Appeals Court Temporarily Blocks order that restricts feds' contact with social media firms
Following up on last week's reading list, we're noting the temporary administrative stay issued this week regarding U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty's injunction that would severely restrict government communication with social media companies. A request for a longer-term stay will now go to another appeals panel.
AI Learned from their work. Now they want compensation.
Speaking of lawsuits: while AI regulation remains a ways off in the U.S., there are a number of recent lawsuits challenging LLM's use of copyrighted and private data. This is a space we'll continue to watch.
ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the economy. We need to decide what that looks like.
The news about the writers' and actors' strikes, in part prompted by concerns about AI use in the industry, has us rereading this piece by MIT Technology Review. It asks whether generative AI will be used to fuel worker upskilling and productivity gains or to automate skilled jobs and deepen the existing wealth divide. The upshot: a lot of that depends on the choices that governments, employers, and citizens make.
Recoding America: Why government is failing in the digital age and how we can do better
Rather than reverting to calls to 'modernize technology systems' or increase funding, Pahlka calls for a cultural shift within government that refocuses on outcomes, and empowers the implementers to put users' needs first. This book offers some great and compelling anecdotes – some leave you exasperated at the illogic driving the system, but also remind us that government is full of smart, committed public servants who want the system to work. Faced with an "implementation crisis [that] threatens our democracy," governments need to rebalance the relationship between policymaking and technological implementation.
The Ezra Klein interview with the author also does a great job of covering the main points.
Quantum Supremacy: how the quantum computer revolution will change everything
This one's a personal recommendation from our founding director, David Hickton. A great primer on the potential applications of quantum technology from the author of The God Equation.