International

• Still, the conversation on AI ignores another crucial issue: What is the AI industry’s approach to free speech, and does it embrace international free speech standards?
• In practice, this means that AI chatbots often censor output when dealing with issues the companies deem controversial.
• Without a solid culture of free speech, the companies producing generative AI tools are likely to continue to face backlash in these increasingly polarized times.

Vague and broad use policies

• Companies issue policies to set the rules for how people can use their models.
• With international human rights law as a benchmark, we found that companies’ misinformation and hate speech policies are too vague and expansive.
• Our analysis found that companies’ hate speech policies contain extremely broad prohibitions.
• To show how vague and broad use policies can affect users, we tested a range of prompts on controversial topics.
• More recently, India confronted Google after Gemini noted that some experts consider the policies of the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to be fascist.

Free speech culture

• If they serve a global audience, they may want to avoid content that is offensive in any region.
• This means society has an interest in ensuring such policies adequately protect free speech.
• Even where a similar legal obligation does not apply to AI providers, we believe that the companies’ influence should require them to adopt a free speech culture.
• At least two of the companies we focused on – Google and Anthropic – have recognized as much.

Outright refusals

• Therefore, users’ exposure to hate speech and misinformation from generative AI will typically be limited unless they specifically seek it.
• This is unlike social media, where people have much less control over their own feeds.
• Stricter controls, including on AI-generated content, may be justified at the level of social media since they distribute content publicly.
• Refusals to generate content not only affect fundamental rights to free speech and access to information.

• The Future of Free Speech is a non-partisan, independent think tank that has received limited financial support from Google for specific projects.
• In all cases, The Future of Free Speech retains full independence and final authority for its work, including research pursuits, methodology, analysis, conclusions, and presentation.
• The Future of Free Speech is a non-partisan, independent think tank that has received limited financial support from Google for specific projects.

• China has agreed to strengthen its relationship with Russia, after a meeting between Russia foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and China’s foreign minister Wang Yi.
• They both used the occasion to criticise the west’s “cold war thinking” and accuse it of bullying.
• International affairs editor Rachael Jolley asked Natasha Kuhrt, an expert on the Russia-China relationship from King’s College London, to explain why the conversation was important.
• According to Lavrov, the two were also due to discuss security issues including terrorism in the Eurasian region (the landmass stretching from China to Europe).
• In the context of US power and a rising China, Russia fears a decline in its status.
• In the Indo-Pacific, Russia seems to be increasingly willing to assist China in its efforts to intimidate US allies.
• At the 2022 Madrid summit Nato belatedly acknowledged the importance of the Russia-China relationship, and the worst-case scenario of a two-front war.

Natasha Kuhrt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Lenzing – The Lenzing Group, a leading supplier of regenerated cellulose for the textile and nonwovens industries, has created a unique, innovative concept that contributes to the sustainable protection of our glaciers while inspiring collective action for sustainable practices and a circular economy in the nonwovens and textile value chain.
• [2]
  The covering of a small area with the new material made from LENZING™ fibers was tested for the first time during a field test on the Stubai Glacier.
• This was confirmed in a study conducted by the University of Innsbruck and the Austrian glacier lift operators on the Stubai Glacier in Tyrol (Austria).
• Lenzing takes this pioneering innovation project as an opportunity to inspire collaborative action towards sustainable practices and circularity in the textile value chain.

• Munich, Germany, 28 March 2024 – In the 2023 financial year, Group revenue increased by 17.8 percent to € 1,522.7 million.
• The CANCOM Group also achieved a significant increase in gross profit of 33.0 percent to € 582.3 million (prior year: € 437.9 million).
• "Thanks to our successful acquisition strategy, we closed the 2023 financial year with significant growth," summarises Rüdiger Rath, CEO of CANCOM SE.
• The first joint annual financial statements published with the annual report are another important milestone in the integration of the two companies.