Goldman Sachs Slashes Adani Group Stakes From Its ESG Funds
The investment arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. dramatically reduced its exposure to the Adani Group in its
2023-05-17 18:21
Breaching 1.5C Threshold Temporarily in Next Five Years ‘More Likely Than Not’
Global temperatures are likely to temporarily breach the 1.5C of warming threshold for at least one of the
2023-05-17 18:18
ChatGPT creator Sam Altman ‘nervous’ about AI election manipulation
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has sounded his fears about AI-powered election interference, telling a congressional hearing on Tuesday that the technology needs to be regulated to protect voting integrity. Artificial intelligence chatbots like his company’s ChatGPT were a “significant area of concern”, Mr Altman told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law “I am nervous about it,” he said about elections and AI, adding rules and guidelines are needed. For months, companies large and small have raced to bring increasingly versatile AI to market, throwing endless data and billions of dollars at the challenge. Some critics fear the technology will exacerbate societal harms, among them prejudice and misinformation, while others warn AI could end humanity itself. “There’s no way to put this genie in the bottle. Globally, this is exploding,” said Senator Cory Booker, one of many lawmakers with questions about how best to regulate AI. Senator Mazie Hirono noted the danger of misinformation as the 2024 election nears. “In the election context, for example, I saw a picture of former President Trump being arrested by NYPD and that went viral,” she said, pressing Altman on whether he would consider the faked image harmful. Mr Altman responded that creators should make clear when an image is generated rather than factual. Speaking before Congress for the first time, Mr Altman suggested that, in general, the US should consider licensing and testing requirements for development of AI models. Mr Altman, asked to opine on which AI should be subject to licensing, said a model that can persuade or manipulate a person’s beliefs would be an example of a “great threshold.” He also said companies should have the right to say they do not want their data used for AI training, which is one idea being discussed on Capitol Hill. Mr Altman said, however, that material on the public web would be fair game. Mr Altman also said he “wouldn’t say never” to the idea of advertising but preferred a subscription-based model. The White House has convened top technology CEOs including Mr Altman to address AI. US lawmakers likewise are seeking action to further the technology’s benefits and national security while limiting its misuse. Consensus is far from certain. An OpenAI staffer recently proposed the creation of a U.S. licensing agency for AI, which could be called the Office for AI Safety and Infrastructure Security (OASIS). OpenAI is backed by Microsoft. Mr Altman is also calling for global cooperation on AI and incentives for safety compliance. Christina Montgomery, International Business Machines Corp chief privacy and trust officer, urged Congress to focus regulation on areas with the potential to do the greatest societal harm. Gary Marcus, a Professor Emeritus at New York University, was also on the panel, and expressed his concerns about the rapid development of artificial intelligence. “We have built machines that are like bulls in a china shop: Powerful, wreckless and difficult to control,” he said. Senator Blumenthal responded by saying it was more like “a bomb in a china shop”. Additional reporting from agencies. Read More ChatGPT is finally connected to the web after huge OpenAI update Regulation ‘critical’ to curb risk posed by AI, boss of ChatGPT tells Congress Watch as OpenAI CEO faces questions from Congress on potential AI regulation Sam Altman testifies before Congress saying there is ‘urgent’ need for regulation
2023-05-17 17:55
Slack down: Office chat app goes offline in middle of working week
Slack appears to have stopped working for millions of users around the world. Website health checker DownDetector registered thousands of reports of the office chat app not working. The outage began at around 9.45am BST, and comes just months after another significant issue with the platform. The Salesforce-owned company says that it has more than 200,000 paid customers, and is used by 77 of Fortune 100 companies. Those include many of the world’s biggest firms, such as Target, Uber and Netflix. More to follow. Read More New iPhone feature can recreate your voice perfectly after just 15 minutes Regulation ‘critical’ to curb risk posed by AI, boss of ChatGPT tells Congress Elon Musk calls working from home ‘morally wrong’
2023-05-17 17:52
Where did the photo of 6ix9ine kissing a man come from?
