<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-476716" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003.jpeg 929w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Vertigo3d | E+ | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The chief technology officer of Ceres Power has warned that as artificial intelligence tools become more widely used for efficiency, there is a risk that this could result in even higher energy consumption.



“What scares me is the energy consumption if you’re using ChatGPT [for simple queries],” Caroline Hargrove said during an “IOT: Powering the Digital Economy” panel on the new energy landscape.



Hargrove is CTO of Ceres Power, a developer of clean energy technology, including electrolysers for green hydrogen.



An International Energy Agency report, published in January, highlighted that on average a typical Google search uses 0.3 watt-hours of electricity versus 2.9 watt-hours for a ChatGPT request.



The report suggested that when this technology is incorporated into 9 billion searches daily, it would require nearly 10 terawatt-hours of additional electricity a year.  



More broadly, the IEA’s report said that by 2026, the “AI industry is expected to have grown exponentially to consume at least ten times its [electricity] demand in 2023.”



Hargrove said if this consumption was not managed properly “then the perverse effect could happen that we use so much more energy.”



“So as much as I’m a big fan in using the data to really optimize everything, we should use it to reduce our consumption, but the perverse effect can happen when you have a new toy and, and people getting behind it at [such] a rate,” she said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-responsible-users-of-ai"><a></a>‘Responsible users’ of AI</h2>



Mary de Wysocki, chief sustainability officer at technology company Cisco, made a similar point in that it was important to be “responsible users of [AI] where we know where can add the benefit and not just use it because it’s potentially fun.”



Meanwhile, Bertrand Piccard, founder and chairman of the environmental non-profit organization Solar Impulse Foundation, said AI is a “fantastic way to reduce energy consumption” if it is well managed.



Piccard referred to the example of smart electricity grids using this technology that “will integrate intermittent renewable energy … with storage, with the distribution, with the consumption which means that almost no energy will be lost.”



“So [these are] the things that give me hope,” he said.



A report by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition, published in March, looked at the risks that AI could pose amid the climate crisis, including its growing energy demand.



Based on its findings, the coalition recommended that regulators ensure technology companies are transparent in reporting the energy used and emissions produced by their AI models.



CAAD also said governments should enforce these transparency rules with “clear, strong penalties” if companies fail to comply.

107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003

Green hydrogen tech boss warns of AI energy consumption risk

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-476713" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002.jpeg 929w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Win-initiative/neleman | Stone | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



With about 100 million tracks available and over 600 million subscribers, helping listeners find the music they will love has become a navigational challenge for Spotify. It’s the promise of personalization and meaningful recommendations that will give the vast catalog more meaning, and that is central to Spotify’s mission.



The streaming audio giant’s suite of recommendation tools has grown over the years: Spotify Home feed,<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__newsroom.spotify.com_2019-2D05-2D02_five-2Dways-2Dto-2Dmake-2Dyour-2Ddiscover-2Dweekly-2Dplaylists-2Deven-2Dmore-2Dpersonalized_&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&amp;r=0CWepIbi9zbaptf4QjVSaQ&amp;m=h9I6Nob4JYekdULzm3jgGOyZdoRdqnNui4auLB7TtMlDKP_ZGUWB6PrjmpMYbufk&amp;s=0QBH1FDSLbahb2il0Si1F0IY6Roe1C9utj_AdXH9x-A&amp;e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> </a>Discover Weekly<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__newsroom.spotify.com_2019-2D05-2D02_five-2Dways-2Dto-2Dmake-2Dyour-2Ddiscover-2Dweekly-2Dplaylists-2Deven-2Dmore-2Dpersonalized_&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&amp;r=0CWepIbi9zbaptf4QjVSaQ&amp;m=h9I6Nob4JYekdULzm3jgGOyZdoRdqnNui4auLB7TtMlDKP_ZGUWB6PrjmpMYbufk&amp;s=0QBH1FDSLbahb2il0Si1F0IY6Roe1C9utj_AdXH9x-A&amp;e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">,</a> Blend, Daylist, and<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__newsroom.spotify.com_2021-2D03-2D31_introducing-2Dnew-2Dspotify-2Dmixes-2Dpersonalized-2Dplaylists-2Dfeaturing-2Dyour-2Dfavorite-2Dartists-2Dgenres-2Dand-2Ddecades_&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&amp;r=0CWepIbi9zbaptf4QjVSaQ&amp;m=h9I6Nob4JYekdULzm3jgGOyZdoRdqnNui4auLB7TtMlDKP_ZGUWB6PrjmpMYbufk&amp;s=T0MnheFfxWq86g36mOmmh_m-Wzgl35V9p7jnRNYwGtM&amp;e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> </a>Made for You Mixes. And in recent years, there have been signs that it is working. According to data released by Spotify at its 2022 Investor Day, artist discoveries every month on Spotify had reached 22 billion, up from 10 billion in 2018, “and we’re nowhere near done,” the company stated at that time.



Over the past decade or more, Spotify has been investing in AI and, in particular, in machine learning. Its recently launched AI DJ may be its biggest bet yet that technology will allow subscribers to better personalize listening sessions and discover new music. The AI DJ mimics the vibe of radio by announcing the names of songs and lead-in to tracks, something aimed in part to help ease listeners into extending out of their comfort zones. An existing pain point for AI algorithms — which can be excellent at giving listeners what it knows they already like — is anticipating when you want to break out of that comfort zone. 



The AI DJ combines personalization technology, generative AI, and a dynamic AI voice, and listeners can tap the DJ button when they want to hear something new, and something less-directly-derived from their established likes. Behind the dulcet tones of an AI DJ there are people, tech experts and music experts, who aim to improve the recommendation capacity of Spotify’s tools. The company has hundreds of music editors and experts across the globe. A Spotify spokesperson said the generative AI tool allows the human experts to “scale their innate knowledge in ways never before possible.” &nbsp;



The data on a particular song or artist captures a few attributes: particular musical features, and which song or artist it has been typically paired with&nbsp;among the millions of listening sessions whose data the AI algorithm can access.&nbsp;Gathering information about the song is a fairly easy process, including release year, genre, and mood — from happy to danceable or melancholic. Various musical attributes, such as tempo, key, and instrumentation, are also identified. Combining this data associated with millions of listening sessions and other users’ preferences helps to generate new recommendations, and makes the leap possible from aggregated data to individual listener assumptions.



In its simplest formulation, “Users who liked Y also liked Z. We know you like Y, so you might like Z,” is how an AI finds matches. And Spotify says it’s working. “Since launching DJ, we’ve found that when DJ listeners hear commentary alongside personal music recommendations, they’re&nbsp;more willing to try something new (or listen to a song they may have otherwise skipped),” the spokesperson said.&nbsp;



If successful, it’s not just listeners that get relief from a pain point. A great discovery tool is as beneficial to the artists seeking to build connections with new fans.



Julie Knibbe, founder &amp; CEO of Music Tomorrow — which aims to help artists connect with more listeners by understanding how algorithms work and how to better work with them — says everyone is trying to figure out how to balance familiarity and novelty in a meaningful way, and everyone is leaning on AI algorithms to help make this possible. Be she says the balance between discovering new music and staying with established patterns is a central unresolved issue for all involved, from Spotify to listeners and the artists.



“Any AI is only good at what you tell them to do,” Knibbe said. “These recommender systems have been around for over a decade and they’ve become very good at predicting what you will like. What they can’t do is know what’s in your head, specifically when you want to venture out into a new musical terrain or category.”&nbsp;



Spotify’s Daylist is an attempt to use generative AI to take into account established tastes, but also the varying contexts that can shape and reshape a listeners’ tastes across the course of a day, and make new recommendations that fit various moods, activities and vibes. Knibbe says it’s possible that improvements like these continue, and the AI gets better at finding the formula for how much novelty a listener wants, but she added, “the assumption that people want to discover new music all the time is not true.”



