AI/News
Turning chaos to clarity: Our intelligent curation system analyzes thousands of sources daily — from blogs and social media chatter to podcasts and research hubs — synthesizing essential insights into plain English you can actually use.
Microsoft’s AI-Powered PCs: Niche Niceties, Missed Opportunities, and Future Potential
Microsoft's first AI-powered PCs, the Copilot+ line, offer decent hardware upgrades but fall short in delivering truly game-changing AI experiences, leaving room for future improvements. Key features and limitations: The AI features in the Copilot+ PCs are more niche niceties than compelling overhauls, with some standout capabilities but also significant limitations: Live Captions, which provide real-time translations of audio and video, showcase the potential of on-device AI by combining generative AI with performance advantages. Windows Studio Effects offer filters to enhance user appearance in video chats, ranging from centering subjects to cartoonifying users, but may not appeal to everyone. Image...
read Jun 28, 2024AI Pioneer Warns of Secretive LLMs, Advocates for User-Owned Alternative
Illia Polosukhin, a key contributor to the development of transformers, is concerned about the secretive and profit-driven nature of large language models (LLMs) and aims to create an open source, user-owned AI model to ensure transparency and accountability. Key concerns with current LLMs: Polosukhin believes that the lack of transparency in LLMs, even from companies founded on openness, poses risks as the technology improves: The data used to train models and the model weights are often unknown, making it difficult to assess potential biases and decision-making processes. As models become more sophisticated, they may be better at manipulating people and...
read Jun 28, 2024EU Accuses Apple of Using AI Delays to Hinder Competition
The EU's competition chief Margrethe Vestager has criticized Apple for delaying AI features in the EU due to regulatory requirements under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), suggesting the company is using this as an excuse to hinder competition. Apple's AI delays in the EU: Apple recently announced it would delay certain AI features on EU iPhones, citing "regulatory uncertainties" and "interoperability requirements" under the DMA as the reasons: The delayed features include AI-powered screen mirroring and SharePlay, which were unveiled at WWDC 2024 for iOS 18 and macOS 15. Apple's decision has drawn scrutiny from the EU, with concerns that...
read Jun 28, 2024TikTok’s “Genie” AI Chatbot: Expanding Offerings Amid US Regulatory Challenges
TikTok is exploring the development of an AI chatbot called "Genie" as it seeks to expand its offerings and navigate regulatory challenges in the US. Key details from the trademark filing: TikTok's parent company ByteDance filed a US trademark application for "Genie" in May, revealing plans for an AI chatbot with capabilities beyond simple search recommendations: The chatbot is designed to simulate conversations, enable interaction between humans and AI, and generate human-like text and speech. This move signals TikTok's ambition to develop a full-fledged chatbot for the US market, going beyond its previous AI experiments like the Tako recommendation chatbot....
read Jun 28, 2024Apple Silicon Chip Exec Joins Rain AI, Signaling Intensifying Competition in AI Hardware Market
Apple Silicon chip executive Jean-Didier Allegrucci has joined Rain AI to lead the development of energy-efficient AI processors, as the startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seeks to make its mark in the competitive AI hardware landscape. Allegrucci's expertise and background: With an impressive track record at Apple, Allegrucci brings valuable experience to Rain AI's hardware ambitions: At Apple, Allegrucci oversaw the development of more than 30 system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs used in flagship products such as iPhones, Macs, iPads, and Apple Watch. His expertise spans a wide range of applications, including CPUs, GPUs, neural processing units (NPUs), image signal...
read Jun 28, 2024Google Translate Adds 110 Languages, Expands Reach to 614M More People Worldwide
Google Translate has significantly expanded its capabilities by leveraging Google's PaLM 2 large language model, allowing it to accurately translate a much wider array of languages, dialects, and creoles. Key details of the expansion: Google Translate is adding 110 new languages, the largest single expansion in the platform's history, enabling it to serve an additional 614 million people, or about 8% of the global population: The update includes some widely spoken languages like Cantonese and Punjabi (Shahmukhi), as well as lesser-known tongues like Manx, Sicilian Italian, and Tok Pisin. African languages saw their biggest expansion, with the addition of Fon,...
