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| Here's a look at today's AI briefing: - Sam Altman returns to OpenAI board with three new members.
- Report calls for U.S. action to curb future AI threats.
- Elon Musk's AI company to open-source Grok chatbot.
- Authors sue Nvidia, claiming copyright infringement during AI training.
- Apple testing AI platform for placing ads.
Thanks for reading, Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | According to a Friday blog post, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will rejoin the company's board accompanied by three new directors. The new board members are Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, a lawyer and former Sony executive; and Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart and a former Meta executive. More: - In November, Altman was fired and then quickly rehired as OpenAI's CEO and removed from its board.
- The previous board claimed Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications," and members lost "confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI."
- After the debacle, a temporary three-seat board was formed to investigate and choose new members.
- In addition to Altman and the three new directors, the new board consists of three prior members: OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, economist Larry Summers, and former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, who will continue as chair.
Investigation: - Also on Friday, OpenAI released the findings of an independent investigation by WilmerHale, a law firm hired in December to look into the circumstances surrounding Altman's firing.
- After interviewing stakeholders and reviewing over 30,000 documents, WilmerHale concluded that Altman and Brockman "are the right leaders for OpenAI," according to the blog.
- WilmerHale found that the prior board's decision to fire Altman "did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI's finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners."
- Rather, it "was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman," it said.
- The law firm also found that OpenAI's prior board abruptly fired Altman without notifying "key stakeholders" or giving him a chance to respond.
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| 2 | | A new report commissioned by the State Department calls for U.S. intervention to curb emerging threats posed by advanced AI, such as its weaponization and the risk of losing control of the technology. AI safety company Gladstone AI compiled the report, which states that AI in a worst-case scenario could cause an "extinction-level threat to the human species" and suggests policy actions to avoid catastrophic AI risks. More: - The report warns AI could create risks akin to weapons of mass destruction, threatening global security.
- It highlights the dual threats of AI weaponization — such as AI disinformation campaigns and bioweapon designs — and the risk of losing control over AI as it approaches human or superhuman abilities, potentially leading to uncontrollable and/or power-seeking behaviors.
- Due to national security risks from the growth and potential weaponization of AI, "there is a clear and urgent need for the U.S. government to intervene," the report states.
Action plan: - The report's three authors spent more than a year researching and interviewing over 200 individuals from government and AI companies like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Meta.
- They offer an action plan to boost the safety and security of advanced AI.
- Gladstone suggests banning the training of AI models after a certain computing power and outlawing the publication of model weights under open-source licensing to keep them a secret.
- It also recommends that the government force AI companies to gain permission to deploy advanced models, along with tighter controls on AI chip manufacturing and exports.
The bigger picture: - A Monmouth University poll found that just over 40% of the respondents believe AI technology will ultimately harm society.
- Meanwhile, 55% said they are somewhat or very concerned that AI could eventually pose a risk to human existence.
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| 3 | | Elon Musk announced that his startup, xAI, will make its AI model Grok open-source this week. The move comes after Musk sued OpenAI for allegedly prioritizing profits over its original mission to offer its technology for free to the public. More: - xAI released Grok, its first product, in November.
- The chatbot, which is in early access to paid X users, is designed to provide witty and occasionally rebellious answers to questions.
- Musk did not specify which parts of Grok he plans to make open-source.
- In a response to the news, an X user said OpenAI "should do the same," referring to open-sourcing its technology, to which Musk replied, "OpenAI is a lie."
Zoom out: - By giving third-party developers and researchers access to its code, Musk could boost Grok's adoption and gain feedback to make improvements, as noted by The Wall Street Journal.
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| 4 | | Three authors have sued Nvidia, accusing the company of using their copyrighted books without consent to train its NeMo AI platform. In a statement, Nvidia said it respects all content creators' rights and believes NeMo was created "in full compliance with copyright law." More: - Authors Brian Keene, Abdi Nazemian, and Stewart O'Nan claim their books were included in a dataset of nearly 200,000 works used to train NeMo but were removed last year due to reported copyright infringement.
- In their proposed class action lawsuit, they claim that the removal means Nvidia effectively "admitted" that it trained NeMo on their works without permission.
- The complaint seeks unspecified damages for U.S. individuals whose copyrighted works were used to train NeMo's large language models since 2021.
Zoom out: - Nvidia launched NeMo in 2022. The cloud-based framework allows developers to build, customize, and deploy generative AI models.
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| 5 | | Apple is reportedly testing an AI-driven platform that automates ad placements in its App Store, Business Insider reports. The company is testing with a small group of advertisers and plans to launch the product in the coming months, according to a source cited by Insider. More: - The AI tool optimizes where ads appear in slots, which can improve advertiser campaign performance for App Store Search Ads.
- Advertisers can pay for placement on the App Store Today page and in the "You Might Also Like" section of app product pages.
Zoom out: - Google, Meta, and other companies have also launched AI-driven ad placement tools in recent years.
- Analysts predict Apple's emerging ad business could generate up to $6B by 2025.
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| 6 | | AI Events and Conferences: - Nvidia GTC AI Conference & Expo: March 18-21, San Jose, California, and virtual.
- Imagine AI Live '24: March 27-28, Las Vegas.
- World Summit AI Americas: April 24-25, Montreal.
- Data Innovation Summit: April 24-25, Stockholm and online.
- Rise of AI Conference: May 14-15, Berlin, Germany, and virtual.
- Enterprise Generative AI Summit West Coast: May 21-22, Silicon Valley, California.
- AI Expo Tokyo: May 22-24, Tokyo.
- Data Cloud Summit 2024: June 3-6, San Francisco.
- SuperAI: June 5-6, Singapore.
- 2024 IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence: June 25-27, Singapore.
- The AI Conference: Sept. 18-19, San Francisco.
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- Thomson Reuters plans to invest $8B in AI, bolstered by strong finances and the sale of its stake in the London Stock Exchange Group, according to CEO Steve Hasker.
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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 publications including USA Today, the Arizona Business Gazette, and The Arizona Republic, where she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for collaborative reporting on state pension cost increases. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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