European Parliament to vote on new rules for the use of AI

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August 30, 2022

European Parliament to vote on new rules for the use of AI

The European Parliament (EU) has announced that it will vote on new rules this Autumn intended to regulate the use of AI further.

The Artificial Intelligence Act is intended to unlock AI’s potential in fields such as health, environment, and climate change. The European Commission wants to boost public and private investment in AI technologies to €20 billion annually. According to an estimate by the Parliament, AI and robotics can create 60 million new jobs worldwide by 2025.

The EU Parliament said that the EU has fallen behind in the global race for technology leadership. There is a risk that standards might be developed elsewhere, often by non-democratic counterparts. MEPs believe the EU needs to act as a global standard-setter in AI.

The MEPs identified policy options that could unlock AI’s potential in health, the environment, and climate change, to help combat pandemics and global hunger, and enhance people’s quality of life through personalized medicine.

Lawmakers have also agreed on addressing high-risk AI systems subject to more oversight and prohibitions. For instance, AI systems used to influence or shape the development of children should be considered high risk.

MEPs said that combined with the necessary support infrastructure and training, AI can increase innovation, sustainable growth, job creation, capital, and labor productivity.

Microsoft collaborates with TikTok parent company ByteDance on AI project KubeRay

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Sahil Pawar

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August 30, 2022

Microsoft collaborates with ByteDance for KubeRay

Microsoft and TikTok parent company ByteDance have collaborated on an AI project named KubeRay, designed to help organizations run and manage AI apps more efficiently and effectively.

The high-stakes battle between China and the US for AI supremacy has domestic lawmakers concerned over what this could mean for American prosperity, national security, and the economy. The collaboration comes as the world’s two largest economies pour resources into the race for dominance in the field.

At the Ray Summit in San Francisco, Microsoft principal software engineer Ali Kanso and ByteDance software engineer Jiaxin Shan discussed their progress with data scientists, machine learning experts, and other developers interested in building powerful open-source software called Ray.

Kanso and Shan explained the technical details behind KubeRay. They pitched the software as helpful in powering AI applications that run on multiple computers or distributed computing. According to his LinkedIn profile, Shan, who earlier worked as a software engineer at Amazon Web Services, is from the Seattle area, near Microsoft’s headquarters.

Microsoft has invested extensively in AI along with competitors like Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Apple. Like Google once did, Microsoft maintains an AI research lab in China, helping it tap into the academic talent of the country.

Meanwhile, as TikTok’s usage has drastically increased recently, ByteDance has been foraying into various AI open-source projects. In 2020, ByteDance debuted its software tool kit NeurST for AI-powered speech translation. And last year, the company debuted its open-source enterprise software CloudWeGo.

Meta’s new update allows NFTs on both Facebook and Instagram

By

Gareema Lakra

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August 30, 2022

meta's new update allows users to post NFTs on facebook and instagram

Meta announced an update for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Monday, 29 August 2022, allowing users to post their NFTs across both Facebook and Instagram from one digital wallet linked to both social handles. One can use digital wallets to post digital collectibles minted in Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow, such as Rainbow, MetaMush, Coinbase wallet, Dapper wallet, and Trust wallet.

In a blog explaining NFTs, Meta said, ‘Creators today are using NFTs to take control of their work, their relationship with their communities, and how they can monetize.’ Furthermore, the company thinks NFTs will be an essential part of how people buy, use, and share virtual objects & experiences.

Meta seems determined to make the metaverse a thing by doubling down Facebook and Instagram to allow NFTs. The NFT post looks like normal posts but has the badge “digital collectible” at the left side corner and will feature a shimmer effect displaying public information like a description.

The experiments with NFTs have been in action since May, and Meta has done a significant job on NFTs by gradually stepping up till now. From the beginning of 2022, in March, Mark Zukerberg stated NFTs were coming soon to Instagram, in May, Instagram started testing NFTs, and in June, more people were included in testing, and Zukerberg said NFTs would soon come to Facebook too. Then in July, Meta launched NFT support on Instagram across 100 countries, and now in August, it announced a new update allowing users to post NFTs on both Facebook and Instagram.

Meta has extended their support by showcasing different digital collectibles and working on custom animations for NFT posts & digital collectible collections. In addition, earlier this year, Zukerberg mentioned that Meta plans to work on displaying NFTs on Instagram stories and make them Spark AR compatible.

Tesla demands to take down videos of its EVs running over child dummies

By

Sahil Pawar

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August 30, 2022

Tesla demands to take down videos of its EVs running over child dummies

Tesla Inc. has asked a safety advocacy group to take down videos of its electric vehicles (EVs) running over child dummies when its driver assistant system was engaged, calling them misleading and defamatory.

The Dawn Project group has launched a nationwide TV campaign warning of the alleged potential dangers of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, adding to regulatory and public scrutiny of the technology. A video posted by the group shows a Tesla vehicle with FSD software running over child-sized mannequins and asks Congress to shut it down.

