- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Comoros shock Tunisia, Salah, Mbeumo strike in AFCON qualifiers
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Germany win in Nations League as 10-man Dutch rescue point
- Undav brace sends Germany to victory against Bosnia
- Israel says fired at 'threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- Ecuador's last mountain iceman dies at 80
- Milton leaves at least 16 dead, millions without power in Florida
- Senegal set to announce breakaway development agenda: PM
- UN says 2 peacekeepers wounded in south Lebanon explosions
- Injury-hit Australia thrash 'embarrassing' Pakistan at Women's T20 World Cup
- Internal TikTok documents show prioritization of traffic over well-being
- Israel says fired at 'immediate threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- New US coach Pochettino hails Pulisic but worries over workload
- Brazil orders closure of 2,000 betting sites
- UK govt urged to raise pro-democracy tycoon's case with China
- Sculptor Lalanne's animal creations sell for $59 mn
- From Tesla to Trump: Behind Musk's giant leap into politics
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- Supercharged hurricanes trigger 'perfect storm' for disinformation
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Djokovic proves staying power as he progresses to Shanghai semi-finals
- Sheffield Utd boss Wilder 'numb' after Baldock death
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- Fans immerse themselves in Marina Abramovic's first China exhibition
- Israel says conducting review after UN peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Djokovic 'overwhelmed' after 'greatest rival' Nadal's retirement
- Zelensky in Berlin says hopes war with Russia will end next year
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Djokovic proves staying power as progresses to Shanghai semi-finals
- Hurricane Milton leaves at least 16 dead as Florida cleans up
- Britain face 'ultimate challenge' in America's Cup duel with New Zealand
- Lebanon calls for 'immediate' ceasefire in Israel-Hezbollah war
- Nihon Hidankyo: Japan's A-bomb survivors awarded Nobel
- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
- Boat captain rescued clinging to cooler in Gulf of Mexico after storm Milton
- Tears, warnings after Japan atomic survivors group win Nobel
- 'Unspeakable horror': the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Stock markets diverge before China weekend briefing
- Christian villagers 'trapped' in south Lebanon crossfire
- Sabalenka sets up Gauff showdown in Wuhan semis
- EU questions shopping app Temu over illegal products risk
- Kim Sei-young holds lead with late birdies at LPGA Shanghai
- Toulouse welcome Dupont 'boost' as Olympic star returns to Top 14
- Japanese atomic bomb survivor group Nihon Hidankyo wins Nobel Peace Prize
- Deadly Israeli strike on Beirut likely targeted Hezbollah security chief
AI bot 'Jennifer' calling California voters for Congress hopeful
Jennifer spent her weekend calling California voters, urging them to cast their ballot in Tuesday's primary election for Democrat Peter Dixon.
But unlike her human counterparts, Jennifer is a creation of artificial intelligence (AI), allowing her to make thousands of calls without taking a break or losing her cool.
"Hello there. My name is Jennifer and I'm an artificial intelligence volunteer," she says, immediately declaring her identity in calls to Silicon Valley voters in the US congressional race.
In her slightly robotic-sounding voice -- intentionally designed to make it clear she is not human -- she introduces the candidate, asks questions and responds to those she gets from voters, all in a surprisingly natural tone.
"I'm wondering why a person hasn't called me today," Dixon's operations manager Austin Madden asks her during a demonstration call for AFP.
"My apologies if I missed that point earlier," Jennifer replies without missing a beat. "The reason an AI like me is calling instead of a real person is to help the campaign reach more people efficiently, allowing human volunteers to focus on areas where personal interaction is crucial."
Dixon only recently began using Jennifer, the product of start-up Civox.
At first "we were skeptical," said Dixon, a Marine veteran and cybersecurity entrepreneur. "And so we tested it."
- 'People were shocked' -
His staff expected results would be "a mixed bag."
Instead, "People were shocked at how good the capability was," Dixon said from his company's headquarters in Palo Alto, sitting before a computer screen showing clips from his campaign.
In one of the videos, images alternate between reality (Dixon holding his young daughter) and sequences in which the background (the Afghan war) and his outfit are artificially generated -- and presented as such.
The point, he said, was to "show that we are comfortable not just understanding these tools, but... using them in an ethical, responsible and transparent way."
Stunning progress in AI in the past year and the appearance of generative AI programs like ChatGPT -- which produce text, images and sounds on demand and in everyday language -- have sparked tremendous enthusiasm but also grave concerns about potential risks, including lost jobs, intellectual property theft and fraud.
"I'm terrified about all of that," Dixon admitted.
But he would rather see the US "continue to lead in how we use it, and figure out how to write the rules of the road ourselves, as opposed to having another country like China" doing so.
Ilya Mouzykantskii co-founded Civox partly to sharpen the focus on "the intersection of artificial intelligence and politics."
"We are already in a future," he said, where politicians are "using artificial intelligence tools to develop policy and to make decisions" -- without necessarily announcing that they are doing so.
"Maybe that is the benevolent technocracy that we are hurtling towards," Mouzykantskii said. "But we shouldn't end up there accidentally, and we shouldn't end up there without consent."
- 'The best technology' -
In the future, said Adam Reis, Civox's other co-founder, "it's not going to be the best-funded campaigns necessarily that have an unfair advantage. It's going to be the ones with the best technology."
Reis said he had long been working to create AI "characters" with whom he could have believable dialogues. The arrival of generative AI made that much easier.
But, he added, "We've discovered that the mechanics of conversations and of speech are actually much, much more difficult than the content of what is said."
To be truly convincing, an AI character needs to speak fluidly, understand and react quickly, and know both when to interrupt and when to allow an interruption -- all difficult challenges.
"Some people try to trick the system," said Patrick McNally, Civox's field director. "But the bot is very good at bringing it back to policy... sometimes to a point a human wouldn't even be able to."
In January, an automated program that called voters using an AI-generated voice of President Joe Biden heightened concerns about massive disinformation enabled by the novel technology in an election year.
US authorities subsequently banned the use of such "cloned" voices, to combat political or commercial fraud.
But that does not affect Jennifer or her counterparts using Civox technology. For they don't pretend to be something -- or someone -- they aren't.
F.Pedersen--AMWN