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Inadequate Infrastructure and Talent Threaten to Leave Africa Behind in the AI Revolution
The AI revolution threatens to leave Africa behind, as the continent faces significant infrastructure gaps that create a new digital divide. Two key factors are hindering Africa's ability to capitalize on the transformative potential of AI: Inadequate digital infrastructure: Africa lacks the necessary foundation to support widespread AI adoption and development: Only a third of Africans have access to 4G mobile networks, compared to 90% in rich countries, limiting the ability to use data-hungry AI applications. Less than 1% of African homes have a fixed broadband connection, further constraining access to high-speed internet crucial for AI development and deployment. Electricity...
read Jul 25, 2024CrowdStrike Tech Glitch Highlights Risks and Importance of Human Touch in AI-Driven Workplaces
The widespread use of artificial intelligence and robots in the workplace raises concerns about job security and work meaningfulness, as highlighted by a recent tech glitch that caused massive office disruptions worldwide. Key Takeaways: The incident underscores the critical role of IT professionals in keeping businesses running smoothly and the potential consequences of over-reliance on technology: A routine software update by CrowdStrike, a cyber-security company, led to computer outages in various settings, rendering many white-collar workers unproductive without access to their systems. IT staff came to the rescue, resolving issues and helping colleagues and customers, demonstrating the importance of their...
read Jul 25, 2024Nike is Using Generative AI to Create Custom Shoe Designs
Nike is leveraging generative AI to create custom shoe designs in collaboration with star athletes, demonstrating the technology's potential to enhance creativity and personalization in the design process. Athlete-inspired AI revolution: Nike's "Art of Victory" exhibition in Paris showcases prototype shoes designed with and for individual athletes across basketball, track, soccer, and tennis, with AI playing a key role in the ideation process: The exhibition features custom designs for basketball stars A'ja Wilson and Victor Wembanyama, sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson, and soccer legends Sam Kerr and Kylian Mbappé, among others. Alongside the final prototype for each athlete, Nike displayed smaller gray...
read Jul 25, 2024AI Stock Sell-Off Rattles Markets and Has Investors Reassessing the AI Boom
The recent sell-off in technology stocks, particularly those related to artificial intelligence (AI), has led to sharp declines in US and Asian financial markets. Investors are reassessing the AI-fueled stock market boom amid concerns over high spending and uncertain revenue benefits. Market reactions and major movers: The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all experienced significant drops, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq falling 3.6% in its biggest one-day fall since 2022: Shares in AI chip giant Nvidia, a key beneficiary of the AI boom, dropped 6.8% and have lost about 15% of their value in the last two weeks....
read Jul 25, 2024When to Expect Apple Intelligence on Your Devices
Apple's upcoming AI features, collectively known as Apple Intelligence, won't be immediately available in the iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia betas, but will eventually be added ahead of a launch later this year, albeit still in beta form: Apple Intelligence features are designed for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but require specific hardware, such as the A15 Bionic chip in the iPhone 15 Pro models or M1 chips in Macs and certain iPad models. While the software updates will be released to the general public in the fall, likely in September, the Apple Intelligence features will still carry a...
read Jul 25, 2024A Japanese Supermarket Is Using AI to Improve Service — By Monitoring Its Staff’s Facial Expressions
AEON, a Japanese supermarket chain, has introduced an AI system to standardize and improve employee service attitudes, sparking a debate about workplace harassment and customer service expectations. Key Details: The AI system, called "Mr Smile", is being used across AEON's 240 stores in Japan to assess and improve employee service: The system analyzes over 450 elements, including facial expressions, voice volume, and tone of greetings, to rate an employee's service attitude. AEON conducted a trial in 8 stores with 3,400 staff members and found that service attitudes improved by up to 1.6 times over three months. The company aims to...
read Jul 25, 2024What a Harris Presidency Might Mean for AI Regulation
Vice President Kamala Harris has taken a leading role within the Biden administration on artificial intelligence regulation as the technology rapidly advances. Her moderate approach and willingness to engage with both industry and government stakeholders could signal continuity in AI policy if she were to become president. Harris's track record on AI: As the White House's designated AI czar, Harris has spearheaded several key initiatives: She convened meetings with tech CEOs from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic to secure voluntary commitments on AI safety standards. Harris led the development of a White House executive order guiding the federal government's use...
read Jul 25, 2024Microsoft’s Latest Redesign of Bing Puts AI at the Forefront
Microsoft's latest redesign of Bing places AI-generated answers at the forefront, potentially changing how users interact with search engines and the web. Key points of Bing's AI-driven search experience: The new layout fills the search results page with AI-generated summaries addressing various aspects of a user's query, while traditional search results are pushed to a thin column on the side: For example, a search for "What is a spaghetti western?" generates a summary explaining the subgenre, its key characteristics, history, influential movies, and even music details. Microsoft states that this new experience combines Bing search with large and small language...
