The proliferation of websites spewing misinformation as a result of chatbot-powered “content farms” is creating increased concern. Misinformation tracker NewsGuard has identified 49 websites publishing falsehoods authored by generative AI. The discovery is raising questions as to the technology’s role in turbocharging existing fraud techniques. Several of the offending websites sprang up this year, just as AI tools were made widely available for use by the public. Some of the sites take the approach of masquerading as breaking news sites, while others have adopted tactics such as using generic-sounding names. Continue reading AI Content Farms Spreading Fake Stories and Misinformation

PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. will invest $1 billion to expand and scale its artificial intelligence capabilities over the next three years. The accounting giant will work with Microsoft and OpenAI to automate parts of its tax, audit and consulting services. In addition to scouting for AI software acquisitions, the investment will also fund training for its staff of 65,000 and recruitment of new talent. PwC predicts generative AI will “change business models and reinvent entire industries,” contributing up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Continue reading PwC’s $1 Billion Investment in AI Includes Microsoft, OpenAI

OpenAI is readying ChatGPT Business, a new subscription tier “for professionals who need more control over their data as well as enterprises seeking to manage their end users.” Pricing plans have yet to be disclosed for ChatGPT Business, which will be rolling out in the coming months, but OpenAI said it will adhere to the company’s API’s data usage policies, which means that by default end users’ data would not be used to train its models. The business plan was mentioned as part of an announcement disclosing that all ChatGPT users now have the ability to turn off their chat history. Continue reading OpenAI Previews ChatGPT Business, Unveils Privacy Controls

Generative AI for cybersecurity is an emerging category with Google an early entrant. At this week’s RSA Conference 2023 in San Francisco, Google unveiled Cloud Security AI Workbench, a toolkit powered by a customized AI language model called Sec-PaLM that is “fine-tuned for security use cases.” Accenture is the first client to sign up for Workbench. Google also announced it is combining its Google Cloud and Mandiant ecosystems to offer a turnkey solution to ward off threats “from incident response through proactive defense,” drawing on integrations from more than 100 leading cybersecurity vendors. Continue reading Google Workbench Taps AI Tech for Next-Gen Cybersecurity

Generative AI has become a buzzword in the business community, resulting in 65 percent of executives in a recent KPMG survey saying they believe the technology will have a high or extremely high impact on their organization in the next three to five years. Yet most say they are unprepared for immediate adoption, with 60 percent estimating they are 12 to 24 months from implementing their first generative AI solution. Fewer than half of respondents say they have the right technology, talent, and governance in place to successfully implement generative AI. Continue reading Enterprise Anticipates AI Impact but Few Execs Are Prepared

Stability AI has released StableLM, an open source language model that will compete with OpenAI’s GPT-4 to create apps like ChatGPT. The Alpha version of StableLM is available in 3 billion and 7 billion parameters, and the company promises 15 billion to 65 billion parameter models to come. “With the launch of the StableLM suite of models, Stability AI is continuing to make foundational AI technology accessible to all,” the London-based company said. The StableLM models can generate text and code to power various downstream applications with appropriate training. Continue reading Stability AI Debuts Open Source StableLM Foundation Model

Auto-GPT, an open source app that uses OpenAI’s text-generating models, is currently generating a great deal of social media attention. The program can act somewhat autonomously in that it creates its own feedback loop, asking itself a series of questions to help build a more nuanced and complete response to a text prompt. In short, something that would take a user multiple prompts to produce the desired information using ChatGPT could be accomplished using a single request of Auto-GPT, which could independently explore a subject before spitting back a comprehensive response. Continue reading Auto-GPT Generates Social Sizzle, Ushers in Era of AI Agents

The European Union, which has been working on artificial intelligence legislation for the past two years, is playing last minute catch-up with rapidly evolving technology as it retools a final draft law that can be adopted, possibly by the end of the year. While the European Council in December thought it had completed its framework in all but the details, that version largely deferred attaching specific rules to generative AI, which having since exploded, has triggered a movement among member states to add those guardrails along with rules for general purpose AI. Continue reading EU Considers Technology Updates for Next Draft of the AI Act