Most people still return, fairly happily, to familiar musical terrain and listening patterns.&nbsp;



“You have various&nbsp;profiles of listeners, curators, experts … people put different demands on the AI,” Knibbe said. “Experts are more difficult to surprise, but they aren’t the majority of listeners, who tend to be more casual,” and whose Spotify usage, she says, often amounts to creating a “comfortable background” to daily life.



Technology optimists often speak in terms of an era of “abundance.” With 100 million songs available, but many listeners preferring the same 100 songs a million times, it’s easy to understand why a new balance is being sought. But Ben Ratliff, a music critic and author of “Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty,” says algorithms are less solution to this problem than a further entrenching of it.



“Spotify is good at catching onto popular sensibilities and creating a soundtrack for them,” Ratliff said. “Its Sadgirl Starter Pack playlist, for instance, has a great name and about a million and a half likes. Unfortunately, under the banner of a gift, the SSP simplifies the oceanic complexity of young-adult depression into a small collection of dependably ‘yearny’ music acts, and makes hard clichés of music and sensibility form more quickly.” 



Works of curation that are clearly made by actual people with actual preferences remain Ratliff’s preference.&nbsp;Even a good playlist, he says, might have been made without much intention and conscience, but just a developed sense of pattern recognition, “whether it’s patterns of obscurity or patterns of the broadly known,” he said.



Depending on the individual, AI may have equal chances of becoming either a utopian or dystopian solution within the 100-million track universe.&nbsp;Ratliff says most users should keep it more simple in their streaming music journeys. “As long as you realize that the app will never know you in the way you want to be known, and as long as you know what you’re looking for, or have some good prompts at the ready, you can find lots of great music on Spotify.”&nbsp;

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How Spotify AI plans to know what’s going on inside your head, and find the right track for it

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-474613" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co., during a Bloomberg Television interview on the sidelines of the JPMorgan Tech Stars Leadership Forum in London, UK, on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. &#8220;Your children are going to live to 100 and not have cancer because of technology,&#8221; Dimon said. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Jamie Dimon, the veteran CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, said he was convinced that artificial intelligence will have a profound impact on society.



In his annual letter to shareholders released Monday, Dimon chose AI as the first topic in his update of issues facing the biggest U.S. bank by assets — ahead of geopolitical risks, recent acquisitions and regulatory matters.



“While we do not know the full effect or the precise rate at which AI will change our business — or how it will affect society at large — we are completely convinced the consequences will be extraordinary,” Dimon said.



The impact will be “possibly as transformational as some of the major technological inventions of the past several hundred years: Think the printing press, the steam engine, electricity, computing and the Internet.”



Dimon’s letter, read widely in the business world because of his status as one of the most successful leaders in finance, hit a wide variety of topics. The CEO said that he had ongoing concerns about inflationary pressures and reiterated his warning that the world may be entering the riskiest era in geopolitics since World War II.



But his focus on AI, first mentioned in this format in a 2017 shareholder letter, stood out. The technology, which has gained in prominence since ChatGPT became a viral sensation in late 2022, can generate human-sounding responses to queries. Enthusiasm for AI has fueled the meteoric rise in chipmaker Nvidia and helped propel tech names to new heights.  



JPMorgan now has more than 2,000 AI and machine learning employees and data scientists, Dimon said. But the technology could ultimately touch all of the bank’s roughly 310,000 employees, assisting some workers while replacing others.



“Over time, we anticipate that our use of AI has the potential to augment virtually every job, as well as impact our workforce composition,” Dimon said. “It may reduce certain job categories or roles, but it may create others as well.”



This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon Interview

Jamie Dimon says AI may be as impactful on humanity as printing press, electricity and computers

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="598" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-820x598.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-474536" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-820x598.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-300x219.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-123x90.jpg 123w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-768x560.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-1536x1120.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Every tech company is talking up its AI opportunity. Oracle is no exception. But during an earnings call in March, Oracle’s Larry Ellison laid out a future market opportunity focused on a major customer that investors may think about less often that Fortune 500 companies.



The Oracle founder, former CEO and current chairman and chief technology officer, sees national and state government applications being run on platforms like Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to a much greater degree than today, and indicated that it’s starting to happen in a variety of ways.



“We talk about, you know, winning business with companies. For the first time, we’re beginning to win business for countries,” Ellison said. “We have a number of countries where we’re negotiating sovereign regions with the national government.”



Major tech companies vying for massive government contracts in the cloud are nothing new. Microsoft and Amazon had a lengthy battle over a cloud deal with the Department of Defense, and both those AI players as well as Oracle and Google ended up all in on a $9 billion DoD contract in 2022.



But Ellison went further in his prediction when speaking with analysts on the recent earnings call, saying “Every government, pretty much every government, is going to want a sovereign cloud and a dedicated region for that government.”



Oracle, which works with Nvidia and Microsoft on generative AI capabilities, has already helped use cloud tech to cut red tape for countries. One example Ellison gave was Albania. It is trying to ascend to the European Union with the help of chatGPT, with the generative AI helping to decipher and summarize its laws and aid the country in what it needs to change in order to be compliant with E.U. regulations.



“It took Serbia eight years to harmonize their laws to be able to join the E.U.,” Ellison said. “Albania is facing the same thing, but with generative AI, we can read the entire corpus of the Albanian laws and&nbsp;actually harmonize their laws with the EU in probably more like 18 months to two years.”



Some analysts are skeptical of Ellison’s talk as being anything more than typical C-suite rallying for a key business unit. Oracle shares are up about 21% YTD, but Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow expressed concern about lower OCI growth during its latest earnings, which could “worry investors, as this is the main investment story.”



A version of future featuring cloud services and artificial intelligence-powered solutions can make government more efficient. Ellison said for starters, redundancy is a focus for government, in the case of disaster and disaster recovery. But it’s also moving into health care information and internet access projects.



Countries including Serbia are standardizing on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and using generative AI for processes like automating health care. Deals related to delivery of internet services in partnership with Elon Musk’s Starlink to remote areas are taking place in Kenya and Rwanda, where OCI and Starlink are mapping rural farms to see which crops are growing in what area, and if they are getting enough nutrients like nitrogen and water. “These maps are AI-assisted, help them plan their agricultural output and predict their agricultural output, predict markets, the logistics of the agricultural output, doing all of all of those things as next-generation national applications,” Ellison said.



Food security, rural school and rural hospital internet access, are other examples of what Ellison said are among the “all sorts of interesting new AI applications out there that you’ve probably never heard of before, at least I hadn’t heard of before until these last 12 months now that we’ve worked on and we’re now in the process of delivering.”



He also mentioned automation of vaccination programs, and other healthcare program “across the board.”



“We’re living in a world where like data and information is the gold of the future,” said Dan Gardner, CEO of digital strategy agency Code and Theory. “If the government can get access and action on that their data faster, why would we want to slow that down? We want that to be as efficient as possible. A lot of that is like mundane human resources, that maybe those people could be doing something else that is way more valuable.”



Cloud and generative AI applications allowing countries to give rural areas internet access could increase educational opportunities and create more economic value. It could also allow citizens to have more insight into government processes, said Tapan Parikh, Cornell University associate professor. “One thing technology’s always been good at is potentially making bureaucracies more efficient, or at least more transparent internally,” he said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-black-mirror-governments">‘Black Mirror’ governments</h3>



But the push to move more government processes to the cloud is also opening the door to new risks, especially as countries trust newly developed generative AI systems. While they may make processes faster than ever, there are bound to be mistakes as the technology develops and could make citizen data accessible to cyber criminals. “We shouldn’t use these technologies as an excuse to not maintain oversight and control over political processes,” Parikh said. “Certainly, I think that’s a very important thing, particularly when you’re dealing with countries that may not have the same kind of governance capacity.” Oracle did not respond to a request for additional comment on Ellison’s earnings call discussion.



