Issue #3 FTC probes AI corporate alliances, Introducing ClimateGPT, AI-driven breakthroughs in immunogenicity and more AI developments, January 28 2024
IN THE NEWS
EU AI act's last minute changes spark civil rights concerns over facial recognition use
Late changes to the European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act have raised concerns over the use of facial recognition technology. These amendments potentially allow law enforcement to use facial recognition on recorded video footage without judicial approval, a deviation from the original agreement among EU institutions. European lawmaker Svenja Hahn criticizes this development as an attack on civil rights, fearing it could lead to disproportionate and irresponsible use of biometric identification technology. Even more worrying is the way these changes were introduced at the last minute, suggesting that the hope was to avoid discussion and publicity.
IN THE NEWS
FTC probes generative AI corporate alliances
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated an investigation into the investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and major cloud service providers. This inquiry, conducted under the FTC Act's Section 6(b), targets five companies: Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI. It aims to understand these relationships' impact on competition and innovation. This move reflects the FTC's focus on ensuring fair competition in the rapidly evolving field of AI, where strategic partnerships and investments are becoming increasingly significant.
IN THE NEWS
A shift in tech: balancing ai integration and workforce dynamics
As technology companies intensify their investment in artificial intelligence, significant changes in their workforce are emerging. SAP's investment of over $2 billion in AI, leading to the restructuring of 8,000 roles, is a prime example. Similar trends are observed in other tech giants like Google and Microsoft, with job cuts being part of this shift. However, experts indicate that these changes are also influenced by post-pandemic rebalancing and economic factors like high interest rates, not solely AI adoption. The definitive impact of AI on job roles and employment remains yet to be seen.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Introducing ClimateGPT: A pioneering open-source AI for climate analysis
Introducing ClimateGPT, the first open-source foundational AI platform designed for climate change impact analysis. Developed by Erasmus.AI, in collaboration with AppTek and EQTY Lab, it offers a 7-billion parameter model trained on renewable energy and supports over 20 languages. The platform aims to aid decision-making in climate resilience by synthesizing interdisciplinary research and is hosted on renewable energy-powered infrastructure.
HEALTHCARE
AI-driven breakthroughs in immunogenicity for vaccine and therapy development
A recent study published in "Briefings in Bioinformatics" unveils groundbreaking insights into the immunogenicity of HLA-A2-peptide complexes using artificial intelligence (AI) on molecular dynamics simulations. The research showcases how unsupervised and supervised AI methods can effectively identify and predict immunogenic features of these complexes, which are crucial for immunotherapy and vaccine development. The study reveals that subtle molecular characteristics, including time-dependent molecular fluctuations and anchor position dynamics, significantly influence the immunogenicity of these peptides. These findings, derived from extensive simulations, offer valuable implications for designing effective T cell therapies and enhancing our understanding of immune responses. The integration of AI in analyzing complex molecular dynamics marks a significant advancement in biomedicine, promising more precise and effective therapeutic approaches.
HEALTHCARE
AI rivals cardiologists in early detection of rheumatic heart disease
A recent study involving over 500 children has demonstrated the potential of artificial intelligence in detecting rheumatic heart disease (RHD) with accuracy comparable to expert cardiologists. This AI tool, utilizing echocardiography, offers a promising avenue for early intervention and prevention of RHD. Its ability to quickly and precisely analyze heart conditions could significantly enhance healthcare delivery, especially in resource-limited settings, and has implications for eradicating RHD globally.
TECHNOLOGY
Google announces a groundbreaking AI video generation technology: Lumiere Video
Lumiere is a new model for creating realistic and diverse videos directly from text. It uses a unique architecture that processes the entire video in one go, unlike previous models that struggled with maintaining consistency over time. This method allows for the creation of full-frame rate videos with a range of creative applications, such as video editing and stylized generation, by effectively handling both spatial and temporal aspects of video synthesis.
TECHNOLOGY
New AI features coming to Google Chrome
Google Chrome's latest release (M121) introduces experimental generative AI features to streamline web browsing. These features include 'Tab Organizer' for automatic grouping and naming of open tabs, and a custom theme creator using a text-to-image diffusion model. Additionally, an upcoming feature, 'Help me write,' will assist users in drafting text on the web, starting from next month's release. These advancements highlight Google's ongoing efforts to integrate AI into everyday digital tasks, making web browsing more efficient and personalized.
TECHNOLOGY
AlphaCodium takes AI code generation to the next level
AlphaCodium is a code generation tool developed by Codium.AI, inspired by Google's AlphaCode, designed to enhance the performance of language models like GPT-4 in programming contests. It specifically targets programming languages and has shown a significant improvement in GPT-4's accuracy, raising it from 19% to 44% on the CodeContests dataset. This increase in accuracy means that AlphaCodium enables GPT-4 to solve complex programming problems more effectively. The CodeContests dataset, created by DeepMind, includes challenging problems from coding platforms like Codeforces. For more details, you can read the full information on Codium.AI.
CHATGPT FUN
We gave ChatGPT a 4th grade mathematics olympiad problem and it failed
An interesting and frankly quite difficult mathematics problem appeared at a regional 4th grade mathematics olympiad in Bulgaria recently. We could not solve the problem, so we gave it to ChatGPT. And it failed. Interestingly ChatGPT got the reasoning for the solution correct and was zeroing in on the solution. But failed miserable literary when it was ready to give the answer. Would you be able to solve the problem and beat ChatGPT to it?
Conclusion
The start of the week in AI reflects the technology's broad impact and dynamic landscape. Key developments include Alphabet and Appen's split, and AI's varied applications from advancements in healthcare and the retail industry to ethical challenges in politics. These stories highlight AI's growing integration into diverse sectors, demonstrating both its potential benefits and the complexities it introduces to existing systems and societal norms.