AI Weekly Digest - September 25

Biden: 'We will harness the power of artificial intelligence for good'

US President Joe Biden told the UN General Assembly his nation will work with competitors around the world “to ensure we harness the power of artificial intelligence for good while protecting our citizens from this most profound risk.” He added: "Together with leaders around the world, the United States is working to strengthen rules and policies so AI technologies are safe before they’re released to the public, to make sure we govern this technology, not the other way around, having it govern us.”

CMA CEO warns: 'We can’t take a positive future on AI for granted'

Competition and Markets Authority chief executive Sarah Cardell noted the “dramatic” speed at which AI was becoming a part of everyday life, but said: “We can’t take a positive future for granted. There remains a real risk that the use of AI develops in a way that undermines consumer trust or is dominated by a few players who exert market power that prevents the full benefits being felt across the economy.” The UK watchdog estimated around 160 foundation models have been released by a range of firms including?Google,?Meta, and?Microsoft, as well as new AI firms including?OpenAI?and the UK-based?Stability AI. It said it would closely monitor the impact of investments by Big Tech in AI developers, including Microsoft in?OpenAI?and Google parent?Alphabet?in?Anthropic. And it stressed it was "essential” that the AI market does not fall into the hands of a small number of companies.

The CMA proposed a set of principles for AI models' development. These included ensuring foundation model developers have access to data and computing power, and that early AI developers do not gain an entrenched advantage. The UK competition regulator said it would publish an update on its principles, and how they had been received, next year.

AI content recommendations 'set to bring in $71bn for Instagram'

WARC Media said it expects?Instagram?to generate ad revenue of $71bn next year, boosted by parent?Meta's?AI-powered content recommendations. Spokesman Alex Brownsell said: “The recovery of Meta’s ad business in 2023 has been one of the most notable media industry stories of the year. Twelve months ago, commentators were warning of a ‘reckoning’ for Big Tech with platforms like Instagram hurting from signal loss resulting from?Apple’s?ATT policy, alongside a broader slowdown in digital ad investment. What a difference a year makes. Buoyed by innovations in AI targeting helping it to offset the impact of ATT and improved monetisation of Reels, it is only a matter of time before Instagram surpasses its Meta stable mate?Facebook?to become the world’s largest social media platform by ad revenue.”

Ofcom striving to limit harm caused by AI

Ofcom?revealed it is assessing ways of limiting harm caused by AI as it prepares to assume oversight of the internet as part of the Online Safety Bill . It told the Lords communications and digital committee: "We are building our knowledge on how [AI] harms might be mitigated. Among the mitigations we are exploring are GenAI model audits, 'red team exercises', 'system cards' to?enhance transparency for users, and 'machine unlearning' techniques [removing behaviour based on malign data from models]. We are researching methods to identify deepfakes, such as through digital watermarking, and are engaging with standards organisations to understand how global standards are being developed on issues such as watermarking and provenance. Depending on the outcomes of our research, we envisage taking these sorts of mitigations into account when preparing and iterating our codes of practice and guidance for regulated services."

Intel chief hails 'generational shift'

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said he believes the chipmaker's production technology and software developer tools for AI represent significant growth opportunities. He told its annual Innovation conference: "AI represents a generational shift, giving rise to a new era of global expansion where computing is even more foundational to a better future for all. For developers, this creates massive societal and business opportunities to push the boundaries of what’s possible, to create solutions to the world’s biggest challenges.”

Back to school - back to growth for ChatGPT

SimilarWeb said ChatGPT usage has returned to growth in the US following the start of the new school year , reversing two months of declines, although it remains below its spring peak.

Top US news sites block AI crawlers

A Kirwan Digital Marketing Agency survey found about half of the top news sites in the US, including The?New York Times?and?CNN, have blocked AI crawlers from accessing their content, while only three out of 21 UK publishers have followed suit.

Speaker has 'smarter, more conversational' interactions.

Amazon showed off an updated Alexa smart speaker at its annual devices show which uses generative AI to support “smarter and more conversational” interactions.

Authors sue OpenAI for 'systematic theft on mass scale'

Prominent US authors including Jonathan?Franzen, John Grisham and George RR Martin have sued OpenAI, accusing it of using their work to train ChatGPT without permission . The lawsuit states: “These algorithms are at the heart of defendants’ massive commercial enterprise. And at the heart of these algorithms is systematic theft on a mass scale.”?

AI platform to automate telecom industry workflows

Netcracker Technology will roll out a new generative AI-driven software platform to automate telecom industry workflows, the US-based vendor announced. It said the GenAI Telco Solution was designed specifically for "telco-centric" assignments, namely such as retail sales, digital engineering and stock catalogues.

EU supercomputers for 'ethical and responsible' start-ups

The European Union said it will make its supercomputers available to "ethical and responsible" AI start-ups to train models . The bloc will shortly introduce an AI Act, and President Ursula von der Leyen said during the annual State of the Union address: "I believe Europe, together with partners, should lead the way on a new global framework for AI, built on three pillars: guardrails, governance and guiding innovation. Our AI Act is already a blueprint for the whole world. We must now focus on adopting the rules as soon as possible and turn to implementation.”

TSMC VP sees paradigm shift for artificial intelligence

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co vice-president Douglas Yu said he believes the emerging field of silicon photonics can create a paradigm shift for artificial intelligence. He said: "If we can provide a good silicon photonics integration system...?we can address both critical issues of energy efficiency and computing power [performance] for AI... We may be at the beginning of a new era.”

OpenAI to open first European office

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is opening an office in Dublin , its first in the EU, as Brussels begins work on its AI Act.

Arm owner seeking AI deals after mega-float

SoftBank?is reportedly seeking deals in artificial intelligence - including a possible investment in?OpenAI ?- following the flotation of?Arm?in the US. ?

Sony chief urges strikers to soften anti-AI stance

Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra urged the WGA and SAG-AFTRA unions in the US to soften their stance on AI to resolve the current strikes, arguing the technology will make TV more efficient, addressing "one of the biggest problems in production". He said: "Writers are very afraid that we’re all going to put them all out of business. That is so far from the truth. AI is an unbelievable tool for the writers. Every writer we talk to says, ‘We’re using AI to speed up our process and make it better'. You can’t copyright a product that is generated by a computer. You can only copyright product made by a person. So, we’re not going to take a script written by a computer and make it into a TV show or a film.”

Gen Z workers 'pretend to be in the know' on new technology

A survey of Gen Z 'young professionals ' workers found 40% pretend to know more about artificial intelligence than they actually do to appear “in the know”. The LinkedIn survey of 18 to 26-year-olds also found they are 10% more likely than the general population to lie about having used an AI tool at work.

MSN criticised for 'useless' AI-driven death report

Microsoft said "the accuracy of the content we publish from our partners is important to us, and we continue to enhance our systems", after MSN was criticised for publishing an AI-generated story about a former basketball player's death under the headline: 'Brandon Hunter useless at 42.'

Judge finds ChatGPT 'jolly useful'

Court of appeal judge Lord Justice Birss said he found?ChatGPT?"jolly useful" after using it to produce a summary of an area of law. He said: "I'm taking full personal responsibility for what I put in my judgment, I am not trying to give the responsibility to somebody else. All it did was a task which I was about to do and to which I knew the answer and could recognise as being acceptable."