“There’s the ‘Black Mirror’ bad side of it: Big Brother, data wars, AI warfare and all that stuff,” Garder said. “As far as like removing red tape and being more efficient and getting better use out of crops across the country, that’s incredible. That’s the multiplier of humanity that could really improve because of AI.”



AI raises a host of concerns.



Gardner pointed to the proliferation of more generative content in an election year around the world and all the issues related to tech-enabled interference. “Maybe it’s not like chips on the ground. But it’s data security, authentication of who you are, who governments are, what content you’re viewing, all the connection points between financial systems, and AI governance. Using AI as a tool of destruction is quite scary.”&nbsp;



“No big government in the world can afford to move all of their services and especially critical ones like defense, taxes, health care, completely into the cloud and into the hands of gen AI,”&nbsp;said Simone Bohnenberger, chief product officer at cloud company Phrase. “It’s just not in the realm of, I think it’s not responsible to do that. The potential risks outweigh the benefits of doing that.“ OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, is mostly trained on existing content on the internet. That could pose a problem, especially when text from lesser known languages like Albanian need to be analyzed, Bohnenberger said. “If you look at the World Wide Web or the internet, the vast majority of content there’s English, I think a quarter of the content is English, followed by Chinese,” she said. “Albanian is a minority. It’s very questionable for me how well that actually works for a small country like Albania and like an outlier language, because there’s just not much data you can train a model on. And if you don’t have much data, then the outputs will be very messy.”



Then there’s security and data risks with allowing foreign companies access to citizen data, Parikh said. Even the U.S., with all its resources, has been vulnerable to data hacks, including a recent February incident with contractor CGI Federal which exposed personally identifiable information on employees. The recent battle between the U.S. and China over TikTok is an example of how control of sensitive consumer data can be interjected into geopolitics. “I think certainly that’s a concern going forward for countries who are working with vendors from different countries,” Parikh said.

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Oracle’s Larry Ellison thinks every government will want to build a ‘sovereign’ AI cloud in the future

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="567" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_UZOWVLNZ2ZLYVEQLY5SBKO4ZIY-820x567.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-473622" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_UZOWVLNZ2ZLYVEQLY5SBKO4ZIY-820x567.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_UZOWVLNZ2ZLYVEQLY5SBKO4ZIY-300x207.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_UZOWVLNZ2ZLYVEQLY5SBKO4ZIY-130x90.jpg 130w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_UZOWVLNZ2ZLYVEQLY5SBKO4ZIY-768x531.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_UZOWVLNZ2ZLYVEQLY5SBKO4ZIY-1536x1062.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_UZOWVLNZ2ZLYVEQLY5SBKO4ZIY.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The logo of Swiss Adecco Group is seen at its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland October 30, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann</figcaption></figure>



ZURICH, April 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Artificial intelligence will lead to many companies employing fewer people in the next five years, staffing provider Adecco Group&nbsp;ADEN.S&nbsp;said on Friday, in a new survey highlighting the upheaval AI will bring to the workplace.



Some 41% of senior executives expect to have smaller workforces because of AI technology, Adecco said in a report based on a survey of executives at 2,000 large companies worldwide.



Generative AI, which can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts, has spurred both hope it could eliminate repetitive tasks and fear it will make some jobs obsolete.



Tech companies, including global giants Google&nbsp;GOOGL.O&nbsp;and Microsoft&nbsp;MSFT.O, have embarked on a wave of layoffs in recent months as they shift their focus to systems like OpenAI&#8217;s ChatGPT and Google&#8217;s chatbot Gemini.



The Adecco survey is one of the largest into the AI topic, and follows a 2023 World Economic Forum study which said 25% of companies expected AI to trigger job losses, while 50% expected the technology to create new roles.



But while most senior executives surveyed by Adecco say AI is a game changer, the vast majority&nbsp;say they&nbsp;have not made enough progress in adopting the technology.



&#8220;Almost all jobs are going to be impacted by AI one way or another,&#8221; Adecco CEO Denis Machuel told Reuters. &#8220;AI can be a job killer and it can also be a job creator.



&#8220;Ten years ago there was this big fear many jobs are going to be destroyed by digital, when actually lots of jobs have been created by the digital world,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Between jobs created by AI and jobs destroyed, we believe this is going to be balanced.&#8221;



Companies needed to prepare for the disruption by training their staff to work with AI, Machuel said, rather than relying on recruiting specialists from outside.



Adecco polled businesses in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Canada, Australia and Singapore. Sectors covered included defence, pharma, healthcare, industry and logistics.



The Swiss company, which uses AI itself, for example in helping create resumes for clients, also sees the technology offering &#8220;massive opportunity&#8221; in its work with customers.



&#8220;We already engaged in training and up-skilling people on behalf of our clients,&#8221; Machuel said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve sold a lot of consulting projects and the ramp-up that we see on that is quite interesting.&#8221;



(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_UZOWVLNZ2ZLYVEQLY5SBKO4ZIY

AI seen cutting worker numbers, survey by staffing company Adecco shows

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1760011544-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-472610" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1760011544-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1760011544-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1760011544-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1760011544-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1760011544-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1760011544-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">02 November 2023, Great Britain, Milton Keynes: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (l) is welcomed by Rishi Sunak (r) , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, at the &#8220;AI Safety Summit 2023&#8221; (International Summit on Artificial Intelligence Safety) at Bletchley Park. Photo: Soeren Stache/dpa (Photo by Soeren Stache/picture alliance via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



The United States and Britain on Monday announced a new partnership on the science of artificial intelligence safety, amid growing concerns about upcoming next-generation versions.



Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and British Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan signed a memorandum of understanding in Washington to jointly develop advanced AI model testing, following commitments announced at an AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park in November.



“We all know AI is the defining technology of our generation,” Raimondo said. “This partnership will accelerate both of our institutes work across the full spectrum to address the risks of our national security concerns and the concerns of our broader society.”



Britain and the United States are among countries establishing government-led AI safety institutes.



Britain said in October its institute would examine and test new types of AI, while the United States said in November it was launching its own safety institute to evaluate risks from so-called frontier AI models and is now working with 200 companies and entites.



Under the formal partnership, Britain and the United States plan to perform at least one joint testing exercise on a publicly accessible model and are considering exploring personnel exchanges between the institutes. Both are working to develop similar partnerships with other countries to promote AI safety.



“This is the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world,” Donelan said. “AI is already an extraordinary force for good in our society, and has vast potential to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, but only if we are able to grip those risks.”



Generative AI &#8211; which can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts &#8211; has spurred excitement as well as fears it could make some jobs obsolete, upend elections and potentially overpower humans and catastrophic effects.



In a joint interview with Reuters Monday, Raimondo and Donelan urgent joint action was needed to address AI risks.



“Time is of the essence because the next set of models are about to be released, which will be much, much more capable,” Donelan said. “We have a focus one the areas that we are dividing and conquering and really specializing.”



Raimondo said she would raise AI issues at a meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council in Belgium Thursday.



The Biden administration plans to soon announce additions to its AI team, Raimondo said. “We are pulling in the full resources of the U.S. government.”



Both countries plan to share key information on capabilities and risks associated with AI models and systems and technical research on AI safety and security.



In October, Biden signed an executive order that aims to reduce the risks of AI. In January, the Commerce Department said it was proposing to require U.S. cloud companies to determine whether foreign entities are accessing U.S. data centers to train AI models.



Britain said in February it would spend more than 100 million pounds ($125.5 million) to launch nine new research hubs and AI train regulators about the technology.



Raimondo said she was especially concerned about the threat of AI applied to bioterrorism or a nuclear war simulation.



“Those are the things where the consequences could be catastrophic and so we really have to have zero tolerance for some of these models being used for that capability,” she said.

