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Artists Lose First Round of Copyright Infringement Case Against AI Art Generators
(The Hollywood Reporter) Artists suing generative artificial intelligence art generators have hit a stumbling block in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit over the uncompensated and unauthorized use of billions of images downloaded from the internet to train AI systems, with a federal judge’s dismissal of most claims. U.S. District Judge William Orrick on Monday found that copyright…
Read MoreThe White House Is Preparing for an AI-Dominated Future
(The Atlantic) Earlier today, President Joe Biden signed the most sweeping set of regulatory principles on artificial intelligence in America to date: a lengthy executive order that directs all types of government agencies to make sure America is leading the way in developing the technology while also addressing the many dangers that it poses. The…
Read MoreJoy Buolamwini: “We’re giving AI companies a free pass”
(MIT Technology Review) Joy Buolamwini, the renowned AI researcher and activist, appears on the Zoom screen from home in Boston, wearing her signature thick-rimmed glasses. As an MIT grad, she seems genuinely interested in seeing old covers of MIT Technology Review that hang in our London office. An edition of the magazine from 1961 asks:…
Read More41 states sue Meta, claiming Instagram, Facebook are addictive, harm kids
(Washington Post) Forty-one states and D.C. are suing Meta, alleging that the tech giant harms children by building addictive features into Instagram and Facebook — legal actions that represent the most significant effort by state enforcers to tackle the impact of social media on children’s mental health. The barrage of lawsuits is the culmination of…
Read MoreThe big risk behind the AI investment boom
(Axios) Venture capitalists are pouring huge money into AI startups, with a dollar weighting toward those building foundational models. Why it matters: The VC market may be making its biggest binary bet ever, without quite realizing it. Behind the scenes: Many of those models are being built, in part, on data that is under U.S. copyright protection. Several of…
Read MoreAI Is Becoming More Powerful—but Also More Secretive
(Wired) When OpenAI published details of the stunningly capable AI language model GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT, in March, its researchers filled 100 pages. They also left out a few important details—like anything substantial about how it was actually built or how it works. That was no accidental oversight, of course. OpenAI and other big companies are keen to keep the workings…
Read MoreMarc Andreessen Wants to Reclaim the Moral High Ground for Tech
(Bloomberg) Celebrity venture capitalist Marc Andreessen issued a call to action on Monday morning, California time. In a blog post titled “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,” the Netscape co-founder excoriated the enemies of progress (“elites,” “luddites,” “communists”) and celebrated the potential for technology to advance human greatness. Like many of Andreessen’s big-picture essays on tech over the years, the message…
Read MoreNew York VC firms form alliance to back diversity
(Techcrunch) Despite what numbers might show, some venture capitalists are quite serious in their commitment toward diversity, equity and inclusion — and they are not going away. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) on Wednesday announced the launch of Venture Access Alliance, a group of 70 investors who have promised to boost diversity in…
Read MoreA flood of misinformation shapes views of Israel-Gaza conflict
(Washington Post) A WhatsApp voice memo purporting to have insider information ricocheted across hundreds of group chats in Israel early on Monday. The Israeli army was planning for another “battle like we’ve never experienced before,” the anonymous woman said in Hebrew, warning that people should prepare to lose access to food, water and internet service…
Read MoreCalifornia Adopts New Law Requiring VC Companies to Collect Diversity Data From Portfolio Company Founders
(Cooley) California’s governor recently signed into law SB 54, a bill intended to increase transparency regarding diversity of founding teams in the venture capital (VC) industry. The new law will require VC companies, including “venture capital funds” (as defined in the Investment Advisers Act of 1940), with a nexus to California to report to the California…
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