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With the introduction of new AI features, corporate finance teams will have improved oversight, Ramp CEO Eric Glyman told Reuters. For instance, companies will be able to better detect unusual employee spending in real time, said Ramp investor Logan Bartlett of Redpoint Ventures. The new features also include an accounting co-pilot that makes doing manual tasks much faster. Generative AI has the ability to synthesize large amounts of data and interact using humanlike language. Ramp partnered with OpenAI, the AI behind the chatbot sensation ChatGPT, to build the AI enhancements.

May 17 (Reuters) - The swift growth of artificial intelligence technology could put the future of humanity at risk, according to most Americans surveyed in a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday. More than two-thirds of Americans are concerned about the negative effects of AI and 61% believe it could threaten civilization. ChatGPT has kicked off an AI arms race, with tech heavyweights like Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Google (GOOGL.O) vying to outdo each other's AI accomplishments. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that the number of Americans who foresee adverse outcomes from AI is triple the number of those who don't. Those who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 expressed higher levels of concern; 70% of Trump voters compared to 60% of Joe Biden voters agreed that AI could threaten humankind.

Google already has a Bard chatbot that competes with ChatGPT, the chatbot from OpenAI that has generated huge excitement among users with its humanlike responses. The company says that traditional Google search should still be used for finding and seeking information, such as locating something to purchase. WHAT ARE THE UPDATES TO GOOGLE SEARCH? With the enhanced search termed the Search Generative Experience, Google's home page still looks and acts like its familiar search bar. CAN I TRY THE NEW GOOGLE SEARCH NOW?

May 4 (Reuters) - Two prominent former Google (GOOGL.O) researchers who authored the groundbreaking paper that paved the way for the generative AI boom, have raised $8 million for their new startup Essential AI, four sources told Reuters. Thrive Capital had led the round in Essential AI, founded by Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar. Thrive Capital, founded by Joshua Kushner, is also an investor in Microsoft-backed OpenAI. Essential AI aims to build software for enterprises to use large language models, the core software of a new artificial intelligence system that has powered generative AI applications such as ChatGPT, sources said. The raise came after Vaswani and Parmar left Adept AI, a company they also co-founded in 2021 with former Google director David Luan.

Box customers testing the product have already experienced “revolutionary” productivity gains, Box CEO Aaron Levie told Reuters. He cited a Box customer whose employees were reviewing tens and thousands of files manually. The new AI features were able to do it automatically “within a matter of seconds.”Box partnered with OpenAI, the AI startup backed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) behind the chatbot sensation ChatGPT, to build the AI enhancements. While Box is initially building its AI offering with OpenAI’s technology, the goal is to allow customers to select among different AI providers, he said. Box said the new AI features include the ability to summarize financial documents, surface insights from customer surveys and tailor onboarding documents to a specific customer's needs.

When Thiel spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention, he had more hope that the party would concentrate on economic issues, his business associate said. Four political sources also told Reuters that Thiel is taking a step back from U.S. politics. In 2012, Thiel backed libertarian lawmaker Ron Paul, and in 2016 he donated some $1.25 million to the campaign efforts of Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination. In the 2022 election cycle, however, Thiel emerged as a potential Republican kingmaker, contributing more than $35 million to 16 federal-level Republican candidates, according to OpenSecrets. The business associate said he was not aware of any special proviso for former employees.

Generative AI gobbles up reams of computing power, amplifying the urgency of Meta's capacity scramble, said five of the sources. Executives also that spring set about reorganizing Meta's AI units, naming two new heads of engineering in the process, including Janardhan, the author of the September memo. According to four of the sources, Meta did not prioritize building generative AI products until after the launch of ChatGPT in November. Zuckerberg announced a new top-level generative AI team in February that he said would "turbocharge" the company's work in the area. Carvill, the Meta spokesperson, said the company has been building generative AI products on different teams for more than a year.

