Apple and Disney cannot avoid shareholder votes about their use of artificial intelligence put forward by a labor group, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has ruled.
Reuters:
In notices dated Jan. 3, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected requests by the iPhone maker and by the entertainment giant to exclude from their upcoming annual meetings calls for reports on their use of AI.
Corporations have embraced the new technology for its promised efficiencies. But the trend has prompted fears it would replace many creative and professional workers or unfairly draw on their work, issues in recent Hollywood labor disputes and a recent New York Times lawsuit.
The similar shareholder proposals were filed by a pension trust of the AFL-CIO, the largest American labor union federation, which also has AI measures pending at four other technology companies.
At Apple, the group asked for a report on the company’s use of AI “in its business operations and disclose any ethical guidelines that the company has adopted regarding the company’s use of AI technology.” In a similar request, it also asked Disney to report on its board’s role overseeing AI usage.
MacDailyNews Take: Artificially blocking the use of A.I. simply to protect outmoded jobs is not only desperate and sad, it’s ultimately doomed to failure. Adapt or die.
Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. – Steve Jobs
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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
I think MDN’s response isn’t very nuanced: it isn’t just about people trying to protect outmoded jobs and failing to adapt. One of the concerns often expressed is the unauthorized use of actors’ faces, bodies, voices, etc. in AI-generated content. It may well be that live acting itself is an ‘outmoded job’, but obviously celebreties’ features, voices, etc. still have value to content producers – otherwise they’d just completely generate everything via AI. Those actors have a right control the use of their features.
Perhaps not the best example. At some point in AI evolution, AI will not need an actor’s face or voice. And celebrities (at least the Hollywood ones) may be replaced with something else. I think the MDM view was intended to be for the broader issues of protecting jobs that AI can do better. Like it or not, we may be heading to a society with a guaranteed income rather than a guaranteed job.