Pitt Cyber Blog

Legislative activity at the federal level concerning existential AI risks, in Colorado concerning neural privacy, and a few articles that shed light on the gap between a policy's intended impact and real world results as it relates to tech regulation. 

Framework for Mitigating Extreme AI Risks | senate.gov

This week, we're thinking about the geopolitics of emerging technology. In the eyes of many policymakers, AI and quantum are fundamental to American national security and economic competitiveness. This framing has driven the Biden's administration's outbound investment and tightening export restriction policies. A fear that China could overtake the U.S. in AI permeates much of the political debate and bolsters the arguments of those calling for light regulation.

As Gary Marcus writes in Politico this week, "AI itself is not one thing but many." We dig into exploratory AI applications in healthcare (successful and less so), elections (good and bad) and a wealth of new data in the 2024 AI Index. 

Elections 2024: Tracking AI use in Global Elections | Rest of World 

On April 4, 2024, the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security (Pitt Cyber), Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law & Public Policy and Institute of Politics convened a discussion of disinformation in the digital age as a part of the ‘Protecting Democracy and Securing Our Elections’ event series.

Our reading this week is AI centric, from a new paper about the accuracy of LLM generated summaries to reporting on models' insatiable demands for training data and the steps tech companies are taking to procure it. And with broad relevance towards AI regulation and beyond, don't miss Pitt Cyber Founding Director David Hickton's op-ed on the need for policymaking centered around preparedness. 

Lots happening in the cyber/tech policy space as well as here at Pitt Cyber! The U.S. and UK retaliated against Chinese malware attack targeting critical infrastructure, NTIA released a detailed set of policy recommendations to promote AI accountability and safety, DeepMind released a paper probing model dangerous capabilities, and the debate over open source AI continues. 

AI and the Workforce Edition: This week we're doing some thinking about what workforce development and education should look like in the age of AI. With that in mind, we've compiled some of the best 'future of work' reports, from the rosy predictions of huge productivity gains, to those forecasting the ultimate decoupling of work and income. 

With Murthy vs. Missouri in front of the Supreme Court this week, the U.S. State Department is trying to reframe the conversation around disinformation, anti-trust entities are keeping their eye on tech platforms, and the GovAI Coalition, led by the city of San Jose, released a user-ready toolkit for local/state governments in navigating AI tools. 

Tech headlines this week are tied up with Congress' latest attempt to ban TikTok, but there's lots of important technology reporting flying under the public's radar. This week, we highlight a few of them: an actionable risk framework to structure thinking around open-source AI, what to make of BigTech's steps into chip manufacturing and the diminishing the increasing dependence of researchers on industry in areas of emerging technology. 

This week, we're highlighting several articles that shine a light on the incentives underlying tech development and the surrounding ecosystem – and challenge us to envision alternatives. 

Democracy Threatens Big Tech’s Business Model | TechPolicy.Press