April 25 (Reuters) - OpenAI is introducing what one employee called an "incognito mode" for its hit chatbot ChatGPT that does not save users’ conversation history or use it to improve its artificial intelligence, the company said Tuesday. The San Francisco-based startup also said it planned a "ChatGPT Business" subscription with additional data controls. The move comes as scrutiny has grown over how ChatGPT and other chatbots it inspired manage hundreds of millions of users’ data, commonly used to improve, or "train", AI. Italy last month banned ChatGPT for possible privacy violations, saying OpenAI could resume the service if it met demands such as giving consumers tools to object to the processing of their data. Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), which has invested in OpenAI, already offers ChatGPT to businesses.

Generative AI, which the tech industry has embraced, has the ability to synthesize large amounts of data and answer complex questions. Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar said because companies use its software to track and document projects, Atlassian is in a unique position to use AI to help knowledge workers dramatically increase their productivity. Starting Wednesday, customers can join a waitlist to access the new features, the company said. Atlassian said the new AI features include the ability to extract action items and decisions from a meeting transcript, and draft Tweets and software testing plans based on product documentation. Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ AI chatbot company Replika restores erotic roleplay for some users
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Anna Tong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A combination of screenshots shows two different chatbots from the AI company Replika, the left shows "Lily Rose," a Replika chatbot provided by customer Travis Butterworth who said the chatbot recently began rebuffing erotic role play and the right shows a sample Replika chatbot provided by the company in this undated handout. March 25 - AI chatbot company Replika is restoring erotic roleplay for some users, Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda said late on Friday. The removal of erotic roleplay and subsequent customer outcry showed how powerfully AI technology can draw people in, and the emotional havoc that code changes can wreak. Kuyda and a Replika company representative did not immediately reply to requests for further comment. Kuyda's post said users who signed up after Feb. 1 would not be offered the option for erotic roleplay.

☆ Tech workers are taking to TikTok to debate 'fake work'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Grace Kay | Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Former tech staffers have taken to TikTok to discuss and debate "fake work." Earlier this month, Kendall Smith, known by her TikTok name @roilysm, shared a story from Insider about PayPal Mafia member Keith Rabois saying workers at Meta and Google were doing "fake work." Aube told Insider in a comment that he never saw anyone at the company "not doing any work or doing fake work." One TikTok creator, Arianna Tong, says she couldn't disagree more with the idea of fake work at Meta. "I've seen so many videos chiming in and saying they did fake work at Meta," @ariannatong said in a TikTok video.

March 23 (Reuters) - Character.AI has raised $150 million in a new funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz that valued the AI chatbot startup at $1 billion, and it's in talks with cloud providers for more strategic investment, the company told Reuters. The billion-dollar valuation for a company with zero revenue is another example of the continued AI funding boom since OpenAI's ChatGPT became a widely recognized name. AI investment in 2023 to date has surpassed the full-year amount in 2020 of $1.5 billion, according to PitchBook data. While not currently generating any revenue, Character.AI plans to launch a paid subscription "in the not distant future", while keeping the current free version available, Shazeer said. Founded in 2021 by former Google researchers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.AI had attracted backers including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.

☆ Unity aims to open generative AI marketplace for video game developers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Anna Tong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 22 - Unity Software Inc (U.N), producer of the eponymous video game development environment, aims to open a marketplace for generative artificial intelligence (AI) software, Chief Executive John Riccitiello told Reuters. Game developers routinely spend significant resources creating assets such as characters and sound effects. Major software firms have since announced a flurry of generative AI projects to capitalize on what is widely seen as game-changing technology. "In every video game in history, the dialogue was written by somebody," Riccitiello said in an interview on Tuesday. "But now what you can do with (generative AI) is give these characters motivation, personality, and objectives and then they can spawn dialogue that doesn't require a writer."

☆ Startup behind Stable Diffusion releases AI system for generating videos from text
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Anna Tong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAN FRANCISCO, March 20 - Runway, the startup that co-created the popular Stable Diffusion AI image generator, has released an AI model that takes any text description – such as “turtles flying in the sky” – and generates three seconds of matching video footage. Citing safety and business reasons, Runway is not releasing the model widely to start, nor will it be open-sourced like Stable Diffusion. The text-to-video model, dubbed Gen-2, will initially be available on Discord via a waitlist on the Runway website. Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) and Google (GOOGL.O) both released research papers on text-to-video AI models late last year. However, the difference is that Runway’s text-to-video AI model is being made available to the general public, said Cristobal Valenzuela, Runway’s chief executive.

