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July 24 (Reuters) - Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launched on Monday. Blockchains can store the World IDs in a way that preserves privacy and can't be controlled or shut down by any single entity, co-founder Alex Blania told Reuters. The project says World IDs will be necessary in the age of generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which produce remarkably humanlike language. Altman told Reuters Worldcoin also can help address how the economy will be reshaped by generative AI. Since only real people can have World IDs, it could be used to reduce fraud when deploying UBI.

Persons: Sam Altman, Alex Blania, Altman, Reuters Worldcoin, ”, UBI, Anna Tong, Juby Babu, Elizabeth Howcroft, Kenneth Li, Navaratnam, Philippa Fletcher Organizations: Humanity, Reuters, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, Berlin

☆ Patrol dogs are terrorizing and mauling prisoners inside the United States
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Hannah Beckler | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +64 min

But prison patrol dogs aren't deployed for chases; they are used inside the prison walls. Tri-State Canines training facility, Warren, OhioVirginia Department of Corrections patrol dogs are typically Belgian Malinois, Czech shepherds, or German shepherds. Department patrol dogs are trained to bite once and hold to minimize flesh tears and lacerations. Patrol dog kennels, Virginia Department of CorrectionsThe patrol dog kennels are even smaller, at 6 feet by 10. A veterinary technician who treated patrol dogs at a clinic in Lebanon, Virginia, said she was told not to touch the patrol dogs in her care without their handler present.

Persons: Santos Cardona, Michael Smith, Smith, Marco, crouch, Mohammed Bollendia, protectively, Ashraf Abdullah Ahsy, Ivan L, Frederick II, Cardona, Abu, John Ketzer, Ketzer, Michael J, Donald Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld, Abu Ghraib, Lane McCotter, Gary DeLand, Terry Bartlett, Richard Billings, Larry DuBois, John Armstrong, Terry Stewart, Charles Ryan, Ryan, Stewart, Adrian Duran, cradled, Duran he'd, Duran, Blackie, growled, he'd, It's, extractions, they're, Jerko, Jeremy Defour, Bert, Antwon Whitten, Virginia, Peter C, Meade, —, Oikeutta eläimille, Dave Blosser, Blosser, Eli Hiller, he's, Matthew Johnson, Oscar, Johnson, Oscar growled, Boris, Cajos, Linwood Mathias, Lucas Pruitt, Mathias, Xavia Goodwyn, sicced Lojzo, Edris, Michael Watson, Watson, Thomas Rose, Rose, Goodwyn, Red, Rick White, Ron Angelone, Wallens, Tyler Parry, Charlton Yingling, Parry, Eugene, Bull, Connor, Bill Hudson, Yingling, Solomon Northup, Solomon, Walter Gadsden, Malcolm X, Michael Brown, Ferguson, They're, Jeffery, White, Curtis Garrett, Garrett, Kathleen Dennehy, Dennehy, Aaron Fedor, Jimmy Stanley, Dora Schriro, Schriro, Omar, Dionisio Paulino, Paulino, Robert Silva, Adrian Duran's, Adrian Duran Duran, Adrian, unwound, Sussex II, Whitten, Western District of Virginia Jeremy Defour, Defour, Kenneth Licklider, Chris Robbins, Rivan, she'd, They've, Stephen McReynolds, McReynolds, Daniel Clinton, Tom, Clinton, basketballs, Clinton's, Fuga, Jamie Elliott, Elliott, Duran couldn't, Bodhi, Jamie, Jawan Lee, Lee, Lee's Organizations: US, Business, Associated Press, Department of, Rights, Department, Justice, Department of Justice, Virginia Department of Corrections Police, Human Rights Watch, Virginia Department of Corrections, University of Virginia School of Law, Sussex II, Police, Kern Medical, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, The Indiana Department of Correction, Delaware Department of Correction, South, New Jersey Department of Corrections, Tri, Warren , Ohio Virginia Department of Corrections, State Canine Services, Court, Western District of, Red, View Regional, Onion, North Correctional Center, Corrections, Goodwyn, FBI, Ku Klux Klan, Human Rights, University of Nevada, University of Louisville, AP, Breeders, Ferguson Police Department, Souza, Baranowski, Commonwealth, Baranowski Correctional, Prentice, Black, United States, District, Massachusetts, Housing, Virginia Commonwealth University Health, Virginia, Housing Unit, Patrol, Southwest, Southwest Virginia Veterinary Services Locations: Abu Ghraib, Iraq, Belgian, Baghdad, Abu, United States, New Mexico, Utah, DeLand, Billings, Bartlett, Arizona, DuBois, Massachusetts, Armstrong, Connecticut, Arizona , Connecticut, Delaware , Indiana , Iowa , Massachusetts , New Jersey, Virginia, Alexandria , Virginia, Los Angeles, backyards, Sussex, lunging, Indiana, Richmond , Virginia, Iowa, Augusta, Ridge, New Jersey, South Woods, Warren ,, Czech, Europe, , Virginia, Western District, Western District of Virginia, Warren , Ohio, Holland, Tri, Canton , Ohio, Wallens, Onion, Red Onion, View, Norton , Virginia, Portsmouth , Virginia, Kentucky, Birmingham , Alabama, Las Vegas, Americas, Caribbean, American, Ferguson , Missouri, Lancaster , Massachusetts, Richmond, Lebanon , Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Lebanon, Waverly , Virginia, chihuahua

