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Three years in the past, the company forced out Timnit Gebru, the co-lead of its moral AI crew, basically over a paper that raised considerations in regards to the risks of huge language fashions. Gebru’s considerations have since change into mainstream. Her departure, and the fallout from it, marked a turning level within the dialog in regards to the risks of unchecked AI. One would hope Google realized from it; from her.
After which, simply final week, Geoffrey Hinton introduced he was stepping down from Google, largely so he’d be free to sound the alarm bell about the dire consequences of rapid advancements in AI that he fears might quickly allow it to surpass human intelligence. (Or, as Hinton put it, it’s “quite conceivable that humanity is just a passing phase in the evolution of intelligence.”)
And so, I/O yesterday was a far cry from the occasion in 2018, when the corporate gleefully demonstrated Duplex, showcasing how Google Assistant might make automated calls to small companies with out ever letting the individuals on these calls know they have been interacting with an AI. It was an unimaginable demo. And one which made very many individuals deeply uneasy.
Time and again at this yr’s I/O, we heard about duty. James Manyika, who leads the corporate’s expertise and society program, opened by speaking in regards to the wonders AI has wrought, notably round protein folding, however was fast to transition to the methods the corporate is considering misinformation, noting how it might watermark generated photos and alluding to guardrails to forestall their misuse.
There was a demo of how Google can deploy picture provenance to counter misinformation, debunking a picture search successfully by exhibiting the primary time it (within the instance on stage, a fake photo purporting to show that the moon landing was a hoax) was listed. It was a bit little bit of grounding amidst all of the awe and marvel, working at scale.
After which … on to the telephones. The brand new Google Pixel Fold scored the most important applause line of the day. Folks like devices.
The telephone might fold, however for me it was among the many least mind-bending issues I noticed all day. And in my head, I stored returning to one of many earliest examples we noticed: a photo of a woman standing in front of some hills and a waterfall.
Magic Editor erased her backpack strap. Cool! And it additionally made the cloudy sky look much more blue. Reinforcing this, in one other instance—this time with a baby sitting on a bench holding balloons—Magic Editor as soon as once more made the day brighter after which adjusted all of the lighting within the photographs so the sunshine would look extra pure. Extra actual than actual.
How far can we wish to go right here? What’s the tip aim we’re aiming for? In the end, can we simply skip the holiday altogether and generate some fairly, fairly footage? Can we supplant our reminiscences with sunnier, extra idealized variations of the previous? Are we making actuality higher? Is every part extra stunning? Is every part higher? Is that this all very, very cool? Or one thing else? One thing we haven’t realized but?
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