A UN report says policymakers are struggling to keep pace with AI development, Meta is putting rate limits on its smart glasses' Conversation Focus feature, and Netflix used AI to put Gene Wilder's voice into a new reality show

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A UN report says policy makers are struggling to keep pace with AI development.
Meta is putting rate limits on its SmartGlass' Conversation Focus feature.
And Netflix used AI to put Gene Wilder's voice into a new reality show.
It's Wednesday, July 1st, and here's a quick look at some of the news happening in and around tech this morning from Engadget.
Artificial intelligence development has been progressing at such a rapid pace that current governance systems are unable to keep up. That's according to the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence in a preliminary report. The panel, consisting of members from around the world, will provide the information needed to stage the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance. It will take place in Geneva, where member states will discuss how to manage the technology, and is scheduled to begin on July 6th. In its report, the panel discussed how quickly AI capabilities have evolved over the past few years. The complexity of tasks AI models can accomplish has been doubling every few months. The report admits that AI has massive benefits for humanity, including accelerating drug discovery and vaccine development and contributing greatly to antibiotic resistance research. Doctors can use AI systems for early detection of illnesses, such as breast cancer, and scientists can use AI as early warning systems for food insecurity, say. But the report also expounds on the new kinds of harms that AI systems have created and can create in the future. People have been using AI to generate and distribute sexually explicit deepfakes, including child sexual abuse material, of, you know, real people. AI can generate information that appears true, and it can be used to aid cyber attacks. The panel also warned that as AI models become more autonomous, well, it becomes harder to monitor and control them. And then there's the growing concern over massive data center buildouts to power these AI systems, which could harm the communities in their vicinity. The UN panel explained that policy makers have struggled to keep pace with AI development because current governance systems were not designed for technologies that evolve so quickly. Typically, authorities need scientific data before introducing regulations, but by the time there's enough to understand the technology better, well, AI systems have already moved on. The report noted that access to AI systems is heavily concentrated in developed countries as well, and that most systems are developed in the US and China. The UN panel, whose role is scientific rather than regulatory, will continue assessing AI technologies that authorities can use to develop policy. It's expected to publish a more comprehensive report next year.
Meta has quietly applied rate limits to its SmartGlass' Conversation Focus feature. As The Verge reported, the company's help page for the Meta One subscription tiers contains information about those limits. In it, Meta insisted that you don't have to pay for a subscription to keep using your AI SmartGlasses, which is true. But, there are certain features that are only free for a set amount of time every month. Conversation Focus in particular is only accessible at no cost for 3 hours per month. If you want to use it for longer than that, you'll have to pay for a $20 a month Meta One Premium plan. Even then, you'll be limited to 15 hours of use, and unused hours cannot be rolled over to the next billing cycle. When the company rolled out the feature last December, it said Conversation Focus is meant to help you hear the voices of people you're speaking with. Even if you aren't hard of hearing, it could be useful in crowded and noisy environments. Now, it's not quite clear why Meta has rate-limited this specific feature. It runs on-device, as The Verge noted, and does not use Meta's servers. It doesn't even need the Internet to work. You don't have to use it if you don't want to or need to, but you can switch on Conversation Focus by vocally telling Meta AI to start it.
Netflix has worked with ElevenLabs to develop a re-creation of Gene Wilder's voice for use in an upcoming unscripted reality show, inspired by Roald Dahl's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wilder played Chocolate Factory owner Willy Wonka in the 1971 film adaptation of the book, and the Gene AI version of his voice will be used in a competition program with challenges inspired by both the book and the film. Variety reported that the re-creation was done in collaboration with Wilder's estate and with the approval of his wife, which does seem like the bare minimum of common decency when re-creating a deceased performer. But as so often happens when you hear about AI-generated imitations of celebrities, the biggest question may be why. The AI-generated version of Wilder's voice appears to be in use in the show's trailer, and it does sound like his take on Willy Wonka. But it can be a little bit eerie to hear a familiar voice narrating B-roll of a set that looks just like a production exec's idea of whimsy. And, you know, it's true that his portrayal of the chaotic chocolatier was one of Wilder's more iconic roles. But Willy Wonka originated in a book, and it's ripe for reinterpretation by other performers. Wilder might have been the best to do it, but he's not the only actor to embody the character to date.