☆ Actors decry 'existential crisis' over AI-generated ‘synthetic’ actors
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Synthetic performers. One issue is creating synthetic performers from an amalgamation of actors’ images. The producers have promised to obtain a performer’s consent, and bargain separately for subsequent uses of an actor’s doppelganger, sources say. The producers offered to seek a performer’s consent for any changes beyond typical alterations done post-production, sources say. SAG interprets this as AI overreach, and wants permission sought before any changes to an actor’s image, likeness or voice.

Persons: ”, Carly Turro, Duncan Crabtree, ” Crabtree, Crabtree, “, Dawn Chmielewski, Danielle Broadway, Kenneth Li, Deepa Babington Organizations: Hollywood, SAG, Alliance, Television Producers, Thomson Locations: Ireland, Los Angeles

☆ Meta opens AI model to commercial use, throwing nascent market into flux
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Katie Paul | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Any incremental improvement in open-source models is eating into the market share of closed-source models because you can run them cheaply and have less dependency," said Masad. The announcement follows plans by Microsoft's largest cloud rivals, Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Amazon (AMZN.O), to give business customers a range of AI models from which to choose. Amazon, for instance, is marketing access to Claude - AI from the high-profile startup Anthropic - in addition to its own family of Titan models. Google, likewise, has said it plans to make Claude and other models available to its cloud customers. Until now, Microsoft has focused on making technology available from OpenAI in Azure.

Persons: Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Bard chatbot, Amjad Masad, Claude, Katie Paul, Jeffrey Dastin, Krystal Hu, Kenneth Li Organizations: YORK, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon Web Services, Thomson

"High level, we want this to become something like your personal AI friend," said developer Div Garg, whose company MultiOn is beta-testing an AI agent. The race towards increasingly autonomous AI agents has been supercharged by the March release of GPT-4 by developer OpenAI, a powerful upgrade of the model behind ChatGPT - the chatbot that became a sensation when released last November. GPT-4 facilitates the type of strategic and adaptable thinking required to navigate the unpredictable real world, said Vivian Cheng, an investor at venture capital firm CRV who has a focus on AI agents. OpenAI itself is very interested in AI agent technology, according to four people briefed on its plans. There are at least 100 serious projects working to commercialize agents, said Matt Schlicht, who writes a newsletter on AI.

Persons: Siri, Alexa, Tony Stark's, Kanjun Qiu, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Qiu, OpenAI, Vivian Cheng, CRV, Aravind Srinivas, Jarvis, Yoshua Bengio, Satya Nadella, Apple's Siri, it's, Google, Edward Grefenstette, Jason Franklin, WVV Capital, Hesam Motlagh, Matt Schlicht, Anna Tong, Jeffrey Dastin, Kenneth Li Organizations: Microsoft, Google, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, Reuters, FTC, OpenAI's, Financial Times, Amazon, Alexa, Investors, WVV, Google Ventures, Entrepreneurs, Thomson Locations: Silicon, Jarvis, GPT, Cognosys, San Francisco, Palo Alto

"U.S.-China competition is on the same starting line," Chipuller chairman Yang Meng said about chiplet technology in an interview with Reuters. "They can still develop 3D stacking or other chiplet technology to work around those restrictions. Beijing is rapidly exploiting chiplet technology in applications as diverse as artificial intelligence to self-driving cars, with entities from tech giant Huawei Technologies to military institutions exploring its use. About a quarter of the global chip packaging and testing market sits in China, according to Dongguan Securities. Huawei, China’s tech and chip design giant that has been put on the U.S.'s most restricted list, has been actively filing chiplet patents.

Persons: Yang Meng, Charles Shi, Needham, Yang, Needham's Shi, Chipuller, Laura Black, Melissa Mannino, Perry Bechky, Rowe, Mike Gallagher, Biden, ”, Chipuller's Yang, zGlue, CFIUS, Shayne Phillips, MIIT, Jane Lanhee Lee, Eduardo Baptista, Echo Wang, Stephen Nellis, Kenneth Li, Brenda Goh, Lincoln Organizations: Chipuller, Industry, Reuters, Huawei Technologies, Intel, Dongguan Securities, People’s Liberation Army, PLA, Acclaim, British, Islands, Sea Investment Co, Foreign Investment, Treasury, Akin's Trade, Berliner Corcoran, Department of Commerce, Huawei, U.S, TongFu Microelectronics, JCET, Beijing ESWIN Technology Group, China’s Ministry of Industry, Information Technology, Thomson Locations: Shenzhen, China, U.S, United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Beijing, Dongguan, BakerHostetler, People's Republic of China

☆ Disney extends CEO Bob Iger's contract through 2026
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The board said in a statement that it aimed to maintain "continuity of leadership during the company’s ongoing transformation." Terms of his contract include opportunity to receive an annual incentive bonus of five times his base salary. In his previous contract, he was entitled to an estimated $27 million per year in total compensation. Meanwhile, the television business is confronting long term and likely irreversible declines in audiences. In February, Disney said it would cut 7,000 jobs in a major overhaul to save $5.5 billion in costs.

Persons: Walt Disney's, Robert Iger's, Iger, Bob Chapek, Disney, Yuvraj Malik, Kenneth Li, Shailesh Kuber, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Disney, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru, New York

One unit ran a "hackathon," or collaborative engineering event, of so-called generative AI, technology that produces text, images or other new content based on past data. The division, Verafin, was exploring how to imbue such AI into its product for fighting financial crime, he said, adding the technology could create investigative reports. Still, despite using other forms of AI for years, Nasdaq's latest work remains experimental; no code has been published yet drafted by AI, Peterson said. Nasdaq has accessed a preview of Amazon's answer to the generative AI race, namely Amazon Bedrock, a pick-your-preferred technology approach that includes Claude AI from the startup Anthropic. On the longer-term horizon for Nasdaq is integrating the Thoma Bravo-owned software firm Adenza, subject to closure of the $10.5 billion-deal Nasdaq announced last month.

