Google fined $100m, AI cloned piglets, and other AI world news

We aim to inform readers not only about developments in the Bitcoin industry, but also to report on developments in adjacent technology spheres — cybersecurity and the world of artificial intelligence (AI).

ForkLog AI has gathered the most important AI news from the past week.

IBM will cease operations in Russia

The corporation IBM will cease operations in Russia. The company has removed all content from the relevant section of its site.

In March 2022, the tech giant suspended operations in Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. IBM condemned the war and declined to sell technologies to the aggressor country.

Microsoft will significantly scale back its business in Russia

Microsoft “significantly scale back” its business in Russia due to the grim economic outlook linked to the war in Ukraine.

The company will continue to fulfill contracts in the country, but the restrictions will affect 400 employees. Microsoft said it is “working closely” with affected staff to provide support.

There is no data on the number of employees in Russia. It is also unclear which segments will be affected by the cuts.

Apple unveils a suite of new AI features and the M2 chip

At Apple’s WWDC 2022, the company unveiled new AI features and products.

Among the innovations for iOS 16:

• Live Text for text recognition in video and contextual processing, plus Ukrainian language support;
• automatic punctuation insertion and emoji input via Dictation;
• AI feature for removing objects from photos;
• support for unlocking the phone and accessing hidden photo folders with Face ID in landscape orientation;
• tool for detecting and removing duplicate images;
• option to detect doors and automatic subtitling for video and audio for people with disabilities;
• AI feature for measuring sleep quality and depth with Apple Watch;
• medication-tracking system with label scanning using the camera and smartwatches.

The company also unveiled the M2 chip for computers and tablets. The chip is built on a 5‑nm process by TSMC, contains 20 billion transistors, an 8‑core CPU and a 10‑core GPU. Apple says the M2 is 18% faster than the M1.

The U.S. regulator continues Tesla investigation

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) expanded its investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot, launching the engineering-analysis phase. This could lead to a recall of 830,000 company vehicles.

During the preliminary probe, NHTSA found that the driver-assistance system could “undermine the effectiveness of the human oversight behind the wheel of the robo-car.”

The agency began its investigation into Tesla in 2021 after a string of crashes with Autopilot engaged.

Google fined $100m for facial recognition in Photos

Google will pay $100m in fines for violating Illinois biometric privacy laws.

According to the class action, the tech giant illegally used a tool for grouping images by similarity and created “face templates” of residents in the Photos app. The company collected, stored and used data from millions of people without their knowledge and consent, the plaintiffs said.

The lawsuit settlement: Illinois residents who appeared in photos from May 1, 2015 to April 25, 2022 may receive up to $100m in total compensation. Depending on the number of claims filed, payments to users will range from $200 to $400.

Baidu unveils concept of a robocar

Baidu’s EV arm Jidu Auto unveiled a voice-controlled robocar. Serial production of a model roughly 90% of the concept is planned for 2023.

The door-handle-less robocar corresponds to Level 4 autonomy, not requiring human intervention to operate. The vehicle is equipped with a Qualcomm 8295 chip for offline operation of the voice interface in case of a weak internet connection.

The autonomous driving system was developed by Baidu’s engineers. It relies on 12 cameras and 2 LiDAR units to navigate roads.

The first model from the Jidu brand will cost around $30,000.

Mayflower reaches Canada

The autonomous Mayflower ship reached the shores of Nova Scotia, Canada.

IBM stated that the autonomous control system operated flawlessly. However, the trimaran suffered several mechanical faults.

Due to the latest malfunction, the team switched to a backup navigation computer and charted a course for the port of Halifax in Nova Scotia.

South Korean business accelerates factory automation

In South Korea, automation of factories accelerated amid liability concerns.

In January 2022, a law took effect that could fine or imprison CEOs and top executives for worker injuries or deaths. According to experts and media, this has led to heightened automation and reduction of staff.

According to Aju Business Daily, authorities are encouraging firms to proactively accelerate AI, IT systems and robots. The law’s enactment triggered an uptick in demand for manufacturing and construction manipulators, said Universal Robots’ CEO.

Inventor files suit to register copyright for algorithm

At the U.S. Copyright Office, a lawsuit was filed over the denial of registration for an AI-created painting.

Founder of Imagination Engines, Stephen Thaler, stated that refusal to grant copyright for the Creativity Machine algorithm’s image “A Recent Entrance to Paradise” is contrary to the law. He called the agency’s actions “arbitrary and capricious” and accused it of lacking “substantial evidence and exceeding its authority.”

According to the plaintiff’s attorney, the Office should overturn the decision and reconsider Thaler’s filing. In February 2022, the board ruled that the painting created by the algorithm did not involve human authorship and could not be protected under current law.

AI helps scientists clone pigs

In China, seven piglets were born, cloned by an AI robot without human involvement. The animals were carried by a surrogate sow.

Researchers at Nankai University created a system capable of calculating pressure inside a somatic cell and adjusting the force applied by the manipulator during transfer. They say AI minimizes material damage and simplifies the cloning process.

The researchers said that in the future the method could increase China’s pig herd and make meat more affordable and of higher quality.

Blogger creates a “hate machine” from 4chan posts

YouTube blogger created a “hate machine,” training a neural network on data from 4chan. AI researchers and ethicists described the project as an “unethical experiment.”

The developer trained the GPT-4chan algorithm on 3.3 million threads from the board “Politically Incorrect.” He launched the bot back onto the forum, where it began posting racial slurs and supporting antisemitic topics, mimicking participants. In 24 hours, nine model instances posted about 15,000 messages.

According to the developer, the neural network proved to be good in the “horrible sense” — the AI effectively combined insults, nihilism, trolling and distrust of information published on the forum.

Most important AI deals of the past week

From 5 to 11 June 2022, AI startups raised over $343m. Here are the most notable deals.

• Shield AI raised $165m to develop software and hardware for military drones.
• Insilico Medicine raised $60m for AI-powered drug discovery and robotics laboratory.
• LibLab raised $42m to launch its SDK-as-a-service platform.
• Reco raised $30m to support its data-exchange mapping service.
• Agrotools raised $21m.
• Papercup raised $20m to support technology for automatic dubbing of videos in multiple languages.
• Virridy raised $5.5m to expand its catalog of sensors for monitoring and managing water, energy and agricultural resources.

Also on ForkLog:

• In Australia, AI will be taught to recognize violence against children.
• AI startup for automating shopping accused of using manual labour.
• The Pentagon will accelerate modernization of its technology department.
• Study: Facebook algorithms “played along with” Republicans.
• Chrome uses machine learning to detect phishing attacks.

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