Jawboning and AI: Political Pressures on Tech

On Wednesday, President Trump signed three A.I.-related executive orders, and the White House released “America’s A.I. Action Plan.” We break down what’s in them, how the federal government intends to target “political bias” in chatbot output, and whether anyone will stand up against it. Then, do we hype up A.I. too much? Are we downplaying potential harms? We reached out to several prominent researchers and writers and asked for their critiques about how we cover A.I.

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Guests:

• Brian Merchant, author of the book and newsletter “Blood in the Machine”
• Alison Gopnik, professor at the University of California, Berkeley
• Ross Douthat, New York Times opinion columnist and host of the podcast “Interesting Times”
• Claire Leibowicz, head of A.I. and media integrity at the Partnership on AI
• Max Read, author of the newsletter “Read Max”

Additional Reading:

• Trump Plans to Give A.I. Developers a Free Hand
• The Chatbot Culture Wars Are Here

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