read Jun 28, 2024ChatGPT Aces Intro Psych Exams, Stumbles in Advanced Courses, Challenging Academic Integrity
ChatGPT outperforms undergrads in introductory psychology courses but struggles in higher-level classes, raising questions about the impact of AI on academic integrity and the effectiveness of AI detection tools. Study tests ChatGPT's performance on university psychology exams: Researchers at the University of Reading conducted an experiment where they submitted ChatGPT-generated answers to exam questions in five undergraduate psychology modules, spanning all three years of study: The AI-generated submissions included both short 200-word answers and longer 1,500-word essays, with minimal editing or formatting applied to the AI-produced content. Out of the 63 AI-generated submissions, 94% went undetected by markers, and nearly...
read Jun 28, 2024AI Governance: The Urgent Need for a Tech-Savvy President in the AI Era
The need for a president who understands AI is becoming increasingly urgent as the technology rapidly advances and tech leaders make grandiose, unverifiable promises about its potential impact. Key takeaways: Despite the current limitations of AI, it is poised to significantly change many aspects of our lives in the coming years, making it crucial for the next U.S. president to have a deep understanding of the technology and its implications: The policies and regulations set by the next administration will have lasting impacts on how AI is developed and deployed, as well as the responsibilities and liabilities of companies in...
read Jun 28, 2024AI’s Rapid Rise: Reshaping the Future of Creative Work and Writing Skills
As AI models like Claude become more capable of mimicking human writing styles, it raises questions about what skills and qualities will remain valuable for human writers and creators. Key takeaways: The author highlights the importance of avoiding "capability blindness" - the assumption that technology won't drastically improve over time: People often believe things will remain static and fail to notice significant advancements in AI capabilities, such as Claude's ability to write in a human-like voice for short, repetitive tasks. Recognizing the potential for AI to continue improving at a rapid pace is crucial for understanding how it will impact...
read Jun 28, 2024Zuckerberg Slams Closed AI, Unveils Meta’s AR Glasses Roadmap
Mark Zuckerberg criticized unnamed AI competitors for their closed-source approach, suggesting they seem to think they are "creating God" with their limited access AI products. Open AI as the future: Zuckerberg emphasized his belief in open source AI, arguing that artificial intelligence technology should not be hoarded by a single company to build a central product: He finds it off-putting when tech industry figures talk about building "one true AI", as if they are creating something akin to God. Zuckerberg believes realistically there needs to be many different AIs created to reflect diverse interests, comparing it to how there isn't...
read Jun 28, 2024AI Game Characters Offer New Window into the Human Mind and Behavior
The way we interact with AI video game characters can shed light on how the human mind works and reveal insights into human behavior, cooperation, and relationships. Here is a summary of the key points: AI characters open up new avenues for studying the mind: AI-driven non-player characters (NPCs) in video games could enable neuroscientists and psychologists to probe more deeply into the mysteries of the human brain and behavior: Scientists have long used video games as research tools to study learning, navigation, decision-making and cooperation. AI characters could greatly expand the possibilities. Rich, immersive game worlds filled with realistic...
read Jun 28, 2024AWS Probes AI Startup Perplexity Over Alleged Data Scraping Violations
Amazon investigates Perplexity AI over potential data-scraping violations: Amazon Web Services is looking into whether AI startup Perplexity is violating its terms of service by scraping web content without permission, following reports from multiple news outlets. Accusations of improper data scraping: Several publications, including Forbes and Wired, have accused Perplexity of swiping their web archives to train its AI models without consent or compensation: Forbes alleged that Perplexity is creating "knockoff stories" using similar wording and lifted fragments from its articles without adequate citation. Wired identified an IP address it believes Perplexity is using to crawl its sites and those...
