Shareholders Prod Big Tech, Entertainment Giants Over AI Risks
By Clara Hudson, April 18, 2024
Shareholders to vote on AI bids at Alphabet, Meta this summer
Earlier vote at Apple secured almost 40% of investor support
Alphabet Inc. and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. are the latest big companies facing upcoming shareholder proposals asking them to grapple with how fast-moving AI technology could harm workers and the public.
Investors want the companies to disclose risks that artificial intelligence could pose to their businesses and report on their ethical guidelines. Some other pending shareholder votes, such as one at Meta Platforms Inc., also highlight the risk of AI-produced misinformation or disinformation interfering in upcoming elections across the globe.
The flurry of investor interest has been focused largely on tech and entertainment companies so far, in part because last summer’s Hollywood strikes spurred concern that AI could take credit from writers or be used to replicate actor likenesses. The AFL-CIO said it withdrew shareholder bids at Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp. after those companies agreed to disclose more information on the use of AI, but the labor group has similar campaigns underway that are poised for investor votes at Amazon.com and Netflix Inc.'s annual meetings.
AI-related proposals that already faced votes at Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. garnered an unusual amount of momentum for relatively new investor bids, though they both failed to gain the majority shareholder support needed to pass over opposition from company management. Companies have said in response to the proposals that they’re already navigating AI risk and even raised the possibility that certain disclosures could give away sensitive information on their AI strategies.
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