philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Wuhan’s AI Development

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While large models continue to account for a significant part of its AI investment, China’s top state-funded AI institutes are exploring alternative approaches to AGI that involve embodying AI algorithms in real environments. Imbued with the Chinese Communist Party’s pre-defined values, the AI interacts with its natural surroundings, learning as it proceeds.

The test bed for this proactive approach to AGI is China’s inland city of Wuhan, where the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ (CAS) Institute of Automation, Huawei, and a Peking University consortium are infusing the city’s industrial and commercial enterprises with AI services and deploying a “social simulator” that expands AI’s reach to all aspects of daily life.

The intent is to optimize production and supervise social interaction while affording the AI opportunities to become more intelligent, catalyzing its evolution into AGI. The Wuhan implementation is seen by its state-backed entities as a stepping stone to deployment throughout China, raising questions about the type of technosociety with which the United States needs to compete. ...

See the full story here: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/wuhans-ai-development/

OpenAI ex-chief scientist planned for a doomsday bunker for the day when machines become smarter than man

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According to excerpts published  by The Atlantic from a new book called Empire of AI, part of those plans included a doomsday shelter for OpenAI researchers. 

“We’re definitely going to build a bunker before we release AGI,” Sutskever told his team in 2023, months before he would ultimately leave the company. 

Sutskever reasoned his fellow scientists would require protection at that point, since the technology was too powerful for it not to become an object of intense desire for governments globally. 

“Of course, it’s going to be optional whether you want to get into the bunker,” he assured fellow OpenAI scientists, according to people present at the time.  ...

See the full story here: https://fortune.com/2025/05/20/chatgpt-openai-ilya-sutskever-chief-scientist-planneddoomsday-bunker-agi/

Republicans seek to boost AI while tightening grip on social media and online speech

Republicans have introduced measures that increase oversight of social media platforms and online speech, while simultaneously discouraging the regulation of AI. ...

The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee’s budget reconciliation bill was introduced Tuesday and would give the federal government the ability to update IT systems as well as use AI systems at the Commerce Department. The bill would also put a pause on states’ ability to enforce AI regulations for the next decade to allow the American AI market to grow and be studied. 

 While some politicians have been skeptical and critical of AI, the Trump administration has been vocal about seeking to encourage the growth of the AI industry in the U.S. with few guardrails. ...

It’s currently illegal to transmit obscene content via telecommunications if it’s intended as harassment or abuse. The bill would remove the requirement for that “intent,” meaning it could criminalize any content deemed obscene that is transmitted via telecommunications systems. ...

The latest version of KOSA states that the bill would require social media platforms to “remove addictive product features,” give parents more control and oversight of their kids’ social media, create a duty for platforms to mitigate content focused on topics like suicide and disordered eating, and require transparency from social media platforms to share the steps they’re taking to protect children. ...

Those who are in favor of the bill say it would hold platforms legally accountable if they host harmful content that minors should not view. Opponents said it could inadvertently affect sites that host LGBTQ content. They’re also concerned it could lead to more censorship online.  ...

“For engagement-driven platforms like TikTok or Instagram, that’s a radical shift — it’s not just about what’s allowed, it’s about how addictive and immersive experiences get redesigned or dismantled,” he said. “So KOSA is less about content policing and more about an algorithmic detox especially for teens.” ...

See the full story here: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/republicans-seek-new-oversight-online-speech-boosting-ai-rcna207347

Trump administration is concerned by deal to put Alibaba’s AI on iPhones, NYT reports

.... U.S. authorities were concerned that the deal would help a Chinese company to improve its artificial intelligence capacities, broaden the reach of Chinese chatbots with censorship limits and deepen Apple's exposure to Beijing laws over censorship and data sharing, the paper said, citing three people familiar with the matter. ...

In February, Alibaba confirmed its partnership with Apple to support iPhones' AI services offering in China. ...

See the full story here: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-administration-is-concerned-by-deal-put-alibabas-ai-iphones-nyt-reports-2025-05-17/

A Market-Driven Approach to driving the development of Responsible AI (3 min pitch video)

Why We’re Unlikely to Get Artificial General Intelligence Anytime Soon

“The technology we’re building today is not sufficient to get there,” said Nick Frosst, a founder of the A.I. start-up Cohere who previously worked as a researcher at Google and studied under the most revered A.I. researcher of the last 50 years. “What we are building now are things that take in words and predict the next most likely word, or they take in pixels and predict the next most likely pixel. That’s very different from what you and I do.”

