Category Archives: Artificial intelligence (AI)

Photos of Australian children used in dataset to train AI, human rights group says

Posted on by

Human Rights Watch found links to 190 photos of kids that were scraped off internet without families’ consent

Photos of Australian children have been included in the dataset used by several AI image-generating tools without the knowledge or consent of them or their families, research by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.

An analysis of less than 0.0001% of the 5.85bn images contained in the Laion-5B dataset, used by services such as Stable Diffusion creator Stability AI and Midjourney, found 190 photos of Australian children scraped from the internet.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Cheap AI voice clones may wipe out jobs of 5,000 Australian actors

Posted on by

Industry group says rise of vocal technology could upend many creative fields, including audiobooks – the canary in the coalmine for voice actors

Voice actors say they’re on the precipice of their work being replaced completely by artificial intelligence, with corporate and radio roles already beginning to be replaced by cheap generative AI clones.

While a high-profile actor like Scarlett Johansson can make the most prominent AI company in the world back down within a day from using her voice likeness in their AI products, everyday actors working on commercials, audiobook and video games worry they risk having their own voices cloned, or miss out on work entirely due to the rise of AI voice clones.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

UK needs system for recording AI misuse and malfunctions, thinktank says

Posted on by

Centre for Long-Term Resilience calls on next government to log incidents to mitigate risks

The UK needs a system for recording misuse and malfunctions in artificial intelligence or ministers risk being unaware of alarming incidents involving the technology, according to a report.

The next government should create a system for logging incidents involving AI in public services and should consider building a central hub for collating AI-related episodes across the UK, said the Centre for Long-Term Resilience (CLTR), a thinktank.

Continue reading...

Geologists raise concerns over possible censorship and bias in Chinese chatbot

Posted on by

GeoGPT developed as part of Chinese-funded earth sciences programme aimed at researchers in global south

Geologists have raised concerns about potential Chinese censorship and bias in a chatbot being developed with the backing of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), one of the world’s largest scientific organisations and a Unesco partner.

The GeoGPT chatbot is aimed at geoscientists and researchers, particularly in the global south, to help them develop their understanding of earth sciences by drawing on swaths of data and research on billions of years of the planet’s history.

Continue reading...

Apple delays launch of AI-powered features in Europe, blaming EU rules

Posted on by

Apple says competition rules that require functionality with rival products would compromise privacy and security

Apple will delay launching three new artificial intelligence features in Europe because European Union competition rules require the company ensure that rival products and services can function with its devices. The features will launch in the fall in the US but will not arrive in Europe until 2025.

The company said on Friday three features – Phone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence – will not be rolled out to EU users this year because of regulatory uncertainties due to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Continue reading...

Bacchus Marsh Grammar: Victorian premier blasts ‘disgraceful’ conduct after AI fake nude photo allegations

Posted on by

Jacinta Allan says no place for ‘misogynistic conduct’ as police investigate allegations fake nude images of students circulated online

Victoria’s premier has said there is no place for “misogynistic conduct” in the state following allegations deepfakes depicting about 50 female students from a private school in regional Victoria were circulated online.

Police are investigating the “incredibly graphic” nude images which appeared to have been created using artificial intelligence and photos of the girls’ faces taken from social media sites, and then circulated online.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

First NHS physiotherapy clinic run by AI to start this year

Posted on by

Exclusive: New platform to provide same-day appointments with digital physiotherapist in effort to cut waiting times

The first NHS AI-run physiotherapy clinic is to be rolled out this year in an effort to cut waiting times amid growing demand and staff shortages.

The new platform will provide same-day automated video appointments with a digital physiotherapist via an app that responds to information provided by a patient in real time.

Continue reading...

Deepfakes of Australian politicians including Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher used in investment scams

Posted on by

Exclusive: AI-generated footage of former PM Scott Morrison also used in more than a dozen Facebook ads that reached thousands of Australians

Images of the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, and the foreign minister, Penny Wong, have been used in deepfake investment scam videos in the latest examples of a concerning trend of politicians being used in online fraud.

The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and the former prime minister Scott Morrison have also had their faces used in scams through Facebook videos that appear to be generated by AI, with more than a dozen examples this week of paid ads reaching thousands of Australians before being removed.

Continue reading...

Nvidia hits $3tn and surpasses Apple as world’s second most valuable company

Posted on by

AI chipmaker’s stock has surged 147% so far in 2024, underscoring shift in tech world as demand for its processors far outstrip supply

Shares of Nvidia rallied to record highs on Wednesday, with the artificial-intelligence chipmaker’s stock market valuation hitting the $3tn mark and overtaking Apple to become the world’s second most valuable company.

The chipmaker’s stock was up 5.16% at $1,224.40, giving Nvidia a market value of $3.01tn at market close. Apple’s market capitalization was at $3.00tn at market close as its stock climbed 0.78%.

Continue reading...

US cites AI deepfakes as reason to keep Biden recording with Robert Hur secret

Posted on by

DoJ filing says president’s interview with special counsel about handling of classified documents could be ‘improperly altered’

The US Department of Justice is making a novel legal argument to keep a recording of an interview with Joe Biden from becoming public. In a filing late last week, the bureau cited the risk of AI-generated deepfakes as one of the reasons it refuses to release audio of the president’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. The conversation about Biden’s handling of classified documents is a source of heated political contention, with Republicans pushing for release of the recordings and the White House moving to block them.

The justice department’s filing, which it released late on Friday night, argues that the recording should not be released on a variety of grounds including privacy interests and executive privilege. One section of the filing, however, is specifically dedicated to the threat of deepfakes and disinformation, stating that there is substantial risk people could maliciously manipulate the audio if it were to be made public.

Continue reading...

