AI @ Noon | May 1

Why China is so bad at disinformation: China’s state-sponsored disinformation campaign has been running at a massive scale for seven years—but no one is looking at it. Wired

TikTok, Tesla show US-China battle over data is just beginning Bloomberg

+ Data fight threatens to reshape US-China trade relations

+ Electric vehicles, healthcare, drones all facing scrutiny

Self-driving Teslas can’t duck the US-China silicon curtain: Elon Musk’s decision to tie up with search giant Baidu makes sense. It’s an admission that he needs to pool expertise with rivals in order to keep pace. David Fickling

Why Musk now needs China more than it needs him: China used Elon Musk’s trip to promote its message that it is open to American businesses, despite rising tensions with the US. WSJ

Second global AI safety summit faces tough questions, lower turnout: Reuters reports  Last year, a who’s who of world leaders, corporate executives, and academic experts gathered at Britain’s Bletchley Park for the world’s first global AI Safety Summit, hoping to reach consensus on the regulation of a technology some warned posed a threat to humanity. Six months later, the second AI Safety Summit, a primarily virtual event co-hosted by Britain and South Korea, will take place as hype around artificial intelligence’s potential gives way to questions over its limitations.

Microsoft to invest $1.7 billion in AI infrastructure in Indonesia: WSJ reports Microsoft said the investment would help its goal of training 2.5 million people across the region in AI skills.

EU to probe Meta over handling of Russian disinformation: FT reports European Union regulators are expected to open a probe into Meta Platforms over concerns that the company is failing to do enough to counter disinformation from Russia and other countries.

Bloomberg: Apple’s iPad hit by EU’s digital dominance crackdown

+ Company has six months to comply with raft of new rules

+ Apple’s mobile iOS, App Store and Safari already targeted

Military is the missing word in AI safety discussions: Government attempts to regulate the technology must look at its use on the battlefield. Marietje Schaake

+ Marietje Schaake is the international policy director at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center and special adviser to the European Commission

AI supercharges intelligence analysis, but mitigating bias is key Val Dockrell

AI on the Hill: Senators are now working toward holding a markup on “a number” of AI bills in May.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) joined Punchbowl News on Tuesday for a wide-ranging conversation on the top issues dominating Washington and the future of artificial intelligence. You can watch the full video here.

NIST launches a new platform to assess generative AI: NIST GenAI will release benchmarks, help create “content authenticity” detection (i.e. deepfake-checking) systems and encourage the development of software to spot the source of fake or misleading AI-generated information. TC

+ Department of Commerce announces new actions to implement President Biden’s executive order on AI

+ DOE announces new actions to enhance America’s global leadership in artificial intelligence

There’s an AI lobbying frenzy in Washington. Big Tech is dominating Time

+ From 2022 to 2023, the number of groups lobbying the US government on AI skyrocketed from 158 to 451, according to OpenSecrets data.

8 major newspapers join legal backlash against OpenAI, Microsoft: The Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and six other dailies accused the tech companies of taking their work to train AI algorithms. WP

8 daily newspapers sue OpenAI and Microsoft over AI: The suit, which accuses the tech companies of copyright infringement, adds to the fight over the online data used to power artificial intelligence. NYT

+ @OpenAI: We’ve partnered with FT to enhance news content in ChatGPT and collaborate on new AI experiences for FT readers.

Eric Schmidt and Yoshua Bengio debate how much AI should scare us: Two top artificial intelligence experts—one an optimist and the other more alarmist about the technology’s future—engaged in a spirited debate at the TIME100 Summit. YouTube

‘Eugenics on steroids’: The toxic and contested legacy of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute: Founded in 2005 and lauded by Silicon Valley, the Nick Bostrom’s centre for studying existential risk warned about AI but also gave rise to cultish ideas such as effective altruism. Guardian

Recruiters are going analog to fight the AI application overload: Indeed and LinkedIn are incorporating more generative AI to improve the recruiting and job-hunting processes. Some recruiters are still unconvinced. Wired

Sam’s Club says its AI tech allowing customers to exit without receipts is in 20% of its stores, with plans to expand to all locations by year-end.

Apple targets Google staff to build artificial intelligence team: FT reports the iPhone maker has also created a secretive Zurich lab as it prepares fightback against rivals.

Apple is expected to unveil an iPad Pro with an M4 chip at an event on May 7. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman believes Apple will market the new iPad Pro as "its first truly AI-powered device."

