A Snapshot and Summary of What’s Happening to Enable the Safe and Effective Use of AI
Welcome to the latest installment of the Wovenware Monthly AI Index, where we’ve curated the news stories and issues shaping the AI-driven world. In this month’s edition, learn about the new AI regulations being debated, a hot new AI start-up, as well as a new AI movie coming to a theater near you.
Happy reading!
Linda Savage, Content Director, Wovenware, a Maxar Company
Listen to the summary now: This audio was generated with AI
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS
AI Start-up Glean Raising Some Serious Financing: Enterprise AI company Glean is in advanced discussions for a deal that would double its valuation from six months ago to $4.5 billion, a sign of how fast-growing artificial-intelligence startups are still attracting intense investor interest.
The startup sells AI-powered search software that helps employees look up information spread across the organizations they work for. Executives and investors have pointed to such productivity apps as a potentially more lucrative market for generative AI in the near term than consumer-facing applications.
Is it the Summer When OpenAI Sails Adrift?: Once the leader of GenAI, is OpenAI losing its steam? Three top executives have left the company in one week alone. Co-founder John Schulman and architect behind OpenAI’s most revolutionary algorithms, has left for competitor Anthropic. Greg Brockman, another co-founder and the company’s president, is taking an extended sabbatical and Peter Deng, a tech leader who joined from Meta just last year, is also leaving.
ByteDance Joins Other Chinese Firms in with Text-to-Video Offering: ByteDance has expanded its offering of software that can generate videos based on text prompts, joining a growing number of Chinese tech firms entering an emerging market that is also being targeted by OpenAI, with its text-to-video offering, Sora.
Calling All Hackers to Help Anthropic Find Model Flaws: Anthropic is testing a new program to pay well-intentioned hackers to find flaws in its model output review systems. This is important since there are currently no tech companies with a process to pay independent security researchers who discover safety flaws in their chatbot outputs. These payouts, which happen through what’s known as a bug bounty program, are a common practice in the cybersecurity industry.
U.S. AND EU REGULATIONS
AI Companies Fight to Stop California’s AI Regulations: AI startups and tech giants are rallying to kill a bill being considered in the California state legislature that they say would impose impossibly vague constraints in the name of safety.
Though some in the industry have called for government regulation, they say it should be done at the federal level with more specificity. Bill SB-1047 requires that developers of large AI models conduct safety tests to reduce the risks of “catastrophic harm” from their technology, which it defines as cyberattacks that cause at least $500 million in damage or mass casualties. The developers also must ensure their AI can be shut down by a human if it starts behaving dangerously.
Amazon’s Investment in Anthropic Getting a Closer Look by UK Regulatory Groups: U.K. antitrust officials are looking into Amazon’s multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic poses a threat to competition. Amazon gained a minority ownership position in the startup as it works to become an AI leader, joining the likes of Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. The U.K’s Competition and Markets Authority said it is reviewing if Amazon’s ties with Anthropic should be considered a de facto merger that might stifle competition in the U.K. An initial decision is due by Oct. 4.
The White House Decides to Hold Off on AI Regulations for Now: The Biden Administration issued an AI report in which it said it would not be “immediately restricting the wide availability of open model weights [numerical parameters that help determine a model’s response to inputs] in the largest AI systems,” but it stressed that it might change that position at an unspecified point.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Wendy’s Goes Bilingual Thanks to AI: Wendy’s is testing Spanish-speaking AI capabilities in the drive-thru of 28 company-operated restaurants to further appeal to its diverse customer base, the fast-food chain said.
While still in its early testing stages, the new Wendy’s FreshAI Spanish-language ability is helping the burger seller “better serve Spanish-speaking customers through technology.”
New Movie Thriller About AI Coming to a Theater Near You: A new movie about AI premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, called Electric Child. Here’s what it’s about: “Sonny and Akiko’s joy upon the arrival of their first child quickly turns to panic when their doctor gives them unimaginable news. Desperate, Sonny considers using his experiment on an AI super-intelligence to prove the doctors wrong, but every action he takes risks a troubling and dangerous reaction.” According to the film maker, “I’m super interested in the technological aspect of AI, but at the same time, I am critical, and I think the dangers are there – maybe not end-of-the-world dangerous, but the society dangers are really huge.” And, in case you’re wondering, AI was not used to create the film.
That’s it for this month’s Wovenware Monthly AI Index. We hope you gained new AI insights and food for thought.
Please share your questions, concerns and opinions about the AI-driven era. We’d love to hear from you. Please reach out to info@wovenware.com.