Title: Alphabet Shares Soar as Google’s AI Chatbot Bard Sparks Interest, OpenAI Faces FTC Investigation, and AP Forms Partnership
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, experienced a 4.9% surge in shares following the release of its AI-powered chatbot, Bard, in Brazil and Europe. The European launch of Bard was delayed due to regulatory and privacy concerns, but Google has been actively engaging with authorities to address these issues. This positive response to Bard’s release highlights the growing popularity of generative AI, propelling Alphabet shares to rise by 41% this year, just shy of Microsoft’s 42% increase in the same timeframe.
However, in the midst of ongoing upgrades for Bard, Google is facing a lawsuit in the United States regarding recent updates to its privacy policy and data collection methods for training the chatbot.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into OpenAI, the creators of the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT. The aim is to determine whether OpenAI’s AI products and models have put consumers at risk by damaging their reputations. The FTC, through a comprehensive 20-page information request, is seeking evidence of how OpenAI is addressing the potential risks associated with its AI technologies.
Chatbots like ChatGPT are susceptible to a phenomenon known as hallucination, where they may provide seemingly factual responses that are completely nonsensical or false. This has resulted in instances such as a legal scholar being wrongly accused of sexual harassment based on information from a non-existent news source. In another case, a lawyer mistakenly cited bogus legal cases in a filing after relying on ChatGPT’s generated content.
In a separate development, the Associated Press (AP) has signed a collaboration agreement with OpenAI. Under this agreement, OpenAI gains access to AP’s news archive until 1985 to enhance its AI capabilities, while AP may eventually leverage OpenAI’s technology in its own products and services. This partnership arrives at a time when concerns regarding potential job losses to AI and the unauthorized use of copyrighted data are being raised by professionals such as authors, journalists, and actors.
Currently, AP does not employ generative AI, but it extensively utilizes other AI-powered workflows to generate summaries, produce corporate reports, and facilitate access to its extensive database for other news organizations.
Overall, these developments highlight the ongoing advancements in the field of AI and its impact on various industries. The rise of generative AI has sparked interest from investors and users alike, while the FTC’s investigation into OpenAI highlights the importance of addressing potential risks associated with AI technologies. The partnership between AP and OpenAI signifies the growing need for cooperation between content creators, AI innovators, and news organizations in order to ensure responsible AI usage and protect the rights of individuals and their work.