Amazon sales surge as company focuses on AI: Chief Executive Andy Jassy said artificial-intelligence capabilities are reaccelerating growth in the company’s cloud business. WSJ

Amazon cloud sales growth accelerates as it prepares for more AI spending: FT reports the e-commerce company’s operating income more than triples as Amazon Web Services and adverts provide a boost.

Fortune: Elon Musk says any company that isn’t spending $10 billion on AI this year like Tesla won’t be able to compete

Microsoft's motivation for investing heavily and partnering with OpenAI came from a sense of falling badly behind Google, according to an internal email released Tuesday as part of the Justice Department’s antitrust case against the search giant.

Big Tech is pouring hundreds of billions into AI. Should it also get to decide if the technology is ‘safe’?  Fortune

FFX Now: Google to invest $1 billion to expand data centers in Northern Virginia

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was ordered to spend four months in prison for failures that allowed cybercriminals and terrorist groups to freely trade on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Tesla shares jumped 15%, posting their best day in three years as investors react to Elon Musk’s quick and unannounced visit to China.    

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

AI @ Noon | April 30

France and Germany sign deal to co-develop 'tank of the future': Le Monde reports the French and German defense ministers agreed to jointly develop a new battle tank platform with cutting-edge AI and laser weapons technology.

Musk wins China’s backing for Tesla’s driver-assistance service: Beijing gives tentative approval for carmaker’s tech in its second-biggest market. WSJ

Tesla clears Beijing’s strict data rules, paving way for self-driving cars: The Times reports Elon Musk also agrees deal for Chinese road-mapping licence.

Tesla to work with Baidu in push to offer self-driving tech in China: Nikkei reports the US carmaker clears regulatory obstacles but timetable still unclear.

Elon Musk’s Tesla strikes deal with China’s Baidu for driver assistance: FT reports the US electric-vehicle maker moves closer to rolling out more autonomous driving features in world’s biggest auto market.

Bloomberg: Musk leaves China with Tesla driving software hurdles cleared

+ Carmaker to partner with tech giant Baidu on maps, navigation

+ Musk sought clearance from Beijing for potential revenue boost

The United States had every right to force a TikTok sale Tim Wu

US has little to fear from Chinese AI, for now: The country is still far off from catching up with its rival on artificial intelligence. Parmy Olson

Bloomberg: Microsoft CEO to meet Indonesian president during regional tour

+ Nadella to also visit countries such as Thailand and Malaysia

+ Apple’s Cook also met Widodo as tech firms eye Southeast Asia

How the right US chip strategy can keep Taiwan free Dmitri Alperovitch

Politically motivated cyber attacks are on the rise, putting our elections at risk: NETSCOUT found that DDoS attacks rose 15% in the second half of 2023 compared to the first half. FC

What happens when the professional class loses out to AI? Megan McArdle

Bloomberg: AI faces its ‘Oppenheimer moment’ during killer robot arms race

+ Civilian, military, and technology leaders convene Vienna talks

+ Artificial intelligence weapons defy traditional arms control

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and the $2 trillion company powering today's AI: Jensen Huang leads Nvidia – a tech company with a skyrocketing stock and the most advanced technology for artificial intelligence. 60 Minutes

CNBC: Oracle boosts its generative AI capabilities as cloud competition heats up

+ “Generative AI is basically the talk of the town right now,” Rondy Ng, executive vice president of applications developement at Oracle, told CNBC.

An AI blood test purports to diagnose postpartum depression: Companies are using artificial intelligence to take aim at a host of health issues including this common pregnancy complication. WP

Investors are showering AI startups with cash. One problem: They don’t have much of a business: Some startups are raising hundreds of millions of dollars before having a product or revenue. WSJ

AI start-ups face a rough financial reality check: The table stakes for small companies to compete with the likes of Microsoft and Google are in the billions of dollars. And even that may not be enough. NYT

Meta’s ‘set it and forget it’ AI ad tools are misfiring and blowing through cash: The Verge reports advertisers say that costs per impressions on the automated ad platform Advantage Plus have skyrocketed and performance has dropped.

Jim VandeHei on AI-proofing the news and ignoring ‘Twitter nerds’ Benjamin Hart

The Financial Times and OpenAI strike content licensing deal: FT reports the agreement comes as Microsoft-backed start-up seeks data from reliable sources to train latest artificial intelligence models.

