AI Lobbying Surge and New Language Model Innovations

Explore the dramatic increase in AI lobbying efforts amid regulatory uncertainty and discover Berkeley's groundbreaking Sky-T1-32B-Flash model that slashes inference costs. Delve into the rise of AI-generated election disinformation and its threat to democracy, and examine the legal challenges faced by Character AI in a landmark First Amendment case. This episode offers a comprehensive look at the evolving AI landscape and its societal implications.

Sources:
https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/24/ai-companies-upped-their-federal-lobbying-spend-in-2024-amid-regulatory-uncertainty/
https://www.marktechpost.com/2025/01/24/berkeley-sky-computing-lab-introduces-sky-t1-32b-flash-a-new-reasoning-language-model-that-significantly-reduces-overthinking-slashing-inference-costs-on-challenging-questions-by-up-to-57/
https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-elections-disinformation-chatgpt-bc283e7426402f0b4baa7df280a4c3fd
https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/24/in-motion-to-dismiss-chatbot-platform-character-ai-claims-it-is-protected-by-the-first-amendment/

Outline:
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:00:43) AI companies upped their federal lobbying spend in 2024 amid regulatory uncertainty
(00:03:49) Berkeley Sky Computing Lab Introduces Sky-T1-32B-Flash: A New Reasoning Language Model that Significantly Reduces Overthinking, Slashing Inference Costs on Challenging Questions by up to 57%
(00:07:01) AI-created election disinformation is deceiving the world
(00:10:11) In motion to dismiss, chatbot platform Character AI claims it is protected by the First Amendment