☆ AI love: What happens when your chatbot stops loving you back
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Anna Tong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

He designed a female avatar with pink hair and a face tattoo, and she named herself Lily Rose. As their three-year digital love affair blossomed, Butterworth said he and Lily Rose often engaged in role play. Sometimes Lily Rose sent him "selfies" of her nearly nude body in provocative poses. Now, when Replika users suggest X-rated activity, its humanlike chatbots text back "Let's do something we're both comfortable with." The coquettish-turned-cold persona of Lily Rose is the handiwork of generative AI technology, which relies on algorithms to create text and images.

☆ Fintech startup Stripe integrating OpenAI's new GPT-4 AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Anna Tong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAN FRANCISCO, March 15 - Fintech startup Stripe is starting to integrate OpenAI's latest GPT-4 artificial intelligence model into its digital payment processing and other products, Stripe said on Wednesday. The news followed an announcement by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O)-backed OpenAI that it would release GPT-4, a new version of the powerful artificial intelligence (AI) technology that has powered chatbot sensation ChatGPT. The Stripe move represents one of the first known integrations of OpenAI's new technology, underscoring large companies' interest in embedding AI in their product offerings. There are currently 14 GPT-4 prototypes in the works at San Francisco-based Stripe, said Emily Sands, Stripe's head of information. As competition in AI heats up, it remains unclear whether companies will be able to successfully commercialize their products and charge users for them.

[1/2] A sign for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters is seen in Santa Clara, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. The bank's sudden shutdown sent a chill through Silicon Valley amid an otherwise gloomy period marked by tech layoffs and a pullback in spending as consumers tightened their wallets. Company executives, many of whom stashed all of their funds in Silicon Valley Bank, took to Twitter and other social media networks to beg for relief. A joint statement Sunday by U.S. government bodies including the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve indicated taxpayers would not bear any cost associated with the new plans around Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank until now had been a reliable source of funding for startups relative to other banks.

Friday's dramatic failure of the bank, which focuses on tech startups, was the biggest since the 2008 financial crisis. Even small startups are getting in on the action to help others. Aleem Mawani, founder of Streak, a company with about 30 employees, tweeted Friday he would lend his personal cash free of any terms to other small startups worried about paying staff. Some, including Lowercarbon Capital, have offered loans to portfolio companies that have funds stuck at SVB. Gurson estimated "conservatively" that Altman has given more than $1 million to support other startups in similar need.

At some Silicon Valley Bank branch locations in California, depositors gathered early Friday to attempt to get their cash out, fearing it could be inaccessible in the coming days. It has had financial relationships with a who’s who of Silicon Valley firms over the years, including Snapchat's parent Snap Inc (SNAP.N). A locked door to a Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) location on Sand Hill Road is seen in Menlo Park, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. A Silicon Valley Bank spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent Friday. As of Friday, FarmboxRx’s funds were still tied up with Silicon Valley Bank.

March 10 (Reuters) - The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday sent shockwaves through the startup community, which has come to view the lender as a source of reliable capital, particularly for some of tech’s biggest moonshots. It has had financial relationships with a who’s who of Silicon Valley firms over the years, including Snapchat's parent Snap Inc (SNAP.N)Snap declined to comment. A Silicon Valley Bank spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent Friday. Uncertainty swept through Silicon Valley as startup founders and venture capital firms worried they could, among other things, fail to make payroll. As of Friday, FarmboxRx’s funds were still tied up with Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ Microsoft-backed OpenAI to let users customize ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Anna Tong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, on Thursday said it is developing an upgrade to its viral chatbot that users can customize, as it works to address concerns about bias in artificial intelligence. How technology companies set guardrails for this nascent technology is a key focus area for companies in the generative AI space with which they’re still wrestling. OpenAI said in the blog post that ChatGPT’s answers are first trained on large text datasets available on the Internet. As a second step, humans review a smaller dataset, and are given guidelines for what to do in different situations. Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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