Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, the release of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video model Sora. OpenAI also faced its share of internal drama, including the notable exits of high-level execs like co-founder and longtime chief…
Character.AI, the Google-backed AI chatbot provider with tens of millions of monthly active users, announced on Friday that Karandeep Anand, the former VP of Business Products at Meta, is joining the company as CEO. Previously a board adviser to Character.AI, Anand is stepping into the CEO role at a pivotal moment for the chatbot provider, as the company tries to simultaneously grow its platform while combating child safety concerns. In recent months, Character.AI has added an array of new safety features in light of an active lawsuit, which alleges that one of the company’s chatbots played a role in the…
Deezer announced on Friday that it will start labeling albums that include AI-generated tracks as part of its efforts to combat streaming fraud. The company reports that about 18% of the music uploaded each day — more than 20,000 tracks — is now fully AI-generated. Although most of these tracks don’t go viral, Deezer says around 70% of their streams are fake and that they are designed to earn royalties fraudulently. To combat this, AI-generated tracks on Deezer are now clearly tagged. These tracks also won’t appear in editorial playlists or algorithm-based recommendations, and fraudulent streams are being filtered out…
Columbus, Ohio, escaped the Rust Belt rut years ago.Regional economic development officials offered incentives that attracted warehouses, manufacturing plants, and healthcare startups, reviving the economy and generating jobs. By 2018, hundreds of these deals over the previous eight years had created some 150,000 jobs.Central Ohio now hopes to repeat that success. It’s betting big on “Silicon Heartland,” a high-tech innovation hub that proponents hope will be flush with high-paying jobs. Economic officials have dangled multimillion-dollar tax subsidy packages before some of the world’s biggest technology companies.The resulting investment, Gov. Mike DeWine promised, “further cements Ohio as the heart of our…
Mark Zuckerberg’s AI talent hiring spree continues. In recent months, Meta tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence, the $32 billion AI startup co-founded by OpenAI’s former chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, according to a report from CNBC on Thursday. Sutskever ultimately turned Meta down, according to CNBC, but the company is now in talks to hire Safe Superintelligence’s co-founder and CEO, Daniel Gross. Earlier this week, The Information reported that Meta was in talks to hire Gross, as well as former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. Meta is also reportedly taking a stake in Friedman and Gross’s joint venture firm, NFDG, which has…
The scorching hot sun is setting on advertising’s annual shindig in the south of France, Cannes Lions, for another year.At the sprawling event, there was a level of thematic whiplash. In the span of an hour on the main stage in the Palais you go from hearing about the creation of the iconic Snickers “You’re only you when you’re hungry” campaign to hearing a speech from human-rights activist Sonita Alizadeh on the humanitarian crisis of child brides in Iran and Afghanistan. Festival goers could catch a Mark Ronson DJ set on Spotify Beach. Dave Benett/Getty Images for Spotify There was…
SoftBank is going all in on AI. Just months after announcing its involvement in the $500 billion Stargate AI Infrastructure project, of which SoftBank is rumored to be fronting a cool $19 billion, the Japanese investing conglomerate is reportedly looking to launch its largest AI project yet. The company is looking to team up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to launch a trillion-dollar industrial complex in Arizona to build AI and robotics, according to reporting from Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the project. The initiative, dubbed Project Crystal Land, appears to still be in its very early stages. Despite…
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to keep Harvard University from hosting international students, delivering the Ivy League school another victory as it challenges multiple government sanctions amid a battle with the White House.The order from U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston preserves the ability of Harvard to host foreign students while the case is decided.Harvard sued the Department of Homeland Security in May after the agency withdrew the school’s certification to host foreign students and issue paperwork for their visas. The action would have forced Harvard’s roughly 7,000 foreign students — about a quarter…
A group of cybercriminals hacked into data systems at insurance company Aflac, possibly gaining access to sensitive information such as Social Security numbers and health reports, the company said on Friday.Aflac, which boasts millions of customers, “identified suspicious activity” and “stopped the intrusion within hours,” the company said.The company attributed the attack to a “sophisticated cybercrime group” but did not identify the organization.MORE: Trump admin live updates: Appeals court keeps California National Guard in Trump’s handsThe cyberattack marks the latest in a string of data breaches targeting insurance companies, including attacks earlier this month against Philadelphia Insurance Companies and Erie…
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from the immigration detention center where he has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests.U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz announced the decision from the bench in New Jersey, responding to a request from Khalil’s lawyers to free him on bail or, at the very least, move him from a Louisiana jail to New Jersey so he can be closer to his wife and newborn son.Khalil was…