AI Weekly Digest - September 16 2024

All the key information from the ever-expanding artificial intelligence sector. LinkedIn newsletter readers can also sign up to an enhanced email edition of the AI Weekly Digest - published every Friday. You can subscribe for free.

OpenAI announces Strawberry models - capable of 'reasoning'

OpenAI said it is to launch new '01' models which it claims are capable of reasoning, enabling them to solve complex?problems . The models are codenamed 'Strawberry', after a famous flaw in ChatGPT which prevented it from identifying how many times the letter 'r' appeared in the word. The group said: “We trained these models to spend more time thinking through problems before they respond, much like a person would. Through training, they learn to refine their thinking process, try different strategies, and recognise their mistakes."

AI-enthused Brin working at Google 'pretty much every day'

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said said he is now working at the search giant “pretty much every day” as he is energised by advances in AI. Sergey Brin also questioned claims that models will become prohibitively expensive to run due to their energy consumption. He said: “I’ve read some articles that extrapolate [compute]... and I don’t know if I’m quite a believer. Partly because the algorithmic improvements that have come over the last few years maybe are actually even outpacing the increased compute that’s being put into these models.”

Londoners urged to trust and embrace AI to help generate prosperity

Londoners have been urged by the capital's first chief digital officer to trust and embrace artificial intelligence and help generate prosperity.?Theo Blackwell, appointed to the role by Mayor Sadiq Khan in 2017, said the AI-led digital revolution would be crucial to supporting London’s future growth - helping improving public services and aiding job creation . Speaking at the launch of a new white paper on AI drawn up by software company Automated Analytics, Blackwell said: “Successful AI is now a cornerstone of the digital revolution and I’m proud that London is a global leader in the research, development and innovation of artificial intelligence. We’ve backed a series of local projects which use AI to understand air quality, flooding risks and even its use to enforce against flytipping, and have already begun to see the huge potential of Generative AI in improving public services and supporting job creation."

Amazon to integrate artificial intelligence into NFL streams

Amazon said it is to integrate artificial intelligence into its NFL streams this season, offering insights including Amazon Web Services’ Tackle Probability model. It said: "By harnessing the power of data and advanced technologies like generative AI, together we are accelerating the pace of innovation in important areas such as player safety, fan engagement and content production. This season we’ll see an increase in operational efficiency as we begin to leverage AWS’s generative AI capabilities at NFL Media.”

ITV partnership with captioning/translation provider AI-Media

ITV has agreed a partnership with AI-powered captioning and translation services provider AI-Media. Director of accessibility David Padmore said: “At ITV, we are constantly seeking innovative solutions to improve our services and meet the diverse needs of our audience. Working with AI-Media has allowed us to take advantage of cutting-edge AI to streamline our captioning workflows while maintaining the highest standards of accuracy and reliability .”

Bill Gates broadly optimistic about AI - with caveats

Speaking ahead of the launch of new Netflix series What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder said that while he is broadly optimistic about AI, "misinformation is the one where I do think the younger generation is going to have to look at the trade-offs between free speech and misinforming people ".

Nvidia CEO: Relations with customers increasingly 'tense'

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said relations with many customers are increasingly "tense" as demand for the group's AI chips continues to outstrip supply. He said: "The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most. We probably have more emotional customers today."

Applied Digital backed by $160m Nvidia funding

Data-centre and AI cloud company Applied Digital has been backed with $160m in funding from AI chip giant Nvidia and a number of other investors. CEO Wes Cummins said the deal will bring in capital for Applied Digital to expand via a purchase of new shares from the Nasdaq-listed group, which had a market value just above $500m at Wednesday’s close.

InMobi to 'significantly deepen' artificial intelligence initiatives

Indian ad-tech start-up InMobi said it intends to “significantly deepen” its artificial intelligence initiatives after raising $100m in debt financing for M&A.

US probe into whether AI tools summarising news articles are anticompetitive

A group of senators in the US has asked the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to investigate whether AI tools that summarise news articles are anticompetitive. They wrote: "While a traditional search result or news feed links may lead users to the publisher’s website, an AI-generated summary keeps the users on the original search platform, where that platform alone can profit from the user’s attention through advertising and data collection. […] Moreover, some generative AI features misappropriate third-party content and pass it off as novel content generated by the platform’s AI."

Irish Data Protection Commission probes Google’s Pathways Language Model 2

The Irish Data Protection Commission said it has opened a statutory inquiry into Google’s Pathways Language Model 2, seeking to establish whether its processing of personal data to train the Gemini chatbot breaches?GDPR. X recently suspended its processing of European users’ data to train its Grok model.

Justice secretary hails framework convention on artificial intelligence

UK justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, hailed the signing of the framework convention on artificial intelligence by the UK, US, EU and Israel, saying the technology had the capacity to “radically improve” public services and “turbocharge” economic growth. She went on: “This convention is a major step to ensuring that these new technologies can be harnessed without eroding our oldest values, like human rights and the rule of law.”

Instagram?co-founder Krieger joins safety-focused AI group?Anthropic

Instagram?co-founder Mike Krieger has joined safety-focused AI group?Anthropic?as chief product officer, and he argued start-ups can justify their bumper investment rounds by developing "value-based billing" . He said: "When I think about deployed (chatbot) Claudes, being able to think about what value you are delivering and really align over time creates a very full alignment of incentives in terms of delivering that product. I think that’s an area we can get to over time."

Australia planning targeted artificial intelligence rules

Australia is planning targeted artificial intelligence rules including human intervention and transparency amid a rapid?rollout of AI tools. Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic unveiled 10 new voluntary guidelines on AI systems and said the government has opened a month-long consultation over whether to make them mandatory in high-risk settings. He said: "Australians know AI can do great things but people want to know there are protections in place if things go off the rails. Australians want stronger protections on AI, we've heard that, we've listened."

YouTube?rolls out new AI detection tools

YouTube?has rolled out a new set of AI detection tools intended to prevent the voice and likenesses of artists, actors, musicians and athletes being used without permission .

Nokia and SoftBank to integrate AI in radio access network technology?

Nokia has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese operator SoftBank to integrate AI in radio access network (RAN) technology, "and conduct field testing using centimetre waves, which are expected to be utilised for 6G".

Broadcom?set to sell $12bn in AI parts and custom chips

Broadcom?said it expects to sell $12bn in AI parts and custom chips this year, as it posted revenue up 5% in its fiscal third quarter to $13.07bn. The chipmaker swung to a $1.88bn net loss from a $6.12bn year-ago profit. CEO Hock Tan said: "Broadcom’s third quarter results reflect continued strength in our AI semiconductor solutions and VMware."