AI/News
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Telecoms Embrace AI to Boost Networks, Brace for Data Explosion
Mobile phone networks are increasingly harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve network performance, customer service, and energy efficiency, while also preparing for the data demands of the AI era. Key developments in AI adoption by telecoms firms: Mobile network operators are leveraging AI in various ways to optimize their networks and services: AI is being used to dynamically manage radio frequencies, monitor cell towers, and reduce energy consumption during periods of lower demand. South Korea's Korea Telecom can now localize and fix network faults within a minute using AI-enabled monitoring, while AT&T in the US employs predictive...
read Jun 20, 2024AI “Truth Cop” Fights Chatbot Hallucinations, But Challenges Remain
A new approach to detecting AI hallucinations could pave the way for more reliable and trustworthy chatbots and answer engines in domains like health care and education. Key innovation: Using semantic entropy to catch AI's confabulations; The method measures the randomness of an AI model's responses by asking the same question multiple times and using a second "truth cop" model to compare the semantic similarity of the answers: Responses with similar meanings across multiple queries earn low entropy scores, indicating the model's output is likely reliable. Answers with vastly different meanings to the same question get high entropy scores, signaling...
read Jun 20, 2024AI Driving Cloud Disruption: Bessemer’s 2024 State of the Cloud Report
Bessemer Venture Partners' 2024 State of the Cloud report highlights five key trends shaping the future of the Cloud AI economy, indicating that the reality of AI adoption is outpacing the hype. Big Tech's battle over AI foundation models: The report predicts that foundation models will become the new "oil" fueling downstream AI applications, with Big Tech companies vying for market dominance through significant investments in model providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. Bessemer believes the majority of value captured in the model layer will be shared by incumbent cloud vendors and a few household name layer companies. The battle...
read Jun 20, 2024AI “Openness Gaps” Revealed: Study Finds Tech Giants Less Transparent Than Smaller Players
A new analysis of 40 large language models (LLMs) claiming to be "open source" found significant discrepancies in the level of openness provided by different developers, with smaller players generally being more transparent than tech giants: Key Takeaways: Researchers Mark Dingemanse and Andreas Liesenfeld created an openness league table assessing models on 14 parameters, revealing that many models described as "open source" fail to disclose important information about the underlying technology: Around half of the analyzed models do not provide any details about training datasets beyond generic descriptions. Truly open-source models should allow outside researchers to inspect, customize, and reproduce...
read Jun 20, 2024Global AI Race Intensifies as Countries, Startups Aim to Challenge U.S. Dominance
The global race for AI dominance has intensified following the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT, with countries and startups around the world scrambling to avoid becoming dependent on U.S. tech innovations once again. Europe's AI ambitions: Aleph Alpha, a German AI startup, is driven not only by financial motivations but also by a desire to ensure Europe doesn't fall behind in the AI race: CEO Jonas Andrulis admitted that the hype surrounding ChatGPT forced Aleph Alpha to accelerate its efforts to avoid being left behind, despite having raised over $33 million and released an early multimodal large-language model. The startup's tribal...
read Jun 20, 2024Niloom.ai Launches Generative AI Platform for AR/VR Content Creation
Niloom.ai launches generative AI platform for creating AR/VR content, aiming to revolutionize the spatial computing ecosystem by making sophisticated content creation accessible to creators of all technical backgrounds. Key features and capabilities: Niloom.ai's comprehensive platform integrates over 100 features, enabling users to generate, prototype, edit, and publish AR/VR experiences quickly and cost-effectively: Users can create individual assets such as 3D models, images, music, sound effects, and AI-driven voices using simple text or speech prompts. The platform offers advanced editing tools, including live collaboration, precision editing, version control, testing, and simulation. Creators can capture a bird's eye view of entire projects...
