...

This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through September 6)


Robotics

This Robot Only Needs a Single AI Model to Master Humanlike MovementsWill Knight | Wired

“The new Atlas work is a big sign that robots are starting to experience the kind of equivalent advances in robotics that eventually led to the general language models that gave us ChatGPT in the field of generative AI.”

Artificial Intelligence

‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a ComebackJohn Pavlus | Quanta Magazine

“You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. …The deep learning luminaries Yann LeCun (of Meta), Demis Hassabis (of Google DeepMind), and Yoshua Bengio (of Mila, the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute) all believe world models are essential for building AI systems that are truly smart, scientific and safe.”

Artificial Intelligence

Synthesia’s AI Clones Are More Expressive Than Ever. Soon They’ll Be Able to Talk Back.Rhiannon Williams | MIT Technology Review

“This demonstration shows how much harder it’s becoming to distinguish the artificial from the real. And before long, these avatars will even be able to talk back to us. But how much better can they get? And what might interacting with AI clones do to us?”

Tech

Anthropic to Pay at Least $1.5 Billion in Landmark Copyright SettlementMelissa Korn and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg | The Wall Street Journal

“The settlement could influence the outcome of pending litigation between other media companies and AI firms, and may push the tech companies to seek licensing agreements with content owners whose works are considered vital for training purposes.”

Future

Why Anthropic’s Coding Prediction Hasn’t Panned OutStephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew | The Information

“In March, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI would be writing 90% of all code in three to six months. It’s been over six months since then, so how does Amodei’s prediction hold up? We asked Anthropic’s chatbot Claude. ‘Grade: F (Failed Prediction),’ begins Claude’s answer. ‘The prediction that AI would be writing 90% of all code within 3-6 months was wildly off the mark.'”

Artificial Intelligence

Cutting-Edge AI Was Supposed to Get Cheaper. It’s More Expensive Than Ever.Christopher Mims | The Wall Street Journal

“The latest AI models are doing more ‘thinking,’ especially when used for deep research, AI agents, and coding. So while the price of a unit of AI, known as a token, continues to drop, the number of tokens needed to accomplish many tasks is skyrocketing. It’s the opposite of what many analysts and experts predicted even a few months ago.”

Tech

Apple Is Working on AI-Powered Search EngineAaron Tilley | The Information

“The company is planning to release the web-search feature alongside its delayed Siri revamp in the spring of next year, Bloomberg also reported. With the search tool, Siri would be more capable of looking up information across the web without linking to external services.”

Robotics

Waymo Expands to Denver and Seattle With Its Zeekr-Made VansSean O’Kane | TechCrunch

“The new cities join a growing list of places where Waymo is operating in the US. Just last week the company announced that it has more than 2,000 robotaxis in its commercial fleet countrywide, with 800 in the San Francisco Bay Area, 500 in Los Angeles, 400 in Phoenix, 100 in Austin, and ‘dozens’ in Atlanta. Waymo has also announced plans to launch a commercial robotaxi services in Dallas, Miami, and Washington, DC, next year, and recently received a permit to start testing in New York City.”

Artificial Intelligence

The Less You Know About AI, the More You Are Likely to Use ItHeidi Mitchell | The Wall Street Journal

“When it comes to most new technologies, early adopters tend to be the people who know and understand the tools the best. With artificial intelligence, the opposite seems to be true. This counterintuitive finding comes from new research, which suggests that the people most drawn to AI tend to be those who understand the technology the least.”

Tech

How Tech Giants Are Spreading the Risk of the AI BuildoutMiles Kruppa | The Information

“The speed and scale of the AI buildout is now forcing [companies] to find outside sources of capital, a sign of how the costs of AI are weighing on even the largest tech companies as they outline plans to spend upward of $100 billion annually on new buildings and equipment.”

Future

Should AI Get Legal Rights?Kylie Robison | Wired

“In the often strange world of AI research, some people are exploring whether the machines should be able to unionize. I’m joking, sort of. In Silicon Valley, there’s a small but growing field called model welfare, which is working to figure out whether AI models are conscious and deserving of moral considerations, such as legal rights.”

Source link

#Weeks #Awesome #Tech #Stories #Web #September