News of the Cyber World

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All About AI

Elon Musk Sues OpenAI over Abandonment of Nonprofit AI Mission

TechCrunch reports that Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup OpenAI, alleging the company has abandoned its founding mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco on Thursday, claims that OpenAI and its leaders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman convinced Musk to help found and fund the nonprofit in 2015. They promised OpenAI would counter competitive threats from major tech firms by making its technologies “freely available” to the public.

But after partnering with Microsoft, which has invested around $13 billion, OpenAI apparently shifted to a for-profit model focused on commercializing its research. Musk’s lawsuit alleges this “was a stark betrayal of the Founding Agreement.”

As evidence, it cites a statement from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella that his company now has “all the IP rights and all the capability” even if OpenAI disappeared. The suit also points to OpenAI’s development of the powerful chatbot ChatGPT, which was launched late last year and sparked a fierce AI race.

Musk claims OpenAI and Microsoft have improperly licensed ChatGPT and the even more advanced GPT-4. Under the original OpenAI charter, AI capabilities were to remain dedicated to humanity rather than profits.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who left OpenAI’s board in 2018, is seeking injunctions to compel OpenAI back to its public-minded founding principles. He also requests accounting of his early donations to the nonprofit, which exceeded $44 million by late 2020.

Google Desperate to Fix Its Insanely Woke Gemini AI

Breitbart News previously reported that Google’s market value plunged by $90 billion amid controversies surrounding its new generative AI service Gemini. The ultra-woke AI became instantly famous for erasing white people from history, facing widespread mockery for not only its wildly inaccurate images, but also defending pedophilia and Joseph Stalin.

Many media outlets quickly noted that Gemini seemed to be deliberately biased against white people, citing the ahistorical images as proof. Elon Musk, who recently acquired Twitter, also noted the issue and singled out Google leaders like Gemini product lead Jack Krawczyk who has a history of tweeting out his anger against “white privilege” and even crying after voting for Joe Biden. In one post from 2018, Krawczyk stated: “This is America where racism is the #1 value our populace seeks to uphold above all…”

Now, Bloomberg reports that according to sources familiar with the matter, Google is desperately implementing technical fixes in Gemini to reduce racial and gender bias in its outputs but failed to fully anticipate how the image generator could misfire in certain contexts. The company acted quickly to pause the feature on February 23, pending changes to the system.

Google uses an approach called prompt engineering to steer its AI systems away from “problematic” responses. This involves modifying the wording of prompts fed into the model without informing users, such as adding different racial and gender qualifiers.

Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University who has studied AI systems, commented: “The tech industry as a whole, with Google right at the front, has again put themselves in a terrible bind of their own making. The industry desperately needs to portray AI as magic, and not stochastic parrots. But parrots are what they have.”

Others argue AI image generation is inherently limited in depicting history accurately. Since the systems are trained on biased web data, companies try to manipulate outputs to counteract stereotypes, but imperfect training data means fundamental issues remain regardless of safeguards put in place. This obviously backfired in the case of Gemini AI, which portrays viking warriors as black and hispanic to avoid the “stereotype” of Norse vikings.

The Intercept, Other Publications Sue OpenAI and Microsoft over ChatGPT Copyright Claims

The Verge reports that The Intercept, Raw Story, and AlterNet recently filed separate lawsuits in the Southern District of New York claiming that ChatGPT reproduces verbatim or near-verbatim excerpts from copyrighted journalistic works without providing proper attribution. The lawsuits, all represented by the same law firm, argue that ChatGPT training data likely included complete articles with author names, publication names, and other copyright information intact. However, the AI model does not communicate this information when generating responses, indicating the data was intentionally removed or altered during training.

The publications cite ChatGPT’s ability to reproduce long passages from books and articles as evidence that it was trained on full copyrighted texts. Raw Story and AlterNet’s lawsuit goes further, alleging OpenAI and Microsoft had incentive to remove copyright information so ChatGPT would appear to users as if it was not violating third-party copyrights. The companies offer enterprise customers legal protection against copyright lawsuits related to Copilot and ChatGPT usage.

