roughly 100,000 households and businesses to high-speed internet in New York, according to press release.
The award will also fund the state’s Affordable Housing Connectivity Program, a program that helps low-income neighborhood gain high-speed internet.
The CPF provides $10 billion to states, territories, freely associated states, and Tribal governments to fund capital projects that enable work, education, and health monitoring in response to the public health emergency. Last month, the Treasury Department announced $350 million in broadband funding to the states of Arizona, Wyoming and Tennessee under America Rescue Plan’s CPF.
FCC commits more money from Emergency Connectivity Fund
The Federal Communications Commission announced Thursday that it is committing another $2.8 million from the Emergency Connectivity Fund, which provides students with connectivity away from school.
The latest round will benefit roughly 7,000 students in Arizona, California, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, and Missouri, according to a press release.
Earlier this month, the FCC announced a commitment of $1.7 million through the ECF to help over 5,000 students gain better access to internet and support approximately 15 schools and 2 libraries in California, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, and New York.
Since the launch of the $7.171 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund in 2021, the FCC has allocated a total of $6.6 billion in funding commitments. The program is set to end this year, with the service delivery deadline for the first two rounds approaching on June 30.