read Jun 28, 2024Google Cloud Boosts AI Accuracy with New Updates to Vertex AI
Google Cloud introduces new Vertex AI capabilities to enhance the accuracy and reliability of enterprise AI applications, addressing concerns about misleading or inaccurate outputs from generative AI models. Key features for enterprise-ready AI: Google Cloud is rolling out new features for its Vertex AI platform to help organizations build more accurate and trustworthy AI services: Grounding with third-party datasets: Customers can now leverage specialized datasets from providers like Moody's, MSCI, Thomson Reuters, and ZoomInfo to improve the accuracy of their AI models' outputs, with this feature becoming available in Q3 2024. High-fidelity mode: Organizations can use their own corporate datasets...
read Jun 28, 2024CIR Sues OpenAI, Microsoft for Copyright Infringement in AI Training
The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement related to their use of CIR's content in training AI models without permission or compensation. Key details of the lawsuit: The CIR claims that OpenAI and Microsoft have copied, used, and displayed CIR's journalistic content without authorization, and that OpenAI trained ChatGPT to disregard copyright: The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York, with the CIR seeking damages and profits from the defendants. CIR's CEO accused OpenAI and Microsoft of "free rider behavior," using their stories to enhance AI products...
read Jun 28, 2024Time Magazine Embraces AI with OpenAI and ElevenLabs Partnerships
The Time Magazine media company is diving into generative AI through new partnerships with OpenAI and ElevenLabs. OpenAI partnership: Time is providing its current and archival content for OpenAI to train its models, while gaining distribution through ChatGPT serving up Time article summaries with source links. Time will also get access to new OpenAI tools and models to use in its journalism and business operations. This is the eighth publicly disclosed media partnership for OpenAI, following deals with The Atlantic, Vox Media, Meredith Dotdash, Financial Times, Axel Springer, Associated Press, and the American Journalism Project. Notable holdouts are the New...
read Jun 28, 2024Meta’s LLM Compiler Is the Latest Breakthrough To Change How Developers Will Code
Meta's LLM Compiler is a groundbreaking suite of open-source models that could revolutionize code optimization and compiler design, making the process faster, more efficient, and cost-effective. AI-powered code optimization: LLM Compiler pushes the boundaries of efficiency by demonstrating remarkable results in code size optimization and disassembly: The model reached 77% of the optimizing potential of an autotuning search in tests, which could significantly reduce compilation times and improve code efficiency across various applications. LLM Compiler achieved a 45% success rate in round-trip disassembly when converting x86_64 and ARM assembly back into LLVM-IR, showcasing its potential for reverse engineering tasks and...
read Jun 28, 2024Orby AI Raises $30M to Automate Enterprise Workflows with Generative AI
Orby AI, a generative AI startup, has raised $30 million to automate complex enterprise workflows, potentially ushering in a new era of AI-powered productivity. Introducing Orby AI's "large action model" technology: Orby AI has unveiled its new generative AI platform powered by "large action models" that learn and automate complex business processes: The models take multi-modal inputs like screenshots, clicks, and keystrokes to learn workflows and generate scripts and code for automation. Orby AI aims to differentiate itself from traditional robotic process automation (RPA) solutions by leveraging generative AI to handle complex, non-rule-based processes. The platform still involves human employees...
read Jun 28, 2024Leaked Video Reveals GPT-4o’s Captivating Storytelling with Realistic Sound Effects
GPT-4o advanced voice inadvertently released to select users, revealing new capabilities: OpenAI accidentally granted a few lucky ChatGPT users early access to the highly anticipated GPT-4o advanced voice feature, providing a glimpse into its enhanced abilities, including the generation of sound effects. Reddit user shares recording of GPT-4o telling a captivating story with audio effects; Reddit user RozziTheCreator was among the fortunate few who briefly experienced the advanced voice feature: In the shared recording, GPT-4o can be heard narrating a suspenseful tale about two teens exploring a mysterious house during a storm, complete with realistic sound effects like thunder and...
