Amidst calls to put the brakes on large language model development, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has hit the global circuit to tout the advantages of artificial intelligence and commercial opportunities with his firm. Altman’s 17-city tour includes stops in Washington D.C., Toronto, Tokyo, Rio De Janeiro, Lagos, London, Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Munich, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Dubai, New Delhi, Jakarta, Seoul and Melbourne. On Monday, Altman met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other government officials, vowing to collaborate on protecting user privacy and data protection. Continue reading OpenAI’s Altman Talks Up Machine Learning on Global Tour

As China’s tech giants begin releasing ChatGPT-style products, the powerful Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has issued a draft of what will become the country’s first set of restrictions for generative AI. Ground rules include limiting content created by AI to that which reflects the core values of socialism and does not subvert state power in text or image, according to the draft. Models should also be trained in a way that does not allow them to generate false information or exhibit bias as to race, ethnicity or gender. The news comes as three Chinese firms release generative AI platforms. Continue reading Chinese Government Drafts New Rules for Generative AI Tech

Respected members of the advanced tech community are going on record opposing the faction calling for a “pause” in large-model artificial intelligence development. Meta Platforms chief AI scientist Yann LeCun and DeepLearning.AI founder and CEO Andrew Ng, formerly at Alphabet where he helped launch Google Brain, were joined this past week by Bill Gates and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in opposing the proposed six-month halt to development of AI models more advanced than OpenAI’s GPT-4, which is said to train on a trillion parameters — more than 500 times that of GPT-3. Continue reading Mixed Reactions to ‘Pause’ on AI Models Larger than GPT-4

While there are a fair share of cynics ready to write-off the metaverse before it has a chance to crawl out of its crib, many marketers remain believers. Forty-six percent of consumer branding professionals tell Forrester Research they will be upping their metaverse budgets in 2023, while only 12 percent plan to spend less. But generative AI seems to have stolen some of its thunder, with FactSet reporting AI was mentioned on 163 March earnings calls, up from seven in March 2022. The metaverse got 35 mentions, down from 112 the previous year. Continue reading Metaverse Still Shows Potential for Brand Building, Marketing

Popular social platform Snapchat is improving its AI chatbot as part of a larger set of updates (that includes an age filter and parental insights) and recently launched premium features (such as generative AI profiles backgrounds). The chatbot, My AI, was launched in February for Snapchat+ subscribers. Snap says it has since received feedback of inappropriate responses from My AI, which was built using OpenAI’s GPT technology, but claims the problems have been due in large part to users trying to “trick the chatbot into providing responses that do not conform to our guidelines.” The new tools are designed to keep My AI’s responses in check. Continue reading Snapchat Adds Safety Moderation Tools to Improve Chatbot

Walmart has rolled out a new online look in a bid to catch up with Amazon, simultaneously advancing its conversational AI capabilities using OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s BERT. Starting last year, generative AI has reportedly been a major initiative of the Arkansas-based retailer in key areas including search, supply chain management and virtual shopping, although it is only now that the company is emphasizing the tools to customers by expanding its offerings like Text to Shop. The text- or voice-activated way to add items to Walmart.com shopping carts is one of nearly two dozen conversational AI experiences at Walmart. Continue reading Walmart Leans into AI, Retools Site to Compete with Amazon

AMD is introducing a new encoder chip designed for energy efficient and economical AV1 video streaming. The AV1 codec is increasingly popular as streamers seek to meet massive bandwidth needs. AMD’s new card, the Alveo MA35D, delivers what promises to be a massive leap in throughput and compression over its predecessor. Compression performance is critical in today’s streaming market, where the model has changed from a one-to-many central server model to a cloud-based distributed many-to-many format as entertainment is vying for bandwidth with video conferences, massively multiplayer online games and social media streaming. Continue reading AMD Touts Advance in AV1 Encoding for Streaming Services

Meta Platforms has published a new AI technology, the Segment Anything Model (SAM) that the company claims can identify objects it hasn’t seen before. Acting on a text prompt, SAM will highlight items in a photo or video, picking out all the cats, for instance, or flowers. It can also execute other functions, such as generating a 3D construct using a single 2D image or extrapolating from things viewed in a mixed reality headset. Segment Anything can work in concert with other models, potentially minimizing the need for voluminous data sets for training. Continue reading New Meta AI Can Detect Objects It Has Not Been Trained On

