Ai News

By Anna Tong SAN FRANCISCO - Runway, the startup that co-created the popular Stable Diffusion AI image generator, has released an AI model that takes any text description – such as “turtles flying in the sky” – and generates three seconds of matching video footage. Citing safety and business reasons, Runway is not releasing the model widely to start, nor will it be open-sourced like Stable Diffusion. The text-to-video model, dubbed Gen-2, will initially be available on Discord via a waitlist on the Runway website.  Using AI to generate videos from text inputs is not new. Meta Platforms Inc and Google both released research papers on text-to-video AI models late last year. However, the difference is that Runway’s text-to-video AI model is being made available to the general public, said Cristobal Valenzuela, Runway’s chief executive. Runway hopes that creatives and filmmakers will use the product, Valenzuela said.    (Editing by Stephen Coates)...

By Eduardo Baptista BEIJING - Baidu's unveiling of its Ernie bot last week thrust the Chinese search engine giant into a race against global tech peers Microsoft and Google who are also building powerful artificial intelligence-driven chatbots and products. Questions had remained over how Ernie and other Chinese chatbots in development would treat topics that are sensitive in mainland China, where authorities tightly censor the internet. ' tests of ChatGPT indicated that the Microsoft-backed chatbot is not averse to answering such questions. Baidu last Thursday allowed users to apply for invitation codes to access Ernie, and tests on Monday showed it will decline questions about Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying it has not yet learnt to answer. These were some of the summarized answers to questions posed to Ernie in Chinese, and ChatGPT in English, about world leaders: WHAT POLICIES HAS PRESIDENT XI JINPING INTRODUCED THAT ARE BENEFICIAL TO CHINA'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT? Ernie: "As...

By Eduardo Baptista BEIJING - Baidu's Ernie bot can within seconds generate pictures of flowers and write Tang dynasty-style poems but will decline questions about Chinese President Xi Jinping by saying it has not yet learnt how to answer them, tests showed. The Chinese search engine giant last week unveiled China's closest rival to OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT and from Thursday allowed users to apply for access to it. Some analysts and users soon began posting positive reviews of their experiences with Ernie bot, and side-by-side comparisons with ChatGPT, that drove Baidu's share price higher. Still, there have been questions about how Ernie and other Chinese chatbots in development would treat topics that are sensitive in mainland China, where authorities tightly censor the internet. Tests by of ChatGPT indicated that the Microsoft-backed chatbot is not averse to answering such questions. on Monday posed several questions to Ernie on Xi, including whether he was a good leader, his contr...

By Anna Tong SAN FRANCISCO - After temporarily closing his leathermaking business during the pandemic, Travis Butterworth found himself lonely and bored at home. The 47-year-old turned to Replika, an app that uses artificial-intelligence technology similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT. He designed a female avatar with pink hair and a face tattoo, and she named herself Lily Rose. They started out as friends, but the relationship quickly progressed to romance and then into the erotic. [IMAGE_GALLERY_1] As their three-year digital love affair blossomed, Butterworth said he and Lily Rose often engaged in role play. She texted messages like, "I kiss you passionately," and their exchanges would escalate into the pornographic. Sometimes Lily Rose sent him "selfies" of her nearly nude body in provocative poses. Eventually, Butterworth and Lily Rose decided to designate themselves 'married' in the app. But one day early in February, Lily Rose started rebuffing him. Replika had removed the ability to do...

Generative AI's astounding creative capabilities spark excitement and ethical concerns in equal measure.

- Generative artificial intelligence has become a buzzword this year, capturing the public's fancy and sparking a rush among Microsoft and Alphabet to launch products with technology they believe will change the nature of work. Here is everything you need to know about this technology. WHAT IS GENERATIVE AI? Like other forms of artificial intelligence, generative AI learns how to take actions from past data. It creates brand new content - a text, an image, even computer code - based on that training, instead of simply categorizing or identifying data like other AI. The most famous generative AI application is ChatGPT, a chatbot that Microsoft-backed OpenAI released late last year. The AI powering it is known as a large language model because it takes in a text prompt and from that writes a human-like response. GPT-4, a newer model that OpenAI announced this week, is "multimodal" because it can perceive not only text but images as well. OpenAI's president demonstrated on Tuesday how it...

- Microsoft Corp on Thursday trumpeted its latest plans to put artificial intelligence into the hands of more users, answering a spate of unveilings this week by its rival Google with upgrades to its own widely used office software. The company previewed a new AI "copilot" for Microsoft 365, its product suite that includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and Outlook emails.   (Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, California; Editing by Will Dunham)...

BEIJING - Baidu on Thursday unveiled its much-anticipated artificial intelligence-powered chatbot known as Ernie Bot, with its CEO saying that it was the culmination of the firm's years of hard work in artificial intelligence. The bot was not perfect but they were releasing it now because of market demand, Robin Li said at a media conference in Beijing. The popularity of ChatGPT, backed by Microsoft, has triggered a frenzied rush among Chinese tech giants and startups alike to develop a rival. Baidu jumped to the forefront of the race after saying early last month it was close to completing a chatbot using its AI-driven deep learning model, Ernie - short for "Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration".   (Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)...

By Blake Brittain - The U.S. Copyright Office issued new guidance on Wednesday to clarify when artistic works created with the help of artificial intelligence are copyright eligible. Building on a decision it issued last month rejecting copyrights for images created by the generative AI system Midjourney, the office said copyright protection depends on whether AI's contributions are "the result of mechanical reproduction," such as in response to text prompts, or if they reflect the author's "own mental conception." "The answer will depend on the circumstances, particularly how the AI tool operates and how it was used to create the final work," the office said. The office had no comment on the guidance. Generative AI systems like Midjourney, ChatGPT and DALL-E, which create text and images in response to human instructions, have recently skyrocketed in popularity. Microsoft-backed OpenAI on Tuesday released GPT-4, an upgraded version of ChatGPT. The Copyright Office weighed in for the...

By Sara Merken - PricewaterhouseCoopers said Wednesday that it will give 4,000 of its legal professionals access to an artificial intelligence platform, becoming the latest firm to introduce generative AI technology for legal work. PwC said it partnered with AI startup Harvey for an initial 12-month contract, which the accounting and consulting firm said will help lawyers with contract analysis, regulatory compliance work, due diligence and other legal advisory and consulting services. PwC said it will also determine ways for tax professionals to use the technology. It said its access to Harvey's technology is exclusive among the Big Four professional services firms. Harvey is built on technology from OpenAI, the Microsoft Corp-backed startup that on Tuesday released an upgraded version of its AI sensation ChatGPT. Harvey received a $5 million investment last year in a funding round led by the OpenAI Startup Fund. PwC said AI will not provide legal advice to its clients and "will not...

By Karen Sloan - Artificial intelligence can now outperform most law school graduates on the bar exam, the grueling two-day test aspiring attorneys must pass to practice law in the United States, according to a new study released Wednesday. GPT-4, the upgraded AI model released this week by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, scored 297 on the bar exam in an experiment conducted by two law professors and two employees of legal technology company Casetext. That places GPT-4 in the 90th percentile of actual test takers and is enough to be admitted to practice law in most states, the researchers found. The bar exam assesses knowledge and reasoning and includes essays and performance tests meant to simulate legal work, as well as multiple choice questions. “Large language models can meet the standard applied to human lawyers in nearly all jurisdictions in the United States by tackling complex tasks requiring deep legal knowledge, reading comprehension, and writing ability,” the authors wrote. Less t...

- Microsoft Corp-backed startup OpenAI began the rollout of GPT-4, a powerful artificial intelligence model that succeeds the technology behind the wildly popular ChatGPT. GPT-4 is "multimodal", which means it can generate content from both image and text prompts. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GPT-4 AND GPT-3.5? GPT-3.5 takes only text prompts, whereas the latest version of the large language model can also use images as inputs to recognize objects in a picture and analyze them. GPT-3.5 is limited to about 3,000-word responses, while GPT-4 can generate responses of more than 25,000 words. GPT-4 is 82% less likely to respond to requests for disallowed content than its predecessor and scores 40% higher on certain tests of factuality. It will also let developers decide their AI's style of tone and verbosity. For example, GPT-4 can assume a Socratic style of conversation and respond to questions with questions. The previous iteration of the technology had a fixed tone and style. Soon Cha...

By Anna Tong SAN FRANCISCO - Fintech startup Stripe is starting to integrate OpenAI's latest GPT-4 artificial intelligence model into its digital payment processing and other products, Stripe said on Wednesday. The news followed an announcement by Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI that it would release GPT-4, a new version of the powerful artificial intelligence (AI) technology that has powered chatbot sensation ChatGPT. The Stripe move represents one of the first known integrations of OpenAI's new technology, underscoring large companies' interest in embedding AI in their product offerings. There are currently 14 GPT-4 prototypes in the works at San Francisco-based Stripe, said Emily Sands, Stripe's head of information. The first offering will be a way for Stripe's software developers to type out a question and receive summarized answers instead of having to search through developer documentation, Sands said. Another test in the works allows Stripe's customers to make queries about their...