There’s been a lot of noise recently about music generated by artificial intelligence tools. The clamor is on multiple fronts: generative mimicry of specific artists’ vocal styles, the potential to put Muzak-style background tunesmiths out of business with potentially cheaper alternatives, and the particulars of takedown orders. The matter came to a head this month after generative AI vocals prompted to sound like Drake and The Weeknd performed a song called “Heart on My Sleeve,” written and produced by a TikTok user. The tune quickly went viral, raising numerous concerns. Continue reading Music Industry Contends with Artificial Intelligence Disruption

As Microsoft ushers in Kya Sainsbury-Carter to head its $18 billion digital advertising business, Bing Chat is joining her at center stage. The company has plans for generative AI to transform the category, including with paid links in chat results. Since February the company has been testing ads in Bing Chat searches. Microsoft hasn’t disclosed how many people are using the new Bing with AI chat, nor how many ads it has served. Bing Chat’s responses include footnoted links to resources amplifying the information in the chatbot’s conversational answers, but sometimes it links to paid search ads. Continue reading Microsoft’s Bing Chat Powers a New Approach to Advertising

Generative AI is expected to play a big role in video game production, increasing development speed, reducing costs, and helping to come up with new ways for players to interact with characters. Major firms including Epic Games, Unity, Ubisoft and Roblox have all announced generative AI integrations for their development kits. Nonplayable characters — foils that act and speak independently — are soon to be wholly AI-powered rather than preprogrammed options. Publicly available AI tools are already commonly used by players creating user-generated game content. However, use of AI to create commercial games is not without controversy. Continue reading Use of AI to Build Video Games is Popular, But Controversial

Amazon is offering a new service called Bedrock that offers foundation models from AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Stability AI and Amazon, which is introducing two of its own models under its new brand, Titan. The models, which are accessible via API, will allow customers to build and scale generative AI-based applications using pre-trained, off-the-shelf systems that can be customized. Amazon’s Titan line includes a generative LLM that outputs text, the other is an embeddings LLM that translates text to numeric representations that carry the semantic meaning of the text. Embeddings are typically helpful when bridging concepts, like words and images. Continue reading Amazon Intros GenAI Service Bedrock and Its Own Titan LLM

Agencies across the federal government are actively exploring steps to regulate artificial intelligence, seeking to ensure it is safe now while minimizing future harms. The Commerce Department this week issued a public request for comment to be accepted within the next 60 days, then used by U.S. policymakers as they consider new rules for a consumer technology sector that has exploded globally in 2023. The move by Commerce comes on the heels of a scathing advisory by the Federal Trade Commission, which has been examining ways generative AI could be misused for scams or fraud. Continue reading Federal Government Continues to Grapple with AI Guidelines

Amidst calls to put the brakes on large language model development, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has hit the global circuit to tout the advantages of artificial intelligence and commercial opportunities with his firm. Altman’s 17-city tour includes stops in Washington D.C., Toronto, Tokyo, Rio De Janeiro, Lagos, London, Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Munich, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Dubai, New Delhi, Jakarta, Seoul and Melbourne. On Monday, Altman met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other government officials, vowing to collaborate on protecting user privacy and data protection. Continue reading OpenAI’s Altman Talks Up Machine Learning on Global Tour

As China’s tech giants begin releasing ChatGPT-style products, the powerful Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has issued a draft of what will become the country’s first set of restrictions for generative AI. Ground rules include limiting content created by AI to that which reflects the core values of socialism and does not subvert state power in text or image, according to the draft. Models should also be trained in a way that does not allow them to generate false information or exhibit bias as to race, ethnicity or gender. The news comes as three Chinese firms release generative AI platforms. Continue reading Chinese Government Drafts New Rules for Generative AI Tech