US allies issue rare warning on Chinese hacking group: An advisory by Australia, along with the US and six other countries, details a group known as APT40. WSJ

+ House Speaker Mike Johnson is targeting the end of 2024 for Congress to pass a “significant” package of legislation aimed at curbing China.

Chinese developers scramble as OpenAI blocks access in China: Guardian reports the US firm’s move, amid Beijing-Washington tensions, sparks rush to lure users to homegrown models.

Africa gets $1 billion boost as UN agency backs startup hubs: Bloomberg reports the United Nations Development Programme, African governments and the private sector plan to raise $1 billion and open a string of technology hubs across the continent to boost start-up innovation.

+ The first of 10 hubs that will form part of the world’s largest initiative supporting Africa’s technology startups will open at UNDP’s innovation center in Lagos, Nigeria.

New AI polling is out: The AI Policy Institute has published new survey data on public attitudes toward safeguarding American AI technologies from foreign competitors. Key findings:

+ 71% of Americans express significant or moderate concern about the Chinese acquisition of advanced AI models created by US firms.

+ Bipartisan agreement emerged on AI development pace, with 75% of both Democrats and Republicans preferring a measured approach on AI use and deployment over accelerating to gain an edge on China.

+ 63% of respondents support legislative action to restrict AI technology exports.

How the Department of Homeland Security’s WMD office sees the AI threat GZero Daily

Fortune: AI is effectively ‘useless’—and it’s created a ‘fake it till you make it’ bubble that could end in disaster, veteran market watcher warns

Etsy, the artisanal e-commerce giant, will require that every item for sale incorporate a "human touch." 

27.1 billion: From April to June, investors poured $27.1 billion into US-based artificial intelligence startups, according to PitchBook. 

Inside the secrets of generative AI: The French-American startup Hugging Face recently made the most powerful corpus of texts for developing language models available on its open-source platform. Le Monde

China's AI startups race for customers as titans like Alibaba cut prices: Intensifying battle to generate revenue sows concern over industry sustainability. Nikkei

Deepfake fraudsters impersonate FTSE chief executives: AI-generated voice notes are used to trick people into transferring money. The Times

+ @alialsalim: Data centres now account for ~3% of annual global carbon emissions from human activity, on par with the aviation and shipping industries.

48: Google’s greenhouse gas emissions are up a whopping 48% since 2019, thanks in no small part to its investments in AI.

Microsoft and Occidental sign carbon credit deal to help offset AI energy surge: FT reports the agreement comes as tech groups seek to meet climate promises while expanding power-hungry artificial intelligence.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc