DeepSummary
The episode begins with a conversation with Ken Case, co-founder and CEO of Omni Group, a software development company focused on Apple platforms. Case discusses the company's decision to develop for the new Apple Vision Pro headset and the challenges and opportunities of building productivity apps for spatial computing environments.
Later in the episode, Oren Etzioni, a University of Washington professor and AI expert, unveils his new nonprofit organization TrueMedia.org, aimed at combating political disinformation and deepfakes through an AI-powered detection tool. Etzioni explains the motivation behind the initiative, the technical challenges involved, and the importance of addressing the potential threats deepfakes pose to democracy.
Throughout the discussion, Etzioni acknowledges the dual nature of AI as a powerful technology with both benefits and risks. He argues that while the dangers of deepfakes and misinformation must be addressed, the potential benefits of AI in areas like medicine and climate change mitigation cannot be ignored.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The Apple Vision Pro headset presents new opportunities and challenges for developing productivity apps in spatial computing environments.
- AI-generated deepfakes pose a significant threat to the integrity of democratic processes, particularly in the context of elections.
- Oren Etzioni's nonprofit organization TrueMedia.org aims to combat deepfakes through an AI-powered detection tool, with a focus on the 2024 U.S. elections.
- While acknowledging the risks associated with AI, Etzioni emphasizes the importance of considering both the potential benefits and costs of the technology.
- Keeping pace with the rapid evolution of deepfake technology is a major challenge, requiring constant updating and benchmarking of detection models.
- The development of AI-powered tools to combat deepfakes is a complex technical problem involving multiple modalities (audio, video, images) and a variety of deepfake techniques.
- Nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations like TrueMedia.org can play a crucial role in providing authoritative assessments and combating misinformation in the electoral process.
- The potential impact of deepfakes extends beyond politics, highlighting the need for tools and strategies to address the broader societal implications of this technology.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Like any powerful technology, it's going to have benefits, it's going to have costs. But I think being overly focused on the cost just misses a key part of the conversation.“ by Oren Etzioni
- “I think that we've learned that democracy has an Achilles heel, and unfortunately, bad actors are using AI to exploit that Achilles heel in a very problematic way.“ by Oren Etzioni
- “So it turns out that there are public resources that contain deep fakes for the academic research community. The problem with them is that they're way out of date. Some of them are for 2017, and that might as well be from the last ice age or even from 2021. Right. New models are coming up all the time.“ by Oren Etzioni
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Episode Information
GeekWire
GeekWire
2/3/24
First up this week on the GeekWire Podcast: an inside take on developing software for the Apple Vision Pro.
We talked with a longtime software developer for Apple platforms, Ken Case, co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based Omni Group, which makes productivity apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and just released a version of its OmniPlan project management software for the newly launched Apple Vision Pro.
- Related story: Apple Vision Pro: Why one longtime software shop is jumping head-first into spatial computing
Then, it's AI, politics, and a new attempt to detect and defuse deepfakes.
A few weeks ago on the show, Oren Etzioni, a University of Washington computer science professor and longtime artificial intelligence specialist, hinted at a secret project in the works. This week, he unveiled nonprofit, nonpartisan technology organization, TrueMedia.org, that is developing an AI-powered tool to detect AI-generated deepfake videos, photos, and audio, aiming to combat political disinformation in the leadup to the 2024 elections.
We jumped back on the line with Etzioni to get the details on the new initiatives, and discuss the pros and cons of the rapid development of new generative AI tools for democracy and society.
- Related story: New nonpartisan AI nonprofit TrueMedia, led by Oren Etzioni, is making a political deepfake detector
With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Audio editing by Curt Milton.
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