Many organizations have experimented with AI, but they haven’t always gotten the full value from their investments. A host of issues standing in the way center on the accuracy, fairness, and security of AI systems. In response, organizations are actively exploring the principles of responsible AI: the idea that AI systems must be fair, transparent, and beneficial to society for it to be widely adopted.
When responsible AI is done right, it unlocks trust and therefore customer adoption of enterprise AI. According to the US National Institute of Standards and Technology the essential building blocksof AI trustworthiness include:
To investigate the current landscape of responsible AI across the enterprise, MIT Technology Review Insights surveyed 250 business leaders about how they’re implementing principles that ensure AI trustworthiness. The poll found that responsible AI is important to executives, with 87% of respondents rating it a high or medium priority for their organization.
A majority of respondents (76%) also say that responsible AI is a high or medium priority specifically for creating a competitive advantage. But relatively few have figured out how to turn these ideas into reality. We found that only 15% of those surveyed felt highly prepared to adopt effective responsible AI practices, despite the importance they placed on them.
Putting responsible AI into practice in the age of generative AI requires a series of best practices that leading companies are adopting. These practices can include cataloging AI models and data and implementing governance controls. Companies may benefit from conducting rigorous assessments, testing, and audits for risk, security, and regulatory compliance. At the same time, they should also empower employees with training at scale and ultimately make responsible AI a leadership priority to ensure their change efforts stick.
“We all know AI is the most influential change in technology that we’ve seen, but there’s a huge disconnect,” says Steven Hall, chief AI officer and president of EMEA at ISG, a global technology research and IT advisory firm. “Everybody understands how transformative AI is going to be and wants strong governance, but the operating model and the funding allocated to responsible AI are well below where they need to be given its criticality to the organization.”
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
OpenAI has upped its lobbying efforts nearly sevenfold
OpenAI spent $1.76 million on government lobbying in 2024 and $510,000 in the last three months of the year alone, according to a new disclosure filed on Tuesday—a significant jump from 2023, when the company spent just $260,000 on Capitol Hill.
The disclosure is a clear signal of the company’s arrival as a political player, as its first year of serious lobbying ends and Republican control of Washington begins. While OpenAI’s lobbying spending is still dwarfed by bigger tech players, the uptick comes as it and other AI companies are helping redraw the shape of AI policy. Read the full story.
—James O’Donnell
A new company plans to use Earth as a chemical reactor
Forget massive steel tanks—some scientists want to make chemicals with the help of rocks deep beneath Earth’s surface.
New research shows that ammonia, a chemical crucial for fertilizer, can be produced from rocks at temperatures and pressures that are common in the subsurface. The research was published yesterday in Joule, and MIT Technology Review can exclusively report that a new company, called Addis Energy, has been founded to commercialize the process.
Ammonia is used in most fertilizers and is a vital part of our modern food system. It’s also being considered for use as a green fuel in industries like transoceanic shipping. The problem is that current processes used to make ammonia require a lot of energy and produce huge amounts of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
There can be no winners in a US-China AI arms race
—Alvin Wang Graylin and Paul Triolo
The United States and China are entangled in what many have dubbed an “AI arms race.”
In the early days of this standoff, US policymakers drove an agenda centered on “winning” the race, mostly from an economic perspective. In recent months, leading AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic got involved in pushing the narrative of “beating China” in what appeared to be an attempt to align themselves with the incoming Trump administration. The belief that the US can win in such a race was based mostly on the early advantage it had over China in advanced GPU compute resources and the effectiveness of AI’s scaling laws.
But now it appears that access to large quantities of advanced compute resources is no longer the defining or sustainable advantage many had thought it would be. Read the full story.
Meet the divers trying to figure out how deep humans can go
Figuring out how the human body can withstand underwater pressure has been a problem for over a century, but a ragtag band of divers is experimenting with hydrogen to find out.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Donald Trump has pardoned the creator of Silk Road Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering, and hacking. (BBC) + The 40-year old has been in prison since 2015. (NYT $) + It’s a clear attempt to curry favor with the crypto community. (Bloomberg $)
2 The US is embarking on a major AI data center push OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle will create $100 billion in computing infrastructure. (NYT $) + Sam Altman says the project will facilitate the birth of AGI in America. (Insider $)
3 What Trump’s executive orders mean for you From a national energy emergency to pausing wind projects. (Fast Company $) + The new President also officially established DOGE. (Ars Technica)
4 YouTuber Mr Beast is considering buying TikTok His lawyer insists he’s deadly serious. (CNN) + What is the true value of TikTok, exactly? (The Information $) + Trump is open to Elon Musk bidding for ownership too. (The Guardian)
5 Microsoft will foot the bill to restore part of the Amazon rainforest In exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of carbon credits. (FT $) + Google, Amazon and the problem with Big Tech’s climate claims. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Google sold AI tools to Israel’s military in the wake of the Hamas attack In stark contrast to its public stance distancing itself from Israel’s security apparatus. (WP $)
7 Inside the fight raging over NASA’s first deep space station Some experts argue we should start building living quarters directly on the moon instead. (Undark) + Here’s what an exploding rocket looks like. (New Scientist $) + What’s next for NASA’s giant moon rocket? (MIT Technology Review)
8 How the Parcae satellite program helped to win the Cold War And ushered in a new age of eavesdropping in the process. (IEEE Spectrum)
9 Startup founders are hustling for deals at inauguration parties Networking is so back, baby. (TechCrunch) + How a Greenwich Village bar became a MAGA mecca. (NY Mag $)
10 How AI could revamp treatment for snake bites Courtesy of a recent Nobel chemistry prize winner. (Economist $)
Quote of the day
“It’s not at all like being an employee. There’s nobody you can talk to. Everything is automated.”
—A gig economy driver tells the Guardian about his frustration in navigating the platforms’ apps.
The big story
How tactile graphics can help end image poverty
June 2023
—Chancey Fleet
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic lockdown, my husband and I bought a house in Brooklyn and decided to rebuild the interior. He taught me a few key architectural symbols and before long I was drawing my own concepts, working toward a shared vision of the home we eventually designed.
It’s a commonplace story, except for one key factor: I’m blind, and I’ve made it my mission to ensure that blind New Yorkers can create and explore images. As a blind tech educator, it’s my job—and my passion—to introduce blind and low-vision patrons to tools that help them move through daily life with autonomy and ease. Read the full story.
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ To prevent sore shoulders and bad backs, it helps to know the muscles that cause them. + It’s time to join the crispy gnocchi club. + If you’re lucky enough to win an Academy Award, don’t even think about trying to sell it. + Space-age bachelor pad music looks like a pretty great genre to me.
US President Donald Trump has followed through on his promise to pardon Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the online drug market Silk Road, who was imprisoned for over a decade.
