News site Semafor has teamed with Microsoft to create a new breaking news product called Signals it says is a template for “the newsroom of the future.” Using AI tools from Microsoft and OpenAI to assist its journalists, the multi-source Signals will offer “perspectives and insights on the biggest stories in the world as they develop,” Semafor says. Microsoft simultaneously announced deals with the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and the Online News Association. “In a year where billions of people will vote in democratic elections worldwide, journalism is critical to creating healthy information ecosystems,” Microsoft says. Read more

In the wake of the recent Vision Pro launch, mostly positive reviews, and (reportedly) selling out of its modest 200,000 unit initial production run, Apple seems to have reignited its appetite for innovation. The company is said to be considering the release of a foldable iPhone after quietly developing the technology since 2018. A sticking point for the design-oriented firm may be the “ubiquitous foldable crease,” which has pundits speculating that Apple’s debut entry won’t hit the market before 2026. Early reports suggest the company is pursuing a clamshell form factor that folds lengthwise. Read more

The RightsTech AI Summit at Digital Entertainment World 2024 covered a range of technical and legal issues over the course of seven panels with a focus on generative AI, copyright and licensing. The event, held at UCLA, featured speakers from areas including entertainment, data management, legal and academia. Among the key takeaways: fair use is expected to become a defense in AI cases, data used to train AI will likely become a legal issue in regards to licensing agreements, we may soon need copyright law that protects an artist’s style, Big Tech lobbying efforts are becoming a concern, and states are outpacing Washington on AI regulation. Read more

The U.S. has established the AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC), uniting artificial intelligence researchers, creators, academics and other users across government, industry and civil society organizations to support the development and deployment of safe and trustworthy AI. The group launches with more than 200 member entities ranging from tech giants Google, Microsoft and Amazon to AI-first firms OpenAI, Cohere and Anthropic. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced the move the day after naming Elizabeth Kelly director of the new U.S. AI Safety Institute, housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Read more

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s ongoing effort to fund a new initiative to produce chips to power artificial intelligence has graduated from a billion-dollar venture to a trillion dollar undertaking that aims at nothing less than “to reshape the business of chips and AI,” per recent reports. The United Arab Emirates has joined the list of sources of potential funding for the global project, which seeks to remedy the tight supply of AI chips that Altman is said to view as an obstacle to OpenAI’s effort to develop artificial general intelligence, which he defines as “systems that are generally smarter than humans.” Read more