If you’re behind on what’s happening with the robot uprising, have no fear. Here’s a quick look at some of the weirdest and wildest artificial intelligence news from the past week.
AI might soon consume as much energy as an entire country
We all know that AI isn’t the most environmentally friendly industry ever but a new report released this week shows that its energy footprint could be much worse than we previously imagined—soon amounting, hypothetically, to the electrical consumption rate of an entire nation.
The advent of the AI squish blob
We’ve been told over and over again that AI can do miraculous things. Well, this week, we got an example of that! Researchers at Northwestern University used AI to design a purple…thing. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what it is but Mack DeGeurin has the story.
AI Companies: Wait, how do we actually make money?
AI companies have raced to integrate their products into pretty much every sector of the economy but some of them seem to be waking up to the fact that they maybe put the cart before the horse. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that some AI applications have been losing money and the path forwards, fiscally, isn’t exactly clear.
OpenAI plans to make it easier for developers to use its tools
OpenAI announced this week that it would be releasing some updates in November that will makes its tools significantly cheaper and easier for developers to use. The updates will include the addition of memory storage and vision capabilities to their developer model.
Google says it’ll protect you if you get sued for using its AI platforms trained with copyright material
A lot of AI material has been generated using massive amounts of copyrighted material. As a result, authors, comedians, artists, and other creatives whose works have been used in this way have been suing the shit out of the tech companies involved. Well, Google—one of the companies facing said lawsuits—has let users of its Bard chatbot know that it will stick up for you if you get sued for using its legally nebulous chatbot. Cool!
SAG-AFTRA endorses bill that would protect creatives from deepfakes
You’ve probably seen some AI “music” circulating or seen a deepfake involving a celebrity you know. Well, the entertainment industry isn’t thrilled about it. This week, SAG-AFTRA, the union protecting actors and voice actors in Hollywood endorsed a new bill that would outline specific protections for creatives who don’t want their likenesses to be used in the creation of AI media.