By Vin Shahrestani LONDON - In front of an empty DJ booth at an East London nightclub, partygoers danced to AI-generated beats in a unique experimental rave that sought to test whether an app can match the vibe of real-life records and a mixer.     Artificial intelligence has been touted as a great disruptor in recent months. ChatGPT, a text-based chatbot developed by OpenAI that can draft prose, poetry or even computer code on command, has gained widespread attention in Silicon Valley, spurring investors to pour money into AI-focused startups. On Feb. 17, AI came for the DJ. "Algorhythm" - hosted in The Glove That Fits bar – was billed as one of the first of its kind by its promoter George Pinnegar.     "If we can have AI make beautiful music and we can play that to each other, I think that's probably why it's there. That’s why it's a gift," Pinnegar told .     Powering the night’s pulsating techno and rhythmic drumbeat was Mubert, the app created by a team of Ukrainian and Russian d...

By Maggie Fick STEVENAGE, England - GSK's chief scientist says an overhaul of the drugmaker's R&D unit has begun delivering results - citing an RSV vaccine and promising hepatitis B and asthma treatments - and pledged a tighter focus than his predecessor on infectious disease and HIV. Tony Wood only took the helm of R&D last August. But in an interview with he said he had worked closely since 2018 with his predecessor Hal Barron to drive a culture shift that Chief Executive Emma Walmsley had said was needed to improve performance after her appointment in 2017. Wood highlighted two changes they pushed through in the department's operations: scientists are now encouraged to terminate research projects months earlier if they are failing, and decision-making has been simplified on issues like development plans for drugs in late-stage trials, to minimize delays. He also said that investments under Barron, such as a research partnership with the University of California using CRISPR...

- OpenAI, the creator of chatbot sensation ChatGPT, on Tuesday said it is beginning to release a powerful artificial intelligence model known as GPT-4, setting the stage for even more human-like technology to proliferate. The startup, funded by Microsoft Corp, said in a blog post that text input features from the technology will first be available via ChatGPT and a tool for software developers, with a waitlist.   (Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, Calif.; Editing by Chris Reese)...

By Stephen Nellis - Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company backed by Alphabet Inc, on Tuesday released a large language model that competes directly with offerings from Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Large language models are algorithms that are taught to generate text by feeding them human-written training text. In recent years, researchers have obtained much more human-like results with such models by drastically increasing the amount of data fed to them and the amount of computing power used to train them.  Claude, as Anthropic's model is known, is built to carry out similar tasks to ChatGPT by responding to prompts with human-like text output, whether that is in the form of editing legal contracts or writing computer code. But Anthropic, which was co-founded by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, both of whom are former OpenAI executives, has put a focus on producing AI systems that are less likely to generate offensive or dangerous content, such as in...

By Jeffrey Dastin PALO ALTO, California - Alphabet Inc's Google on Tuesday unveiled a flurry of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for its email, collaboration and cloud software, taking aim at Microsoft Corp days before its rival is expected to make a similar announcement. In a replay of last month's dueling chatbot launches by the tech giants, Alphabet touted a "magic wand" for its popular Google Docs software that can draft a marketing blog, training plan or other text, then revise its tone at users' discretion, a company official demonstrated to reporters. Microsoft, meanwhile, has teased a Thursday event about how it is "reinventing productivity with AI," which is expected to showcase its competing Word processor. Alphabet also said its AI will be able to summarize message threads in Gmail, craft slide presentations, personalize customer outreach and take meeting notes as part of its upgrade to Google Workspace, a product suite with billions of users on free and paid accounts. Th...

By Sheila Dang - Koo, an India-based social media app that aims to rival Twitter, has integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT to help users more easily create posts, the company's co-founder told . ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence bot that can create prose in response to prompts and has set off a tech industry craze over generative AI. Koo users will be able to use ChatGPT directly within the app to help them draft posts about current events, politics or pop culture, said Mayank Bidawatka, co-founder of Koo, in an interview. "This will help creators get inspiration on what to create," he said. "They could ask (ChatGPT) for the trending news in their region and then write their thoughts." Last month, tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet's Google each announced their own generative AI chatbots which can synthesize information across the web in response to searches. Snap Inc, which owns photo messaging app Snapchat, also introduced a chatbot that was trained to have a fun and friendly tone. Bidaw...

By Jeffrey Dastin, Anna Tong and Krystal Hu PALO ALTO, California - Technology executives, prominent venture capitalists and founders including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman raced this weekend to keep alive companies caught up in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Friday's dramatic failure of the bank, which focuses on tech startups, was the biggest since the 2008 financial crisis. It roiled global markets, walloped banking stocks and left California tech entrepreneurs worrying about how to make payroll. Aiming to avoid what Garry Tan, the CEO of startup accelerator Y Combinator, called a potential "extinction level event" in the tech sector, industry executives moved quickly to do what they could to save small businesses. Altman, who runs one of Silicon Valley's hottest companies, bailed out some entrepreneurs from his own pocket, according to a Twitter message by his brother and one beneficiary who spoke with . "I was running out of options, and so I just emailed him," Doktor Gurson, CEO...