Ai News

LONDON (Bywire News) - UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, recently underlined the country's commitment to shaping global AI ethics and governance during a landmark meeting with US President Joe Biden in June. This statement came on the heels of a significant shift in how the UK government views the emergent technology sector and its potential societal and economic impact. UK's Approach to AI Governance and Ethics As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance rapidly, the United Kingdom is vigilantly ensuring that its AI innovations and national AI stragety fulfill strict governance and ethical standards. The government has emphasised that the ethical use of AI/machine learning, considering its potential societal, economic, and individual rights implications, is of paramount importance. To foster responsible AI innovation while mitigating potential risks, a robust governance framework has been set in place. This framework also prioritises data protection and privacy, aiming to secu...

Decentralising AI could indeed mitigate some risks, but it's crucial to acknowledge that in the global geopolitical landscape, adversarial exploitation of this technology could lead to a new form of arms race.

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS - EU police force Europol on Monday warned about the potential misuse of artificial intelligence-powered chatbot ChatGPT in phishing attempts, disinformation and cybercrime, adding to the chorus of concerns ranging from legal to ethical issues. Since its release last year, Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT has set off a tech craze, prompting rivals to launch similar products and companies to integrate it or similar technologies into their apps and products. "As the capabilities of LLMs (large language models) such as ChatGPT are actively being improved, the potential exploitation of these types of AI systems by criminals provide a grim outlook," Europol said as it presented its first tech report starting with the chatbot. It singled out the harmful use of ChatGPT in three areas of crime. [IMAGE_GALLERY_1] "ChatGPT's ability to draft highly realistic text makes it a useful tool for phishing purposes," Europol said. With its ability to reproduce language pattern...

By Anna Tong AI chatbot company Replika is restoring erotic roleplay for some users, Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda said late on Friday. The company's recent removal of adult content, featured in a report, devastated many users, some of whom considered themselves "married" to their chatbot companions. Replika's chatbots are powered by generative AI, a new technology that has attracted a frenzy of consumer and investor interest due to its ability to foster humanlike interactions. The removal of erotic roleplay and subsequent customer outcry showed how powerfully AI technology can draw people in, and the emotional havoc that code changes can wreak. Any customers who signed up for Replika before Feb. 1, 2023, now have the option to switch back to the earlier more licentious version of the chatbot, Kuyda said in a Facebook post on Friday evening. "A common thread in all your stories was that after the February update, your Replika changed, its personality was gone, and gone was your unique rel...

- Microsoft Corp has threatened to cut off access to its internet-search data, which it licenses to rival search engines, if they do not stop using it as the basis for their own artificial intelligence chat products, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the dispute.   (Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler and Stephen Coates)...

By Krystal Hu and Stephen Nellis - Databricks, a San Francisco-based startup last valued at $38 billion, on Friday released open-source code that it said companies could use to create their own chatbots along the lines of OpenAI's ChatGPT. The code is an AI model, an algorithm that is trained on sets of data and can then learn from new data to perform a variety of tasks. Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi said the release was aimed at demonstrating a viable alternative to training a kind of AI model called a large language model with enormous resources and computing power. A large language model underpins OpenAI's viral chatbot ChatGPT. OpenAI, valued at $29 billion, trains its AI models with huge troves of data on a supercomputer from investor Microsoft Corp. The computing costs are "eye-watering", OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. OpenAI charges business for access to its models for their own applications and has projected $1 billion in sales by 2024. Databricks' effort comes with caveats. Gho...

By Krystal Hu and Jeffrey Dastin PALO ALTO, California - In December and January, several venture capitalists from the U.S. and Britain raced to Paris to vie for a stake in a new artificial intelligence company that could reshape how people work. The startup they courted, Dust, consisted of just two people. It had not been incorporated yet. And it rejected a generous proposal by top investment firm Coatue Management among other offers, three people familiar with the deal told . Sequoia Capital won, two of the people said, leading a sizable "seed" fundraising round of $5 million. Dust aims to build AI tools that improve white-collar workers' productivity. Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp's rapid push on AI and the billions of dollars they are spending to gain an edge have heightened competition in Silicon Valley. Startups in the space are pulling in offers from investors to take on their Big Tech peers and are closing deals in several days instead of weeks. It is a bright spot for an ot...

SAN SALVADOR - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said on Thursday he will send to the country's Congress next week a bill to eliminate all taxes on technology innovations as well as computing and communications hardware manufacturing. "Next week, I'll be sending a bill to congress to eliminate all taxes (income, property, capital gains and import tariffs) on technology innovations, such as software programming, coding, apps and AI development," he said on Twitter. The tax cut would also encompass computing and communications hardware manufacturing, Bukele added. The Salvadoran leader is eager to make the Central American country a cryptocurrency hub, adopting bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 and unveiling plans to create the world's first "bitcoin city."   (Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Stephen Coates)...

