The Weekly Download — April 6, 2023

It may be a short week, but there’s certainly no shortage of news to share with you today! 

On the docket this week: OpenAI addresses ethical and safety concerns, all about Lemon8, the latest on the push to join Twitter Blue, Meta teases generative AI ads, and some Barbie-based Friday Fun.

Let’s jump in!

OpenAI addresses ethical and safety concerns

After several reports over the last week regarding ethical and safety concerns, OpenAI, the developer of the ChatGPT model, has issued a statement.

The statement, which you can read here, aims to reassure the public that ensuring its systems are built, deployed, and used safely is critical to the company’s mission:

“Prior to releasing any new system we conduct rigorous testing, engage external experts for feedback, work to improve the model’s behavior with techniques like reinforcement learning with human feedback, and build broad safety and monitoring systems. For example, after our latest model, GPT-4, finished training, we spent more than 6 months working across the organization to make it safer and more aligned prior to releasing it publicly.”

The statement goes on to address several key concerns — including privacy, factual accuracy, and the protection of children — and the company’s corresponding efforts. But are these efforts enough? 

ChatGPT has been banned in Italy, and a complaint has been filed to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for the misinformation risks the tool poses, particularly to children. Earlier this week, it was reported that here in Canada, the federal privacy watchdog is launching an investigation into ChatGPT following a complaint regarding “the collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent.”

This is a big story that will continue to evolve, and we’ll be keeping our clients updated.

TikTok’s parent company has a new app: Say hello to Lemon8

As the U.S. government continues to debate a nationwide TikTok ban, the app’s parent company, ByteDance, has launched a new “lifestyle” app.

Lemon8 is a photo-based app that has been described as a mixture of TikTok and Pinterest that is poised to compete directly with Instagram. 

Like TikTok, the app’s main feed has a “following” section that allows users to view content from those they follow, as well as a “For You” page with other recommended posts. Content is segmented by category, including fashion, food, beauty, and more. According to experts, Lemon8 is likely to face some of the same scrutiny as TikTok given its parent company and concerns about user data privacy. 

Only time will tell if the new app takes off, but we’ll certainly be checking it out to judge the potential it could hold for our clients.

Twitter Blue fails to convert legacy verified users

Twitter was supposed to strip all legacy verified accounts of their blue checkmarks on April 1, but by the looks of things, it still hasn’t happened. 

It’s not widely known why, but according to Mashable, it could have something to do with the fact that only 12,305 of roughly 420,000 legacy verified accounts have subscribed to a paid Twitter Blue plan as of Tuesday.

Many high-profile users, including LeBron James and Jack Black, had gone public ahead of the April 1 deadline to say they would not be paying for the subscription service to keep their verified status. Twitter CEO Elon Musk has since gone on the record to say that users will be granted “a few weeks grace” to subscribe to Twitter Blue.

Hmmm… Stay tuned for more developments on this one!

Meta teases generative AI ads

In a new article with Nikkei Asia, Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth revealed that the company is planning to introduce generative AI ads later this year to allow advertisers to customize promotions for different audiences across its apps.

This news comes as no surprise, as Meta has been developing AI tools for ads for some time, but it’s certainly interesting. If all goes well, the new tools could enable advertisers to create entire campaigns across Meta platforms with a few simple clicks. 

Bosworth agreed that advertisers may soon be able to ask Meta’s ad platform to create images for campaigns geared at distinct target audiences, relying on AI to do all the heavy lifting.

Could this be the future of digital advertising? It sounds almost too good to be true. It’s another piece of AI news to keep on top of!

Friday Fun

Barbie makes a buzz across the internet

The new Barbie movie trailer dropped this week, and the internet has been abuzz since. With a star-studded cast, and a fun AI tool that helps you join the Barbie world, the flick has inspired a plethora of meme-worthy content:

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Line drawn peony from Spodek Co Site