A new misleading image is doing the rounds on social media but, for a change, this one has nothing to do with AI. Instead, this (very real) photo has sparked a swirl of rumours concerning rapper 6ix9ine’s sexuality. The picture shows 6ix9ine (who also goes by Tekashi69), planting a kiss on the cheek of Mexican singer Eduin Caz, from the band GroupoFirme. It went viral after website Pop Tingz shared it to its Twitter account with the caption: “6ix9ine reveals boyfriend.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The tweet racked up more than 7.9 million views and 3,570 likes in less than a day as streams of commentators remarked that they “weren’t surprised” by the revelation. Except that it wasn’t a revelation at all, just proof of the power of a sensationalist headline. In fact, Caz posted the original picture to his Instagram account to mark the release of a new collaboration between Groupo Firme and 6ix9ine. Their track, ‘Y ahora’, is a love song about… a woman. And if you watch the music video, you’ll see the two men getting up-close and personal with a couple of scantily clad ladies. And yet, social media users love to consider themselves masters of hints and easter eggs, so apparently the fact 6ix9ine sports rainbow-coloured braids is enough to suggest he’s a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Others took the opportunity to fuel the rumour that the rapper has indulged in gay porn – under an alias – and that his sex tape was leaked to the internet. However, according to AllHipHop, the actor in said X-rated movie bears merely a passing resemblance to the rapper. Furthermore, the 27-year-old admitted to having a girlfriend on Instagram just three days ago when he posted a gushing birthday tribute to model Ariiela Lalangosta. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BESTFRIEND [sic] IN THE WORLD,” he wrote in the caption to a video showing him kissing Lalangosta and showering her with cash. “My girlfriend won’t get mad but we just friends she knows that,” he added. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-05-17 17:49
Bride receives major backlash for having ‘diet culture’ wedding
A bride has gone viral after sharing a TikTok showing what she ate at her wedding, and it left viewers shocked. Sam Cutler, a fitness influencer with over 100,000 followers on TikTok, got married last week. To share the moment with her followers, she posted a ‘what I eat in a day’ video, in line with her regular content, but this time it was ‘what I ate on my wedding day’. However, viewers were shocked to see how much restriction and ‘clean eating’ habits were at the forefront of the wedding. The video, which now has over 4 million views, starts off with Cutler having a protein smoothie and some salad whilst getting her hair and makeup done, nothing too out of the ordinary. She also showed a veggie platter that was in the bridal suite for herself and her bridesmaids to snack on whilst getting ready. Whilst it’s quite unlike a lot of other TikToks that show the food at weddings, often with bridal suites having brunches and an array of snacks, viewers weren’t upset yet. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter However, viewers took issue when Cutler revealed that she had placed ‘bloat pills’ on every table, and shows herself taking one during the main course. The wedding cake was also gluten, dairy, and sugar free, and the bride only drank Cote de Rose because she knew ‘it’s less than 2g/L of sugar.’ People were quick to question the bride’s choice of food and drink for the day, with some saying ‘girl it’s one day you can have sugar’, ‘my jaw dropped’, ‘I would have been starving afterwards’, ‘I thought it wasn’t that bad and then I got to bloat pills part’, ‘diet culture is crazy’. Cutler responded to the backlash she faced, by saying "as women, we should be empowering each other to make the choice that works for our own individual body, without judgement." But many were still critical of Cutler, saying that when you’re giving your guests bloat pills, it’s no longer about individual choice, it’s about you’re making others feel, and the perpetuating of diet culture. Others came from a place of concern, with one user commenting: "not understanding one day of “bad” eating is not going to undo all the work you’ve put in is where things get scary." The video also gained a lot of attention on Twitter with people sharing similar views: Cutler reiterated that she enjoyed her wedding and no one was forced to take the bloat pills, but they were simply there for people who wanted them, or were interested in knowing more. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-05-17 17:28
Siemens Sees Itself in ‘Supercycle’ on Climate Change Demand
