Foxconn chairman says AI investment boom ‘still has some time to go’ as language models evolve
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Chief Executive and Chairman of Foxconn Young Liu told CNBC the AI boom “still has some time to go.”
The general movement in the tech industry today is trending toward a form of AI that is as intelligent —?if not more intelligent —?than humans, according to Liu. This type of AI is referred to in the industry as “AGI,” or Artificial General Intelligence.
“If you divide [intelligence] into four different levels, we’re at level two. There’s still level three and level four to go,” Liu said.?
Hot Blackwell demand
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, is on track to ship servers based on Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell graphics processing unit in the fourth quarter of 2024, Liu told CNBC.?
Asked about the order book for Blackwell servers, Liu said that demand for the chip is “much better than we thought,” adding that the firm is building new factories in Mexico to help service outsized demand for the product.?
Expertise in Indian diaspora
?Beyond producing IT infrastructure for cloud-based AI applications like ChatGPT, Foxconn is also powering the new iPhone 16, which comes with the latest generative AI features.
“In the next phase, what we’re seeing will be the Gen AI devices,” he added. “We think that will be the next big way to boom ... We have very high hopes on those devices.”
HSBC exec says there’s a lot of AI ‘success theater’ happening in finance
A growing number of financial services firms are?touting the benefits of artificial intelligence?when it comes to boosting productivity and overall operational efficiency.
Despite bold statements, a lot of companies are failing to produce tangible results, according to Edward J Achtner, the head of generative AI for U.K. banking giant?HSBC.
‘Success theater’
“Candidly, there’s a lot of success theater out there,” Achtner said on a panel at the CogX Global Leadership Summit. Other panelists included Ranil Boteju, a fellow AI leader at rival British bank Lloyds Banking Group, and Nathalie Oestmann, head of NV Ltd, an advisory firm for venture capital funds.
Achtner’s comments come as other figures in the financial services sector?have made bold statements about the level of overall efficiency gains and cost reductions they are seeing because of investments in AI.
Incorporating as part of existing plans
?Buy now, pay later firm Klarna says it has been taking advantage of AI to make up for loss of productivity resulting from declines in its workforce.
Oestmann directly touched on Klarna’s actions, saying headlines around such AI-driven workforce reductions are “not helpful.”
?Klarna, she suggested, likely saw that AI “makes them a more valuable company” and was consequently incorporating the technology as part of plans to reduce its workforce anyway.?
Tensions rise between banks and tech companies over online fraud liability in the UK
Starting from Oct. 7, U.K. banks will be required to start compensating victims of so-called authorized push payment fraud a maximum ￡85,000 if the affected individuals were tricked or psychologically manipulated into handing over the cash.
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Compensation lower than proposed
The ￡85,000 reimbursement sum could prove costly for large banks and payment firms. However, it’s lower than the mandatory ￡415,000 reimbursement amount that the U.K.’s Payment Systems Regulator had previously proposed.
The PSR backed down from its bid for the lofty maximum compensation payout following industry backlash, with industry group the Payments Association saying it would be far too costly a sum for the financial services sector to bear.
'Disproportionate amount’ of fraud on social media?
Riccardo Tordera, director of policy and government relations at industry body the Payments Association, told CNBC that, given the “disproportionate amount” of fraud that happens on social media, it is “unacceptable” that tech firms do not take the responsibility for reimbursing fraud victims.
On Thursday, London-based digital bank Revolut?accused?Meta?of falling “woefully short of what’s required to tackle fraud globally.”
The Facebook-owner?announced a partnership?earlier this week with U.K. lenders?NatWest?and Metro Bank, to share intelligence on fraud activity that takes place on its platforms.
Brazil lifts ban on X after Elon Musk complies with court orders
“X is proud to return to Brazil,” the company wrote in a?post on X?from its global government affairs account. “We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate.”
Brazil’s supreme court said in a?statement?on Tueday, “The company complied with the conditions stipulated by the rapporteur, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, and the platform may once again be used by Brazilians.”
Ban after defiance
?X was?suspended?in Brazil on Aug. 31, after an order from de Moraes that was upheld by a panel of other justices.
The suspension was put in place because Elon Musk, who owns X, defied requests by Brazil’s court to ban some user accounts or remove content that the court said violated federal laws.
?Brazil’s strict internet regulations are intended to limit the spread of hate speech, incitements to violence and political misinformation or content harmful to democratic institutions online.
Alleged pressure from investors?
Brazil’s?Correio Brazilenese?reported that X was pressured by investors in Musk-led companies, to relent and comply with Brazilian law by late September as the company faced a threat of daily fines.
At one point, the court moved to freeze X’s business accounts in Brazil, along with those of SpaceX-owned Starlink.?
Ever wanted a personal assistant? An AI one could be around the corner
AI personal assistants have been spotted in movies and other pop culture. Now tech giants are trying to bring those to your phones. Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insights, talks to CNBC's Tom Chitty and Arjun Kharpal about his firm's annual predictions report and why he thinks that we could have an AI model trained on our own personal data by 2025.