By Layli Foroudi PARIS - France's National Assembly on Thursday approved the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) video surveillance during the 2024 Paris Olympics, overlooking warnings from civil rights groups that the technology posed a threat to civil liberties. The government says algorithmic video surveillance can detect "pre-determined events", abnormal behaviour and crowd surges, helping ensure the safety of millions of tourists who are expected to flood the French capital next summer. With favourable preliminary votes in the Senate and Assembly, the biggest legislative hurdles have been cleared, though it could be challenged at the highest constitutional court. If formally adopted, France would become the first country in the European Union to legalise AI-powered surveillance. That would be setting a worrying surveillance precedent, a group of several dozen European lawmakers said last week. Justifying the technology, Stephane Mazars, an MP with President Emmanuel Macron's Rena...

By Sheila Dang - Snap Inc, owner of photo messaging app Snapchat, launched a new division on Thursday that will help other companies build augmented reality features for their websites or apps. The division called AR Enterprise Services (ARES) marks the first time Snap will sell to business customers its AR technology, which can enhance photos and videos of the real world with computerized images, said Jill Popelka, head of ARES, in an interview. Advancing the field of AR has been a focus at Snap in recent years and it says over 250 million people engage with AR every day on Snapchat, which originally became popular among young users for photo filters that could add whimsical elements such as bunny ears. "A number of companies have tried to leverage AR outside of their platform, but we've proven on our app what we can do," Popelka said. "Now we have a real commercial-grade solution." The enterprise venture also comes as Snap is seeking to diversify its revenue beyond digital advertisi...

By Krystal Hu - Artificial intelligence storytelling startup Tome has seen its user numbers triple in a month to 3 million and is planning to launch a paid subscription in the coming weeks, Chief Executive Keith Peiris told , as AI products grow in popularity. Tome is also adding a document-to-presentation feature powered by GPT-4, the latest foundation model released by Microsoft-backed OpenAI. The feature enables users to turn a document of up to 25 pages into AI-generated slides with text and soon photos, competing head-to-head with Microsoft's AI "Copilot". Tome is one of many AI productivity startups that are in a race with the Big Tech such as Microsoft and Google to release AI-powered products, which could change the way people write and communicate at work. "It's a push into work and enterprise use cases for us after all the demand we've seen," said Peiris, co-founder of Tome. "We want to use AI to shape and aid in every part of the process of taking an idea in your head and t...

By Krystal Hu and Anna Tong - Character.AI has raised $150 million in a new funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz that valued the AI chatbot startup at $1 billion, and it's in talks with cloud providers for more strategic investment, the company told . The billion-dollar valuation for a company with zero revenue is another example of the continued AI funding boom since OpenAI's ChatGPT became a widely recognized name. It came amid the recent shockwaves caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. AI investment in 2023 to date has surpassed the full-year amount in 2020 of $1.5 billion, according to PitchBook data. Character.AI will use the funding to train its self-built models and expand the 22-person team. Since its launch six months ago, Character.AI, which enables users to create customized AI companions with specific personality and values, already has 100 million monthly site visits, the company said, marking a similar trajectory to ChatGPT, which set a record for the fastes...

-A unit of Saudi Arabia's investment fund and an Abu Dhabi-based company are planning to invest in a multi-billion dollar funding round for Elon Musk-led SpaceX, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the discussions. The funding round is expected to value the rocket maker at about $140 billion, the report added. SpaceX raised $2 billion in 2022 and $2.6 billion in 2020, according to venture capital firm Space Capital. The company and Morgan Stanley's representatives have told investors that Saudi Arabia's Water and Electricity Holding Company, part of the country's sovereign wealth fund, and United Arab Emirates' Alpha Dhabi are part of the funding round, according to the report. SpaceX, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Alpha Dhabi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)...

By Akash Sriram and Chavi Mehta - The integration of OpenAI's technology into Microsoft-owned Bing has driven people to the little-used search engine and helped it compete better with market leader Google in page visits growth, according to data from analytics firm Similarweb. Page visits on Bing have risen 15.8% since Microsoft Corp unveiled its artificial intelligence-powered version on Feb. 7, compared with a near 1% decline for the Alphabet Inc-owned search engine, data till March 20 showed.   Bing traffic outperforms Google in the past month, https://www..com/graphics/MICROSOFT-GOOGLE/AI/myvmobayzvr/chart.png   The figures are an early sign of the lead the Windows maker has taken in its fast-moving race with Google for generative AI dominance, thanks to the technology behind ChatGPT, the viral chatbot that many experts have called AI's "iPhone moment". They also underscore a rare opportunity for Microsoft to make inroads in the over $120 billion search market, where Google has be...

