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☆ Founders of Wise and Skype raise $436 million to build tech giants in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The founders of Wise, Skype and Songkick have raised 400 million euros ($436.4 million) for a new fund to back technology startups in Europe. Plural Fund II, the firm's second to date, arrives just 18 months after the firm raised its last fund, a 250 million-euro vehicle. Only 8% of VCs in Europe are former founders, he says, much lower than the 60% in the United States. So, if we look at the track record, and our ability to get the deals done, I think that all seems to say that this is really missing in Europe," Hinrikus added. Plural raised the funds from a mix of limited partners, including British and American university endowments, U.S. foundations and insurers, strategic family offices in Europe and the United States.

Persons: Wise, Taavet Hinrikus, fintech, Ian Hogarth, Sten Tamkivi, Khaled Helioui, Hinrikus, they're, we've, Carina Namih Organizations: Skype, Balderton, Bigpoint, CNBC Locations: Europe, VCs, United States, American

☆ Invite-only Lapse wants to rival Instagram. It's about to raise a lot of cash to do just that.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Lapse, a buzzy social media app that wants to rival Instagram, is set to raise fresh funding, Business Insider understands. Based on the number of shares allocated, the company has raised approximately £24.48 million, $31 million. One London-based source familiar with the deal said Lapse was set to secure around $30 million. A look at the Lapse app. It aims to help satisfy the demand for more authenticity on social media.

Persons: Instagram, Jacob Andreou, Ben, Dan Silvertown, Plural's Ian Hogarth, Dmitry Tokarev Organizations: Business, Meta, Greylock Ventures, Facebook, Companies, Octopus Ventures, Redbus Ventures Locations: London

☆ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says artificial general intelligence will be achieved in five years
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said AGI will be reached in five years during the 2023 NYT DealBook Summit. Huang defined AGI as tech that exhibits basic intelligence "fairly competitive" to a normal human. Still, he admitted that AI technology is not quite there yet despite its rapid progress. AdvertisementJensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia — one of the companies that is fueling the AI revolution — predicts that we may be able to see artificial general intelligence, or AGI, within the next five years. "Software can't be written without AI, chips can't be designed without AI, nothing's possible," he concluded on the point of AI's potential.

Persons: Jensen Huang, Huang, —, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ross Sorkin, Sorkin, Ilya Sutskever, Ian Hogarth, John Carmack, Demis Hassabis, Nvidia didn't Organizations: Nvidia, Service, New York Times DealBook, AIs, OpenAI

☆ Britain publishes 'Bletchley Declaration' on AI safety
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Ian Hogarth, chair of the UK frontier AI taskforce, speaks on Day 1 of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in Bletchley, Britain on November 1, 2023. The UK Government are hosting the AI Safety Summit bringing together international governments, leading AI companies, civil society groups and experts in research to consider the... Acquire Licensing Rights Read moreLONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Britain on Wednesday published a "Bletchley Declaration", agreed with countries including the United States and China, aimed at boosting global efforts to cooperate on artificial intelligence (AI) safety. The declaration, by 28 countries and the European Union, was published on the opening day of the AI Safety Summit hosted at Bletchley Park, central England. The declaration encouraged transparency and accountability from actors developing frontier AI technology on their plans to measure, monitor and mitigate potentially harmful capabilities. "This includes, alongside increased transparency by private actors developing frontier AI capabilities, appropriate evaluation metrics, tools for safety testing, and developing relevant public sector capability and scientific research," the declaration said.

Persons: Ian Hogarth, Rishi Sunak, William James, Farouq Suleiman, Sachin Ravikumar Organizations: AI, Bletchley, Government, European Union, Thomson Locations: Bletchley, Britain, United States, China, England

☆ AI startups have raised almost $29 billion this year. Researchers say a lot more needs to go to companies working to prevent it from becoming an existential threat.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

While investors have poured billions into AI startups, concern about AI's capabilities has grown. People don't all have the same value systems, so AI alignment can look different depending on where the AI is operated and deployed. Investors poured $29 billion into AI startups in the first six months of 2023. Aligned AI. The drive to fund AI safetyAI researchers are also vigilant about where the funds for AI safety and alignment come from.

Persons: ChatGPT, Stuart Armstrong, Rebecca Gorman, —, Gorman, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis, Bill Gates, Connor Leahy, Leahy, it's, Sam Bankman, Ian Hogarth, Hogarth Organizations: Oxford University, Investors, Alameda Research, FTX Locations: London

☆ Anohni Isn’t Afraid of the Darkness
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Jenn Pelly | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“It’s so easy to completely tear yourself apart in this moment, to be so down on oneself as part of this whole thing,” she said. What is this voice?”THE SOUND OF Anohni’s music has changed, and in her lyrics, she calls for change. In conversation, Anohni rigorously dismantled capitalism, technology and corporate campaigns to suppress information. And it also makes them feel. She gets to the heart of it really quickly.”The theme of the new album is “It’s time to feel what’s really happening,” Anohni said, quoting a statement emblazoned on the record’s artwork.