Persons: AUSTIN, Brad Peterson, Verafin, Peterson, We're, Nasdaq's, OpenAI, Claude AI, Thoma, Jeffrey Dastin, Kenneth Li, Deepa Babington Organizations: Nasdaq, Computer, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Thoma Bravo, Thomson Locations: Austin

☆ Analysis: Meta's 'friendly' Threads collides with unfriendly internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Katie Paul | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Maintaining that idealistic vision for Threads - which attracted more than 70 million users in its first two days - is another story. To be sure, Meta Platforms (META.O) is no newbie at managing the rage-baiting, smut-posting internet hordes. For starters, the company will not extend its existing fact-checking program to Threads, spokesperson Christine Pai said in an emailed statement on Thursday. Asked by Reuters to explain why it was taking a different approach to misinformation on Threads, Meta declined to answer. INTO THE FEDIVERSEFurther challenges in moderating content are in store once Meta links Threads to the so-called fediverse, where users from servers operated by other non-Meta entities will be able to communicate with Threads users.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Christine Pai, Pai, Adam Mosseri, Instagram, satanists, Donald Trump, Meta's Pai, Alex Stamos, Solomon Messing, Katie Paul, Kenneth Li, Matthew Lewis Organizations: YORK, Meta, Reuters, New York Times, West Bank, Conservative, Stanford Internet Observatory, Center for Social Media, New York University, San, Thomson Locations: San Francisco

"Currently, we don't have a solution for steering or controlling a potentially superintelligent AI, and preventing it from going rogue." Superintelligent AI - systems more intelligent than humans - could arrive this decade, the blog post's authors predicted. The team's goal is to create a "human-level" AI alignment researcher, and then scale it through vast amounts of compute power. OpenAI says that means they will train AI systems using human feedback, train AI systems to assistant human evaluation, and then finally train AI systems to actually do the alignment research. AI safety advocate Connor Leahy said the plan was fundamentally flawed because the initial human-level AI could run amok and wreak havoc before it could be compelled to solve AI safety problems.

Persons: OpenAI, Ilya Sutskever, Jan Leike, Connor Leahy, Anna Tong, Kenneth Li, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Microsoft, Reuters, Thomson Locations: San Francisco

The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported that the Biden administration was considering new restrictions on exporting AI chips to China. The possible rule tightening would hardest hit Nvidia, whose strong position in the AI chip market helped make it worth $1 trillion earlier this year. The current rule around AI chips involves two restrictions. One restriction focuses on how fast chips can communicate with each other, which is important because AI systems such as ChatGPT require thousands of chips to be chained together. The other restriction focuses on how much computing power the chip can have.

Persons: Florence Lo, Biden, Colette Kress, Nvidia's Kress, Stephen Nellis, Karen Freifeld, Kenneth Li, Chris Sanders, Nick Zieminski Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Commerce, Nvidia, Nvidia Corp, Devices Inc, Intel Corp, Reuters, Tencent Holdings, Intel, AMD, Thomson Locations: of China, U.S, China, HK, San Francisco, New York

☆ Thomson Reuters to buy digital content management company Imagen
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] The Thomson Reuters logo is seen on the company building in Times Square, New York, U.S., January 30, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File PhotoJune 28 (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO) will buy Imagen, a digital content asset management company, for an undisclosed price, to expand its agency business to new customers, the news and information company said on Wednesday. Britain-based Imagen, which owns the Screenocean video distribution platform, operates digital content libraries for sports, media and business companies including Premier League soccer and Major League Baseball. "Our belief is that our agency business needs to evolve to be a tech-enabled content delivery (business)," Reuters President Paul Bascobert said in an interview. On Monday, Thomson Reuters said it agreed to buy Casetext, a California-based AI company that helps legal professionals conduct research, analysis and prepare documents using generative AI, for $650 million.

