Saturday - Hi, welcome to your Weekend. We’re nine days away from the official start of the race for the White House, with the Iowa Republican caucuses on January 15th. A lot of people are already on edge about this election for a variety of reasons. At the top of that list are technologists who believe a cataclysmic mash-up of artificial intelligence and elections may finally be nigh. But is it really?  As Alexandra Lindsay and Greg Dale argue in this week’s cover story, this election cycle may not be the dystopia of candidate deepfakes and creepy campaign chatbots that some predict. Alex and Greg have a lot of experience in this area, having worked on digital strategy for hundreds of federal, state and local election campaigns between the two of them (plus, they publish a smart newsletter on AI regulation and policy, AI Political Pulse). 

The Information January 6, 2024

Hi, welcome to your Weekend. We’re nine days away from the official start of the race for the White House, with the Iowa Republican caucuses on January 15th. A lot of people are already on edge about this election for a variety of reasons. At the top of that list are technologists who believe a cataclysmic mash-up of artificial intelligence and elections may finally be nigh. But is it really?  As Alexandra Lindsay and Greg Dale argue in this week’s cover story, this election cycle may not be the dystopia of candidate deepfakes and creepy campaign chatbots that some predict. Alex and Greg have a lot of experience in this area, having worked on digital strategy for hundreds of federal, state and local election campaigns between the two of them (plus, they publish a smart newsletter on AI regulation and policy, AI Political Pulse).  In their five predictions about how AI will affect the 2024 elections, they do a good job of telling us what to worry about (robocalls made with audio deepfakes) and what not to worry so much about (video deepfakes). They pour water on the rhetoric from Sam Altman and others about AI-powered, hyper-personalized methods of changing people’s minds on issues and candidates. They even predict AI might help democracy by making it cheaper for campaigns to easily translate their messages to voters into dozens of languages. It’s good to hear a little optimism on the topic, even if there are still big concerns about AI and elections in the long term.  From politics to policy: Also check out Nancy Scola’s interview with Jessica Rosenworcel, the chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission. One of the most interesting parts of the piece is how Rosenworcel is pushing the agency to be more assertive over space, as Elon Musk’s Starlink service and others begin to fill the skies with eye-popping numbers of communications satellites. Another fun fact from Nancy’s story: Rosenworcel’s brother, Brian, is the drummer in alt-rock band Guster. Can you guess what the most popular Guster song is on Spotify? “Satellite.”    Now onto this Weekend’s stories... The Big read  5 Predictions About How AI Will (and Won’t) Affect the 2024 U.S. Election Will the upcoming presidential election be upended by insidious AI-powered deepfakes? Probably not. In this week's cover story, Alexandra Lindsay and Greg Dale deconstruct what AI dangers we should actually worry about this election cycle.  the 1:1 FCC Chair Sets Her Sights on Space, Net Neutrality Comeback FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel has already gone to war against Elon Musk. Now she's going to bat for net neutrality. Watching: The ever-blurring lines between civilian and celebrity A retired couple proudly spending down their kids’ inheritance. A Black female traveler who keeps getting mistaken for a cruise ship staff member. A singing British drag queen. These are just a few of the characters you’ll meet if you tune into the #UltimateWorldCruise hashtag on TikTok, which currently boasts 177.6 million views. TikTok users have been obsessively following the daily lives of passengers on the nine-month ‎Serenade of the Seas cruise, from the mundane (“What I eat in a day” recaps, “Do my laundry with me” follow-alongs) to the mildly intriguing (a flood! a rescue at sea!). Of course, some content creators are taking things a little too far, tattling on their neighbors’ domestic disputes and even lobbying to install live-streaming cameras onboard, turning the whole ship into unwitting reality TV stars. It’s enough to make you yearn for the good old days of Kardashian family drama. —Julia Reading: ByteDance’s pharmaceutical ambitions  Imagine if social media companies took all that data they were collecting, and used it to sell you the perfect… ADHD medication? This week, Forbes’ Alexandra Levine wrote about how TikTok parent company ByteDance has posted a slew of US-based drug discovery job openings this year. While the job postings are conspicuously vague, we do know that the company is building out a team that aims to “revolutionize drug discovery,” including positions for teams like  “AI for Drug Design” and “AI for Science.” TikTok spokespeople have long argued that the app operates separately from its parent company, but reports have revealed that the companies are deeply intertwined, with data from one often being accessible to the other. Personally, I would rather my medical advice comes from a doctor, not TikTok Shop. —Margaux Noticing: Making billions from children Ever wonder how valuable young users are to social media companies? A new Harvard study has the answer, calculating how much social media apps made from advertising that targeted minors in 2022: $11 billion. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported this week that more and more states are passing laws that force social media companies to go further in protecting their child users. But their efforts won’t be easy. In 2021, California passed a law requiring companies like Meta to prioritize kids when they make new features; the law was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in September, and now languishes in legislative purgatory. Considering how much money these platforms make from minors, expect social media companies to put up a fight. —Margaux Makes You Think "In your yellow head, in your yellow head..." Until next Weekend, thanks for reading. —Nick

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