A.I. Tracker 🤖

Sir Michael Parkinson's son defends the use of AI to recreate his late father's voice for a new podcast series. The AI will interact with guests in a similar style to the legendary broadcaster, aiming to introduce his talent to a new audience.

UK man sentenced to 18 years for using AI to turn innocent children's photos into sexual abuse imagery. Caught selling images online, convicted of multiple charges including encouraging rape of a child.

World models, inspired by human mental models, aim to improve AI understanding, reasoning, and video generation. Challenges include biases, compute power, and data diversity, but they could revolutionize virtual worlds, robotics, and decision-making.

Hugh Nelson, 27, from Bolton, used AI to create child abuse images from photos of real children, selling them online. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, the first UK prosecution of its kind. The case highlights challenges in policing AI-generated sexual abuse imagery.

Read AI, a startup offering AI bots for meetings and notes, raised $50M in Series B funding. They aim to differentiate by integrating with email and enterprise tools, with plans to expand staff to 100 by Q1 2025.

The Open Source Initiative released a definition for open source AI, aiming to ensure transparency in AI models. Companies like Meta face criticism for not meeting the criteria, while concerns remain around licensing and copyright issues.

Elon Musk-owned xAI's Grok AI model now has image-understanding capabilities on social platform X. Musk says it can even explain jokes. Future updates will add multimodal understanding and document analysis. xAI is rapidly improving features for paid users.

PM Starmer vows to ensure media outlets are paid for their work as AI technology evolves, championing press freedoms and supporting journalism as vital for democracy. He plans to tackle tech dominance and protect investigative journalism from Slapps.

Generative AI could contribute 1.2-5 million tons of e-waste by 2030. Strategies like extending equipment lifespan and proper recycling can reduce this impact and promote environmental and social responsibility.

Stanford University researchers developed Tutor CoPilot, an AI tool that helps tutors provide personalized support to students in underserved communities. The tool improves learning outcomes at a low cost and highlights the potential of AI in education.

Researchers have found that OpenAI's Whisper AI frequently invents text passages during moments of silence, posing risks in medical transcriptions. Whisper is used by Nabla for medical conversations and has been found to hallucinate phrases, leading to potential inaccuracies and harm. Nabla officials are aware of the issue and are working to address it.

Arcade AI by Mariam Naficy is a generative AI platform for custom jewelry design. Users can input ideas, select designs, and collaborate with artisans. The platform aims to empower creativity and offers social features, with plans to expand to other categories.

Google is developing "Project Jarvis," a browser-based tool to automate tasks like research and shopping. Expected to be powered by Gemini, it may be previewed in December but details are subject to change.

Software engineers and researchers are concerned about hallucinations in transcriptions from OpenAI's Whisper, with racial commentary and medical treatments being incorrectly added. OpenAI is working to improve accuracy and prohibits use in high-stakes contexts.

The UK government facing backlash over plan to allow AI companies to scrape content from publishers and artists by default. BBC, creative industries, and smaller publishers oppose the opt-out system, calling for strict safeguards to protect privacy and ownership rights.

OpenAI denies releasing AI model Orion this year, contrary to recent reports. They plan to release other technology but have not confirmed details.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and artists like Thom Yorke are fighting AI companies for using their work without permission. Legal battles and lobbying are ongoing to protect creative content and ensure fair compensation. Labor Minister aims to resolve dispute by year-end. Some publishers using AI to cut costs and jobs, while others remain cautious.

Brenda Lee's classic "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" has been reworked into Spanish using AI technology. Lee approves and is excited to introduce the new version to fans. Music industry may see more AI Christmas creations.

Pharos, a startup from Y Combinator, uses AI to streamline quality reporting for hospitals to external clinical registries, saving time and money for healthcare centers. Felicis leads their $5 million seed round.

Meta and Reuters strike a deal to use Reuters content in Meta's AI chatbot for news-related queries. This is Meta's first partnership of its kind.