The U.S. has established the AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC), uniting artificial intelligence researchers, creators, academics and other users across government, industry and civil society organizations to support the development and deployment of safe and trustworthy AI. The group launches with more than 200 member entities ranging from tech giants Google, Microsoft and Amazon to AI-first firms OpenAI, Cohere and Anthropic. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced the move the day after naming Elizabeth Kelly director of the new U.S. AI Safety Institute, housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Continue reading U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium Debuts with 200 Members

Amazon’s net sales for Q4 were $170 billion, a 14 percent increase year-over-year. For the full year 2023, net sales were up by 12 percent to $574.8 billion. “This Q4 was a record-breaking holiday shopping season and closed out a robust 2023 for Amazon,” CEO Andy Jassy said in the recent earnings release. The results included October Prime Day and holiday season shopping. Outstanding Q4 performers included ad sales, up 27 percent to $14 billion, and Amazon Web Services, which brought in $24.2 billion, growing 13 percent.”What we’re most pleased with is the continued invention and customer experience improvements across our businesses,” Jassy added. Continue reading Growth in Ad Sales, AWS Drive Amazon Profit Up 200 Percent

Nvidia and Cisco Systems want to simplify the process of creating in-house AI computing infrastructure with a new joint service offering end-to-end artificial intelligence solutions that aim to allow any enterprise firm to host its own AI data center. Along with its own networking gear, Cisco will globally broker Nvidia AI software and GPU cloud products along with jointly configured “purpose-built Ethernet networking-based solutions.” European cloud services provider ClusterPower is an early customer, using the new offering “to help drive data center operations with innovative AI/ML solutions.” Continue reading Cisco and Nvidia Team to Offer Help Developing In-House AI

The Linux Foundation has launched the Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance, a collaborative approach to research and development aimed at taming the data security threats posed by quantum computing. The PQCA is presenting itself as turn-key source for companies and projects looking for production-ready libraries and service packages that support compliance with the National Security Agency’s new cybersecurity standards for government contractors or would like to provide themselves and their clients with safety precautions equal to “top secret” NSA classification. Founding members include Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Google, IBM and Nvidia. Continue reading Linux Foundation Intros Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance

While YouTube and Facebook are the most-used platforms among U.S. adults, TikTok is the fastest growing, according to a new Pew Research survey on social media usage. Google’s YouTube led in popularity by a wide margin, with 83 percent of the 5,733 U.S. adults polled reporting they had used it at some point. Meta Platforms’ Facebook took second place, with 68 percent of respondents having at least tried it. Those two platforms also stood out for having the majority through each age demographic subset. Instagram, also owned by Meta, took third place, with 47 percent of respondents attesting they had used it. Continue reading YouTube, Facebook Most Popular Social Apps Among Adults

Qualcomm reported revenue of $9.9 billion for the quarter ending in December, a 5 percent increase year-over-year. The company tallied $6.69 billion in sales of handset chips during the three-month period, up 16 percent over the prior year’s $5.7 billion, marking a turnaround after two years of declines. The quarter marked the beginning of shipments of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, designed for mobile generative AI, and its adoption by OEMs and manufacturers including Samsung for its new Galaxy S24 lineup. Qualcomm also announced it will continue selling 5G modem chips to Apple. Continue reading Qualcomm Earnings: All-In on XR, Smartphone Chips Rebound

To the appreciation, if not delight, of sports fans, Google is allowing YouTube TV subscribers to exercise more choice in what games to watch in their multiview windows. YouTube TV offers the option of watching up to four different sporting or news events simultaneously on a single screen. However, it doesn’t allow endless free choice, but presents combination options. Users complained and Google responded by serving up more multiview combinations to choose from, but stopped short of generating customizable multiplex streaming feeds for each user. Continue reading YouTube TV Expands NBA League Pass Choices in Multiview

