Innovation, Infrastructure, and Policy Drive Decarbonization

Earlier this month, as part of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Senior Officials’ and Ministerial Meetings taking place in Seattle, Microsoft hosted a discussion on decarbonization of the power sector. As a Microsoft on the Issues blog explains, making continued progress on reducing carbon emissions will take a combination of innovation, infrastructure expansion, and sensible public policies. The blog also highlights Microsoft’s clean energy goals, its investments in clean energy capacity, and the role that AI can play in driving efficiencies and improved operations in the energy sector.

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This Week in Washington 

Article Summary

  • Bloomberg: In an interview with The Circuit with Emily Chang, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared his belief that AI is as big of a tidal wave as the internet. OpenAI’s Sam Altman also joined the conversation to discuss his company’s partnership with Microsoft and the need for global regulation of the emerging technology.
     
  • Semafor: The New York Times will not join a group of media companies, including Axel Springer (publisher of Politico) and News Corp, that are attempting to jointly negotiate with the major tech companies over the use of their content to power artificial intelligence.
     
  • NBC News: Illinois became the first state to pass a law protecting child influencers, ensuring minors receive compensation for appearances in vlogs. This new law is set to take effect in July 2024 and has advocates against child exploitation optimistic that other states will follow their lead.
     
  • Reuters: New York City has joined several cities and states across the U.S. by banning TikTok from government-owned devices, citing concerns that the app poses a security threat to the city’s technical networks. New York State had already implemented a ban on TikTok on state-issued devices.
     
  • Axios: A federal judge will decide whether to temporarily block Arkansas’ new social media age verification law, which would require social media companies to use a third party to verify that new users are 18 or older. 

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Marketplace

  • Marketplace Tech
    Executives of seven tech companies gathered at the White House last month and committed to voluntarily address the risks posed by artificial intelligence. Just days later, a subset of those industry players, including Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, announced the formation of the Frontier Model Forum, which will focus on the responsible development of powerful AI tools. The Forum will include an advisory board and a public library supporting best practices for AI. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali discusses the Forum and this industry-led approach to responsible AI with Rumman Chowdhury, CEO and co-founder of Humane Intelligence and a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. (Should the AI makers also be the AI regulators? – August 3, 2023)