International AI Summit in Great Britain

US, Britain announce partnership on AI safety, testing

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="513" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CVOGAFD32FMRJAWUSIJDZZTLS4-820x513.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-470799" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CVOGAFD32FMRJAWUSIJDZZTLS4-820x513.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CVOGAFD32FMRJAWUSIJDZZTLS4-300x188.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CVOGAFD32FMRJAWUSIJDZZTLS4-144x90.jpg 144w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CVOGAFD32FMRJAWUSIJDZZTLS4-768x481.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CVOGAFD32FMRJAWUSIJDZZTLS4-1536x961.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CVOGAFD32FMRJAWUSIJDZZTLS4-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">FILE PHOTO: Figurines with computers and smartphones are seen in front of the words &#8220;Artificial Intelligence AI&#8221; in this illustration taken, February 19, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



March 28 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The White House said Thursday it is requiring federal agencies using artificial intelligence to adopt &#8220;concrete safeguards&#8221; by Dec. 1 to protect Americans’ rights and ensure safety as the government expands AI use in a wide range of applications.



The Office of Management and Budget issued a directive to federal agencies to monitor, assess and test AI’s impacts &#8220;on the public, mitigate the risks of algorithmic discrimination, and provide the public with transparency into how the government uses AI.&#8221; Agencies must also conduct risk assessments and set operational and governance metrics.



The White House said agencies &#8220;will be required to implement concrete safeguards when using AI in a way that could impact Americans&#8217; rights or safety&#8221; including detailed public disclosures so the public knows how and when artificial intelligence is being used by the government.



President Joe Biden signed an executive order in October invoking the Defense Production Act to require developers of AI systems posing risks to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety to share the results of safety tests with the U.S. government before publicly released.



The White House on Thursday said new safeguards will ensure air travelers can opt out from Transportation Security Administration facial recognition use without delay in screening. When AI is used in federal healthcare to support diagnostics decisions a human must oversee &#8220;the process to verify the tools’ results.&#8221;



Generative AI &#8211; which can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts &#8211; has spurred excitement as well as fears it could lead to job losses, upend elections and potentially overpower humans and catastrophic effects.



The White House is requiring government agencies to release inventories of AI use cases, report metrics about AI use and release government-owned AI code, models, and data if it does not pose risks.



The Biden administration cited ongoing federal AI uses, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency employing AI to assess structural hurricane damage, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses AI to predict spread of disease and detect opioid use. The Federal Aviation Administration is using AI to help &#8220;deconflict air traffic in major metropolitan areas to improve travel time.&#8221;



The White House plans to hire 100 AI professionals to promote the safe use of AI and is requiring federal agencies to designate chief AI officers within 60 days.



In January, the Biden administration proposed requiring U.S. cloud companies to determine whether foreign entities are accessing U.S. data centers to train AI models through &#8220;know your customer&#8221; rules.



(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Michael Perry)

FILE PHOTO: Illustration shows words “Artificial Intelligence AI\

US requiring new AI safeguards for government use, transparency

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="569" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-480163885-820x569.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-470766" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-480163885-820x569.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-480163885-300x208.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-480163885-130x90.jpg 130w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-480163885-768x533.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-480163885-1536x1065.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-480163885-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS &#8211; MARCH 23:Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte meets with the President of the People&#8217;s Republic of China Xi Jinping at the Catshuis March 23, 2014 in The Hague, Netherlands. The Nuclear Security Summit, held March 24-25, will be attended by world leaders and is aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism. (Photo by Valerie Kuypers-Pool/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



China’s technological progress cannot be stopped, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte when they met in Beijing Wednesday for talks on areas such as the critical semiconductor industry.



“The Chinese people also have legitimate development rights, and no force can stop the pace of China’s scientific and technological progress,” said Xi, according to Xinhua News Agency.



Xi said China will “continue to pursue a win-win approach.”



Relations between China and the Netherlands have been strained since the the Netherlands, together with the U.S., blocked exports of advanced chip technology to China over concerns they could be used for military purposes.



Semiconductor chips are critical components which can be found in everything from smartphones to automobiles.



Dutch tech giant ASML has been barred from exporting extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to China — it is the only company currently capable of making such machines To date, it has not shipped a single EUV machine to China yet.



Such EUV lithography machines are crucial for chip manufacturing and are used by companies like Taiwan’s TSMC to make the smallest and most sophisticated chips.



In January, the Netherlands barred ASML from exporting some of its deep ultraviolet lithography systems to China, which are used to make slightly less advanced chips.



Beijing slammed the Dutch government’s move, urging the Netherlands to “uphold an objective and fair position and market principles” and “protect the shared interests” of the two countries and their companies.



“Creating scientific and technological barriers and severing industrial and supply chains will only lead to division and confrontation,” Xi said Wednesday, according to Xinhua state media.



He said cooperation is the only way and added that “decoupling and breaking the chain” is not an option.



Xi said China is ready to continue dialogue with the Netherlands and urged the Dutch side to “provide a fair and transparent business environment for Chinese enterprises.”



According to Reuters, Rutte said Wednesday the Netherlands tried to ensure that export restrictions, when related to semiconductor industry and companies like ASML, are never aimed at one country. “We always try to make sure the impact is limited,” he was quoted as saying.



Chinese state media reported that Rutte responded by saying decoupling is not a policy choice for the Dutch government either, “since any act undermining China’s development interests will only boomerang.”

World Leaders Gather For Nuclear Security Summit 2014

Xi tells Dutch prime minister: No force can stop China’s tech advance

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107251051-1685980909876-IMG_0399-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-470431" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107251051-1685980909876-IMG_0399-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107251051-1685980909876-IMG_0399-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107251051-1685980909876-IMG_0399-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107251051-1685980909876-IMG_0399-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107251051-1685980909876-IMG_0399.jpeg 929w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Worldwide Developers Conference stage. CNBC/Kif Leswing</figcaption></figure>



Apple on Tuesday announced that its annual developers conference, WWDC, will take place June 10 through June 14.



The conference will be livestreamed on Apple’s website, although the company is inviting some software makers to its campus on the first day to “celebrate in person,” Apple said.



At this year’s conference, Apple could reveal its long-awaited artificial intelligence strategy and consumer features. In February, Cook said Apple was “investing significantly” in AI and teased an AI-related announcement “later this year” that many analysts believe will come at the Worldwide Developers Conference.



Apple typically reveals the latest versions of its iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV software at WWDC via a “keynote” video on the first day, led by CEO Tim Cook and other Apple staff, which is also streamed on YouTube. At some past conferences, the company has also revealed new professional-oriented hardware, such as Mac laptops.



At this year’s conference, Apple also plans to reveal the first major software update to the Vision Pro, the virtual reality headset it launched earlier this year.

107251051-1685980909876-IMG_0399

Apple announces its big annual conference, where it could reveal its AI strategy

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107381656-1709554734955-gettyimages-1232607338-AA_30042021_335705-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-470146" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107381656-1709554734955-gettyimages-1232607338-AA_30042021_335705-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107381656-1709554734955-gettyimages-1232607338-AA_30042021_335705-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107381656-1709554734955-gettyimages-1232607338-AA_30042021_335705-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107381656-1709554734955-gettyimages-1232607338-AA_30042021_335705-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107381656-1709554734955-gettyimages-1232607338-AA_30042021_335705-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107381656-1709554734955-gettyimages-1232607338-AA_30042021_335705.jpeg 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo: via CNBC</figcaption></figure>



The European Union on Monday began an investigation into Apple, Alphabet and Meta, in its first probe under the sweeping new Digital Markets Act tech legislation.



“Today, the Commission has opened non-compliance investigations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) into&nbsp;Alphabet’s&nbsp;rules on steering in Google Play&nbsp;and&nbsp;self-preferencing on Google Search,&nbsp;Apple’s rules on steering in the App Store&nbsp;and&nbsp;the choice screen for Safari&nbsp;and&nbsp;Meta’s&nbsp;‘pay or consent model,’” the European Commission said in a statement.