Microsoft profits were up 33 percent year-over-year to $21.9 billion in the quarter ending December 31, its fiscal Q2 for 2024. The quarterly growth was the company’s strongest in more than two years. Executives credited it to excitement about artificial intelligence services and the resulting demand for cloud services including Microsoft Azure. Earlier this month, Microsoft achieved a $2.89 trillion market valuation, overtaking Apple as the world’s most valuable public company, and this week it surged past $3 trillion. Revenue was $62 billion for the quarter, up 18 percent. Continue reading Microsoft Q2 Profits Surge 33 Percent Driven by AI and Cloud

The Browser Company, which last year issued an iPhone web browser called Arc, has now released Arc Search, which combines artificial intelligence functionality. The five-year-old New York-based company is stressing speed and an absence of clutter for its new search experience, which it concedes is still in “the earliest stages.” The main Arc Search feature is the AI-powered “Browse for Me,” which compiles results from at least six different sources into a summarized presentation informed by models from OpenAI and others. Basically, Browse for Me builds a mini webpage instead of just returning links with abstracts. Continue reading Browser Company’s Arc Search Uses AI to Upgrade Browsing

The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into Big Tech’s artificial intelligence arms race. Specifically, the agency has ordered five companies to provide information under what it calls a “6(b) inquiry,” targeting Amazon and Google’s strategic alliance with Anthropic, and Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI. The scrutiny aims “to build a better internal understanding of these relationships and their impact on the competitive landscape.” In other words, the government does not want another free for all, along the lines of social media’s growth, which saw big players acquire startups competing in the space. Continue reading FTC Is Investigating AI Investments by Major Tech Companies

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is launching a pilot program to create the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), a shared U.S. AI research infrastructure. The move fulfills part of President Biden’s October executive order on the responsible development of artificial intelligence. Ten other federal agencies have joined the NSF in launching the program, while tech giants Microsoft, Nvidia and Google have already pledged their support, along with more than 20 other private organizations across the industry, academic and non-profit sectors. The idea is to create shared access to information and things like cloud computing resources. Continue reading Big Tech Onboard to Advance President Biden’s NSF AI Pilot

Google has come up with a new approach to high resolution AI video generation with Lumiere. While most GenAI video models output individual high resolution frames at various points in the sequence (called “distant keyframes”), fill in the missing frames with low-res images to create motion (known as “temporal super-resolution,” or TSR), then up-res that connective tissue (“spatial super-resolution,” or SSR) of non-overlapping frames, Lumiere takes what Google calls a “Space-Time U-Net architecture,” which processes all frames at once, “without a cascade of TSR models, allowing us to learn globally coherent motion.” Continue reading Google Takes New Approach to Create Video with Lumiere AI

Google’s multimodal Gemini large language model will offer chat capabilities that help advertisers build and scale Search campaigns within the Google Ads platform using natural language prompts. “We’ve been actively testing Gemini to further enhance our ads solutions, and, we’re pleased to share that Gemini is now powering the conversational experience,” Google said, explaining the functionality is now available in beta to English language advertisers in the U.S., UK and will be rolling out globally to all English language advertisers over the next few weeks, with additional languages offered in the months ahead. Continue reading Conversational Chatbot Optimizes Google Ads, Search Results

Google and Samsung have joined forces to make file sharing between Android devices easier and quicker. The companies have unified Google’s Nearby Share and Samsung’s Quick Share, “bringing the best of our sharing solutions together into a singular cross-Android solution under the Quick Share name,” and introducing the new utility across the entire Android ecosystem. “We’ve integrated the experiences and created the best default, built-in option for peer-to-peer content sharing across all types of devices in the Android and Chromebook ecosystems,” Google said at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. Continue reading CES: Google and Samsung Simplify File Sharing with Android

In a CES 2024 keynote address, Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon and other key execs from the company offered a look at how the retail giant is putting technologies like drones and augmented reality (AR) as well as generative AI and other artificial intelligence tools to improve the customer shopping experience. Walmart unveiled new products, including a pair of AI-powered platforms for managing search for replenishment of products. In addition, a new AR social commerce platform, now in beta, called “Shop with Friends” was also highlighted. Continue reading CES: Walmart Introduces AI Reorders and ‘Shop with Friends’