The United States and China have agreed to “a basic framework consensus” that allows TikTok to be owned and operated inside the US. The Trump administration has been working on a solution, continually extending enforcement of TikTok’s ban since January.
🎙️ The deal has yet to be finalized, but TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, would lease a copy of the algorithm to be recreated by the new American ownership with government oversight while users would keep using the same app.
On September 11th the FTC announced an inquiry “into AI Chatbots Acting as Companions” exploring how seven companies “measure, test, and monitor potentially negative impacts of this technology on children and teens.”
🎙️ This announcement comes on the heels of two major lawsuits against Character.AI (funded in large part by Google) and OpenAI brought by the parents of two teenage boys who ended their lives in separate incidents after interacting with chatbots.
In related news, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, wrote in September 16th blog post that the company will implement an “age-prediction system to estimate age” in an effort to “prioritize safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens.”
🎙️ In some cases OpenAI “may also ask for an ID” which is similar to X’s approach in response to the UK’s Online Safety Act that went into effect on July 25th. Altman also commented on privacy by likening how you interact with AI to how you “talk to a doctor about your medical history or a lawyer about a legal situation.” More on that in an upcoming post.
OpenAI partnered with Apollo Research and released their findings on “detecting and reducing scheming in AI models.” Scheming is AI “pretending to be aligned while secretly pursuing some other agenda.”
🎙️ Along with hallucinating (when AI makes up incorrect answers), scheming underscores the importance of AI literacy to understand its limitations. Transparency like this is a non-negotiable component of AI adoption and use.
If you missed More Cowbell, Less Tracking Please, Google and PayPal announced a partnership to integrate PayPal’s payment solutions across Google products and platforms.
🎙️ The two companies hope to set the standards for “agentic shopping,” where consumers are assisted by AI. OpenAI’s findings on scheming highlight the privacy challenges of AI agents who perform tasks on our behalf.
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