Friends from the old neighborhood turn rivals in big tech’s AI race: Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman, who both grew up in London, feared a corporate rush to build artificial intelligence. Now they’re driving that competition at Google and Microsoft. NYT

Darktrace’s exit for the US rocks Britain’s tech scene: The Cambridge tech firm says its $5bn sale to private equity house Thoma Bravo will be good for it and for Britain. But that may not be so for the London stock market. The Times

Nashville is booming. Locals fret about their future in Music City. As Oracle headquarters moves in, Nashvillians reckon with the pros and cons of being a boomtown. WSJ

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

AI @ Noon | April 29

Marcos deepfake fanning China tensions linked to ‘foreign actor’: Bloomberg reports a “foreign actor” is likely behind deepfake content that made Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sound like he’s urging military action against China, according to his communications office.

French government makes offer for part of Atos, Le Maire says: Bloomberg reports France’s government has sent an offer letter to Atos SE proposing to take over parts of the company that the state considers to be strategic, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday. Le Maire didn’t provide an offer price for the proposed deal, which includes the company’s supercomputer, quantum computing, and cyber products operations.

The Chips Act has been surprisingly successful so far: More than halfway through its incentives spending, the US will have far greater scope to manage shocks. Chris Miller

How TikTok lost the war in Washington: Combination of coordinated efforts by its critics and missteps by the company led to the law forcing a sale or ban of the popular app. WSJ

ChatGPT maker enlists humans to win over fans in DC and beyond: OpenAI’s global influence operation doesn’t run on robots. Bloomberg

+ AI player boosted its federal lobbying tab by 30% this year

+ Ex Gore campaign aide Chris Lehane has joined OpenAI

Sam Altman and Satya Nadella tapped for US government AI security board: Bloomberg reports Delta Air Lines Inc. CEO Ed Bastian and Microsoft Corp.‘s Satya Nadella are among the corporate executives tapped Friday to help shield critical US services from artificial intelligence-powered attacks, as part of the Biden administration’s broader effort to minimize risks the technology poses to national security.

+ The board, slated to meet for the first time in May, also includes OpenAI‘s CEO Sam Altman, and leaders from Amazon.com Inc, International Business Machines Corp., and Nvidia Corp.

+ The group will recommend steps to protect US pipelines, power grids, and transportation services from adversaries using AI to disrupt them, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Friday in announcing the board.

Meet the AI expert advising the White House, JPMorgan, Google, and the rest of corporate America: Ethan Mollick at the University of Pennsylvania has become the go-to authority on the new technology. Christopher Mims

Why we may be headed for a generative AI winter: As the generative AI buzz fades, its positive effects seem spotty and anecdotal. Meanwhile, some execs may wonder if all these tools and products are really making things better. FC

Zuckerberg’s fake beard shows power of AI to shape perceptions: Bloomberg reports last week, Mark Zuckerberg posted a video of himself discussing Meta’s latest AI model. Mike Rundle, an app designer based in North Carolina, was watching the video and was struck by Zuckerberg’s new look: slightly longer hair and a chain necklace. And he thought the Meta chief executive officer would look “cooler with a beard,” he said.So, on a whim, Rundle pulled a still from the video and passed it through a “beard” filter on photo tool app FaceApp, then tossed the image on X. Bearded Zuck went quasi-viral.

Bloomberg: Apple intensifies talks with OpenAI for iPhone generative AI features

Apple renews talks with OpenAI for iPhone generative AI features, Bloomberg News reports CNA

In race to build AI, tech plans a big plumbing upgrade: The spending that the industry’s giants expect artificial intelligence to require is starting to come into focus — and it is jarringly large. NYT

The Algorithm by Hilke Schellmann — why AI really is coming for your job: Tools used by recruiters and managers to hire and fire may be doing more harm than good. FT

Technology can detect wildfires. Do humans still have to? New technology and human solutions both have pros and cons. CBC

How AI will step off the screen and into the real world Daniela Rus @ TED

Data center operator Data4 plans to create a new campus in Milan called “Mil02” in an effort to expand its Italian reach. The company purchased a 77,000-square-meter (829,000 square feet) parcel of land where it will build eight data centers, according to a press release on Saturday. The facility will be its second investment in Italy, after setting up another center that’s also close to Milan.

Who might buy TikTok? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯: Plus other burning questions about the new law that could kick TikTok out of the United States. Maybe. WP

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc