Biden wants images created by artificial intelligence to be watermarked
Plus: How Kim Kardashian is using climate change to sell a bra, ironically
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
Biden wants images created by artificial intelligence to be watermarked
How Kim Kardashian is using climate change to sell a bra, ironically
The cartoon of a dog saying no one on the internet knows you’re a dog just set a record
Scroll to the end to see: my Halloween costume this year.
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Biden wants images created by artificial intelligence to be watermarked
President Joe Biden signed a first-of-its-kind executive order about artificial intelligence Monday. It tasks the Commerce Department with figuring out the best ways to distinguish A.I.-generated images, among other actions, and Biden said at the signing that yes, he’s seen convincing, faked content of himself.
“I have watched one of me a couple times, I said when the hell did I say that,” he said. “Everyone has a right to know when audio they’re hearing or video they’re watching is generated or altered by A.I.”
The executive order says the Commerce Department will “develop guidance for content authentication and watermarking to clearly label A.I.-generated content" that will be used by federal agencies in hopes of setting “an example for the private sector and governments around the world,” per the White House.
The executive order comes following a voluntary commitment that the White House received from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and other companies this summer to develop watermarking systems or other mechanisms to determine A.I.-generated images. Google was the first to publicly launch one, SynthID, in August. Their tool uses an embedded watermark that can be detected through an A.I. detection tool.
Other measures in the order have more teeth. Biden is using the Defense Production Act to require companies developing A.I. models that could pose a threat to national or economic security or public health to notify the federal government when training their models and the order asks the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop A.I. testing standards.
“To realize the promise of A.I. and avoid the risk we need to govern this technology,” Biden said. “There’s no other way around it in my view, it must be governed.”
The order also calls for consumer privacy guidelines, measures intended to combat discrimination on issues like risk assessments and crime forecasting, and it expands grants for A.I. research on topics like healthcare and climate change.
Carl Szabo, vice president of Netchoice, a tech lobbying group that represents companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, and TikTok, said the executive order uses concerns over A.I. “as an excuse to expand the president’s power over the economy.”
“Broad regulatory measures in Biden’s A.I. red tape wishlist will result in stifling new companies and competitors from entering the marketplace and significantly expanding the power of the federal government over American innovation,” Szabo said in a statement. “Thus, this order puts any investment in A.I. at risk of being shut down at the whims of government bureaucrats.”
Alternatively, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, or ITTF, a nonpartisan think tank that counts some of the same donors as Netchoice among its biggest supporters (Amazon, Google, Facebook), believes the executive order is a step in the right direction.
“Amid a sea of chaotic chatter about how to implement appropriate guardrails for A.I., today’s executive order sets a clear course for the United States,” ITTF senior policy analyst Hodan Omaar said. “With this [executive order], the United States is demonstrating it takes A.I. oversight seriously, and as other countries move forward with their own A.I. laws and regulations, the United States has an opportunity to wield its influence to protect both U.S. consumers and businesses.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who has co-sponsored bills related to A.I., called the executive order “strong action” but she said Congress still needs to pass legislation. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, also came out in favor of Biden’s order.
How Kim Kardashian is using climate change to sell a bra, ironically
In a moment when many in big business are backing away from political statements, Skims co-founder Kim Kardashian is using one for parody.
In a tongue-in-cheek social media ad for her brand’s new Ultimate Nipple Bra, Kardashian positions the garment as a response to a warming planet.
“The Earth’s temperature is getting hotter and hotter,” she says. “The sea levels are rising. The ice sheets are shrinking. And I’m not a scientist but I do believe everyone can use their skillset to do their part. That’s why I’m introducing a brand new bra with a built-in nipple so no matter how hot it is, you’ll always look cold.”
Kardashian helped free Alice Marie Johnson and convince former President Donald Trump to sign the First Step Act, but when it comes to climate change, we’re only getting underwear.
Kardashian told Interview in 2022 she believes in climate change, but “I also believe in being realistic and I think sometimes there’s so much to worry about on this planet, and it can be really scary to live your life with anxiety.”
Yeah, Kim, I totally know what you mean. The story was published after Kardashian was hit with a notice for using more water than allowed by her municipal water district in drought-stricken California and following a report that showed her private jet flights emitted 4268.5 tonnes of carbon.
The bra ad is a joke, diffusing climate anxiety with humor and playing climate activism as a bit. It’s ridiculous, but it lands far better than Kendall Jenner’s own 2017 activism-themed ad for Pepsi.
Soda didn’t solved police brutality, and in an era of skepticism towards brands’ commitment to causes, Kardashian isn’t trying to convince consumers a bra can actually save the sea turtles. So instead she’s making a joke.
The cartoon of a dog saying no one on the internet knows you’re a dog just set a record
Ten years before a dog in a hat sat in a burning room convincing himself everything was fine, another famous cartoon dog sat at a computer and told his buddy one of the early adages of internet life: “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
The cartoon, by Peter Steiner, was published in the July 5, 1993, issue of the New Yorker and sold at auction for $175,000 earlier this month, a record for a single-panel cartoon (the record for a comic book is Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, which sold for $3.6 million in 2021).
While the cartoon might bring to mind catfishing or covert internet influence campaigns, Steiner said it’s actually about imposter syndrome.
It “wasn't about the internet at all,” he told Heritage Auction, which sold the comic. “It was about my sense that I'm getting away with something.”
“I realized the cartoon is autobiographical and that it's about being an imposter or feeling like an imposter,” Steiner said. “I've had several checkered careers, and in everyone, I felt like a bit of a fraud. I mean, I think many people have that syndrome, the sense that, yeah, I've got everybody fooled.”
If you or a loved one is dealing with imposter syndrome, please remember the words of former first lady Michelle Obama on the topic: “I have been at probably every powerful table that you can think of, I have worked at nonprofits, I have been at foundations, I have worked in corporations, served on corporate boards, I have been at G-summits, I have sat in at the UN; they are not that smart.”
Have you seen this?
Website footers (yes, footers!) are having a design renaissance. In the right hands, the bottom of a web page can be a work of art. [Fast Company, by me]
In a blow for artists, a federal judge has sided with three A.I. companies in a copyright dispute. A federal judge on October 30 largely sided with the companies behind the artificial intelligence image generators Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Dream Up, dismissing almost all the claims three artists had made against them in perhaps the first major copyright infringement class action lawsuit of its kind. [Artnet News]
Happy Halloween, whitehouse dot gov is haunted. The White House icon at the top of the page is now being circled by a bat. [Threads/hunterschwarz]
Can public officials block you on social media? It's up to the Supreme Court. The court is hearing arguments today in a pair of important cases that test the ability of public officials to block critics from their personal social media pages. [NPR]
🔒 YELLO paid subscriber exclusive:
History of political design
Paper Barry Goldwater mask (1964). Did you know Spirit Halloween’s presidential mask index correctly predicted the winner of every election from 1996 to 2016? Happy Halloween! 🎃🦇
Thanks for reading! ⭐📨
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