read Jul 25, 2024Unstructured Data Poses Important Considerations for Privacy, Governance and Ownership in the AI Era
The rapid advancements in AI's ability to analyze unstructured data are raising important questions about data privacy and ownership. Key Takeaways: As AI systems become increasingly capable of extracting insights from vast amounts of unstructured data, it's crucial to consider the privacy implications: While unstructured data may seem less sensitive than structured databases containing personal identifiers, AI can still pull together inferences, timelines, and narratives that could be highly intrusive. The era of AI moving from structured data sets to a more general technology approaching "universal knowledge" is both thrilling and potentially terrifying from a privacy perspective. Advancements in AI...
read Jul 25, 2024IBM Posts Strong Q2 Earnings Driven by Generative AI, Defying Economic Headwinds
IBM delivers strong Q2 results, fueled by generative AI and positive tech spending outlook Key Takeaways: IBM's second-quarter earnings and revenue surpassed analysts' expectations, leading to a 5% jump in shares after hours: Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.43, beating the $2.20 forecast by LSEG. Revenue reached $15.77 billion, exceeding the expected $15.62 billion and marking a 1.9% increase from the previous year. Generative AI drives growth; positive outlook maintained: IBM's CEO Arvind Krishna highlighted the company's expanding generative AI business and expressed confidence in the tech spending landscape: The company's generative AI book of business now exceeds...
read Jul 25, 2024Salesforce and Workday Join Forces to Give Enterprise AI Software a Big Upgrade
The partnership between Salesforce and Workday aims to give enterprise software a significant boost by integrating advanced AI capabilities and unified data across customer relationship management, human resources, and finance. AI-powered employee service agents: The collaboration introduces an AI-driven employee service agent built on Salesforce's AgentForce platform, which will automate tasks like onboarding, benefits management, and career development by leveraging data from both companies. The virtual assistant will seamlessly handoff tasks and transfer knowledge between AI and human agents, providing an integrated user experience. Unified data foundation: Workday joins Salesforce's "zero-copy" partner network, enabling seamless data access between the two...
read Jul 25, 2024Improper AI Adoption Is Increasing Burnout, Upwork Survey Says
AI's impact on the workplace is more complex than anticipated, leading to increased workloads and employee burnout, according to an Upwork survey of executives and employees across four countries. The study reveals a significant disconnect between executive expectations and employee experiences when it comes to AI-driven productivity gains. Executives optimistic about AI boosting productivity; employees struggle to realize gains: While 96% of executives expect AI to enhance worker productivity, 47% of employees using AI are unsure how to achieve the anticipated efficiency improvements, with 77% reporting decreased productivity and increased workloads due to AI tools. Employees cite the need to...
read Jul 25, 2024AI Disrupts Reality TV: Casting Challenges, Deepfakes, and Digital Clones
The rise of AI is transforming the reality TV industry, impacting both the casting process and the creation of unauthorized content featuring reality stars. AI's impact on casting: Reality TV casting directors are facing challenges due to applicants using AI filters and editing tools on their social media photos, making it harder to assess their real appearance: Valerie Penso-Cuculich, a casting director for shows like Love Island USA and The Real Housewives of Dubai, says potential contestants are increasingly using AI to alter their appearance, resulting in over-filtered images that don't reflect reality. When applicants show up for Zoom auditions,...
read Jul 25, 2024Nvidia Bets Big on Custom AI Models with AI Foundry Launch
Nvidia's AI Foundry service aims to help businesses create and deploy custom large language models, signaling the company's push to capture a larger share of the booming enterprise AI market. Customization drives accuracy: Nvidia claims that customizing open-source models like Meta's Llama 3.1 for specific business use cases can significantly improve model performance: The AI Foundry service provides access to pre-trained models, high-performance computing resources through Nvidia's DGX Cloud, and the NeMo toolkit for model customization and evaluation. Nvidia reports seeing almost a ten-point increase in accuracy by simply customizing models for enterprise clients. NIM: Nvidia's unique approach to AI...
read Jul 24, 2024Mistral Large 2 Just Dropped, and It’s the Latest Open-Source Powerhouse AI Model
Mistral AI shocks the AI world with the release of Mistral Large 2, a powerful open-source model that takes on Meta's Llama 3.1 in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Key details of Mistral Large 2 release: Mistral's new flagship model boasts 123 billion parameters and is licensed as open-source for non-commercial research use, while commercial applications require a separate license: The model offers advanced multilingual capabilities, supporting dozens of languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Mistral Large 2 delivers strong performance in reasoning, code generation, and mathematics, making it ideal for...
read Jul 24, 2024Silicon Valley’s Audacious AI Attitude: Unleashing Progress or Imposing Values?
