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“Except for the assistant’s small interjection during my opening statement, the assistant took no active action during this deposition.”
Senators remain skeptical, with committee chairman Tony Sheldon, a Labor senator, asking for records of prompts from the AI assistant to be provided to the committee to fully understand the extent of AI involvement.
Meanwhile, Longcroft hit back at a recent US court ruling that found Google’s search business to be an illegal monopoly.
Publishers and small startups worry that Google’s dominance in search – it controls about 95% of the search market in Australia – could be replicated in the artificial intelligence industry.
“Despite our popularity, we consider ourselves just one of many search engines in Australia,” Longcroft said. “We will appeal the (U.S. federal court) decision.”
Executives from U.S. tech giants Amazon and Microsoft were also grilled during the committee’s wide-ranging hearing on generative AI, as lawmakers weigh the best way to regulate the emerging technology.
Senator David Pocock and Curtin MP Kate Chaney.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
As Canberra races to keep up with the artificial intelligence arms race sweeping the economy, issues such as energy consumption, election falsification and misinformation, potential job losses and economic opportunities are all on the table.
Shelton asked about claims by voice actors that their voices have been replaced by generative AI clones.
Last month, the Voice Actors Guild of Australia provided evidence that their contracts effectively gave Amazon the right to use their voices to produce audiobooks using artificial intelligence, a move the group said could put thousands of Australians out of work.
“You have the audacity to sit there and not tell us why. You have a responsibility, you come to the hearing, we want to know, and the public wants to know why you made this decision,” Shelton questioned Amazon executives.
Labor Senator Tony Shelton: “If I were a writer, I would be horrified to hear this.”Credit: Photo: Trevor Collens
Matt Levey, Amazon’s head of public policy for Australia and New Zealand, responded: “It is my understanding that Audible is considering this seriously.”
“They are engaging with the professional narrative community. They are also exploring how publishers and creators want to use text-to-speech technology to reach customers more broadly.
Steven Worrall, managing director of Microsoft.Credit: Air resistance
“So, Senator, to your specific question about why this technology is being explored, it could be that some publishers and creators might prefer to use text-to-speech technology to really reach their audience.”
Shelton said the answer was “unbelievable.”
“Your response is no comfort to those who are worried that their life’s work has been defrauded, and if I were a writer or voice actor I would be horrified to hear that.”
Microsoft executives, including its local managing director Steven Worrall, responded to questions about the energy-intensive nature of artificial intelligence, which is becoming a major driver of rising energy consumption and carbon emissions, and the technologies also come with significant environmental costs.
Microsoft research found that a single query on ChatGPT consumes as much energy as lighting a light bulb for 20 minutes.
“There’s no doubt about it. It’s well documented — the AI models and services we’re talking about consume much more power than previous cloud services,” Worrall said.
“We think this is one of the fundamental issues that our industry needs to address and adapt to as we move forward. For Microsoft, we have committed to carbon neutrality and water conservation by 2030 as part of our overall sustainability strategy. We will continue to deliver on that commitment.”
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