Tesla said that the Dawn Project and its founder have been undermining Tesla’s commercial interests and spreading defamatory information. The Dawn Project disclosed the letter on Thursday. Tesla threatened legal action, saying the tests in the videos misrepresent the capabilities of Tesla’s technology and are likely fraudulent.

The US safety regulator has investigated Tesla’s Autopilot system following a series of crashes. The company said its FSD Beta, a test version of its new automated driving technology used by a limited number of consumers, does recognize pedestrians, including children. When appropriately utilized, the system reacts to prevent or mitigate a collision.

The Dawn Project was founded by Dan O’Dowd, a critic of Tesla’s FSD system and a software entrepreneur in California who had run for the US Senate. The Dawn Project said its tests are entirely legitimate and not deceptive and called Tesla’s marketing propaganda.

Startup develops AI that turns voices of call center employees into American accent

By

Sahil Pawar

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August 29, 2022

AI turns voices of call centre employees into American accent

Sanas, a Palo Alto-based startup, has introduced to the world an AI intending to make foreign call center employees sound accent-neutral and white.

Sanas is a startup that provides “accent translation” for call center employees, a task that is usually outsourced to cheaper foreign markets like the Philippines and India. Sanas, which three Stanford graduates founded, offers real-time accent translation services to make it easy for call center employees to be understood by people. It has already bagged over $30 million in venture capital funding.

The software removes the accent and replaces the voice with something robotic akin to a standard American English accent. Sanas believes this will enab call center employees to regain their voice’s power, according to its website.

However, customer racism is likely to increase if workers are further dehumanized when an app is placed between worker and customer, especially since the app will no doubt make errors, said employees.

Sanas’ president Sarim stressed that workers would have a choice about whether or not to use the AI’s accent translation. However, those familiar with the exploitation within the foreign call center industry believe that the workers won’t have much choice if the tech proves successful.

Indian crypto exchanges face heat from Enforcement Directorate

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Sahil Pawar

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August 29, 2022

Indian crypto exchanges faces heat from Enforcement Directorate

Coinswitch, one of the largest crypto exchanges in India, became the latest entrant to the list of beleaguered entities being probed by the agencies and tax officials like the Enforcement Directorate this week. There is no end to the troubles of cryptocurrency exchanges operating in India as they continue to face the scrutinyof central government agencies and tax investigators.

Ashish Singhal, CEO of Coinswitch, took to Twitter for the first time to allay the fears of investors and the crypto community after the searches at Coinswitch Kuber pertaining to its money laundering inestigation into the instant micro loan app scam this week.

Coinswitch has more than 18 million registered users and is valued at $1.9 billion. It is backed by Tiger Global, Andreessen Horowitz, and Coinbase Ventures. Coinswitch is the third exchange after Flipvolt and WazirX (the Indian arm of crypto exchange Vauld) to be probed by the central agency, which is investigating at least 10 cryptocurrency exchanges for laundering more than Rs 1,000 crore.

The money has been recognized as proceeds of crime of the firms accused under investigation in the instant loan app case and almost all of them have a link to China.

The probe has discovered instances of the accused firms approaching the exchanges to purchase crypto coins for more than Rs. 100 crore and crypto coins being transferred to international wallets. Further, these exchanges did not carry any enhanced due diligence and even failed to present suspicious transaction reports (STRs).

On further probe in the money laundering probe, the Enforcement Directorate allegedly recovered over Rs 800 crore proceeds of crime against 365 fintechs and their non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) partners.

Tesla EVs to use Starlink’s cellular broadcasting satellites for connections

By

Sahil Pawar

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August 29, 2022

Tesla EVs to use Starlink’s cellular broadcasting satellites for connections

Elon Musk has announced that Tesla’s electric vehicles (EVs) will use Starlink’s new cellular broadcasting satellites to connect with T-Mobile users in the United States.

Musk took to Twitter after T-Mobile and Starlink announced the partnership. He also clarified that this would work even with Tesla’s EVs with the AT&T LTE network. This will potentially be used for other operators as well.

Musk revealed that the connection would provide satellite to cellular coverage from Starlink that will provide a 2-4 Mbps link shared by everyone in the satellite coverage area.

This means the speeds would not be fast enough for streaming 4k content or enjoying some of the premium features of the Tesla EVs, like live streaming video from the car’s cameras. Experts say this implementation could work similarly to MVNO like Google Fi, which works via many other carriers.

Tesla always has come with connectivity packages, but its sales have grown, and Musk has scaled back the packages. Teslas purchased before June of 2018 had a premium connectivity package at no additional cost. But the latest cars bought after July 20, 2022, come only with the standard connectivity package along with navigation and in-car maps at best.

The reason could be that as AT&T has shut down its 3G network, and old cars that do not have an LTE modem could be required to do a $200 upgrade to stay connected. This would apply to cars that were sold before 2015.

BITS Pilani launches MTech in artificial intelligence and machine learning

By

Sahil Pawar

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August 29, 2022

BITS Pilani launches MTech in artificial intelligence and machine learning

BITS Pilani has announced the launch of a new master’s degree program, MTech in artificial intelligence and machine learning, designed to equip working professionals with theoretical and practical knowledge of cutting-edge ML and AI methods such as reinforcement learning and deep learning.

The Work Integrated Learning Programmes (WILP) department announced the launch of a four-semester program concluding with a doctorate that will provide participants with a wide variety of skills helpful in advancing their careers as AI and ML scientists.

Using tools and technologies such as OpenCV for computer vision, Tensorflow for Deep Learning, NLTK for natural language processing, and Python libraries, the course will examine the practical applications of AI in fields like computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), robotics, and cyber security.

Professor Anita Ramachandran is the head of BITS Pilani’s WILP’s computer science and information system group. She emphasized the importance of the course by saying that its electives and subjects are meant to aid in the comprehensive development of skills and knowledge. It is also meant to familiarise ML engineers with algorithms like supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning, along with application areas like natural language processing (NLP), computer vision (CV), robotics (robotics), and cyber security.

This course also includes weekend online lectures taught by BITS Pilani professors. The course application deadline is September 12, 2022. As noted by Professor Ramachandran, this curriculum will also aid engineers in comprehending the moral dilemmas inherent in using AI and ML. In 2020, the worldwide artificial intelligence industry was estimated to be worth USD 65.48 billion and that figure is expected to rise to USD 1581.7 billion by 2030.

Tesla splits its stock in 3:1 ratio to offer more value to retail investors

By

Sahil Pawar

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August 29, 2022

To offer more value to its retail investors and make it more affordable, Tesla has split its stock for the second time in the span of two years. The 3:1 stock split means each stockholder of record on August 17, 2022, will receive two more shares of common stock for each previously held share. This kicked in after closing the trade on August 24.

This stock split was approved by the Tesla board of directors and the shareholders during the company’s 2022 Annual Meeting on August 4. The Giga factory in Shanghai crossed a milestone recently as the millionth car rolled out from the factory on August 14 and took Tesla’s total number of cars to over 3 million.

In 2020, the company decided to split its stock on a 5:1 basis and breached the $1 trillion in market capitalization in 2021. However, the counter’s market capitalization currently stands north of $300 billion.

This stock split is not unique to Tesla. It follows a trend of high-value stocks splitting to diversify the investor base and offer more value to retail investors. Several other entities, like Google’s parent firm Alphabet and Amazon, recently went through a share split.

The share price dipped below the $300 level in early US trade on Thursday morning as the share split kicked in. For retail investors, the share split does not affect the stock’s fundamentals. Based on analysts’ offerings, the 12-month price target is around the $314 level.

Incidentally, Tesla shares debuted at $17 in 2010 and rose to more than $1,200 after the stock split in 2020. However, the stock has fallen over 16 percent in the last year as concerns about the US rate hike and geopolitical tension continue to worry investors.

Tesla launches new cloud-based feature ‘profiles’ for drivers to switch between company’s EVs

By

Sahil Pawar

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August 29, 2022

Tesla launches new cloud-based feature 'profiles'

US EV giant Tesla has launched a new cloud-based ‘Profiles’ feature, making it easier for drivers to switch between multiple versions of the company’s EVs frequently. The feature is being added to the Tesla vehicles with the latest over-the-air software update and will memorize vehicle settings. These will then be synchronized when the profile owner gets behind the wheel of another Tesla.

The technology is being introduced, bearing in mind the households that own multiple Tesla vehicles, businesses with multiple Tesla models on their fleets, and anyone renting one of the company’s EVs. For example, last year, rental company Hertz announced the purchase of 100,000 Teslas, starting with the Model 3, and later expanding the fleet to include the model Y SUV.

The Tesla profiles feature can synchronize various features such as mirrors, seat and steering wheel adjustments, autopilot, driving and climate control preferences, navigation, media, and data-sharing settings.

Other updates to Tesla vehicles along with the cloud-profile feature include the ability to choose the position of the blind-spot camera display, uninstall video games to free space on the EV’s hard drive, and disable Sentry Mode noises, among others, as reported by Electrek. The rear passenger climate controls can also be set to automatic.

On the other hand, Tesla drivers who have signed up for the company’s FSD (Full Self-Driving) Beta program are looking forward to getting access to their own software updates. The rollout for FSD beta 10.69 will involve many code changes, but Tesla has confirmed it will be available to everyone by the end of 2022. The carmaker is also increasing the price of the FSD package from $12,000 to $15,000 for any car purchased after September 5.