In a recent survey of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, a 40-year-old academic society that includes some of the most respected researchers in the field, more than three-quarters of respondents said the methods used to build today’s technology were unlikely to lead to A.G.I. ...

At Meta, his research lab is looking beyond the neural networks that have entranced the tech industry. Mr. LeCun and his colleagues are searching for the missing idea. “A lot is riding on figuring out whether the next generation architecture will deliver human-level A.I. within the next 10 years,” he said. “It may not. At this point, we can’t tell.”

See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/technology/what-is-agi.html

Netflix Reportedly Weaving GenAI Ads Into Programming

... The streaming service has created interactive “mid-roll” and pause ads that incorporate generative artificial intelligence (AI), ...

Reinhard said that Netflix’s $7.99 monthly ad-supported subscription tier now has 94 million subscribers worldwide, up from 70 million in November and 40 million ad-supported subscriptions a year ago. This less-expensive option now accounts for half of all new Netflix subscribers, the report added. ...

See the full story here: https://www.pymnts.com/streaming/2025/netflix-reportedly-weaving-genai-ads-into-programming/

House GOP proposes 10-year ban on state AI regulations

... It provides some exemptions for laws and regulations that aim to “remove legal impediments” or “facilitate the deployment or operation” of AI systems, as well as those that seek to “streamline licensing, permitting, routing, zoning, procurement, or reporting procedures.” 

It would also permit state laws that do not “impose any substantive design, performance, data-handling, documentation, civil liability, taxation, fee, or other requirement” on AI systems. 

The bill, which comes as Republicans gear up to advance President Trump's legislative agenda this week, aligns with the administration’s emphasis on AI innovation instead of regulation.  

See the full story here: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5295706-republican-bill-blocks-states-ai-regulations/

Shelly Palmer

Windsurf, the AI coding startup that is reportedly in the process of being acquired by OpenAI for $3 billion, just launched SWE-1: its first in-house small language model designed specifically for software engineering. ...

The implications line up with my thesis: "Within 36 months, both code and content will be free." ...

As code becomes free to generate, remix, and deploy, content will follow the same path. Vibe-everything models are accelerating the shift. This is no longer just democratization. It is deflation. The marginal cost of creating digital content (of every kind) is quickly approaching zero.

Windsurf’s announcement is a clear signal that the value is moving away from creation and toward distribution. ...

Key AI Developments to Watch This Year

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The Mind-Boggling Surge in AI-Generated Content

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What will be the impact on Internet usage when so much online content is artificially generated and often of low quality? In a sea of so-called "AI slop," how will consumers find authentic, human-authored works? And will human creators be able to compete with an infinite wave of works generated by AI at little or no cost? ...

As websites and online platforms increasingly rely on AI-generated content to attract and engage users, a looming legal question – one that any U.S. court has yet to address – is whether Section 230 provides any protection from claims arising from defamatory and other false information generated by AI tools. ...

Potential Decline in Quality of AI Output ...

Coming Plateau in AI Development? ...

The Debate Over AGI ...

Adoption of AI Tools Across Industries ...

Regulatory Landscape Under the Trump Administration ...

... Just three days after his inauguration, President Trump revoked the Biden administration’s Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. Less than three weeks later at the AI Action Summit, Vice President Vance reaffirmed the administration’s hands-off approach to AI regulation, warning global leaders that excessive regulation could cripple the AI industry.  ...

... we are already seeing states – especially blue states – pick up the regulatory mantle.  ...

Next-Generation AI Legal Issues ...

How to allocate liability for false information and other problematic outputs produced by AI-fueled chatbots? To what extent might an AI tool developer, or a company making available the AI tool to its customers, or the customers themselves, be liable for such outputs? There is already a Canadian court decision holding Air Canada liable where its online chatbot had negligently misrepresented the company’s bereavement fare policy; in this country, however, liability issues may be complicated by the extent to which Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act may provide protection for the output of generative AI tools.

... As these agents become more common, will they be “click accepting” or otherwise consenting to online contractual terms in the course of performing their tasks and, if so, to what extent will users by bound by such terms? ...

... in future copyright infringement suits, it may prove especially difficult to assess both ownership and the scope of protectable expression, leading to more fact-intensive inquiries (with a greater likelihood of jury trials) and higher litigation costs. ...

Concluding Thoughts ...

See the full story here: https://perkinscoie.com/insights/blog/key-ai-developments-watch-year