These lawsuits point to OpenAI and Microsoft’s knowledge of possible copyright infringement, noting OpenAI’s opt-out system allowing website owners to block their content from web scrapers. The companies have faced prior allegations of intentionally stripping metadata, including an earlier lawsuit alleging copyright violations that was partially dismissed on that specific claim. However, the core complaint of overall copyright infringement remains active.

BBC to Use Generative AI to Write Headlines for News Articles

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has announced that it plans to begin using Generative Artificial Intelligence to write headlines for news articles to “help” journalists work at a quicker pace.

The publicly funded broadcaster said in an AI strategy update that it plans to use the emerging technology in various ways throughout its many media arms,
including the implementation of a “headline helper”, which the BBC said would “give journalists options of headlines to choose from”.

Other potential uses for AI could include using the tech to “summarise an article – to link to elsewhere,” the BBC said. Additionally the broadcaster pointed to the ability of speech-to-text generators, which could be used to quickly transcribe sports commentary to update live blogs on the website. The broadcaslter also pointed to the ability of AI to translate webpages as a potential use.

“We will experiment in each of these areas over the next few months, testing and learning as we go. We’ll see what works, what doesn’t – and make a call on what we take forward. It’ll be exciting to see how this develops,” the BBC said.

However, the public broadcaster said that currently, the “vast majority” of Artificial Intelligence projects will be for internal purposes only, and “won’t be used to create content for audiences until we have had an opportunity to learn more.”

The BBC has noted that there are serious risks associated with the use of AI, stating in its editorial guidance that: “The outcomes produced by AI are determined by both the algorithm behind it and the data that it has been trained on. Both the algorithm and the training data may introduce biases or inaccuracies into the outcomes of the AI.”

Talk to the Chatbot: UK Will Replace ‘Dogsbody’ Civil Servants with AI

Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister and Cabinet Office secretary,  announced his plans to expand the use of AI to drive efficiencies across all government and public sector institutions in an address to reporters on Wednesday.

Dowden said adopting AI could be a “significant downward driver” in reducing the civil service headcount, with the government looking to cut 66,000 jobs by the end of the next Spending Review.

His prediction of AI domination comes as the rest of the world rushes down a similar path with mixed results.

For example, allowing AI a role in decisions about welfare abuse and asylum claims would be controversial given the way algorithms have been shown to amplify racial bias, the Financial Times reports.

A childcare benefit scandal in the Netherlands, which forced the government to resign in 2021, involved racial profiling that was “baked into” the design of the self-learning algorithm that flagged potentially fraudulent claims, according to Amnesty International.

Just who chatbots ultimately report to is a further point of debate.

Despite the controversy Dowden is convinced AI is the only way forward.

“It really is the only way, I think, if we want to get on a sustainable path to headcount reduction,” Dowden said...

Artificial Intelligence Will Usher in ‘Boom Times’ for Hollywood Studios as Inflation Hikes Production Costs

That’s the view of one AI executive who believes that Hollywood has more to gain than lose by the technology. His take is bound to be unpopular with the thousands of blue-collar crew workers who are responsible for the physical side of production — cameras, lighting, sound, sets, trucks, and much more.

In addition, post-production workers — editors, sound designers, visual effects crews — stand to lose a great deal from the encroachment of AI.

Their livelihoods stand in the balance as Hollywood executives weigh AI as a cost-saving measure that will also save them the headache of messy strikes, like the two last year that brought the industry to a historic halt.

Nick Lynes — co-founder and and co-CEO of Flawless, which creates AI visual effects tools for the entertainment industry — spoke about the possibilities in a recent interview with Bloomberg News.

“I think the film industry is probably going to go through actually a boom time over the years that comes with  the reduction of production costs,” he said. “Yes, there might be some people initially scared… but I think it represents boom times.”

