Technology

Power grab by France, Germany and Italy threatens to kill EU’s AI bill

Europe’s three largest economies have turned against regulation of the most powerful types of artificial intelligence, putting the fate of the bloc’s pioneering Artificial Intelligence Act on the line. France, Germany and Italy are stonewalling negotiations over a controversial section of the EU’s draft AI legislation so it doesn’t hamper Europe’s own development of “foundation models,” AI infrastructure that underpins large-language models like OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s Bard.

Source: Power grab by France, Germany and Italy threatens to kill EU’s AI bill

OpenAI Staff Threaten to Quit Unless Board Resigns

OpenAI was in open revolt on Monday with more than 600 employees signing an open letter threatening to leave unless the board resigns and reinstates Sam Altman as CEO, along with cofounder and former president Greg Brockman. “The process through which you terminated Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company,” the letter reads. “Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI.”

Source: OpenAI Staff Threaten to Quit Unless Board Resigns

Microsoft is the only real winner in the OpenAI debacle

OpenAI is in the process of fully collapsing on itself, following the ousting of former CEO Sam Altman in a shock board decision. Exactly why the board decided to fire Altman is still unclear, but it seems increasingly likely that it was more about power-play shenanigans than anything else. What is clear is that Microsoft, through quick action and decisive strategic leadership from CEO Satya Nadella is poised to emerge the clear winner.

Source: Microsoft is the only real winner in the OpenAI debacle | TechCrunch

France, Germany, Italy push for ‘mandatory self-regulation’ for foundation models in EU’s AI law

The three biggest EU countries are pushing for mandatory codes of conduct for foundation models rather than prescriptive obligations in the AI rulebook, according to a non-paper seen by Euractiv.  The file is currently at the last phase of the legislative process, where the EU Commission, Council, and Parliament gather in ‘trilogues’ to hash out the law’s final dispositions.

Source: France, Germany, Italy push for ‘mandatory self-regulation’ for foundation models in EU’s AI law

Meta disbanded its Responsible AI team

Meta has reportedly broken up its Responsible AI (RAI) team as it puts more of its resources into generative artificial intelligence. The Information broke the news today, citing an internal post it had seen. According to the report, most RAI members will move to the company’s generative AI product team, while others will work on Meta’s AI infrastructure. The company regularly says it wants to develop AI responsibly and even has a page devoted to the promise, where the company lists its “pillars of responsible AI.”

Source: Meta disbanded its Responsible AI team

How AI for lip dubbing could change the film industry

Earlier this year, the visual effects company, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ). unveiled a technology called LipDub AI, which digitally manipulates actors’ facial expressions to match spoken words in foreign languages. The technology promises to achieve an extraordinary level of realism and fluency, learning to make actors’ lips match the language and the performers.

Source: How AI for lip dubbing could change the film inudstry

CreateSafe Announces Funding for New AI Platform Following Grimes Collab

CreateSafe, the music tech studio that collaborated with Grimes on an AI using a clone of her voice, has raised $4.6 million in a seed funding round to launch TRINITI, a new “artistic intelligence” platform. Polychain Capital, a cryptocurrency and blockchain tech investment firm, led the funding round. Grimes also joined CreateSafe’s advisory board to continue to experiment and develop emergent new use cases to collaborate with AI.

Source: CreateSafe Announces Funding for New AI Platform Following Grimes Collab

YouTube Launches Test of AI Music Generator That Can Mimic Top Artists’ Vocals

YouTube announced new AI music experiments it has been developing with Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab. The most interesting (and possibly most disorienting) of YouTube’s AI tests is Dream Track in YouTube Shorts. YouTube is working with nine artists who have agreed to collaborate on the Dream Track experiment: Alec Benjamin, Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Papoose, Sia, T-Pain and Troye Sivan.

Source: YouTube Launches Test of AI Music Generator That Can Mimic Demi Lovato, John Legend, Charlie Puth, Troye Sivan, T-Pain and More

Canada’s Trudeau warned: Tech giant battle could mean doom for small news outlets

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s lifeline for Canada’s struggling media industry could instead spell disaster, digital start-ups and freelancers warned his office as it was doubling down on the Online News Act. Documents obtained by POLITICO through an Access-to-Information request reveal urgent appeals from freelancers and small news outlets who spelled out for top officials what would happen if they lost access to sharing news through both Google and Meta.

Source: Tech giant battle means doom for small news outlets, Trudeau was warned

Actors’ AI Protections Are a Step Forward, But There’s Reason to Worry

Of the 16-page summary detailing the tentative deal between SAG-AFTRA and the studios, more than five are spent on provisions over artificial intelligence. The document cites the establishment of a “broad, protective” definition of generative artificial intelligence, along with requirements surrounding notice, consent and compensation around digital replicas of actors and “synthetic performers” created by AI tools.

Source: Actors’ AI Protections Are a Step Forward, But There’s Reason to Worry

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