AI hardware firm Nvidia unveils next-gen products at Taiwan tech expo

Posted on by

CEO Jensen Huang tells packed stadium in Taipei ‘next Industrial Revolution has begun’

Nvidia has unveiled new products and plans to accelerate the advance of artificial intelligence, with the AI hardware company’s chief executive telling a packed stadium in Taipei on Sunday that “the next Industrial Revolution has begun”.

Jensen Huang is in Taiwan for the island’s leading tech expo, Computex, along with the CEOs of some of the world’s biggest semiconductor companies – including AMD, Intel and Qualcomm – and their plans for a tech industry dominated by AI are top of the agenda.

Continue reading...

$10m prize launched for team that can truly talk to the animals

Posted on by

AI expected to help researchers unlock two-way communication, say team that includes Tel Aviv University

In the Dr Dolittle books and films, the ability to “talk to the animals” captured the imagination. Now scientists are being offered a $10m prize to create real conversations.

The Coller Dolittle Challenge for Interspecies Two-Way Communication has been launched by the Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University. While the use of AI is not obligatory, the team say the technology can boost almost all proposals.

Continue reading...

Argentinian president to meet Silicon Valley CEOs in bid to court tech titans

Posted on by

Javier Milei to hold private talks with Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman as Argentina faces worst economic crisis in decades

Javier Milei, Argentina’s president, is set to meet with the leaders of some of the world’s largest tech companies in Silicon Valley this week. The far-right libertarian leader will hold private talks with Sundar Pichai of Google, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Tim Cook of Apple.

Milei also met last month with Elon Musk, who has become one of the South American president’s most prominent cheerleaders and repeatedly shared his pro-deregulation, anti-social justice message on X (formerly Twitter). Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire, has also twice visited Milei, flying to Buenos Aires to speak with him in February and May of this year.

Continue reading...

Consultant behind deepfaked Biden robocall fined $6m as new charges filed

Posted on by

Steve Kramer charged in New Hampshire for AI-generated impersonation of Biden that urged residents not to vote in primary

Steve Kramer, a political consultant who admitted that he deepfaked Joe Biden’s voice in a robocall that was sent out to thousands of US voters in January 2024, has been indicted and fined $6m.

The robocall, which went out ahead of the first Democratic presidential primary in the US in New Hampshire, used artificial intelligence to fake Biden’s voice telling voters to stay home and “save” their votes for the November general election.

Continue reading...

Nvidia reports stratospheric growth as AI boom shows no sign of stopping

Posted on by

Chipmaker reports strong demand and higher-than-expected revenue even as other companies spend to develop their own chips

Nvidia reported record quarterly revenue Wednesday on the back of the explosion in corporate appetite for artificial intelligence.

“The next industrial revolution has begun – companies and countries are partnering with Nvidia … to produce a new commodity: artificial intelligence,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia.

Continue reading...

First companies sign up to AI safety standards on eve of Seoul summit

Posted on by

Rishi Sunak says 16 international firms have committed, but standards have been criticised for lacking teeth

The first 16 companies have signed up to voluntary artificial intelligence safety standards introduced at the Bletchley Park summit, Rishi Sunak has said on the eve of the follow-up event in Seoul.

The standards, however, have been criticised for lacking teeth, with signatories committing only to work toward information sharing, invest in cybersecurity and prioritise research into societal risks.

Amazon

Anthropic

Cohere

Google / Google DeepMind

G42

IBM

Inflection AI

Meta

Microsoft

Mistral AI

Naver

Open AI

Samsung Electronics

Technology Innovation Institute

xAI

Zhipu.ai

Continue reading...

Productivity soars in sectors of global economy most exposed to AI, says report

Posted on by

Employers in UK, one of 15 countries studied, willing to pay 14% wage premium for jobs requiring AI skills

The sectors of the global economy most heavily exposed to artificial intelligence (AI) are witnessing a marked productivity increase and command a significant wage premium, according to a report.

Boosting hopes that AI might help lift the global economy out of a 15-year, low-growth trough, a PwC study found productivity growth was almost five times as rapid in parts of the economy where AI penetration was highest than in less exposed sectors.

Continue reading...

Revealed: Meta approved political ads in India that incited violence

Posted on by

Exclusive: Ads containing AI-manipulated images were submitted to Facebook by civil and corporate accountability groups

The Facebook and Instagram owner Meta approved a series of AI-manipulated political adverts during India’s election that spread disinformation and incited religious violence, according to a report shared exclusively with the Guardian.

Facebook approved adverts containing known slurs towards Muslims in India, such as “let’s burn this vermin” and “Hindu blood is spilling, these invaders must be burned”, as well as Hindu supremacist language and disinformation about political leaders.

Continue reading...

Google remains focused on its long quest for your eyeballs

Posted on by

AI Overviews, announced this week, are the culmination of a long line of products dedicated to keeping you on Google.com

Google announced this week that it would begin the international rollout of its new artificial intelligence-powered search feature, called AI Overviews. When billions of people search a range of topics from news to recipes to general knowledge questions, what they see first will now be an AI-generated summary.

Google touted AI Overviews at its annual I/O developer conference as a way of delivering customers quick answers and simplifying the online search experience, but it also has another effect on the way that people engage with the internet: keeping users, and advertisers, on Google.com. It’s a new era in Google’s years-long quest for your attention.

Continue reading...

Arm owner SoftBank reports £1.2bn profit as it shifts towards AI

Posted on by

Tech investor led £800m funding round into UK self-driving car software company Wayve

The Japanese tech investor SoftBank made a profit for the second consecutive quarter as it tries to turn its performance around before big planned investments in artificial intelligence.

SoftBank reported net income of 231bn yen (£1.18bn) in the first three months of 2024, compared with a 57.6bn yen loss in the same period last year, according to financial results published on Monday.

Continue reading...