Japan decided last week to join the U.S. and Netherlands in limiting exports of chipmaking gear to China. As early as July, suppliers of 23 types of chip technology will need a government sign-off to export to countries including China, which has been struggling to build a domestic chip industry. Japanese companies impacted by the restrictions include Tokyo Electron, Lasertec, Nikon Corp. and Screen Holdings, according to the Japanese trade ministry. The central goal of the clampdown is to make it harder for Chinese firms to produce advanced chips for artificial intelligence. Continue reading Japan, U.S., Netherlands Seek to Limit China’s Chip Industry

After many years of academia leading the way in the development of artificial intelligence, the tides have shifted and industry has taken over, according to the 2023 AI Index, a report created by Stanford University with help from companies including Google, Anthropic and Hugging Face. “In 2022, there were 32 significant industry-produced machine learning models compared to just three produced by academia,” the report says. The shift in influence is attributed mainly to the large resource demands — in staff, computing power and training data — required to create state of the art AI systems. Continue reading Report: Enterprise Supplants Academia as Driving Force of AI

A new Goldman Sachs report suggests artificial intelligence could trigger “significant disruption” in the global labor market. In the U.S. and Europe, as many as two-thirds of jobs could become automated at least in part, and generative AI could substitute up to one-fourth of current work. Extrapolating the estimates globally indicates generative AI “could expose the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs to automation,” the report says. Among U.S. workers, of those occupations that present a natural opportunity for AI assistance, somewhere between 25-50 percent of existing duties can be replaced, the Goldman Sachs research team says. Continue reading Report: 300M Global Workers May See Jobs Impacted by AI

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai is promising Bard critics that a new and improved conversational AI model will soon be available. Although both the LaMDA-powered Bard and its rival, OpenAI’s ChatGPT have been prone to a variety of errors in their early stages, Bard — following on the heels of ChatGPT’s release and meteoric popularity — has borne the brunt of less favorable reviews. Google is taking steps to maintain thought leadership in the space, so that parent company Alphabet can compete with Microsoft and OpenAI, who were quicker to move ChatGPT into the public consciousness, gaining a first-mover advantage. Continue reading Google Is Improving Its Bard AI Chatbot with PaLM Upgrade

Google has teamed with San Francisco startup Replit in a bid to challenge Microsoft’s GitHub and the Github Copilot code generator launched in conjunction with OpenAI. Under the new partnership, Replit developers will get access to Google Cloud infrastructure, services, and foundation models via Replit’s software development AI, called Ghostwriter, while Google Cloud and Workspace developers will get access to Replit’s collaborative code editing platform. Replit, which says 20 million developers use its platform, launched Ghostwriter in the fall and in January added a conversational AI interface for generating code and debugging. Continue reading Google Cloud Partners with Replit to Develop AI Coding Tools

Apple has acquired WaveOne, a Mountain View-based startup that has been developing AI algorithms for video compression. Cupertino has been mum about the purchase, but the deal reportedly closed in January, and WaveOne employees are said to have been absorbed into Apple’s machine learning groups. WaveOne’s codecs use machine learning to squeeze more picture out of less bandwidth, including optimizing for signal interruptions, so the picture doesn’t freeze or disappear, making it ideal for mobile. As Netflix and YouTube tout picture improvements, WaveOne could potentially advantage Apple TV+ and a mixed reality headset. Continue reading Apple Eyes AI Video Compression with WaveOne Acquisition

Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak are among a group of more than 1,100 tech leaders, researchers and AI stakeholders who have signed an open letter calling for a pause on “giant AI experiments.” The missive, published by the Future of Life Institute, warns of “profound risks to society and humanity” that could be caused by an “out-of-control race” to develop and commercially deploy artificial intelligence systems “that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict, or reliably control.” Other signatories include politician Andrew Yang, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp and Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque.  Continue reading Concerned Thought Leaders Call for Pause on AI Movement