Social Media & Tracking Chips

Elon Musk’s X/Twitter Reinstates Rules Against Misgendering, ‘Deadnaming’

Ars Technica reports that X/Twitter recently updated its abuse and harassment policy page to include a new section explaining its rules against intentionally using the wrong pronouns for a person or referring to them by a name they no longer use — called “deadnaming” by woke LGBT radicals. The new “Use of Prior Names and Pronouns” section states that X/Twitter will “reduce the visibility of posts” that incorrectly gender a person or use their old name rather than their new one adopted during transition.

This move comes after X/Twitter dropped its longstanding prohibition on deadnaming and misgendering of transgender users back in April 2023. At the time, GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis criticized the change as “the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike” under the ownership of Elon Musk, who has a history of liking and sharing anti-trans content.

Under the updated policy, X/Twitter will take action when it hears directly from the target of the misgendering or deadnaming, “given the complexity of determining whether such a violation has occurred.” GLAAD senior director Jenni Olson told Ars this unfairly places the burden on targets to report their own abuse. However, she acknowledged that explicit policies against deadnaming and misgendering are preferable to vague ones that leave violators unsure if they’re breaking rules.

Nepal Requires Tracking Chips for Mount Everest Climbers

The government of Nepal announced on Thursday that everyone who climbs Mount Everest will henceforth be required to carry a GPS tracking chip to assist with rescue and recovery efforts.

“Reputed companies were already using them but now it’s been mandatory for all climbers. It will cut down search and rescue time in the event of an accident,” Nepalese tourism director Rakesh Gurung told CNN.

The tracking chips will essentially be rented for $10 to $15, a minimal fee given that climbing Everest costs around $40,000 for equipment, supplies, permits, and guides. Mountaineers must agree to sew the tracking chips into their clothing for the duration of the climb, which can take up to two months, and return the chips.

CNN noted that an increasing number of people are attempting to climb Everest, which means a growing number of accidents and rescues. The year 2023 was a record for Nepal with 478 climbers obtaining permits. Of those, 17 of them either died or went missing during the climb, making 2023 the deadliest year in Everest’s recorded history.

“It is almost impossible to rescue climbers at that altitude,” an official with the Nepalese tourism department pointed out on Friday.

National Geographic described Everest as a “mess” and an “icon for everything that is wrong with climbing” due to overcrowding. It is possible to complete the arduous and still dangerous climb only to find that there is no room left to stand on the peak because dozens of people are already there. The two most commonly used routes to the summit are festooned with garbage discarded by climbing groups.

China Uses Joe Biden’s TikTok Presence to Defend Toxic App

China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday gleefully cited President Joe Biden’s campaign page on TikTok as evidence that the U.S. government has been lying about the dangers of the Chinese-run spyware social media app.

“As a social media app that has been heavily portrayed by the US as a ‘national security threat,’ TikTok being used by Biden’s campaign highlights the unjust suppression of TikTok by American politicians and proves the hype nonsense,” the Chinese Communist paper said.

The Global Times appeared to accuse Biden of being so desperate in the face of sinking poll numbers that he does not care if his campaign promotes an app that he knows is a legitimate national security threat, quoting the Hill’s observation that Biden was probably using TikTok in “an effort to win over younger voters.” The latest poll on the subject showed Biden only four points ahead of former President Donald Trump with voters under 35, an enormous loss of ground from Biden’s 20-point lead with the younger demographic in the 2020 election.

“The opening of a TikTok account by Biden’s campaign team to attract young voters reflects the deep hypocrisy of American politicians,” the state newspaper proclaimed. “When the US needs to hype up the theory that ‘China threatens American hegemony in the world,’ TikTok is viewed by US politicians as a tool ‘manipulated by China.'”

“However, when it comes to politicians’ own interests, it becomes a tool to get closer to the public, reflecting how utilitarian American politics is,” the article concluded. “In the end, we are witnessing that Washington’s behavior toward TikTok is unacceptable to the public and society, so politicians have to choose to compromise for votes.”

The Global Times accused Americans, citing Biden’s use of Tiktok, of holding “double standards” that are “fundamentally untenable.”