Whistleblowers accuse OpenAI of ‘illegally restrictive’ NDAs

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1. Whistleblowers accuse OpenAI of ‘illegally restrictive’ NDAs

According to a letter from The Washington Post, whistleblowers have accused OpenAI of imposing illegal restrictions on employees' communication with government regulators. The letter, sent by lawyers representing anonymous whistleblowers, asks the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate OpenAI's severance, non-disparagement, and non-disclosure agreements.

The letter claims that these agreements discouraged employees and investors from communicating with the SEC about securities violations, forced employees to waive whistleblower incentives and compensation, and required employees to notify the company of communication with government regulators. The letter also claims that OpenAI's prior non-disclosure agreements violated the law by requiring employees to sign restrictive contracts.

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2. Amazon Unveils AI-Powered AWS App Studio for Enterprises

AWS has introduced App Studio, a generative AI service to convert text descriptions into functional applications. The platform manages coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance, allowing for quicker development times and less reliance on specialized expertise.

AWS Vice President of Applications, Dipu Kumar, praised App Studio as a "force multiplier" for technical teams, facilitating the rapid creation of secure and enterprise-level applications. The platform also features a conversational AI assistant for point-and-click customizations. Post-creation, developers can deploy apps to end users, who can access them via enterprise authentication tools and role-based access controls.

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3. EU’s AI Act gets published in bloc’s Official Journal, starting clock on legal deadlines

The EU AI Act, a risk-based regulation for artificial intelligence applications, has been published in the bloc's Official Journal. The law will come into force on August 1, 2021, and will be fully applicable on AI developers by mid-2026. The law takes a phased approach, with various deadlines between now and then as different legal provisions start to apply.

The framework puts different obligations on AI developers, depending on use cases and perceived risk. The bulk of AI uses will not be regulated, but a small number of potential use cases are banned under the law. High-risk use cases, such as biometric uses or AI used in law enforcement, employment, education, and critical infrastructure, are allowed but face obligations in areas like data quality and anti-bias. A third risk tier applies lighter transparency requirements for makers of tools like AI chatbots.

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4. Amazon AI chatbot Rufus is now live for all US customers

Amazon's AI-powered shopping assistant, Rufus, is now available for all US customers in the Amazon mobile app. Rufus is designed to help customers find products, perform product comparisons, and get recommendations on what to buy. Initially available in beta, Rufus has been trained on Amazon's product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and other public information.

It is powered by an internal LLMs specialized for shopping, allowing customers to ask questions about products, factors to consider, and how items differ from other items.

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5. Researchers call for "Child-Safe AI" after Alexa tells little girl to stick penny in wall socket

Researchers are calling for new rules to protect children from AI chatbots lacking emotional intelligence, as they pose a risk to young users. The "empathy gap" in AI chatbots, as detailed in a paper by Nomisha Kurian, highlights the need for "child-safe AI" to prevent potential harm.

Kurian argues that large language models like OpenAI's ChatGPT lack the empathy required for underage users, and that regulation would be beneficial in addressing these issues.

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