The first two probes focus on Alphabet and Apple and relate to so-called anti-steering rules. Under the DMA, tech firms are not allowed to block businesses from telling their users about cheaper options for their products or about subscriptions outside of an app store.



“The way that Apple and Alphabet’s implemented the DMA rules on anti-steering seems to be at odds with the letter of the law. Apple and Alphabet will still charge various recurring fees, and still limit steering,” the EU’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, said during a news conference Monday.



Apple has already fallen foul of the EU’s rules. This month, the company was fined 1.8 billion euros ($1.95 billion) after the European Commission said it found that Apple had applied restrictions on app developers that prevented them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app.



In a third inquiry, the&nbsp;commission said it is investigating whether Apple has complied with its DMA obligations to ensure that users can easily uninstall apps on iOS and change default settings. The probe also focuses on whether Apple is actively prompting users with choices to allow them to change default services on iOS, such as for the web browser or search engine.



The commission said that it is “concerned that Apple’s measures, including the design of the web browser choice screen, may be preventing users from truly exercising their choice of services within the Apple ecosystem.”



Apple said it believes it is in compliance with the DMA.



“We’re confident our plan complies with the DMA, and we’ll continue to constructively engage with the European Commission as they conduct their investigations. Teams across Apple have created a wide range of new developer capabilities, features, and tools to comply with the regulation,” an Apple spokesperson told CNBC on Monday.



The fourth probe targets Alphabet, as the European Commission looks into whether the firm’s display of Google search results “may lead to self-preferencing in relation to Google’s,” other services such as Google Shopping, over similar rival offerings.



“To comply with the Digital Markets Act, we have made significant changes to the way our services operate in Europe,” Oliver Bethell, director of competition at Alphabet, said in a statement.



“We have engaged with the European Commission, stakeholders and third parties in dozens of events over the past year to receive and respond to feedback, and to balance conflicting needs within the ecosystem. We will continue to defend our approach in the coming months.”



Alphabet pointed to a blog post from earlier this month, wherein the company outlined some of those changes — including giving Android phone users the option to easily change their default search engine and browser, as well as making it easier for people to see comparison sites in areas like shopping or flights in Google searches.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meta-investigation"><a></a>Meta investigation</h2>



The fifth and final investigation focuses on Meta and its so-called pay and consent model. Last year, Meta introduced an ad-free subscription model for Facebook and Instagram in Europe. The commission is looking into whether offering the subscription model without ads or making users consent to terms and conditions for the free service is in violation of the DMA.



“The Commission is concerned that the binary choice imposed by Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ model may not provide a real alternative in case users do not consent, thereby not achieving the objective of preventing the accumulation of personal data by gatekeepers.”



Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, said during the news conference that there should be “free alternative options” offered by Meta for its services that are “less personalized.”



“Gatekeepers” is a label for large tech firms that are required to comply with the DMA in the EU.



“We will continue to use all available tools, should any gatekeeper try to circumvent or undermine the obligations of the DMA,” Vestager said.



Meta said subscriptions are a common business model across various industries.



“Subscriptions as an alternative to advertising are a well-established business model across many industries, and we designed Subscription for No Ads to address several overlapping regulatory obligations, including the DMA. We will continue to engage constructively with the Commission,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC on Monday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tech-giants-at-risk-of-fines"><a></a>Tech giants at risk of fines</h2>



The commission said it intends to conclude its probes within 12 months, but Vestager and Breton during the Monday briefing stressed that the DMA does not dictate a hard deadline for the timeline of the inquiry. The regulators will inform the companies of their preliminary findings and explain measures they are taking or the gatekeepers should take in order to address the commission’s concerns.



If any company is found to have infringed the DMA, the commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the tech firms’ total worldwide turnover. These penalties can increase to 20% in case of repeated infringement.



The commission said it is also looking for facts and information to clarify whether Amazon may be preferencing its own brand products on its e-commerce platform over rivals. The commission is further studying Apple’s new fee structure and other terms and conditions for alternative app stores.



This month, the tech giant announced that users in the EU would be able to download apps from websites rather than through its proprietary App Store — a change that Apple has resisted for years.



The EU’s research into Apple and Amazon does not comprise official investigations.

107381656-1709554734955-gettyimages-1232607338-AA_30042021_335705

EU launches probe into Meta, Apple and Alphabet under sweeping new tech law

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107386763-1710330203990-gettyimages-1998660059-2024-2-9dfdfe.png" alt="" class="wp-image-465858" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107386763-1710330203990-gettyimages-1998660059-2024-2-9dfdfe.png 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107386763-1710330203990-gettyimages-1998660059-2024-2-9dfdfe-300x169.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/107386763-1710330203990-gettyimages-1998660059-2024-2-9dfdfe-160x90.png 160w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Artificial Intelligence: the new technology that has taken the sector by storm.  Just_super | E+ | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The European Union’s parliament on Wednesday approved the world’s first major set of regulatory ground rules to govern the mediatized artificial intelligence at the forefront of tech investment.



The EU brokered provisional political consensus&nbsp;<a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20231206IPR15699/artificial-intelligence-act-deal-on-comprehensive-rules-for-trustworthy-ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in early December</a>, and it was then endorsed in the Parliament’s Wednesday session, with 523 votes in favour, 46 against and 49 votes not cast.



“Europe is NOW a global standard-setter in AI,” Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for internal market, wrote on X.



President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, described the act as trail-blazing, saying it would enable innovation, while safeguarding fundamental rights.



“Artificial intelligence is already very much part of our daily lives. Now, it will be part of our legislation too,” she wrote in a social media post.



Dragos Tudorache, a lawmaker who oversaw EU negotiations of the agreement, hailed the agreement, but noted that the biggest hurdle remains implementation.



Born in 2021, the EU AI Act divides the technology into categories of risk, ranging from “unacceptable” — which would see the technology banned — to high, medium and low hazard.



The regulation is expected to enter into force at the end of the legislature in May, after passing final checks and receiving endorsement from the European Council. Implementation will then be staggered from 2025 onwards.



Some EU countries have previously advocated self-regulation over government-led curbs, amid concerns that stifling regulation could set hurdles in Europe’s progress to compete with Chinese and American companies in the tech sector. Detractors have included Germany and France, which house some of Europe’s promising AI startups.



The EU has been scrambling to keep pace with the consumer impact of tech developments and the market supremacy of key players.



Last week, the Union brought into force landmark competition legislation set to rein in U.S. giants. Under the Digital Markets Act, the EU can crack down on anti-competitive practices from major tech companies and force them to open out their services in sectors where their dominant position has stifled smaller players and choked freedom of choice for users. Six firms — U.S. titans Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and China’s Bytedance — have been put on notice as so-called “gatekeepers.”



Concerns have been mounting over the potential for abuse of artificial intelligence, even as heavyweight players like Microsoft, Amazon, Google and chipmaker Nvidia beat the drum for AI investment.



Governments fear the possibility of deepfakes — forms of artificial intelligence that generate false events, including photos and videos — being deployed in the lead-up to a swathe of key global elections this year.



Some AI backers are already self-regulating to avoid disinformation. On Tuesday, Google announced it will limit the type of election-related queries that can be asked of its Gemini chatbot, saying it has already implemented the changes in the U.S. and in India.



“The AI Act has pushed the development of AI in a direction where humans are in control of the technology, and where the technology will help us leverage new discoveries for economic growth, societal progress, and to unlock human potential,” Tudorache said on social media on March 12. 



“The AI Act is not the end of the journey, but, rather, the starting point for a new model of governance built around technology. We must now focus our political energy in turning it from the law in the books to the reality on the ground,” he added.&nbsp;



Legal professionals described the act as a major milestone for international AI regulation, noting that it could pave the path for other countries to follow suit.



“Once again, it’s the EU that has moved first, developing a very comprehensive set of regulations,” said Steven Farmer, partner and AI specialist at international law firm Pillsbury.



