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| Here's a look at today's AI briefing: - AI helps uncover antibiotics effective against MRSA.
- Training dataset for AI image generators contained CSAM.
- Google to restrict Bard election-related responses.
- U.K. Supreme Court rules AI can't be an inventor.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Researchers harnessed advanced AI to uncover a new group of antibiotics effective against the hospital superbug MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). MRSA causes over 80,000 infections and more than 11,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. More: - The researchers, led by Integrated Biosciences and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, used an explainable AI model to identify a class of compounds that can kill drug-resistant MRSA bacteria.
- The compounds effectively eliminated MRSA in lab dishes and two MRSA-infected mouse models while demonstrating minimal toxicity to human cells.
- The researchers could also see what the models were learning to make their predictions for which molecules would make good antibiotics.
- These "explainable" models, which clarify the reasons behind their specific outputs, hold the potential to drive next-generation drug discovery methods.
Zoom out: - Their paper published in Nature describes it as "the first AI-driven discovery of a new class of small molecule antibiotics capable of addressing antibiotic resistance," as well as only a handful to be discovered in the last six decades.
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| 2 | | LAION-5B, an open-source dataset used to train AI image generators like Stable Diffusion, contains over 1,000 child sexual abuse images, Stanford researchers have found. Their report warns that AI products built on the dataset have the potential to generate new and realistic child abuse imagery. More: - German non-profit LAION created the dataset, which contains over 5 billion internet-sourced images and related captions.
- According to Stanford's Internet Observatory, LAION-5B includes at least 1,008 confirmed child sexual abuse materials, with potentially thousands of more suspected cases.
- LAION, which has a "zero-tolerance" stance on illegal content, temporarily took down its datasets from the internet for a safety review before republishing
Zoom out: - Various versions of Stable Diffusion, the popular image generator funded by Stability AI, were developed using LAION-5B or its subsets.
- The most recent, Stable Diffusion 2.0, was trained on data heavily filtered to remove "unsafe" materials.
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| 3 | | Google said it will restrict Bard chatbot and AI search responses on election topics ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential race. Google announced in a blog post that it will start limiting responses to sensitive queries early next year, citing "an abundance of caution" around elections as "an important topic." More: - Google said it's evaluating Bard and its GenAI-powered search for cybersecurity issues, misinformation, and other risks.
- The company will "work with an increased focus on the role artificial intelligence (AI) might play."
- Google is also requiring election advertisers to disclose any "realistic synthetic content" that's digitally altered or generated in their ads.
Zoom out: - Last month, Meta said Facebook and Instagram will require advertisers to label their AI-altered political ads ahead of the 2024 U.S. elections.
- Meta is also barring advertisers from using its own generative AI tools for political ads on Instagram and Facebook, limiting advertisers to third-party AI software only.
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| 4 | | Britain's Supreme Court has ruled that AI can't be deemed an inventor under current patent law. The U.K.'s highest court stated that an inventor who applies for patents "must be a natural person." More: - The court on Wednesday unanimously rejected an appeal from U.S. technologist Stephen Thaler, who argues that his AI machine should be listed as an inventor of two patents.
- Thaler asserts that the machine, called DABUS, independently invented a container for food and drink and a light beacon.
- The U.K.'s Intellectual Property Office denied Thaler's application in 2019 for DABUS's inventions.
- After lower courts agreed with that decision, Thaler appealed to the Supreme Court, which found that DABUS is "not a person, let alone a natural person, and it did not devise any relevant invention."
Zoom out: - Thaler has similarly appealed in the U.S. and elsewhere over the same issue, with rulings agreeing that patents require human inventors.
- In April, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Thaler's case.
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| 5 | | Shares of Google parent Alphabet jumped on Wednesday following reports that Google is planning a major shakeup of its 30,000-member ad sales team. The restructuring comes as Google is turning more to AI and automation to help customers purchase ads, according to The Information. 
Details: Google is increasingly turning to AI to create and distribute ads across Google, YouTube, and its various platforms. The further automation of its ad-buying process could be a contributing factor to the reorganization of its ad sales unit, which may involve layoffs, though that hasn't been confirmed. Google plans to streamline the workforce by potentially reassigning employees from its customer sales unit, which is responsible for advertiser relationships, to other divisions. What the numbers show: In Q3, Alphabet reported ad revenue of $59.65B, up from $54.48B a year ago. | | | |
| 6 | | 🍋 FRESH FUNDING 🍋 - Lightmatter, a Boston, Massachusetts-based startup developing photonic chips for AI, extended its Series C round by another $155M. GV (Google Ventures) and Viking Global Investors led the current Series C-2 funding round, which valued the firm at $1.2B.
- Procurement automation startup Pivot bagged €20M ($21.8M) in Series A funding from Visionaries, Emblem, Anamcara, and Oliver Samver.
- AI startup Delphina raked in $7.5M in fresh funding from Radical Ventures and Costanoa Ventures.
For the latest on AI startup funding and more in the VC community, subscribe to our Inside Venture Capital newsletter. | | | |
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- The Biden administration is taking steps to establish safety standards for generative AI. The Commerce Department's NIST is seeking public feedback through Feb. 2 to guide the development of the standards.
- TSMC is now manufacturing the second generation AI chip from Toyota-backed Preferred Networks. The Japanese startup's chips are optimized for AI tasks.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for notable publications like USA Today and the Arizona Business Gazette. During her time as a public policy reporter at The Arizona Republic, she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for her collaborative reporting on pension cost increases. Beth also authored a book on the solar photovoltaic industry in 2016. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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