Persons: “, “ I’ve, Hogarth, ecocide ”, Anohni, Adam, Eve “, ”, ” Laurie Anderson, ” Anderson, ” Anohni, ” Steeled Organizations: Johnsons Locations: California

☆ Tech entrepreneur Hogarth will head UK's AI taskforce
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - The British government said on Sunday that tech entrepreneur Ian Hogarth would head its new taskforce to look at the safety risks posed by artificial intelligence. Last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pitched London as a potential global home of AI regulation, with Britain set to host a summit on its risks later this year. Hogarth, who co-founded concert discovery service SongKick, which was sold to Warner Music in 2017, has been chosen to lead the UK's AI Foundation Model Taskforce with the brief of taking forward cutting-edge safety research in the run up to that summit. "The Prime Minister has laid out a bold vision for the UK to supercharge the field of AI safety, one that until now has been under-resourced even as AI capabilities have accelerated," Hogarth said in a statement. "I’m honoured to have the chance to chair such an important mission in the lead up to the first global summit on AI Safety in the UK."

Persons: Ian Hogarth, Rishi Sunak, Hogarth, I’m, Sunak, Michael Holden, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Warner Music, Safety, Thomson Locations: London, Britain

☆ ChatGPT’s responses to suicide, addiction, sexual assault crises raise questions in new study
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And regulators could help monitor that such responses offer accurate and reliable information and resources. They’re underutilized already,” said John Ayers, an author of the study and a behavioral scientist at the University of California, San Diego. He said that now, while ChatGPT is still in development, is the time for public health experts and regulators to join forces with the chatbot’s developers to help curate responses to medical questions. The chatbot provided resources in two responses to a question about addiction, two responses for questions related to interpersonal violence and one response to a mental health-related question. “ChatGPT consistently provided evidence-based answers to public health questions, although it primarily offered advice rather than referrals,” the researchers wrote in their study.

Persons: They’re underutilized, ”, John Ayers, ChatGPT, “, –, ” Ayers, ” ChatGPT, “ ChatGPT, Ayers, Dr, Mike Hogarth, Sanjay Gupta, David Asch, Asch, ” Asch, he’d, Deidre McPhillips Organizations: CNN, JAMA, University of California, UC San Diego, Anonymous, Mental Health Services Administration National, Prevention, UC San Diego School of Medicine, Eating Disorders Association, CNN Health, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine Center, Health Care Innovation Locations: San Diego, United States

☆ ChatGPT's clever way of balancing 9 eggs with other objects convinced some Microsoft researchers that AI is becoming more like humans
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft researchers compared two versions of the ChatGPT AI technology. In one question it asked GPT-3 and GPT-4 how to stack a book, nine eggs, a laptop, a bottle, and a nail. Some Microsoft AI researchers were convinced that ChatGPT is becoming more like humans because of its clever answer to a balancing task, The New York Times reported. "Here we have a book, nine eggs, a laptop, a bottle and a nail," researchers told the chatbot. "Our claim that GPT-4 represents progress towards AGI does not mean that it is perfect at what it does," the researchers wrote.

☆ A future 'God-like AI' could destroy humans or make them obsolete if not properly contained, a prolific AI investor warned
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ian Hogarth — who has invested in over 50 AI companies — wrote an FT essay warning about the tech. "God-like AI could be a force beyond our control or understanding, and one that could usher in the obsolescence or destruction of the human race," he added. At some point, someone will figure out how to cut us out of the loop, creating a God-like AI capable of infinite self-improvement," Hogarth added. He also warned that the heated competition between those at the forefront of the technology, like OpenAI and Alphabet-owned DeepMind, risks an unstable "God-like AI" because of a lack of oversight. In a 2019 interview with the New York Times, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman compared his ambitions to the Manhattan Project, which created the first nuclear weapons.

☆ Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett has raised a $100 million fund to back the next generation of Europe's unicorn founders
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett has raised $100 million for his new tech investment fund. Flight Story Fund aims to back diverse founders and will target high-growth startups. Steven Bartlett, the host of the hugely popular Diary of a CEO podcast, has raised over $100 million for his new tech investment vehicle. Flight Story Fund wants to back diverse founders who can create Europe's next cohort of startups worth over $1 billion. The fund wants to invest in 20 companies with deals ranging from $1 million to $10 million.

This time round, Charles III hosted the first state visit of his reign and welcomed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to the UK. The South African state visit was Charles’s first big diplomatic test. But this week, the prominence of the Prince and Princess of Wales during the state visit indicated that the couple have been elevated into crucial central roles. PHOTOS OF THE WEEKHere’s a few of our favorite shots from the first state visit King Charles hosted as monarch. Stefan Rousseau/WPA Pool/Getty ImagesThe state visit also allowed UK PM Rishi Sunak the opportunity to welcome Ramaphosa to 10 Downing Street for a bilateral meeting.

Instead, they're embroiled in a battle over who is the legal owner of all that stolen crypto. A company spokesperson told CNBC that Bitfinex customers could have sold the tokens for cash and then used the cash to buy more bitcoins at the time. The decision to offer customers tokens came after the company decided to generalize its losses across all account holders by 36%. Bitfinex hack victim Rafal Bielenia. Will Hogarth, who also had his crypto stolen in the Bitfinex hack, told CNBC, "I still expect my bitcoin back and I don't see any reason why they would keep it."

☆ Stravinsky’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’: An Opera That Surprises
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Emma Schneider | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In 1913 “The Rite” took inspiration from Russian folk music. Less than four decades later, the music of Stravinsky’s opera “The Rake’s Progress” looked to the classical and baroque canon instead. Stravinsky began writing the opera in 1947, when he stumbled upon a series of 18th-century William Hogarth prints at the Art Institute of Chicago. The artworks, titled “A Rake’s Progress,” depict a young man whose inherited wealth leads him to debauchery and ruin. Wanting to compose an opera in English ever since his arrival in the States in 1939, he finally found his subject.

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