Mornin’ everybody. Welcome to Daily Zaps. The only AI newsletter that’s as cool as the other side of the pillow.

Here’s what we got for ya today:

• 🔍 FTC investigates Amazon, Microsoft, and Google

• 🤖 Beware! Robo-Biden scam on the loose!

• 🦾 National AI task force finally launches

• 🧫 MIT researchers say AI won’t replace us just yet

Let’s get right into it!

Sign Up | Advertise | Tools

BIG TECH

FTC investigates billion dollar A.I. partnerships

The United States Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into the recent multibillion-dollar investments by Microsoft, Amazon and Google into artificial intelligence start-ups OpenAI and Anthropic. The deals have allowed the big companies to form deep ties with their smaller rivals while avoiding most government scrutiny.

The FTC's inquiry will examine how these investment deals alter the competitive landscape and could inform any investigations by federal antitrust regulators into whether laws have been broken. This is the first major effort by the agency to understand how companies are using partnerships and investments to rapidly expand their influence in AI.

POLITICS

Fake Joe Biden tells people not to vote in primary.

A robocall using artificial intelligence to mimic Joe Biden's voice has been used to discourage citizens of New Hampshire from voting in the Tuesday primary.The call claimed that voting on Tuesday only enables Republicans and encourages voters to save their vote for November's general election.

This is false, as voting in the primary does not preclude voters from casting a ballot in November. The New Hampshire Attorney General's office is investigating this illegal attempt at disrupting and suppressing votes, which highlights concerns over AI interference in elections.

RESEARCH

MIT says A.I. won’t replace you… yet.

New research from MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab says that the impact of AI on the labor market will actually be slower than people previously expected.

The research itself focuses on automation via computer vision.

The researchers analyzed jobs identified as “exposed” or at risk of being lost due to AI, and calculated how much it might cost employers to bring in an automated tool instead of a human worker. They found that only about 23% of work currently being done could potentially be automated using computer vision in a cost-effective way for employers

This challenges the previously held notion that rapidly displace all sorts of jobs at once, and has people thinking about the economic practicality of AI and automation.

Neil Thompson, director of Future Tech Research Project at MIT’s Computer Science AI Lab said:

“What we’re seeing is while there is lots of potential for AI. tools…it’s not going happen immediately…it’s really important to think about economics”.

GOVERNMENT

National AI Research organization finally launches.

Progress at current frontiers of AI is often tied to large amounts of computational power and data, which are limited by resources available only in well-resourced organizations.

Because of this, last year the the Biden Administration's National AI Research Resource proposed the creation of a new multibillion-dollar research organization to improve access and capabilities in the AI field for the benefit of the United States.

One year later, the NAIRR has launched as a pilot project, bringing together US government agencies and private partners to apply federal funding towards public-access tools for aspiring AI scientists and engineers.

The initiative aims to democratize access to resources necessary for advancing the development of artificial intelligence while keeping the US competitive with rivals abroad.

Partners include major tech companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI among others. The $800 million per-year budget will be subject to congressional approval over three years.

📮 Refer Daily Zaps

Can you do me a solid and refer a friend, colleague, or family member to Daily Zaps? As a thank you, I'll send you an Airtable list of over 170 AI-focused startups complete with links to their sites, founder names, funding amounts, investors, and all that good stuff.

If you don’t have anyone to refer you can still help by doing below.

• Reply to this email with a simple “yes” so that I know people are reading this tiny newsletter on the Internet.

• Desktop readers, drag newsletter email to your primary inbox. This will make sure you don’t miss any issues.

• On your phone? No problem. Hit the 3 dots at top right corner, click "Move to" then "Primary."

• Apple mail users: Tap on our email address at the top of this email (next to "From:" on mobile) and click “Add to VIPs”