AI @ Noon | August 12
China court rulings on AI accelerate race to set standards: Judges establish precedents on voice and images as Beijing embraces the tech. Nikkei
Democrats push Sam Altman on OpenAI’s safety record: Senators demanded answers about whistleblowers and conflicts of interest. The Verge
Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers: FT reports the campaign on YouTube to boost Instagram’s appeal to young people skirted search group’s rules for marketing to under-18s.
Why Nvidia is still the undisputed king of AI Christopher Mims
The new AI deal: Buy everything but the company: Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have made deals with AI start-ups for their technology and top employees, but have shied from owning the firms. Here’s why. NYT
Where have OpenAI’s founders gone? Only two of 11 co-founders of ChatGPT maker are still active at the $86bn company after a series of exits this year. FT
How Microsoft spread its bets beyond OpenAI: The tech giant has worked to execute an AI strategy independent of Sam Altman’s start-up following a leadership crisis last year. FT
How Elon Musk is using his empire to kickstart xAI: WSJ reports the billionaire is mobilizing resources around artificial intelligence. Some Tesla shareholders are suing to make him stop
Bilingual dictation assistant Silvia understands ‘Spanglish’ and other language mixtures: TC reports natural language AI assistants tend to be excellent English speakers, and passable in other tongues — but if you are one of the millions who fluidly switch between two languages on the fly, they’re stumped. A new AI helper called Silvia, however, understands “Spanglish” just fine, with more language combos to come.
Can you be emotionally reliant on an AI voice? OpenAI says yes. NYT reports a report acknowledged that users of GPT-4o forms unusual bonds with the software’s voice response feature, which the company says warrants further study.
Tuesday: Made by Google event, launching Google’s latest devices, including the Pixel smartphone.
+ A teaser video released in June said “AI . . . meet IX”
WSJ: Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki dies at age 56
Why schools are racing to ban student phones: As the new school year starts, a wave of new laws that aim to curb distracted learning is taking effect in Indiana, Louisiana, and other states. NYT
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc