Meta's AI Investment, Wikipedia vs. AI, and Apple's Updates
Source: theguardian.com
Meta's AI Investment
Mark Zuckerberg announced in April that Meta would make significant capital expenditures to keep pace in AI development. Last week, this materialized into a $15bn “AI superintelligence” team and a 49% investment in Scale AI. Meta also hired Scale’s founder, Alexandr Wang.
Before Meta’s investment, Scale AI's clients included most major AI players. Google, previously Scale’s largest customer, ended their working relationship in response to the deal. One analyst described the announcement as the action of “a wartime CEO”.
Meta is attempting to target superintelligence after advances by competitors like OpenAI and Google. While the financial magnitude seems like command of the AI race, Meta is playing catchup, as its AI models are currently less capable than rivals. The company published a model designed for gaming a popular benchmark in April. With its investment and new team, Meta is buying its way into the AI race.
Wikipedia and AI
Wikipedia halted a test of a new AI-powered article summarizer after backlash from its volunteer editors. The site introduced AI-generated summaries at the top of pages, above human-written introductions, for two weeks to 10% of mobile users who opted in.
Feedback was “strongly negative,” with editors calling it “a truly ghastly idea” and urging to “Keep AI out of Wikipedia.” Some argued AI summaries could improve accessibility of technical articles, but most worried mistakes would hurt Wikipedia’s reliability. Pacita Rudder, executive director of Wikimedia New York City, said there are minimal AI integrations that make it easier for editors to do their work or readers to get the content they need. There are ongoing debates within the Wikipedia community regarding human output versus robotic output.
In contrast to Wikipedia, Reddit began charging for access to its application programming interface in 2023, to extract money from AI companies using the company’s library. This made the user experience worse by crippling popular extensions. Users revolted, but executives chose AI company dollars over user concerns. Two years later, Reddit largely functions as before.
The Wikimedia Foundation hosted an in-person “edit-a-thon” at the United Nations, focused on creating and updating pages about the history of the international body. This event included a 50/50 balance of new and experienced editors and was part of the UN’s Open Source Week. Editors convened in groups to converse and collaborate.
Rudder emphasized the importance of community, stating that it counters the misconception of Wikipedia editors working alone. She noted that Wikipedia charges for smooth access to its data via Wikimedia Enterprise, launched in 2021. Rudder said that Reddit is a for-profit business, whereas the Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit. Wikipedia emphasizes human labor by rolling back features due to community outcry and convening editors in person.
Apple's Updates
Apple hosted its annual developers’ conference, WWDC, announcing a redesign of iOS nicknamed “liquid glass.” Virtual buttons will appear transparent, with images behind them visible with a warp, reminiscent of old Macs. Live translation is being added to FaceTime calls. The updates failed to inspire and seem incremental compared to past updates, such as the addition of 3G connectivity.
Apple showcased few new AI features, unlike Google and Samsung. Live translation has been part of Android for years, and Google’s Pixel Buds can translate speech, unlike AirPods. Google releases AI features weekly. Apple’s change is a cosmetic upgrade that inspired jokes.
Samsung teased new features for its folding phone. Google’s new AI features raise questions about what users want from AI-enhanced phones. While there may not be consensus, not trying new technology indicates decline. The author states that while they may not need an audio summary feature for Google search results, they are intrigued by it. Siri struggles with Spotify and notifications. After using an iPhone for 15 years, the author feels enclosed in Apple’s ecosystem.