Links and opportunities of note

July 25, 2024

• Consent in Crisis (PDF): In the last year, almost 30% of top websites have restricted content from AI bots. This poses a challenge for the next phase of AI growth: what will data-hungry AI models feed on? How effective are these restrictions, currently based on the robots.txt protocol? Accompanying NYTimes article by Kevin Roose. (Archived link here)
• The creator of TaxGPT.ca, which uses RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) and publicly-available government data, talks about what they learned offering TaxGPT for the 2024 Canadian tax season.
• The Biden-Harris administration has announced almost $100 million in funding for public interest technology (link)
• Dr Alex Hanna asks what will happen when the AI bubble pops? (Link)
• Researchers studying the use of ChatGPT and creativity have learned that while generative AI makes it easier to produce artifacts that seem creative, it also flattens creative output (link).
• The folks at Citizens and Tech lab are liveblogging some of the panels at TrustCon. This one was of interest: "The rapid proliferation of generative AI and LLMs — and concerns about their safety — has brought work on content policy and work on responsible AI into contact with one another. But these bodies of work were developed largely separately in fields of trust and safety and computer science, respectively. How can these two communities overcome this siloing and better communicate best practices and findings?"
• Interesting paper on New York's algorithmic audit: "we find that LL 144 has not effectively established an auditing regime. The law fails to clearly define key aspects, such as AEDTs and independent auditors, leading auditors, AEDT vendors, and companies using AEDTs to define the law's practical implementation in ways that failed to protect job applicants."
• How States Can Improve Generative AI's Role in Disability Empowerment
• Massachusetts has issued guidelines on AI - link to PDF

Jobs & Opportunities

• Yale is hiring a cultural heritage data scientist "to work with our knowledge graph and cutting edge technologies to improve access to and understanding of the University's collections. This represents a unique opportunity to apply AI, natural language processing, and computational analysis techniques to a vast corpus of open knowledge, in an innovative and collaborative environment."
• The Department of the Treasury is hiring an Associate Chief Information Officer of Digital Services. If you've never applied for a federal role, here are some tips on how to prepare your resume.
• Applications for the 2025 TechCongress fellowship is now open. You will be placed with a Member of Congress or Congressional Committee and report directly to a senior staffer (like a Legislative or Staff Director) in that office; perform duties similar to other Congressional staff by applying your experience in technology to a variety of work; research relevant policy issues and help write legislation.
• GovAI is looking for winter fellows. This is a full time for three months, and is an in-person role based in the UK, in Oxford. Deadline is 11 August 2024. They can sponsor visas.
• Future Society is hiring a Director of US AI Governance
• Horizon Institute is seeking applications for fully funded fellows based in DC. Fellows and junior fellows are placed for a year, or six months respectively, with the option to renew, at host institutions which can be federal agencies or congressional offices.
• Massachusetts is hiring a Chief Data Officer.
• The Center for Democracy and Technology is looking for a full-time policy counsel "to work on issues at the intersection of civil liberties, national security, surveillance, and technology."
• Our friends at Humane Intelligence are running a pilot project with Compiler, to host an in-person, one-day writing and reporting workshop on 6 September 2024 in the Medill School of Journalism's DC newsroom. "10 invited journalists will be trained on Humane Intelligence's open source, no-code test and evaluation platform and then use the tool to research and report original stories. Compiler will publish the finished work." Sign up here.