Persons: Andrew Kelly, Imagen, Paul Bascobert, Bascobert, Thomson, Kenneth Li, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Thomson Reuters, REUTERS, Premier League soccer, Major League Baseball, Reuters News, Reuters, Reuters Connect, BBC, USA, Thomson Locations: Square , New York, U.S, Britain, California, New York

REUTERS/Nathan FrandinoMOUNTAIN VIEW, California, June 26 (Reuters) - Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) has already tried and failed to bring internet access to rural and remote areas by using high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere. But now, the company is delivering internet service to remote areas by using beams of light. It was initiated in 2016 after attempts at using stratospheric balloons to deliver internet ran into problems due to high costs, company executives said. Taara executives and Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS), one of India's largest telecommunications and internet providers, told Reuters they are now moving toward larger-scale deployment of the new laser internet technology in India. Bharti Airtel's chief technology officer, Randeep Sekhon, said Taara will also help deliver faster internet service in urban areas in developed countries.

Persons: Nathan, Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Taara, Krishnaswamy, Astro Teller, moonshots, Teller, Bharti, Randeep Sekhon, Jane Lanhee Lee, Nathan Frandino, Kenneth Li, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Bharti Airtel, Reuters, Econet Group, Liquid Telecom, Bluetown, Digicel, Airtel, Sciences, Bharti Airtel's, Google, Thomson Locations: Alphabet's, View , California, U.S, California, India, Australia, Kenya, Fiji, Africa, Pacific, Osur, Chennai, Mountain View

Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros.” movie and Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” both animated films, have racked up big ticket sales this year. The successes of "Super Mario Bros." and "Spider-Man" also reflect a new post-COVID-19 trend at box offices, Hollywood insiders say. In his book, “Creativity, Inc.,” Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull credited Pixar's brain trust with the studio’s early box-office triumphs. Catmull and other members of the original brain trust are gone, though Docter remains, now in the role of chief creative officer. During the pandemic's peak, when many cinemas were closed, Disney launched three Pixar films directly to Disney+_in the U.S., bypassing theaters.

Persons: ”, Universal’s, Mario, Tony Chambers, Disney's, don’t, Chambers, DreamWorks Animation’s, “ Ruby Gillman, Tom Sito, King, Sito, Jeff Bock, Ed Catmull, — John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, Joe Ranft —, Docter, Domee Shi, Soul’s ’ Kemp Powers, Pixar’s, Brad Bird, Oscar, “, Darla K, Anderson, “ Coco ”, Bob Chapek, there’s, we’ve, ” Docter, it’ll, Dawn Chmielewski, Lisa Richwine, Kenneth Li, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Pixar, Inc, Walt Disney, Universal Studios, DreamWorks, University of Southern, Netflix, Disney, Apple, Relations, Thomson Locations: ANGELES, U.S, Canada, Disney, University of Southern California, ”

However, “I didn't want to make people think that I was an expert,” said Spehar, who filmed the TikTok video from their home in Rochester, New York. Josh Helfgott, a TikTok user with 5.5 million followers, posts a recurring series of videos called “Gay News” discussing current events relevant to LGBTQ viewers. Meanwhile, TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform for news, according to a report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published on Tuesday. Twenty percent of 18-to-24-year-olds use TikTok to learn about current events, up 5 percentage points from last year, the report said. The benefit was mutual: Spehar learned how journalism is produced, while the publisher benefited from Spehar's TikTok skills.

Persons: Josh Helfgott, Magali, Read, Vitus, Spehar, “, ”, Helfgott, Joe Biden, ” Helfgott, Kristy Drutman, TikTok, Lisa Remillard, Remillard, ” Remillard, Magali Druscovich, Sheila Dang, Kenneth Li, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, U.S, Capitol, White, Human, New York Times, BuzzFeed News, Reuters Institute for, “, Los Angeles Times, Thomson Locations: Los Angeles , California, U.S, Rochester , New York, Tallahassee , Florida, San Diego , California, United States

The Google parent has advised employees not to enter its confidential materials into AI chatbots, the people said and the company confirmed, citing long-standing policy on safeguarding information. Alphabet also alerted its engineers to avoid direct use of computer code that chatbots can generate, some of the people said. A growing number of businesses around the world have set up guardrails on AI chatbots, among them Samsung (005930.KS), Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), the companies told Reuters. By February, Google told staff testing Bard before its launch not to give it internal information, Insider reported. A Google privacy notice updated on June 1 also states: "Don’t include confidential or sensitive information in your Bard conversations."

