Singapore’s minister says AI is not the new oil—it’s way better Fortune
Bloomberg: Google’s Anthropic AI deal gets closer UK regulator scrutiny
+ CMA will review whether investment causes competition issues
+ Google committed to investing $2 billion into the AI startup
Harris vs. Trump: 2 ways their AI policy differs: Trump has vowed to repeal Biden’s AI executive order. AP
It’s Silicon Valley vs. Silicon Valley as political fights escalate: Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman and other tech billionaires, many of whom are part of the “PayPal Mafia,” are openly brawling with one another over politics as tensions rise. NYT
AP: A parody ad shared by Elon Musk clones Kamala Harris’ voice, raising concerns about AI in politics
+ @GavinNewsom: Manipulating a voice in an “ad” like this one should be illegal. I’ll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is.
+ No owner or CEO of a major tech platform has ever endorsed a political candidate and then used their soapbox to promote that campaign using content many view as deceptive.
New US Commerce Department report endorses ‘open’ AI models: TC reports the US Commerce Department on Monday issued a report in support of “open-weight” generative AI models like Meta’s Llama 3.1, but recommended the government develop “new capabilities” to monitor such models for potential risks.
+ Authored by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the report said open-weight models broaden generative AI’s availability to small companies, researchers, nonprofits, and individual developers.
+ For more information, see a fact sheet on the report and the full text of the report.
+ The Biden administration is instructing the government not to restrict the widespread availability of large, open source AI models.
Bloomberg: TikTok’s survival is at stake in all-out fight against US ban
+ Lobbying, lawsuits and ad campaign are deployed to fight law
+ The popular app seeks to avoid US ban over its Chinese ownership
The Kids Online Safety Act passes: The US Senate overwhelmingly passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children’s and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act 91-3.
+ Senators Wyden, Paul, and Lee voted no.
+ The legislation is now headed to the House.
Bloomberg: Microsoft pushes US lawmakers to crack down on deepfakes
+ Law enforcement needs a clear legal framework, Brad Smith says
+ Elon Musk recently shared manipulated clip of Kamala Harris
Microsoft calls for new laws on deepfake fraud, AI sexual abuse images: WP reports tech giant Microsoft is calling on Congress to pass laws that make it illegal to use AI-generated voices and images to defraud people and require AI companies to build tech to identify fake AI images made with their products. The recommendations came as part of a 50-page document Microsoft released Tuesday laying out its broad vision for how governments should approach AI.
Meta agrees to $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over privacy violations: FC reports Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton brought the suit against Meta in February 2022 for unlawfully capturing Texas users’ biometric data without obtaining their informed consent as required by law.
$105bn: The total value of chips and other AI equipment Nvidia is expected to sell this year.
BI: Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg traded jackets and compliments while talking about AI
Silicon Valley’s trillion-dollar leap of faith: Tech companies are spending as if AI’s transformative uses are a foregone conclusion. They’re not. The Atlantic
Google taps AI to revamp costly healthcare push marred by flops: Bloomberg reports after spending billions trying to transform the industry, Alphabet sees opportunity in artificial intelligence. Providers say the technology is still lacking.
Google is using AI in an attempt to improve traffic flow: At the intersection of traffic and technology, Google is attempting to time stoplights and reduce gridlock in a program powered by AI. Boston, ranked the fourth worst traffic city in the nation, is partnering with Google to put the project in the fast lane. NBC News’ Steven Romo reports.
AI startup Perplexity partners with Time, Fortune after plagiarism claims: Bloomberg reports the AI search company has inked revenue-sharing deals with several big publishers and hopes to add more this year.
OpenAI rolls out voice assistant after delay to address safety issues: The product has added guardrails to combat impersonation and copyright infringement. Bloomberg
Apple Intelligence: Here’s when the new AI features come to the iPhone and iPad: The new Siri and other tools won’t be available until iOS 18.1 is released later this fall. This is the timeline. Joanna Stern
AI start-up Anthropic accused of ‘egregious’ data scraping: FT reports web publishers say developer is swarming their sites, collecting content to train models and ignoring orders to stop.
OnlyFans stars leave the sexting to AI: FC reports that “chatters,” who impersonate porn stars on sexting threads, are increasingly AI bots.
Tech governance startup Credo AI gets $101 million valuation: Artificial intelligence risk and regulation is increasingly big business. Bloomberg
Eminem beefs with his young Slim Shady alter ego in new AI-generated video: In a novel, AI-assisted video released Tuesday, Eminem engages in a 12-minute verbal showdown with his Slim Shady persona — and gets the best of his old alter ego. DFP
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