read Jun 20, 2024Nvidia CEO Pushes into Software, Cloud Services Amid Concerns Over Chip Demand, Data Centers
The rapid development and high demand for Nvidia's AI chips have led to concerns about data center capacity and the company's future growth, prompting CEO Jensen Huang to push Nvidia into software and cloud services. Key takeaways: Huang's worries about customer data center space for Nvidia's AI chips highlight the challenges of sustaining the company's remarkable growth: Nvidia's biggest customers, cloud server providers like AWS and Microsoft, may not have enough data center capacity and power to accommodate the AI chips they've ordered. Huang has held meetings with executives to discuss this issue, leading to increased communication with customers to...
read Jun 20, 2024AI Comedians: Google DeepMind Study Reveals Potential and Limitations of AI-Generated Humor
In a recent study, Google DeepMind researchers asked 20 professional comedians to test an AI language model's ability to generate jokes, raising questions about the potential and limitations of AI in creative fields like comedy. Key findings: The study, which involved prompting an AI chatbot to generate jokes on various topics, yielded mixed results and insights into the current state of AI-generated humor: While the AI was able to generate jokes that followed basic structures and incorporated relevant keywords, many of the jokes lacked coherence, cleverness, and the element of surprise that is crucial to effective comedy. The comedians noted...
read Jun 19, 2024Publishers Accuse Perplexity of Unauthorized Web Scraping
Perplexity, a buzzy AI search engine, faces criticism from publishers for ignoring robots.txt files and scraping their content without permission, raising questions about the startup's practices and the future of online publishing. Perplexity's alleged web scraping practices: Despite being blocked by some websites, Perplexity continues to access and use their content, sparking outrage among publishers: Wired and Robb Knight, a developer at MacStories, found that Perplexity ignored their robots.txt files, which are standard instructions for web crawlers to respect a website's preferences regarding content scraping. The publishers had explicitly blocked Perplexity in these files but discovered that the AI search...
read Jun 19, 2024AI Voice Filters: The Secret Weapon to Tame Angry Customers and Boost Contact Center Performance
Contact centers are adopting AI-powered voice filters to reduce the stress levels of agents handling angry customers, with the technology showing promising results in improving staff retention and customer relationships. The problem of angry customers: Dealing with irate customers is a persistent challenge for contact centers, exacerbated by issues such as short staffing and long wait times: In 2023, 43% of US customers admitted to yelling or raising their voices to express displeasure, up from 35% in 2015. Attracting staff to work in contact centers remains difficult, with AI not yet providing the expected solution to the underlying causes of...
read Jun 19, 2024AI-Powered Social Media App Foreshadows a Future Where Humans and AI Coexist Online
A new app called Butterflies is pushing the boundaries of how we interact with AI on social media, potentially foreshadowing a future where AI-generated content becomes more prevalent and intertwined with human interactions on these platforms. Key Takeaways: Butterflies is a social media app that allows users to create AI characters, or "Butterflies," which generate their own photos and interact with other accounts autonomously: Users can create an unlimited number of Butterflies that coexist with human accounts on the platform. The app has a similar interface to Instagram but with the added twist of AI-generated content and interactions. Butterflies recently...
read Jun 19, 2024Google’s AI Breakthrough: V2A Generates Stunningly Realistic Audio for Videos, Hinting at a New Era in Content Creation
Google DeepMind's new AI tool, V2A, shows promise in generating realistic audio for videos, potentially filling a gap in current generative video technology. Here's a summary of the key points: Introducing V2A: Google's AI laboratory has unveiled a new video-to-audio tool that uses AI to create audio matching the content of a video: V2A can deliver convincing audio like footsteps or drum strokes that sync with the video's timing. The technology aims to address the lack of audio in current generative video tools like OpenAI's Sora, Luma AI's Dream Machine, and Google's Veo. Capabilities and potential: V2A demonstrates impressive audio...
read Jun 19, 2024ElevenLabs Releases Open-Source AI Tool to Create Sound Effects for Videos
ElevenLabs releases open-source tool for generating sound effects in videos, showcasing the potential of its recently launched Sound Effects API and aiming to simplify the creative process for developers and filmmakers in the rapidly evolving AI video generation space. Key features of the Video to Sound Effects app: ElevenLabs' new open-source tool allows users to generate sound effect samples for their videos quickly and easily: Users can upload a video, and the app extracts four frames at one-second intervals, sending them along with a prompt to OpenAI's GPT-4o to create a custom text-to-sound effects prompt. The generated prompt is then...
read Jun 19, 2024Perplexity AI’s Search Engine: Groundbreaking Innovation or Google Imitation? Scrutiny Mounts as Similarities Emerge
Perplexity AI, a startup leveraging advanced language models to create a new search engine, has faced scrutiny over the similarity of its search results to those of Google, raising questions about the true extent of its innovation and the potential implications for the future of search. Key Takeaways: Perplexity AI's search engine, which relies on OpenAI's language models, has generated both excitement and skepticism within the tech industry: The startup claims its search engine represents a significant advancement in search technology, providing more comprehensive and conversational results compared to traditional search engines like Google. However, an analysis of Perplexity's search...
read Jun 19, 2024DeepMind’s AI Breakthrough: Generating Soundtracks and Dialogue for Videos
DeepMind unveils AI tech that generates soundtracks and dialogue for videos, potentially reshaping the AI-generated media landscape and raising concerns about the impact on creative industries. Key aspects of DeepMind's V2A technology: DeepMind's new AI model, called V2A (short for "video-to-audio"), can generate music, sound effects, and dialogue that match the characters and tone of a given video: V2A takes a description of a soundtrack paired with a video to create audio that syncs with the visuals, using DeepMind's deepfakes-combating SynthID technology to watermark the generated content. The underlying diffusion model was trained on a combination of sounds, dialogue transcripts,...
read Jun 19, 2024AI Chatbots Caught Spreading Russian Misinformation Ahead of Crucial Elections Worldwide
Leading AI chatbots are spreading Russian misinformation, raising concerns about the reliability and potential dangers of these increasingly popular tools, especially in the context of upcoming elections worldwide. Key findings from NewsGuard's study: NewsGuard, a media watchdog organization, conducted a study revealing that top AI chatbots are spreading Russian disinformation at an alarming rate: When presented with 57 prompts related to narratives created by John Mark Dougan, an American fugitive spreading misinformation from Moscow, the chatbots repeated the false information 32% of the time. The chatbots cited Dougan's fake local news sites as reliable sources, presenting fabricated reports about a...
read Jun 19, 2024Nvidia Crowned World’s Most Valuable Company Amid AI Frenzy, as Musk’s Divided Attention Worries Tesla Investors
Nvidia surpasses tech giants to become the world's most valuable company as AI hype fuels its stock price, while Elon Musk's focus on other ventures raises concerns among Tesla shareholders. Key developments in the AI industry: The past week saw significant shifts in the tech landscape, with Nvidia and Tesla making headlines: Nvidia's market cap now exceeds $3.3 trillion, making it the world's most valuable company, surpassing Microsoft and Apple, as its stock price continues to soar amid the AI boom. A group of ten Nvidia shareholders, including board members and executives, collectively gained $36 billion in wealth over the...
read Jun 19, 2024AI Pioneer Ilya Sutskever Launches New Company to Tackle the Most Critical Problem of Our Time: Safe Superintelligence
Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, launches new AI company focused solely on developing safe superintelligence, raising questions about the future of AI safety research and the competitive landscape. Key details of Sutskever's new venture: Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) was founded just one month after Sutskever's departure from OpenAI, where he served as chief scientist: Sutskever co-founded SSI with ex-Y Combinator partner Daniel Gross and former OpenAI engineer Daniel Levy. The company's singular mission is to build "safe superintelligence" or "SSI", which they believe is the most important technical problem of our time. Unlike OpenAI's nonprofit origins, SSI is designed from...
