Photo: Gilbert Flores/Golden Globes 2024/Golden Globes 2024 (Getty Images)
Earlier this week, AI-generated porn featuring Taylor Swift started circulating on X (formerly Twitter). Swifties were scandalized. Polite society was incensed. Swift herself hasn’t publicly commented on the scandal but it’s easy to imagine she’s probably not thrilled about it.
Now, people are saying that the queen of pop should sue—though it’s not entirely clear who she should sue or what kind of lawsuit it would be. One thing’s for sure: AI companies have been getting sued a lot lately. The New York Times is currently waging a legal battle against OpenAI. It’s not alone, as the company is also being sued by a variety of artists, comedians, and literary figures. If the most popular woman on the planet decides to unleash legal hell (and an army of stans) on the AI industry, it seems that, unlike Congress or the federal bureaucracy, she could have a sizable impact on the trajectory of the technology. Of course, there’s no telling whether that will happen or not.
While the Swift porn was probably the most explosive thing that happened in AI this week, there’s been a lot of other stuff happening too. Here are some of the other things that have been going on lately.
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Big Tech’s trend of the week is the incessant talk about AI subscriptions. Silicon Valley cannot stop throwing money into AI, but they’re a bit stuck figuring out how AI will throw money back at them. Now, Big Tech thinks it found a solution: they’re betting you will pay a monthly subscription for their AI service. And, oh boy, there’s already a lot of them. —Maxwell Zeff Read More
Photo: Figure AI
BMW has signed a first-of-its-kind deal to put “humanoid” robots to work at one of its factories. The robots, which are designed to be more operationally flexible than traditional industrial robots, will supposedly assist the luxury car manufacturer with various parts of the manufacturing process. —Lucas Ropek Read More
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Florida Governor Ron Desantis, who often sounds like an AI chatbot, dropped out of the 2024 Presidential Election on Sunday, just a week after OpenAI banned ChatGPT for political campaigns. It begs the question, was Ron Desantis running on ChatGPT this whole time? —Maxwell Zeff Read More
Photo: Thomas Germain / cjmacer / MeSSrro / Shutterstock.com (Shutterstock)
This month, OpenAI launched what it calls the GPT Store, a platform where developers can sell custom-built AI apps and tools. The millions of GPTs on offer include games, productivity helpers, graphic design tools, tools for specific writing projects, and more. One thing OpenAI doesn’t want you to find, however, is an AI girlfriend. —Thomas Germain Read More
Photo: Philip Yabut / Shutterstock.com (Shutterstock)
Unknown criminals are blasting New Hampshire Democrats with an apparently AI-generated robocall of President Biden in what the state’s Attorney General is calling an “unlawful attempt” to suppress the vote. “Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again,” robo-Biden says on the call potential voters received on Sunday. “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.” —Thomas Germain Read More
Photo: Lukas Schulze (Getty Images)
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is quietly building a kamikaze drone startup in the U.S. and Ukraine called “White Stork,” according to a report by Forbes Tuesday. The project is named after Ukraine’s national bird and White Stork hopes to sell advanced AI drone technology to the country’s ongoing war effort. —Maxwell Zeff Read More
Photo: Meir Chaimowitz (Shutterstock)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an inquiry into the billion-dollar AI deals of OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Anthropic on Thursday. Throughout the inquiry, cloud providers must disclose details about the nature of their partnerships and investments with AI startups. Of particular interest is the partnership behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, and Microsoft, in which Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella hired Sam Altman and offered jobs to his 700-person staff after the OpeanAI CEO was fired in November. —Maxwell Zeff Read More
Photo: ako photography / Shutterstock.com (Shutterstock)
A series of AI-generated images of Taylor Swift in suggestive and pornographic situations are causing an uproar on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Though some of the images have been taken down, others remain on the platform. Swift’s army of fans have embarked on a campaign to bury the images by flooding the platform with their responses. —Thomas Germain Read More
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