AI models can respond to text, audio, and video in ways that sometimes fool people into thinking a human is behind the keyboard, but that doesn’t exactly make them conscious. It’s not like ChatGPT experiences sadness doing my tax return … right? Well, a growing number of AI researchers at labs like Anthropic are asking…
As the new school year approaches, Google announced on Wednesday that it’s launching a new tool called Guided Learning within Gemini. The tool sort of functions like an AI tutor, as it’s designed to help users build a deep understanding instead of just getting answers. The launch follows just over a week after OpenAI rolled…
OpenAI announced Tuesday the launch of Study Mode, a new feature within ChatGPT that aims to help students develop their own critical thinking skills, rather than simply obtain answers to questions. With Study Mode enabled, ChatGPT will ask users questions to test their understanding and, in some cases, refuse to offer direct answers unless students engage with…
Therapy chatbots powered by large language models may stigmatize users with mental health conditions and otherwise respond inappropriately or even dangerously, according to researchers at Stanford University. While recent coverage in The New York Times and elsewhere has highlighted the role that ChatGPT may play in reinforcing delusional or conspiratorial thinking, a new paper titled…
With long waiting lists and rising costs in overburdened healthcare systems, many people are turning to AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT for medical self-diagnosis. About one in six American adults already use chatbots for health advice at least monthly, according to one recent survey. But placing too much trust in chatbots’ outputs can be risky, in…
A study went viral several months ago for implying that, as AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, it develops “value systems” — systems that lead it to, for example, prioritize its own well-being over humans. A more recent paper out of MIT pours cold water on that hyperbolic notion, drawing the conclusion that AI doesn’t, in fact,…
A new study appears to lend credence to allegations that OpenAI trained at least some of its AI models on copyrighted content. OpenAI is embroiled in suits brought by authors, programmers, and other rights-holders who accuse the company of using their works — books, codebases, and so on — to develop its models without permission….
As more publishers cut content licensing deals with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, a study put out this week by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism — looking at how the AI chatbot produces citations (i.e. sources) for publishers’ content — makes for interesting, or, well, concerning, reading. In a nutshell, the findings suggest publishers remain at the…
The Federal Trade Commission published a new report about social media platforms and video streaming services’ data collection policies, and the results are damning if not unexpected. The report, which was released on September 19th, found that these platforms not only surveil consumers but often retain vast troves of data indefinitely about users and non-users…
Not all generative AI models are created equal, particularly when it comes to how they treat polarizing subject matter. In a recent study presented at the 2024 ACM Fairness, Accountability and Transparency (FAccT) conference, researchers at Carnegie Mellon, the University of Amsterdam and AI startup Hugging Face tested several open text-analyzing models, including Meta’s Llama…