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- Fake Biden robocalls under investigation
Fake Biden robocalls under investigation
Research: Most jobs are safe from AI for now
Jack Shields
January 23, 2024
Welcome back!
We have some crazy news from New Hampshire today. State officials are investigating reports of robocalls that used AI to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice.
Let’s go.
In today’s Daily Update:
🗞️ New Hampshire investigating fake Biden robocalls
🤖 MIT study finds most jobs are safe for now
📸 Microsoft releases tool for AI reading lessons
🚨 AI Roundup: Four quick hits
Read time: 3 minutes
TOP STORY
🗞️ New Hampshire investigating fake Biden robocalls
DALL-E 3
The New Hampshire attorney general’s office says it is investigating AI-generated robocalls that mimicked President Biden’s voice to urge Democrats not to vote in today’s primary.
What you need to know:
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella says the recorded message was an illegal attempt to disrupt and suppress voting.
The imitation of Biden’s voice told voters to “save your vote for the November election,” and that “voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again.”
The calls falsely appeared to be from Kathy Sullivan, who has close ties to the Biden write-in campaign in New Hampshire.
A leading House Democrat is urging the Department of Justice to open its own investigation into the calls.
Why it matters: Voting in today’s primary does not prevent New Hampshire voters from casting a ballot in November’s general election. As regulation fails to keep pace with rapidly advancing AI technology, further attempts to suppress voting will threaten the 2024 election.
RESEARCH INSIGHT
🤖 MIT study finds most jobs are safe for now
Source: MIT
A new study published by researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab suggests that the economy isn’t ready for AI to put humans out of work yet.
Rethinking AI’s impact:
It is not economically beneficial for employers to automate a vast majority of jobs previously thought to be vulnerable to AI.
Currently, it would be cost-effective for employers to replace just 23% of wages paid to humans with AI tools.
For example, a retail worker may be responsible for visually checking inventory and verifying merchandise prices. While a machine trained in computer vision could do this job, it makes the most economic sense for an employer to pay a human worker right now.
What this means: In most cases, humans are still the most cost-effective way to do work. Job disruption from AI will likely unfold at a gradual pace despite recent layoffs.
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
📸 Microsoft releases tool for AI reading lessons
Source: Microsoft
Microsoft is rolling out Reading Coach as a standalone app for educators in Microsoft Teams.
The details:
The new app will be part of Microsoft’s Reading Progress suite, designed to help students improve literacy.
Reading Coach uses AI to provide users with personalized feedback on how to improve reading scores and pronunciation.
To keep students engaged, the program asks readers to choose prompts that can change storylines as they progress.
Microsoft says teachers can integrate its program into classrooms starting this Spring.
The relevance: We’ve seen the good and the bad of AI today. Ushering in a new era of personalized learning is definitely good. Microsoft’s new tool looks like a promising way to help students improve literacy in the classroom and at home.
MORE TRENDING NEWS
🚨 AI Roundup: Four quick hits
DALL-E 3
Google aims to deliver the world’s most advanced AI in 2024.
Google DeepMind scientists are in talks to leave and form a new AI startup.
Stanford Study: Open source AI models pose no greater risks than closed models.
NYT Quiz: Which faces were generated by AI?
THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY