Whoops, Didn't Mean To

When Moving Fast Gets Too Broken

Move Fast and Break Things is both a book by Jonathan Taplin and an ethos popularized by Mark Zuckerberg during Facebook 's early days that was adopted by certain tech startups. It prioritized faster innovation and making quick mistakes over caution and thoughtfulness.?

That might work when you’re building a sort of Hot or Not for your university, but it’s another when you’re building foundational technology that requires a certain level of, well, not breaking.?

Take a story this week about actress Scarlett Johansson finding out that a voice used in OpenAI’s GPT-4o chatbot sounded suspiciously like hers showed up, in spite of her specifically declining CEO Sam Altman’s invitation.?

"Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there," Johansson wrote. "As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the 'Sky' voice. Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the 'Sky' voice."

Johansson is not only one of the best-paid actresses in the world with ample resources to go after the company, but she has also been outspoken about deep fakes — a whole other can of worms.?

This also comes on the heels of OpenAI worryingly disbanding the team focused on addressing the long-term risks of AI. In short, OpenAI isn’t any tech company that can afford to make playful mistakes, shrug their shoulders, and say, “Whoops!” They can’t just disband an important safety group without fanfare or (allegedly) cop the voice of a famous actress.

They have expanded far beyond a cute large language model that can spit out a modern rap song in the style of William Shakespeare. Their technology, through their APIs, is powering hundreds of important work tech functionalities. And, thousands of work leaders are using free and paid versions in their daily work.

We’ve seen these stories play out again and again in high-consequence ways, whether it’s Facebook and the spread of misinformation, Theranos and their fraudulent health testing claims, Juul Labs and the explosion of youth vaping, or Tesla 's Autopilot accidents.?

What can work leaders do? Be thoughtful of personal use, for sure, but it also probably makes sense to probe your tech partners as well. What technologies are they using? How do they limit harmful exposure? What safety measures do they have in place to reduce potential liability??

You can say, “It’s just a voice,” this time. But, careful controls matter.?

Quick hits from around the web

What else is happening??

Will AI Usher in An Era of Inefficiency in Recruiting?, by John Vlastelica for UNLEASH . When the bots take over, what is human (and more time-consuming) will really stand out.?

How Amazon’s Employee Financial Wellness Program Is Making a Difference, by Dawn Kawamoto for HR Executive . 亚马逊 does a lot of things I’m not a fan of on the talent management side but this seems to be working.?

Elon Musk Firing Tesla’s Supercharger Team Proves an Unprecedented Gift for the EV Industry, by Christiaan Hetzner for Fortune . In a time of desperate talent needs, Musk’s Tesla comes through for everyone else.?

The Gendered Impacts of AI on Women’s Careers, by Lindsay Kohler for Forbes . Women get shorted again with the development of new tech.

Former Google Employee Says Company’s AI Work Is Driven by ‘A Stone Cold Panic That They Are Getting Left Behind', by Kwan Wei Kevin Tan for Business Insider . That’s always good news from a major tech player.

Justice Dept. Makes Arrests in North Korean Identity Theft Scheme Involving Thousands of IT Workers, by Eric Tucker for The Associated Press . Identity theft is no joke, especially when it comes to hiring North Koreans into sensitive roles.

HR Pros Are Picking Workday Among Their Top HR Tech, by Adam DeRose for HR Brew . Wait, I thought everyone hated Workday ?

Leveraging Change for Long Lasting Impact in Organisations, by Champa Ha for HRM Asia . A nice recap of Steve Boese 's session at HR Tech Festival Asia.

Bill Seeks to Limit Remote Work for Federal Workforce, by ROY MAURER for SHRM . Great to see remote work micromanaging from the Senate become a political football in an election year.

Uber, Lyft-Backed California Labor Law Faces Final Court Test, by Isaiah Poritz and Maia Spoto for Bloomberg Law . The initiative that created the exemption for gig workers, the most expensive in U.S. history, passed in 2020.

HR Snacks: Contingent Labor Rising

This week, Joel Stupka talks to David Weiss from Worksome about how companies are changing their work design and labor models to leverage contingent and fluid labor models. It’s a good chat that I think shows how attitudes might be changing about the use of external talent. Take a quick listen to this insightful discussion.

That's it for this week!?

Lance

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