Welcome to The Week in Generative AI, a weekly column for marketers from Quad Insights that quickly sums up need-to-know developments surrounding this rapidly evolving technology.
OpenAI to limit ChatGPT use by political campaigns
OpenAI plans to restrict how politicians and campaigns use ChatGPT during the upcoming election season, it announced this week in a blog post. In its commitment to “protecting the integrity of elections,” the company says it will focus on preventing AI misuse, such as deepfakes and “chatbots impersonating candidates.” It also plans to increase transparency around AI-generated content by adding digital credentials to images produced by DALL-E.
The takeaway: OpenAI is trying to get ahead of critics who have been suggesting that generative AI will wreak havoc on the 2024 election cycle. Another way the company is attempting to demonstrate that it intends to be a good corporate citizen: It also announced that, to curb misinformation, ChatGPT will be “integrating with existing sources of information — for example, users will start to get access to real-time news reporting globally, including attribution and links.” Additionally, in partnership with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), ChatGPT will direct U.S. users to CanIVote.org for authoritative voting information.
Related coverage:
- “OpenAI announces first partnership with a university” (CNBC)
- “OpenAI announces team to build ‘crowdsourced’ governance ideas into its models” (TechCrunch)
- “OpenAI Bans Use of AI Tools for Campaigning, Voter Suppression” (WSJ)
- “OpenAI quietly deletes ban on using ChatGPT for military and warfare” (The Intercept)
- “TikTok Owner ByteDance Quietly Launched 4 Generative AI Apps Powered By OpenAI’s GPT” (Forbes)
Samsung announces Galaxy AI in latest phones
Samsung is doubling down on artificial intelligence with the release of its latest Galaxy line: three phones — the S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra — produced in collaboration with Google and Qualcomm. The main sell for the devices is their integration of “generative-AI features — what [Samsung] calls Galaxy AI — throughout the Android operating system and some apps,” writes The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern.
In her review, Stern highlights some potential benefits of using Galaxy AI in various settings, from typing meeting notes that “AI will summarize and organize” to editing photos (e.g., users can “move around a subject and AI can regenerate the missing parts of the photo”). Her favorite AI-enhanced “trick”: a Google feature called Circle to Search that allows users to “tap or circle something on the screen and it will automatically search for it.” This feature is also coming to Google Pixel 8 and Pixel Pro phones on Jan. 31.
The takeaway: As Jiyoung Sohn and Miles Kruppa, also of The Wall Street Journal, note, the “release of the Galaxy S24 devices comes at a critical time for Samsung, which lost the top spot for annual shipments in 2023 after a 12-year run,” as it competes with Apple’s iPhone. The integration of generative AI features could give the S24 line a crucial boost among consumers.
Related coverage:
- “Circle (or highlight or scribble) to Search” (Google Blog)
- “Samsung vies to make AI more mainstream by baking in more of the technology in its new Galaxy phones” (The Associated Press)
AI at the World Economic Forum
Fresh off an AI-fueled CES in Las Vegas, AI was a major theme in Davos, Switzerland, at the yearly meeting of the World Economic Forum. The list of tech attendees included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, among dozens of global heads of state and hundreds of other political and corporate leaders. ChatGPT had a coming out party at last year’s gathering, and this year’s edition featured AI under review as speakers discussed “AI in education, transparency about the technology, its ethics and impact on creativity,” as Jamey Keaton from The Associated Press reports, adding that the Davos Promenade was “swimming in advertisements and displays pointing to the new technology.”
The takeaway: As governments around the world contemplate new ways to regulate emerging AI technologies, the World Economic Forum was an opportunity for tech leaders and politicians to play nice — in a setting that had a frequently pro-AI slant, given sessions with titles such as “Generative AI: Steam Engine of the Fourth Industrial Revolution” and “AI: The Great Equalizer?”
Related coverage:
- “AI buzzes Davos, but CEOs wrestle with how to make it pay” (Reuters)
- “Altman and Nadella Talk AI at Davos” (The Wall Street Journal)
- “At Davos, an art installation looks to bring people closer to nature with a little help from AI” (NBC News)
- “Exclusive: Altman says ChatGPT will have to evolve in ‘uncomfortable” ways’ (Axios)
- “The Davos elite embraced AI in 2023. Now they fear it.” (The Washington Post)
Further reading
AI in commerce:
- “Amazon launches generative AI tool to answer shoppers’ questions” (CNBC)
- “How AI, data and storytelling will power e-commerce campaigns in 2024” (Ad Age)
AI advancements:
AI x brands:
- “Amazon Wants You to Start Paying for Alexa” (Gizmodo)
- “I’m sorry, but I cannot fulfill this request as it goes against OpenAI use policy” (The Verge)
- “KitKat ad says even AI performs better after taking a break” (Ad Age)
- “Kraft Heinz Building KraftGPT Generative AI Assistant As It Moves Toward ‘Self-Driving’ Supply Chain” (Consumer Goods Technology)
- “Mastercard Aims to Limit AI Bias, Cyber Risk” (The Wall Street Journal)
AI tools:
- “How to Launch a Custom Chatbot on OpenAI’s GPT Store” (Wired)
- “Media Alert: Adobe Premiere Pro Innovations Make Audio Editing Faster, Easier and More Intuitive” (Adobe Newsroom)
AI x culture:
- “A.I.’s Latest Challenge: the Math Olympics” (The New York Times)
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you next week.
If you’d like to catch up on prior installments of this column, start by heading to our last recap: “The Week in Generative AI: January 12, 2024