Persons: Bard, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Harry Potter, Yusuf Mehdi, Mehdi, Bing, Matthew Prince, Jeffrey Dastin, Anna Tong, Kenneth Li, Nick Zieminski Organizations: FRANCISCO, Reuters, Google, ChatGPT, Microsoft Corp, Samsung, Deutsche Bank, Apple, Data Protection, Politico, EU, cyberattacks, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: Bard, San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, June 12 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) is planning a fresh round of layoffs at its Vision Fund investment arm, two people familiar with the matter said, the latest cost-cutting move at the Japanese conglomerate. SoftBank's Vision Fund unit, which has booked heavy investment losses, had headcount of 349 at the end of March, according to a company report. If finalized, this would follow the elimination of about 150 jobs globally at the investing arm and SoftBank Group International in September. It cushioned the investment loss at the Vision Fund unit by selling down its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK). Vision Fund 2's portfolio was worth $31 billion at end-March compared with an acquisition cost of $49.9 billion.

Persons: ByteDance, SoftBank, SoftBank's, Krystal Hu, Sam Nussey, Kenneth Li, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: FRANCISCO, SoftBank Group Corp, Vision Fund, Fund, SoftBank, International, Vision, Alibaba, Holding, HK, Intel, Thomson Locations: U.S, China, The Cambridge, England, San Francisco, Tokyo

The movie is projected to debut with a modest $31 million to $41 million this weekend in the U.S., according to the Box Office Pro website. That is well shy of the recent $120.5 million haul for Sony’s critically acclaimed animated hit "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." Pixar is looking to rebound from the box office disappointment of 2022 release "Lightyear," the origin story of "Toy Story" hero Buzz Lightyear. "Judging Pixar on the recent past, history would not be kind," said SVB MoffettNathanson media analyst Michael Nathanson. But the move dealt a blow to creatives who had hoped their films would be seen on the big screen, according to one Pixar director who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Persons: Athie, Leah Lewis, Pete Docter, Denise Ream, Peter Sohn, Adele Exarchopoulos, Vincent Lacoste, Jim Morris, Read, Buzz Lightyear, Pixar, Michael Nathanson, Sohn, Mario, Shawn Robbins, Robbins, Bob Chapek’s, Luca, creatives, Sohn’s, Dawn Chmielewski, Lisa Richwine, Nathan Frandino, Kenneth Li, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Cannes Film, Pixar Animation Studios, Box, Pixar, Reuters, Walt Disney Co, Reuters Television, Comcast, Universal Pictures, Mario Bros, Sony Pictures, Pro, Disney, U.S, Cannes, Rotten, Thomson Locations: U.S, City, Los Angeles, San Francisco

☆ Microsoft, Google strategy to test AI search ads irks some brands
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Google, Microsoft and Alphabet logos and AI Artificial Intelligence words are seen in this illustration taken, May 4, 2023. Microsoft is testing ads in the Bing AI chatbot, which began rolling out to users in February, by relocating some traditional search ads and inserting them into the AI responses, the company said. In a May interview, Google’s general manager of ads, Jerry Dischler, said the tech company would also use existing search ads to experiment with ad placements within the AI search snapshots, an early-test feature called Search Generative Experience that first became available last month. Microsoft and Google said existing guard rails on their search engines, including lists of blocked keywords to prevent ads from appearing on those queries, would also apply to their AI search features. Three ad buyers said they were concerned about Microsoft’s lack of transparency reporting, or reports that can show what search terms triggered a brand’s ads to appear in generative AI experiences, or how the ads performed versus traditional search ads.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Google’s, Jerry Dischler, Jason Lee, Wells, Wells Fargo, Lynne Kjolso, Bing, ”, Samantha Aiken, Max, can’t, Kjolso, Sheila Dang, Kenneth Li, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Google, Microsoft, REUTERS, Reuters, MAGNA, Bing, Horizon Media, Thomson Locations: Anthropic, Corona, Wells Fargo, Dallas