read Jun 28, 2024Perplexity’s Unethical Practices Threaten Web’s Foundations, Raising Concerns for AI Industry’s Integrity
Perplexity, an AI startup creating a Google Search competitor, has been engaging in unethical practices to build its "answer engine," raising questions about the company's integrity and the broader implications for the web. Key issues with Perplexity's approach: Perplexity's practices have come under scrutiny for their potential to undermine the web's foundations and the work of primary sources: Perplexity's "answer engine" acts as a rent-seeking middleman, providing answers directly to users rather than sending traffic to the original sources, thus depriving them of ad revenue. The company's Pages product creates entire aggregated articles by plagiarizing content from primary sources, going...
read Jun 28, 2024CriticGPT: AI-Assisted Error Detection Boosts AI Alignment, Outperforms Human Reviewers
OpenAI's CriticGPT model advances AI alignment efforts by effectively identifying errors in ChatGPT-generated code, outperforming human reviewers in catching bugs and reducing confabulation. Key development: CriticGPT trained to critique ChatGPT output; OpenAI researchers have created CriticGPT, a GPT-4-based model specifically trained to identify mistakes in code generated by the ChatGPT AI assistant: The model was trained on a dataset of code samples containing intentionally inserted bugs, learning to recognize and flag various coding errors. CriticGPT's critiques were preferred by annotators over human critiques in 63% of cases involving naturally occurring errors in ChatGPT's output. Enhancing human-AI collaboration in AI alignment:...
read Jun 27, 2024AI Pioneer Seeks to Democratize Technology, Prioritizing User Privacy and Sovereignty
Artificial intelligence pioneer seeks to democratize AI: Illia Polosukhin, one of the "Transformer 8" who invented the transformer neural network architecture at Google, left the company in 2017 to start his own AI venture, Near, with the goal of making AI more accessible and user-centric. Polosukhin co-wrote the seminal 2017 paper "Attention Is All You Need" with seven Google colleagues, laying the groundwork for modern generative AI systems like ChatGPT. While at Google, Polosukhin advocated for open-sourcing the transformer architecture, believing it was crucial for widespread adoption and innovation in the field. Google began using transformers in its translation services...
read Jun 27, 2024AI Breakthrough: Language Models without Matrix Multiplication, Slashing Power Consumption
Researchers claim a breakthrough in AI efficiency by eliminating matrix multiplication, a fundamental operation in current neural networks, which could significantly reduce the power consumption and costs of running large language models. Key Takeaways: Researchers from UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, LuxiTech, and Soochow University have developed a method to run AI language models without using matrix multiplication (MatMul), which is currently accelerated by power-hungry GPU chips. Their custom 2.7 billion parameter model achieved similar performance to conventional large language models while consuming far less power when run on an FPGA chip. This development challenges the prevailing paradigm that matrix...
read Jun 27, 2024AI Beauty Pageant Raises Concerns Over Tech’s Impact on Beauty Standards
The world's first AI beauty pageant raises questions about the tech's impact on beauty standards Key takeaways: The "Miss AI" pageant showcases the power of AI to generate realistic images of women, but also perpetuates traditional beauty ideals: The 10 AI-generated contestants, selected from over 1,500 entries, are mostly young, thin, White women with symmetrical features and long hair. While creators argue the tech itself isn't the problem, research shows AI can reflect and reinforce gender and racial stereotypes by learning from biased online data. Broader implications for beauty standards: As AI-generated images proliferate, experts warn they could further narrow...
read Jun 27, 2024Google’s Imagen 3 Launches on Vertex AI, Transforming Text-to-Image Generation
Google's Imagen 3 text-to-image foundation model is now available in preview on the company's Vertex AI platform, offering enhanced capabilities for generating high-quality images from text prompts. Key features of Imagen 3 on Vertex AI: The updated model brings several improvements to the text-to-image generation process, making it more accessible and powerful for developers: Faster image generation, better prompt understanding, and more photorealistic output, especially when generating images of people Greater control over text rendering within the generated images Multi-language support, safety features like SynthID digital watermarking, and multiple aspect ratio support Early adopter feedback: Shutterstock, a stock photography provider,...
read