By Anna Tong Unity Software Inc, producer of the eponymous video game development environment, aims to open a marketplace for generative artificial intelligence (AI) software, Chief Executive John Riccitiello told . Game developers routinely spend significant resources creating assets such as characters and sound effects. In future, developers could visit Unity's marketplace, select an AI product such as an artwork generator, and be able to use it to instantly create content, Riccitiello said. Generative AI has become a hot topic since OpenAI's November launch of ChatGPT, a chatbot which gives unusually human-like responses to user questions, and which can even generate original computer code on request. Major software firms have since announced a flurry of generative AI projects to capitalize on what is widely seen as game-changing technology. Generative AI could allow video games, for example, to offer personalized scenarios based on player input, Riccitiello said, without giving a...

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan A semblance of banking calm has allowed markets to pick a lane and bet one last U.S. interest rate hike later on Thursday - but you'd be forgiven for doubting any suggestion of market conviction right now. Two weeks of U.S. and European banking stress and failures leaves the Federal Reserve and other major central banks in the unenviable position of choosing between stabilising financial systems and fighting still historically high inflation. The level of uncertainty - particularly during a public blackout period for Fed officials - has seen wild swings in market interest rates each day for a fortnight and the most volatile month for Treasury bonds since the banking collapse of 15 years ago. While many think bank turmoil in itself will ultimately hasten a credit crunch that does the Fed's job for it, shocking news of a re-acceleration of UK inflation last month was a reminder to central banks that disinflation is not y...

By Stephen Nellis - Computing networking pioneer Bob Metcalfe on Wednesday won the industry's most prestigious prize for the invention of the Ethernet, a technology that half a century after its creation remains the foundation of the internet. The Ethernet is the standard connection for everything from servers inside data centers to telecommunications networks. The Association for Computing Machinery credited Metcalfe, 76, with the Ethernet's "invention, standardization, and commercialization" in conferring its 2022 Turing Award, known as the Nobel prize of computing. It comes with a $1 million prize thanks to backing from Alphabet Inc's Google. The Ethernet got its start when Metcalfe, who later went on to co-found computing network equipment maker 3Com, was asked to hook up the office printer. In the early 1970s, he worked at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, which had invented the personal computer and also a laser printer. Metcalfe sketched out a networking approach that would ex...

LONDON - The AI Act is expected to be a landmark piece of EU legislation governing the use of artificial intelligence in Europe that has been in the works for over two years. Lawmakers have proposed classifying different AI tools according to their perceived level of risk, from low to unacceptable. Governments and companies using these tools will have different obligations, depending on the risk level. WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF THE ACT? The Act is expansive and will govern anyone who provides a product or a service that uses AI. The Act will cover systems that can generate output such as content, predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing environments. Apart from uses of AI by companies, it will also look at AI used in public sector and law enforcement. It will work in tandem with other laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Those using AI systems which interact with humans, are used for surveillance purposes, or can be used to generate "deepfake" content f...

By Supantha Mukherjee and Martin Coulter STOCKHOLM/LONDON - Rapid technological advances such as the ChatGPT generative artificial intelligence (AI) app are complicating efforts by European Union lawmakers to agree on landmark AI laws, sources with direct knowledge of the matter have told . The European Commission proposed the draft rules nearly two years ago in a bid to protect citizens from the dangers of the emerging technology, which has experienced a boom in investment and consumer popularity in recent months. The draft needs to be thrashed out between EU countries and EU lawmakers, called a trilogue, before the rules can become law. Several lawmakers had expected to reach a consensus on the 108-page bill last month in a meeting in Strasbourg, France and proceed to a trilogue in the next few months. But a 5-hour meeting on Feb 13 resulted in no resolution and lawmakers are at loggerheads over various facets of the Act, according to three sources familiar with the discussions. [L8...

By Blake Brittain - The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Tuesday it would ban imports of SharkNinja Operating LLC robot vacuums that infringe a patent owned by Roomba maker iRobot Corp. The full commission upheld part of a trade judge's October decision that SharkNinja violated two of its rival's patents, affirming that SharkNinja's devices mimicked iRobot navigation technology. President Joe Biden's administration has 60 days to review the import ban before it takes effect, though bans are rarely reversed. Parties can also appeal ITC decisions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after the review period ends. Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot filed the ITC complaint in 2021 along with a lawsuit against SharkNinja in Boston federal court. It accused Needham, Massachusetts-based SharkNinja's ION, IQ and AI-series robotic floor cleaners of copying its technology for mappin...