loadingWhile major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have made efforts to prohibit and remove deepfakes, their effectiveness at policing such content varies. In total, about 500,000 video and voice deepfakes will be shared on social media sites globally in 2023, DeepMedia estimates. Jon Smith, Republican chair for Michigan's 5th Congressional district, is holding several educational meetings so his allies can learn to use AI for social media and ad generation. Political consultancies are also seeking to harness AI, further muddying the line between real and unreal. Democratic polling and strategy group Honan Strategy Group is meanwhile trying to develop an AI survey bot.

The European Union is at the forefront of drafting new AI rules that could set the global benchmark to address privacy and safety concerns that have arisen with the rapid advances in the generative AI technology behind OpenAI's ChatGPT. "If it's about protecting personal data, they apply data protection laws, if it's a threat to safety of people, there are regulations that have not been specifically defined for AI, but they are still applicable." Data protection authorities in France and Spain also launched in April probes into OpenAI's compliance with privacy laws. 'THINKING CREATIVELY'French data regulator CNIL has started "thinking creatively" about how existing laws might apply to AI, according to Bertrand Pailhes, its technology lead. "We are looking at the full range of effects, although our focus remains on data protection and privacy," he told Reuters.

☆ Explainer: How Montana could enforce a TikTok ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Montana's ban is set to take effect on Jan. 1 2024. While TikTok can theoretically block IP addresses registered in Montana, app stores will have a more difficult time. "It would thus be impossible for our members to prevent the app from being downloaded specifically in the state of Montana," the TechNet representative testified. The app stores also would need to monitor more detailed location data from users' phones than they currently use, infringing on users' privacy, Stamos said. "The youth of Montana are about to become America's experts in VPNs," Railton said.

Reuters previously reported that the company was not planning to deploy its first in-house AI chip widely and was already working on a successor. The blog posts portrayed the first MTIA chip as a learning opportunity. As part of that, the company scrapped plans for a large-scale rollout of an in-house inference chip and started work on a more ambitious chip capable of performing both training and inference, according to the Reuters reporting. Meta acknowledged in its blog posts that its first MTIA chip stumbled with high-complexity AI models, although it said the chip handled low- and medium-complexity models more efficiently than competitor chips. The MTIA chip also used only 25 watts of power - a fraction of what market-leading chips from suppliers such as Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) consume - and used an open-source chip architecture called RISC-V, Meta said.

☆ Meta Platforms scoops up AI networking chip team from Graphcore
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Katie Paul | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

May 5 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) has hired an Oslo-based team that until late last year was building artificial-intelligence networking technology at British chip unicorn Graphcore. "We recently welcomed a number of highly-specialized engineers in Oslo to our infrastructure team at Meta. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has become increasingly reliant on AI technology to target advertising, select posts for its apps' feeds and purge banned content from its platforms. The 10 employees' job descriptions on LinkedIn indicated the team had worked on AI-specific networking technology at Graphcore, which develops computer chips and systems optimized for AI work. A new category of network chip has emerged to help keep data moving smoothly within those computing clusters.

[1/2] Workers and supporters of the Writers Guild of America picket outside Sunset Bronson Studios and Netflix Studios, after union negotiators called a strike for film and television writers, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Mario AnzuoniLOS ANGELES, May 4 (Reuters) - The Hollywood writers' strike that kicked off this week could last well into the summer and likely beyond, top executives close to the discussions told Reuters this week. Moody’s estimates a three-year contract with writers ultimately will cost the media industry $250 million to $350 million per year, a more modest estimate than the guild's projections of about $429 million per year. Television writers say their pay has suffered, as studios squeeze writers into smaller rooms for fewer weeks at minimum pay, despite financing lavishly produced streaming series. Hollywood writers must pay their agents and managers out of their wages -- and, unlike staff writers, can go long periods between gigs.

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