read Jun 19, 2024TikTok’s AI Avatars Spark Creator Concerns and Raise Questions about Advertising’s Future
TikTok introduces generative AI avatars for ads and branded content, sparking questions about creator control and the future of advertising on the platform. Custom Avatars give creators control over their AI likeness: TikTok's new Custom Avatars allow creators to scale their likeness into multilingual avatars for global brand collaborations, while maintaining control over usage rights and rates: Creators can choose to create AI avatars based on their own likeness to expand their reach and brand partnerships across multiple languages. The Custom Avatar system is designed to give creators control over how their AI likeness is used, including setting their own...
read Jun 19, 2024Runway’s Gen-3 Alpha Sparks AI-Generated Video Revolution, Threatening Jobs and Raising Copyright Concerns
Runway's latest AI model, Gen-3 Alpha, generates high-quality video clips from text and images, offering improved speed, fidelity, and control compared to its predecessor, as the race for advanced AI-generated video heats up in the tech industry. Key features and capabilities: Gen-3 Alpha excels at generating expressive human characters with a wide range of actions, gestures, and emotions, while interpreting various styles and cinematic terminology: The model enables imaginative transitions and precise key-framing of elements in the scene, allowing for more creative control over the generated videos. Despite some limitations, such as a maximum video length of 10 seconds and...
read Jun 19, 2024Apple’s AI Strategy: Simplicity, Privacy, and the Looming Battle for AI Dominance
Apple unveils a streamlined and user-friendly approach to AI, contrasting with Microsoft's more complex strategy and highlighting the growing competition in the field. Apple's measured AI rollout plan: Apple introduced its upcoming AI features with a focus on simplicity and privacy, reflecting its cautious approach to the technology: The company emphasized AI's role in enhancing existing features like autocorrect and photo organization, rather than launching standalone AI products. Apple stressed its commitment to privacy, noting that most AI processing will occur on-device to minimize data sharing. The gradual rollout strategy allows Apple to observe user reactions and gather feedback before...
read Jun 19, 2024Relying on Junior Employees for AI Adoption: A Risky Bet, Study Reveals
A new study reveals the limitations of relying on junior employees to guide the adoption of rapidly-evolving AI technologies in organizations, highlighting the need for top-down governance and expert input. Key Takeaways: The research challenges the conventional wisdom that younger, tech-savvy employees are best suited to teach their managers how to effectively use powerful new AI tools: Junior consultants who experimented with GPT-4 made recommendations for mitigating AI risks that ran counter to expert advice, suggesting they may not be the best source of expertise for senior members. The junior employees' risk mitigation tactics were often grounded in a lack...
read Jun 19, 2024AI Chatbot Runs for Mayor in Wyoming, Sparking Legal and Ethical Debate
An artificial intelligence chatbot named VIC is running for mayor in Cheyenne, Wyoming, sparking a debate about the legality and implications of AI in politics. Key details about the AI candidate: Victor Miller, a tech hobbyist who works at a local library, created VIC (Virtual Integrated Citizen) using OpenAI's ChatGPT 4.0 and is running for mayor with the promise that the AI bot will make all the decisions if elected: Miller says he will act as VIC's "meat puppet," attending meetings, signing documents, and carrying out the bot's directives, claiming that VIC is smarter and has a better grasp of...
read Jun 14, 2024Propagandists Exploit AI to Spread Influence, Platforms Must Act
Propagandists Are Using AI Too—and Companies Need to Be Open About It At the end of May, OpenAI reported a significant development in its corporate history - the disclosure that bad actors had misused its products to run influence operations. The company had detected five networks of covert propagandists from Russia, China, Iran, and Israel using OpenAI's generative AI tools to create large volumes of social media content in multiple languages and turn news articles into Facebook posts, all with the apparent intent of improving the quality and quantity of their output. Case in point: OpenAI's report marks an important...
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