“The bloc moved early in the rush to regulate data, giving us the GDPR, which we are seeing a global convergence towards,” he continued, referring to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation law. “The AI Act seems to be a case of history repeating itself.”



Mark Ferguson, public policy expert at Pinsent Masons, added that the passage of the act was just the beginning, and that businesses will need to work closely with lawmakers to understand how it will be implemented as the fast-moving technology continues to evolve.

107386763-1710330203990-gettyimages-1998660059-2024-2-9dfdfe

World’s first major act to regulate AI passed by European lawmakers

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="520" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-860462600-820x520.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-462631" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-860462600-820x520.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-860462600-300x190.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-860462600-142x90.jpg 142w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-860462600-768x487.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-860462600-1536x973.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-860462600-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">HONG KONG, HONG KONG &#8211; OCTOBER 11: A man holds an Apple iPad Mini as he uses Apple Music app on October 11, 2017 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong. (Photo by studioEAST/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, on Monday hit&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;with a 1.8 billion euro ($1.95 billion) antitrust fine for abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of music streaming apps.



The Commission said it found that Apple had applied restrictions on app developers that prevented them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app.



Apple also banned developers of music streaming apps from&nbsp;providing any instructions&nbsp;about how users could subscribe to these cheaper offers, the Commission alleged.



This is Apple’s first antitrust fine from Brussels and is among one of the biggest dished out to a technology company by the EU.



Apple shares were down around 1.6% in pre-market trade in the U.S.



The European Commission opened an investigation into Apple after a complaint from Spotify in 2019. The probe was narrowed down to focus on contractual restrictions that Apple imposed on app developers which prevent them from informing iPhone and iPad users of alternative music subscription services at lower prices outside of the App Store.



Apple’s conduct lasted almost 10 years, according to the Commission, and “may have led many iOS users to&nbsp;pay significantly higher prices for music streaming subscriptions&nbsp;because of the high commission fee imposed by Apple on developers and passed on to consumers in the form of higher subscription prices for the same service on the Apple App Store.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-apple-response"><a></a>Apple response</h2>



In a fiery response to the fine, Apple said Spotify would stand to gain the most from the EU pronouncement.



“The primary advocate for this decision — and the biggest beneficiary — is Spotify, a company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Spotify has the largest music streaming app in the world, and has met with the European Commission more than 65 times during this investigation,” Apple said in a statement.



“Today, Spotify has a 56 percent share of Europe’s music streaming market — more than double their closest competitor’s — and pays Apple nothing for the services that have helped make them one of the most recognisable brands in the world.”



Apple said that a “large part” of Spotify’s success is thanks to the Cupertino giant’s App Store, “along with all the tools and technology that Spotify uses to build, update, and share their app with Apple users around the world.”



Apple said that Spotify pays it nothing. That’s because instead of selling subscriptions in their iOS app, Spotify sell them via their own website stead. Apple does not collect a commission on those purchases.



Developers over the years have spoken out against the 30% fee Apple charges on in-app purchases.



Spotify in a statement called the Commission’s decision “an important moment in the fight for a more open internet for consumers.”



Apple’s rules muzzled Spotify and other music streaming services from sharing with our users directly in our app about various benefits—denying us the ability to communicate with them about how to upgrade and the price of subscriptions, promotions, discounts, or numerous other perks,” Spotify said.



“Of course, Apple Music, a competitor to these apps, is not barred from the same behaviour.”



The Commission said that Apple prevented developers of music streaming apps from informing their iOS users within their apps about prices of subscriptions or offers available elsewhere.



App developers could not include links in their apps leading iOS users to the app developers’ websites where alternative subscription could be bought, the Commission alleges.



The EU’s executive arm also said that Apple prevented app developers from contacting their own newly-acquired users — for example via email — to inform them about alternative pricing options.



In a press briefing, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager qualified the basic amount of the fine for Apple, excluding the 1.8 billion euro lumpsum, as “quite small” and likened it to a “speeding ticket, or a parking ticket” relative to the company’s scale.



“When Apple imposes these anti-steering provisions on the music provider, they as developers have no other choice than to either accept them or abandon the App Store. Apple with its App Store currently holds a monopoly,” Vestager said.



She added that the Commission has ordered Apple to remove the so-called anti-steering provisions and to “refrain from similar practices in the future.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>EU scrutiny on tech giants rises</h2>



The fine will ramp up tensions between Big Tech and Brussels at a time when the EU is increasing scrutiny of these firms.



Last year, the Commission designated Apple among other tech firms like&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;and&nbsp;Meta&nbsp;as&nbsp;“gatekeepers” under a landmark regulation called the Digital Markets Act, which broadly came into effect last year.



The term gatekeepers refers to massive internet platforms which the EU believes are restricting access to core platform services, such as online search, advertising, and messaging and communications.



The Digital Markets Act aims to&nbsp;clamp down on anti-competitive practices&nbsp;from tech players, and force them to open out some of their services to other competitors. Smaller internet firms and other businesses have complained about being hurt by these companies’ business practices.



These laws have already had an impact on Apple. The Cupertino, California-based giant announced plans this year to&nbsp;open up its iPhone and iPad to alternative app stores&nbsp;other than its own. Developers have long-complained about the 30% fee Apple charges on in-app purchases.



Vestager fired a warning shot to Apple in regards to the DMA.



“In a couple of days on the 7th of March, Apple will have to comply with the full list of dos and don’ts under the DMA. Among others, Apple can no longer impose rules such as the anti-steering obligations … and this holds for any app on the App Store, not just music streaming apps.”



&#8211; CNBC’s Ryan Browne and Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this article.

Young man holds a smart device while using Apple Music app

Apple hit with more than $1.95 billion EU antitrust fine over music streaming

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367602-17067928972022-10-23t204940z_1048320918_up1eian1luq2v_rtrmadp_0_motor-f1-usa-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-460684" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367602-17067928972022-10-23t204940z_1048320918_up1eian1luq2v_rtrmadp_0_motor-f1-usa-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367602-17067928972022-10-23t204940z_1048320918_up1eian1luq2v_rtrmadp_0_motor-f1-usa-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367602-17067928972022-10-23t204940z_1048320918_up1eian1luq2v_rtrmadp_0_motor-f1-usa-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367602-17067928972022-10-23t204940z_1048320918_up1eian1luq2v_rtrmadp_0_motor-f1-usa-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367602-17067928972022-10-23t204940z_1048320918_up1eian1luq2v_rtrmadp_0_motor-f1-usa-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367602-17067928972022-10-23t204940z_1048320918_up1eian1luq2v_rtrmadp_0_motor-f1-usa.jpeg 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Apple CEO Tim Cook waves a checkered flag to the race winner at the Formula One United States Grand Prix Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 23, 2022. Mike Segar | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



Apple will wind down its team working on electric cars, called Special Projects Group, according to Bloomberg.



The news signals an end to Apple’s secretive effort to build a car to rival Tesla. The program employed thousands of employees but never fit with Apple’s core business of electronics and online services, and raised questions about where Apple would turn for the manufacturing of a vehicle.



Reports of Apple’s ambition to build a car first surfaced in 2014 after the company recruited automotive engineers and other talent from auto companies. While there was little public information about Apple’s plans, the company operated a program with autonomous Apple-owned cars equipped with sensors and safety drivers cruising around the San Francisco Bay Area.



Apple’s Special Projects Group had several reorganizations over the years, including layoffs in 2019, when employees were moved to different parts of the company. Some Apple employees in the car division may move to a generative artificial intelligence team, according to Bloomberg.



The company has other automotive-related projects, including its infotainment CarPlay software, which Apple says is installed on 80% of new vehicles.



Apple’s car project was part of an internal effort to look for technologies the company could develop with huge potential markets. Apple continues to develop health technologies, especially for the Apple Watch. And last month, the company released its first virtual reality headset, the Vision Pro.



Some of Apple’s Asian rivals in smartphones have invested heavily in designing and potentially manufacturing cars. Xiaomi, a maker of Android smartphones, announced a new electric vehicle this week. Foxconn, Apple’s main manufacturing partner, said last year it will build electric vehicles.



Apple and CEO Tim Cook never acknowledged the car project publicly, instead referring to it as work on “autonomous systems.” In 2016, Cook was asked by a shareholder about the project, and teased that “it’s going to be Christmas Eve for a long time.”



As part of its silence, Apple’s hasn’t outlined its expenditures in the auto space. Overall, the company spent about $30 billion on research and development in 2023, a 14% increase over the prior year. Apple’s R&amp;D budget includes investments in new software and features for its existing products such as the iPhone.



Apple shares rose less than 1% on the news on Tuesday. Apple declined to comment.

107367602-17067928972022-10-23t204940z_1048320918_up1eian1luq2v_rtrmadp_0_motor-f1-usa

Apple cancels plans to build an electric car

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="552" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107343954-1701877568407-gettyimages-1835240563-wm_10263_h1xkdgsj-820x552.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-460391" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107343954-1701877568407-gettyimages-1835240563-wm_10263_h1xkdgsj-820x552.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107343954-1701877568407-gettyimages-1835240563-wm_10263_h1xkdgsj-300x202.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107343954-1701877568407-gettyimages-1835240563-wm_10263_h1xkdgsj-134x90.jpeg 134w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107343954-1701877568407-gettyimages-1835240563-wm_10263_h1xkdgsj-768x517.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107343954-1701877568407-gettyimages-1835240563-wm_10263_h1xkdgsj-1536x1034.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107343954-1701877568407-gettyimages-1835240563-wm_10263_h1xkdgsj-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo: via CNBC</figcaption></figure>



The burgeoning artificial intelligence tools from companies such as OpenAI still have their share of skeptics, but don’t count JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon among them.



The Wall Street titan told CNBC’s Leslie Picker on Monday that AI is not just a passing fad and is bigger than just the large language models such as Chat GPT. He compared the current moment favorably to the tech bubble around the start of the 21st century, when investor excitement seemingly got ahead of the actual changes.



“This is not hype. This is real. When we had the internet bubble the first time around … that was hype. This is not hype. It’s real,” Dimon said. “People are deploying it at different speeds, but it will handle a tremendous amount of stuff.”



JPMorgan has done work on the ability to use the new technologies internally, with Dimon saying that AI will eventually “be used in almost every job.” JPMorgan created a new role of chief data and analytics officer last year, in part to handle AI.



Dimon said Monday that there are 200 people at JPMorgan doing research on the large language models that have recently been rolled out by tech companies.



While acknowledging that AI can be used by bad actors, Dimon called himself a “big optimist” about the emerging technology, mentioning cybersecurity and pharmaceutical research as areas where it can be helpful.



“It may invent cancer cures because it can do things that the human mind simply cannot do,” Dimon said.

107343954-1701877568407-gettyimages-1835240563-wm_10263_h1xkdgsj

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says AI is not just hype — ‘This is real’

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107374413-1708024437471-gettyimages-1992338676-AA_10022024_1525083-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-459995" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107374413-1708024437471-gettyimages-1992338676-AA_10022024_1525083-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107374413-1708024437471-gettyimages-1992338676-AA_10022024_1525083-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107374413-1708024437471-gettyimages-1992338676-AA_10022024_1525083-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107374413-1708024437471-gettyimages-1992338676-AA_10022024_1525083-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107374413-1708024437471-gettyimages-1992338676-AA_10022024_1525083.jpeg 929w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Betul Abali | Anadolu | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Google is bullish on the prospect of its more advanced artificial intelligence models coming to smartphones in the next year.  



The internet giant expects that its currently available Gemini large language model (LLM), which competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s most powerful GPT-4 AI model, will begin to get embedded into devices starting next year.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Google already offers Gemini Nano, which is the company’s most efficient model for “on-device” AI, across its Pixel devices and on all other capable Android devices.&nbsp;



Brian Rakowski, vice president of product management for Google’s Pixel unit, said that he expects the company’s most advanced large language models, which are currently only accessible via remote data centers via an internet connection, to begin arriving on smartphones directly next year.&nbsp;



“There are smaller versions of our Gemini model on the cloud,” Rakowski told CNBC. “There’s been quite a few breakthroughs to compress these models to get them to run on device.”&nbsp;



“Some have already been proven and some are being explored for some applications. It’d be great having all models on device. It still has wondrous applications.”&nbsp;



“Gemini Nano is performing at a level that our online models were at less than one year ago,” Rakowski added. “You can do a lot with these distilled small versions of the models on device.”&nbsp;



“If you just follow that trajectory, some of that stuff we thought we would have had to go to the cloud for next year will be on device, which is pretty exciting, which is instantaneous without requiring a connection or subscription.”&nbsp;



Large language models, or LLMs, are AI models capable of understanding and generating language in a humanlike way. Gemini Ultra is Google’s top LLM, clocking in at a whopping 1.56 trillion parameters. For comparison, OpenAI’s GPT-4 consists of 1.76 trillion parameters.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dreaming-of-a-smartphone-supercycle"><a></a>Dreaming of a smartphone ‘supercycle’</h2>



Smartphone makers have been dreaming of a “supercycle” in their industry, driven by artificial intelligence, after a bruising few years that saw device sales slow aggressively. In 2023, smartphone sales fell to 1.16 billion units, the lowest point for unit shipments in a decade.  



Analysts say a supercycle is unlikely to occur within the next few years as there’s not enough going on in the market in terms of novel features and innovation that will convince people holding their aging smartphones to upgrade.&nbsp;



“Unfortunately, we don’t expect that boom,” Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of data and analytics at research firm IDC, told CNBC.&nbsp;



“The last supercycle we saw was between 2010 and 2015, where in five years the market grew five times from around 300 million smartphones per year to 1.5 billion.”&nbsp;



Nonetheless, more and more smartphone makers are making big investments in AI in the hope that it will drive some more excitement around mobile technology.&nbsp;



The likes of Humane, Rabbit, and China’s Meizu are betting on a future for smartphones that doesn’t even look like a traditional smartphone. These are devices that would be smaller and more compact, and that we could interact with via voice activation, like an Amazon Echo speaker but on the go.&nbsp;



Google has been making huge bets on AI in an effort to gain an edge over its rivals like OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed company behind ChatGPT.



Google recently announced a major rebrand of Bard, its ChatGPT alternative, including a fresh app and subscription options. Bard was renamed Gemini, the same name as the suite of AI models that power the chatbot.



Android users can download a dedicated Android app for Gemini, while iPhone users can use Gemini in the Google app on iOS.



Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the firm’s commitment to AI during the company’s Jan. 30 earnings call. Pichai said he eventually wants to offer an AI agent that can complete more and more tasks on a user’s behalf, including within Google Search, although he said there is “a lot of execution ahead.”



Likewise, chief executives at tech giants from Microsoft to Amazon have underlined their commitment to building AI agents as productivity tools.&nbsp;



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107374413-1708024437471-gettyimages-1992338676-AA_10022024_1525083

Google expects its more advanced large language models to arrive on Android phones next year

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107335558-1700223310512-gettyimages-1797445843-js1_2971_if4auhpe-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-459046" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107335558-1700223310512-gettyimages-1797445843-js1_2971_if4auhpe-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107335558-1700223310512-gettyimages-1797445843-js1_2971_if4auhpe-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107335558-1700223310512-gettyimages-1797445843-js1_2971_if4auhpe-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107335558-1700223310512-gettyimages-1797445843-js1_2971_if4auhpe-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107335558-1700223310512-gettyimages-1797445843-js1_2971_if4auhpe.jpeg 929w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks in conversation with Emily Chang during the APEC CEO Summit at Moscone West on November 16, 2023 in San Francisco, California. The APEC summit is being held in San Francisco and runs through November 17. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Munich, GERMANY — Rapid developments in artificial intelligence could help strengthen defenses against security threats in cyber space, according to Google CEO Sundar Pichai.



Amid growing concerns about the potentially nefarious uses of AI, Pichai said that the intelligence tools could help governments and companies speed up the detection of — and response to — threats from hostile actors.



“We are right to be worried about the impact on cybersecurity. But AI, I think actually, counterintuitively, strengthens our defense on cybersecurity,” Pichai told delegates at Munich Security Conference at the end of last week.



Cybersecurity attacks have been growing in volume and sophistication as malicious actors increasingly use them as a way to exert power and extort money.



Cyberattacks cost the global economy an estimated $8 trillion in 2023 — a sum that is set to rise to $10.5 trillion by 2025, according to cyber research firm Cybersecurity Ventures.



A January report from Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre — part of GCHQ, the country’s intelligence agency — said that AI would only increase those threats, lowering the barriers to entry for cyber hackers and enabling more malicious cyber activity, including ransomware attacks.



However, Pichai said that AI was also lowering the time needed for defenders to detect attacks and react against them. He said this would reduce what’s known as a the defenders’ dilemma, whereby cyberhackers have to be successful just once to a system whereas a defender has to be successful every time in order to protect it.



“AI disproportionately helps the people defending because you’re getting a tool which can impact it at scale versus the people who are trying to exploit,” he said.



“So, in some ways, we are winning the race,” he added.



Google last week announced a new initiative offering AI tools and infrastructure investments designed to boost online security. A free, open-source tool dubbed Magika aims to help users detect malware — malicious software — the company said in a statement, while a white paper proposes measures and research and creates guardrails around AI.



Pichai said the tools were already being put to use in the company’s products, such as Google Chrome and Gmail, as well as its internal systems.



“AI is at a definitive crossroads — one where policymakers, security professionals and civil society have the chance to finally tilt the cybersecurity balance from attackers to cyber defenders.&nbsp;



The release coincided with the signing of a pact by major companies at MSC to take “reasonable precautions” to prevent AI tools from being used to disrupt democratic votes in 2024′s bumper election year and beyond.



Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, were among the signatories to the new agreement, which includes a framework for how companies must respond to AI-generated “deepfakes” designed to deceive voters.



It comes as the internet becomes an increasingly important sphere of influence for both individuals and state-backed malicious actors.



Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday described cyberspace as “a new battlefield.”



“The technology arms race has just gone up another notch with generative AI,” she said in Munich.



A report published last week by Microsoft found that state-backed hackers from Russia, China, and Iran have been using its OpenAI large language model (LLM) to enhance their efforts to trick targets.



Russian military intelligence, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and the Chinese and North Korean governments were all said to have relied on the tools.



Mark Hughes, president of security at IT services and consulting firm DXC, told CNBC that bad actors were increasingly relying on a ChatGPT-inspired hacking tool called WormGPT to conduct tasks like reverse engineering code.



However, he said that he was also seeing “significant gains” from similar tools which help engineers to detect and reserve engineer attacks at speed.



“It gives us the ability to speed up,” Hughes said last week. “Most of the time in cyber, what you have is the time that the attackers have in advantage against you. That’s often the case in any conflict situation.



“If you can run a little bit faster than your adversary, you’re going to do better. That’s what AI is really giving us defensively at the moment,” he added.

107335558-1700223310512-gettyimages-1797445843-js1_2971_if4auhpe

AI can ‘disproportionately’ help defend against cybersecurity threats, Google CEO Sundar Pichai says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107355659-1704744261664-gettyimages-1917749607-c85i5859_jdwm3op4-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-456438" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107355659-1704744261664-gettyimages-1917749607-c85i5859_jdwm3op4-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107355659-1704744261664-gettyimages-1917749607-c85i5859_jdwm3op4-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107355659-1704744261664-gettyimages-1917749607-c85i5859_jdwm3op4-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107355659-1704744261664-gettyimages-1917749607-c85i5859_jdwm3op4-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107355659-1704744261664-gettyimages-1917749607-c85i5859_jdwm3op4-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107355659-1704744261664-gettyimages-1917749607-c85i5859_jdwm3op4.jpeg 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New York City Mayor Eric Adams holds a press availability at a news conference on January 08, 2024 in New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that his administration has filed a lawsuit against the parent companies of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube, alleging that their services are damaging to the mental health of young adults and children in the largest U.S. city.



The city of New York along with plaintiffs including the school district and health organizations filed the lawsuit in the Los Angeles county branch of the California Superior Court because of the companies’ ties to the area, attorneys wrote in the filing.



The suit alleges that Meta, Snap, ByteDance and Google (whose parent company is Alphabet) knowingly “designed, developed, produced, operated, promoted, distributed, and marketed their platforms to attract, capture, and addict youth, with minimal parental oversight.”



The plaintiffs allege that the tech companies violated several city laws related to public nuisance and gross negligence through the design and marketing of their addictive products. They claim that New York’s school districts and various health and social services have been severely impacted by children who have suffered negative mental health consequences stemming from their use of popular social media apps.



“Over the past decade, we have seen just how addictive and overwhelming the online world can be, exposing our children to a non-stop stream of harmful content and fueling our national youth mental health crisis,” Adams said in a statement. “Today, we’re taking bold action on behalf of millions of New Yorkers to hold these companies accountable for their role in this crisis, and we’re building on our work to address this public health hazard. This lawsuit and action plan are part of a larger reckoning that will shape the lives of our young people, our city, and our society for years to come.”



A TikTok spokesperson said in an statement that the company has “industry-leading safeguards” for teens, including parental controls and features for age restrictions.



“We regularly partner with experts to understand emerging best practices, and will continue to work to keep our community safe by tackling industry-wide challenges,” the spokesperson said.



A Google representative said the allegations are “simply not true.”



“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience online has always been core to our work,” Google said. “In collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we’ve built services and policies to give young people age-appropriate experiences, and parents robust controls.”



Meta said it’s “spent a decade working on these issues” and wants “teens to have safe, age-appropriate experiences online, and we have over 30 tools and features to support them and their parents.”



A Snap spokesperson said that “Snapchat was intentionally designed to be different from traditional social media,” focusing on facilitating conversations with close friends.



“Snapchat opens directly to a camera – rather than a feed of content that encourages passive scrolling – and has no traditional public likes or comments,” the Snap spokesperson said. “While we will always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence.”



New York’s lawsuit echoes similar allegations made against Meta, Snap, TikTok and Alphabet in litigation filed in 2022 in the Northern District of California. Multiple school districts and individuals claim the companies’ products “are defective because they are designed to maximize screen time” and that they have resulted in various emotional and physical harms, including death.”



Social media companies have come under fire from lawmakers who are pushing multiple bills like the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, as part of a broader appeal for regulation. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel attended a Senate Judiciary hearing in late January and faced tough questions from a bipartisan group of lawmakers about their alleged negligence in protecting kids.



Meanwhile, a coalition of over 40 attorneys general filed a joint federal lawsuit against Meta alleging that its products are addictive and harm mental health.

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EU launches probe into Meta, Apple and Alphabet under sweeping new tech law

World’s first major act to regulate AI passed by European lawmakers

Apple hit with more than $1.95 billion EU antitrust fine over music streaming

Apple cancels plans to build an electric car

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says AI is not just hype — ‘This is real’

Google expects its more advanced large language models to arrive on Android phones next year

AI can ‘disproportionately’ help defend against cybersecurity threats, Google CEO Sundar Pichai says

TikTok, Facebook and YouTube sued by New York City for alleged harm to kids’ mental health

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Google expects its more advanced large language models to arrive on Android phones next year

AI can ‘disproportionately’ help defend against cybersecurity threats, Google CEO Sundar Pichai says

TikTok, Facebook and YouTube sued by New York City for alleged harm to kids’ mental health

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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