Siemens AG is reaping the benefits of a deep shift to efficiency-boosting software that helps reduce the carbon
2023-05-17 17:15
Tencent’s Revenue Grows Most in Over a Year After China Reopens
Tencent Holdings Ltd. grew revenue at its fastest pace in more than a year, fueling hopes the world’s
2023-05-17 16:57
Apple will let you clone your voice on your iPhone
Ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day on 18 May, Apple has unveiled a host of new iOS features that will be coming to the iPhone, iPad and Mac later this year. The suite of updates announced on Tuesday include accessibility features to help those with cognitive, vision, hearing and mobility disabilities and, for the first time, new tools for those who have lost their ability to speak or are at risk of losing their voice. In the future update, users with a speech disability or a recent ALS diagnosis will be able to use their Apple device to create a digital voice that sounds exactly like them. The feature, called Personal Voice, can be trained in 15 minutes simply by reading a bunch of randomly generated text prompts, and uses on-device machine learning to ensure your data is kept private and secure. The Motor Neurone Disease Association suggests that voice banking takes an average of two hours or longer with current tech, and can cost hundreds of pounds. The Independent got a first look at the new feature in action, and the Personal Voice sounded remarkably similar to the user’s actual voice, albeit with a slightly robotic, synthesised tone. Personal Voice will be available for use with Apple’s new Live Speech feature on iOS, which will let users type what they want to say and have it spoken out loud, during in-person conversations, as well as with phone and FaceTime calls. The feature is said to work with all accents and dialects. As well as features for speech accessibility, Apple announced a cognitive disability setting for the iPhone and iPad called Assistive Access, which essentially lets you pare your device down to a few core apps of your choosing. Arranged in a grid or a list, it simplifies the user interface down to large, easily readable buttons, so you can make calls, access an emoji-only keyboard, and a fuss-free camera, without the clutter. Companies such as Doro and Jitterbug currently have a stranglehold on the “simple phone”, offering devices for senior users that strip away the bulk, and deliver a simple user interface with large high-contrast buttons that make it easy to use a phone. With Apple’s new Assistive Access feature, those with cognitive disabilities will be able to take advantage of a mainstream iPhone device and its features without having to opt for an Android device or one designed for their specific need. In addition, Apple previewed a new feature in the Magnifier app for low vision users called Point and Speak, which makes use of the camera, the LiDAR Scanner and on-device machine learning to read aloud text that a user places their finger on. Plus, the company announced Mac support for Made for iPhone hearing devices, phonetic suggestions for Voice Control users and the ability for Switch Control users to turn their switches into game controllers on the iPhone and iPad. Apple has made it a tradition over the years to unveil new accessibility features ahead of WWDC in June, where it usually reveals the next iOS update, emphasising its prioritisation of accessibility within the iOS ecosystem. While Apple didn’t state when exactly the new updates would be coming to its devices later this year, a rollout alongside iOS 17 seems likely, given previous announcements. Read More Apple iPhone 15 rumours: All you need to know, from release date to price and specs iPhone 15 to add mysterious new button on the side, Apple rumours suggest Inside Apple’s Developer Academy, where future app developers are being taught to put disability first 75% of Irish data watchdog’s GDPR decisions since 2018 overruled – report AI pioneer warns UK is failing to protect against ‘existential threat’ of machines Apple highlights work of small developers amid ongoing questions about the App Store
2023-05-17 15:56
Chevron’s Carbon Capture Flagship Is Stuck at One-Third Capacity
Chevron Corp.’s flagship carbon capture and storage project in Australia faces years of work to hit full capacity,
2023-05-17 15:17
EU Spat Over Nuclear Energy Escalates as Key Vote Delayed
A key European Union law on scaling up renewable energy by the end of the decade has been
2023-05-17 15:15
China's BYD beefs up autonomous driving credentials with new unit, hiring spree
SHANGHAI/BEIJING BYD Co Ltd may be China's biggest electric vehicle maker by a country mile but it knows
2023-05-17 14:58