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Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed by graduates at mention of AI

BBC News

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed by students as he spoke about the rise of artificial intelligence during his speech at University of Arizona's graduation ceremony, underscoring growing anxiety over AI's impact on jobs. I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you, Schmidt told graduates as jeers rang out at the venue during remarks comparing today's AI boom to the rise of computers four decades ago. The reaction reflects a broader unease on campuses, where speakers who mention AI are increasingly being met with hostility from students. A recent poll suggests many students view AI as both a threat to their future and an obstacle to their intellectual development.


Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed after AI remarks at Arizona commencement

The Guardian

A former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, was met with students' boos at a university commencement address in Arizona on Sunday when he raised the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) and its effects. Schmidt - who led the tech giant for more than a decade, acquiring a multi-billion dollar fortune in the process - was speaking to as many as 10,000 graduating University of Arizona students when he addressed the impact of modern technology on society. The topic struck a nerve of anxiety within the student body when he traced technology's evolution, through the laptop - which he said had "democratized knowledge" and led to prosperity - to the smartphone, the internet and social media. "We thought that we were adding stones to a cathedral of knowledge that humanity had been constructing for centuries, but the world we built turned out to be more complicated than we anticipated," Schmidt said. "The same tools that connect us also isolate us. The same platforms that gave everyone a voice - like you're using now - degraded the public square," he added, referring to the polarization within democracies.


The Hypocrisy at the Heart of the AI Industry

The Atlantic - Technology

Tech companies believe in intellectual property, but not yours. In April 2024, Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO and a current AI evangelist, gave a closed-door lecture to a group of Stanford students. If these young people hoped to be Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Schmidt explained, then they should be prepared to breach some ethical boundaries. Yet Schmidt told the students to go ahead and download whatever they need to build an accurate "test" version of their AI product. If the product takes off, "then you hire a whole bunch of lawyers to go clean the mess up," he said.





Amazon Is Using Specialized AI Agents for Deep Bug Hunting

WIRED

Born out of an internal hackathon, Amazon's Autonomous Threat Analysis system uses a variety of specialized AI agents to detect weaknesses and propose fixes to the company's platforms. As generative AI pushes the speed of software development, it is also enhancing the ability of digital attackers to carry out financially motivated or state-backed hacks. This means that security teams at tech companies have more code than ever to review while dealing with even more pressure from bad actors. On Monday, Amazon will publish details for the first time of an internal system known as Autonomous Threat Analysis (ATA), which the company has been using to help its security teams proactively identify weaknesses in its platforms, perform variant analysis to quickly search for other, similar flaws, and then develop remediations and detection capabilities to plug holes before attackers find them. ATA was born out of an internal Amazon hackathon in August 2024, and security team members say that it has grown into a crucial tool since then.


The AI job cuts are here - or are they?

BBC News

The AI job cuts are here - or are they? Amazon's move this week to slash thousands of corporate jobs fed into a longstanding anxiety: that Artificial Intelligence is starting to replace workers. The tech giant joined a growing list of companies in the US that have pointed to AI technology as a reason behind layoffs. But some question whether AI is fully to blame - and have voiced scepticism that recent high-profile layoffs are a telling sign of the technology's effect on employment. Chegg, the online education firm, cited the new realities of AI as it announced a 45% reduction in workforce on Monday.



How the Loudest Voices in AI Went From 'Regulate Us' to 'Unleash Us'

WIRED

On May 16, 2023, Sam Altman appeared before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary. The title of the hearing was "Oversight of AI." The session was a lovefest, with both Altman and the senators celebrating what Altman called AI's "printing press moment"--and acknowledging that the US needed strong laws to avoid its pitfalls. "We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models," he said. The legislators hung on Altman's every word as he gushed about how smart laws could allow AI to flourish--but only within firm guidelines that both lawmakers and AI builders deemed vital at that moment.