Will AI regulation halt innovation?

What to know about the EU AI Act; Lead gen made easy with AI

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The AI Exchange
June 22, 2023

Welcome to another edition of what we’re determined to make the best damn newsletter in AI. Here we’ll break down AI topics that matter, open your mind to use cases, and keep you ahead of the curve.

Our #1 goal is to be useful. So please shoot us an email 📩 if you have questions or feedback, and especially if you implement something we share!

Here's what we're covering today:

  • Impending AI regulation could halt AI innovation, here’s what you need to know

  • Use a custom chatbot to attract new customers

  • And while the EU and the US are considering regulation, more tools are launching AI features

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Let’s get to it! 👇

TODAY'S PERSPECTIVE

Will AI regulation halt AI innovation?

That’s been a big question on major players’ minds as the EU approves the first version of the EU AI Act, set to regulate and prohibit certain use cases of AI and generative AI.

While it’s not enacted yet, this will be the first major regulation established on AI.

For anyone using AI in their work, for fun, or building an AI product (ahem - all of y’all!) this is worth keeping a pulse on to understand what’s becoming a no-go, what’s green-lit, and the gray area in between.

Let’s break it down:

(1) The EU AI Act isn’t just for the EU.

It’ll apply to companies based in the US if they serve any European customers.

And, like GDPR, it’s likely to become the defacto standard of our expectations on how AI products are developed and launched.

(2) The act establishes 4 key risk levels & prohibits many uses of AI

If AI is being used in social scoring systems, critical infrastructure or high risk items like medical devices - it either faces an outright ban or will need to go through thorough compliance checks for approval.

Common generative AI use cases like chatbots and deep fakes will require disclosure - you’re going to need to know that you’re talking to an AI system.

In our opinion and from our time in the industry - this feels great and overdue.

(3) Generative AI might get its own tighter requirements

Copyright and training data transparency have been two hot-button topics and it’s looking like regulation may require transparency at least, and possibly the banning of use of copyright data at most.

While this sounds like a huge deal (and it would be) it’s worth noting that we might be on GPT-5, GPT-6 or GPT-7 by then which gives companies like OpenAI some runway to figure out a new process for collecting training data. Going back to trends we’re seeing — companies hiring experts to curate datasets, and even potentially opening up a marketplace for AI models — it feels like we’ll have a rich landscape ahead of us.

(4) OpenAI seems to have its foot in the door

Early versions of this bill states that general purpose models like GPT were to be automatically classified as high risk because of their ability to serve high risk applications. But now it’s looking like moderation and restricted use by our favorite AI model providers will fulfill that need and the models themselves wouldn’t be deemed “high risk”.

Interesting.

So what does this mean for what’s ahead?

To reiterate - these regulations are not enacted yet, so it’ll be a bit before we see the final form and full impact.

But regulation is inevitable. And it's much better to know and work within the rules today, than have to rework everything you're doing tomorrow.

If you're starting to use AI and not already paying attention to the EU AI Act as it develops, you should be.

USE CASE DEEP DIVE

Meet your next lead gen tool: a prompt chatbot

People have used custom prompt chatbots to help users edit their resume, dream up new business ideas, provide career guidance and coaching, and even help users decide what they want to eat!

Chatbots can be a fantastic lead gen tool, and customizing them doesn’t have to be a huge headache. While we talk a lot about customizing chatbots on your own data - you can also build custom chatbots as easy as writing a great prompt.

Examples of chatbots you can build - no code or data, just prompting required!

  • A dog name generator as lead gen for a dog walking business

  • A motivational quote generator as lead gen for a motivational speaker

  • A favorite flower recommender as lead gen for a florist

  • A blog generator as lead gen for an SEO specialist

  • A playlist generator as lead gen for a DJ

  • … and so much more

And you could create one in less than five minutes using Zapier’s new Interfaces feature.

Simply design a prompt that takes specific inputs from a user, and let ChatGPT do the rest.

And if you’re a Premium Subscriber, we’ve got a deep dive workshop with the Zapier Interfaces team next week - so make sure to grab your spot!

Looking for more chatbot resources? Ask AIxChat (it’s getting smarter every day!)

LINKS

For your reading list 📚

Following the EU’s lead in regulation…

Meanwhile, more products are launching AI features…

And if you're really nerdy...

That's all!

We'll see you again on Tuesday. Thoughts, feedback and questions are much appreciated - respond here or shoot us a note at [email protected].

... and if someone forwarded this email to you, thank them 😉, and subscribe here!

Cheers,

🪄 The AI Exchange Team