Tech industry's audacious attitude and actions regarding generative AI are cause for concern among many, who claim that a small group of Silicon Valley leaders believe they are on the cusp of creating an artificial superintelligence that will radically reshape society. Here are those opponents views... Key takeaways: AI companies are brushing aside problems such as copyright infringement, job displacement, and the spread of low-quality content, while embracing a manifest-destiny attitude toward their technologies. Some AI leaders are expressing paternalistic views about the future, suggesting that those who don't embrace their technology will be left behind. There are material concerns,...
read Jul 24, 2024Reddit Blocks Search Engines, AI Bots as Google Retains Exclusive Access Through Deal
Reddit is ramping up its efforts to protect its data and generate revenue by blocking search engines and AI bots from accessing recent posts and comments unless they pay for access. Google's exclusive access: Google is currently the only mainstream search engine showing recent Reddit results due to a $60 million deal allowing the company to train its AI models using Reddit's content: Other search engines like Bing and DuckDuckGo are excluded, leaving Google as the sole provider of up-to-date Reddit search results. This move comes after Reddit threatened to cut off Google's access if the company continued using the...
read Jul 24, 2024OpenAI’s “Rules Based Rewards” Aims to Automate AI Safety Alignment
OpenAI has developed a new method called Rules Based Rewards (RBR) to align AI models with safety policies more efficiently. Key Takeaways: RBR automates some of the fine-tuning process and reduces the time needed to ensure a model produces intended results: Safety and policy teams create a set of rules for the model to follow, and an AI model scores responses based on adherence to these rules. This approach is comparable to reinforcement learning from human feedback but reduces the subjectivity often faced by human evaluators. OpenAI acknowledges that RBR could reduce human oversight and potentially increase bias, so researchers...
read Jul 24, 2024Senate Passes DEFIANCE Act, Enabling Victims to Sue Deepfake Creators for Damages
The U.S. Senate passed the DEFIANCE Act, a bill that allows victims of nonconsensual intimate AI-generated images, or "deepfakes," to sue the creators for damages, marking a significant step in addressing the growing problem of AI-enabled sexual exploitation. Key provisions of the DEFIANCE Act: The bill enables victims of sexually explicit deepfakes to seek civil remedies against those who created or processed the images with the intent to distribute them: Identifiable victims can receive up to $150,000 in damages, which can be increased to $250,000 if the incident is connected to sexual assault, stalking, harassment, or if it directly caused...
read Jul 24, 2024Udio 1.5 Just Dropped with Enhanced Audio, New Music Gen Features, and Expanded Language Support
Udio, the AI music generator, has received a significant upgrade, introducing several new features and audio improvements that enhance the quality and versatility of its music creation capabilities. Enhanced audio quality and clarity: Version 1.5 of Udio brings notable improvements to the generated tracks, resulting in a more authentic and polished sound: The update promises 48kHz-stereo tracks with better clarity, instrument separation, transients, coherence, and overall musicality. Examples provided by Udio showcase warmer vocals compared to the previous version, as well as a more natural sound that feels closer to the speakers and less echo-y. New features for expanded creative...
read Jul 24, 2024How AI Unlocks Personalized Customer Experiences, Rebuilds Trust in Communications
The emergence of AI is enabling businesses to put the customer experience back at the center of innovation by simplifying communication, building trust, and leveraging data to better understand and serve customers. Knowing the customer through unified profiles: Creating a cohesive view of customers using first-party data and AI-driven personalization is key to understanding their evolving needs and preferences: Customer Data Platforms can turn disparate data sources into unified customer profiles that update in real-time, providing a full history of each customer's interactions with a brand. 92% of businesses are already using AI-driven personalization to drive growth by leveraging data...
read Jul 24, 2024Why Some Experts Believe Synthetic Data Will Degrade Future Models
The proliferation of AI-generated junk web pages poses a significant challenge to the future development and performance of AI models, as training on increasingly synthetic data can lead to degraded output quality and potential model collapse. Key takeaways from the research: A study published in Nature demonstrates that the quality of an AI model's output gradually deteriorates when trained on data generated by other AI models: The effect worsens as subsequent models produce output that is then used as training data for future models, likened to taking photos of photos and eventually being left with a dark square or "model...
read Jul 24, 2024How AI Is Enhancing Creativity and Streamlining Production for Filmmaking
The rise of artificial intelligence in filmmaking is transforming the industry, offering directors powerful new tools and creative possibilities. AI is now involved in nearly every stage of the filmmaking process, from scriptwriting to post-production editing. AI's multifaceted role in modern filmmaking: AI algorithms are being used to analyze successful scripts, identify storytelling patterns, and suggest plot points, character developments, and dialogue, helping filmmakers craft more resonant narratives: AI has been used to write short film scripts, such as Sunspring (2016) and It's No Game (2017), showcasing its potential to generate creative content. AI is also being integrated into cinematography...
read Jul 24, 2024Tinder’s AI-Powered Photo Selector: Revolutionizing Online Dating or Fueling Superficiality?
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence technology is transforming various aspects of our lives, and online dating is no exception. Tinder, one of the most popular dating apps, has recently introduced a new AI-powered feature called "Photo Selector" to help users choose the best profile pictures, potentially revolutionizing the way people present themselves on the platform. Key Takeaways: AI simplifies the profile creation process; The Photo Selector feature uses facial recognition and access to the user's camera roll to curate a selection of photos that are most suitable for their dating profile: Tinder's commissioned study revealed that singles aged 18-24...
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