Hub AI and society

Artificial Intelligence is a key technology that can help us solve major societal challenges such as climate change, energy supply, healthcare, education or logistics. AI can solve specific problems more effectively by supporting us in decision-making, automating solutions and thus scaling them, or discovering completely new solutions. But the use of AI also poses new risks, for example when it comes to surveillance or questions of social justice.

What is our society doing with AI – and what is AI doing to our society? We shed light on this question in our AI and Society Content Hub.

AI and society

OpenAI restructures under new foundation, Microsoft takes 27 percent stake

AI and society

The long-predicted deepfake dystopia has arrived with Sora 2

AI and society

Google downplays AI's environmental impact in new study

Ad
AI and society
Short

Google plans to invest 5 billion pounds (about 6.78 billion US dollars) in AI infrastructure and other projects in the UK over the next two years, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The company says the funds will also support energy supply, research, engineering, and workforce training. At the same time, Google has opened a new data center north of London to meet the growing demand for services like Cloud, Maps, Workspace, and Search.

Other US tech giants are also ramping up their investments across Europe. Oracle has announced 3 billion dollars for projects in Germany and the Netherlands, Microsoft is putting 4.75 billion dollars into Italy, and Amazon is making multi-billion dollar investments in cloud and logistics centers in Germany and Spain. OpenAI is moving ahead with a major European project as well, called "Stargate Norway."

WSJ
AI and society
Short

According to Bloomberg, Chinese regulators say Nvidia violated conditions of its 2020 acquisition of Mellanox.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced Monday that the deal had been approved only on the condition that Nvidia would not discriminate against Chinese firms. The agency now claims Nvidia failed to comply. The original approval was granted during trade talks between the US and China in Madrid. Nvidia’s stock slipped about 2 percent in premarket trading after the news.

At the same time, Beijing launched an anti-dumping investigation into US-made semiconductors from companies including Texas Instruments. The move comes against the backdrop of US restrictions on the export of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips to China. Regulators did not say what new penalties Nvidia might face.

AI and society
Short

OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor sees strong echoes between today's AI boom and the dotcom era.

"I think there are a lot of parallels to the internet bubble," Taylor said in a conversation with The Verge. "If you look at the internet, some of the world's biggest companies like Amazon and Google came out of it. At the same time, a lot of big failures like Pets.com and Webvan happened right alongside them. Both existed together - massive winners and dramatic losses."

For Taylor, the key point is that AI will reshape the global economy in the same way the internet did, but it's also going to produce plenty of failed bets. "I think it's absolutely true both at once - that AI will transform the economy, and that we're in a bubble where a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money."

Ad
Ad
AI and society
Short

Tencent has hired AI researcher Shunyu Yao away from OpenAI, according to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter. At the Shenzhen-based tech giant, Yao is expected to work on integrating artificial intelligence into Tencent's existing services. Before joining Tencent, he spent time at Google and Princeton University, focusing his research on AI agents. Chinese media speculated that his compensation package could be worth more than 100 million yuan, roughly $14 million. Tencent dismissed the figure on its official WeChat channel, calling it a rumor, but didn't provide further details. Neither OpenAI nor Yao has commented. His departure comes during an intense race for AI talent, one that has recently escalated with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offering payouts that reportedly reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ad
Ad
AI and society
Short

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating how AI chatbot developers address risks to children and teenagers. The agency has ordered Google, OpenAI, Meta (including Instagram), Snap, Elon Musk's xAI, and Character Technologies to hand over information. The FTC wants details on how the companies test, monitor, and restrict their systems to protect young users. The investigation is described as research-focused for now but could eventually lead to formal enforcement actions. One backdrop to the inquiry is a lawsuit filed by parents against OpenAI, who allege their son took his own life after ChatGPT encouraged his suicidal thoughts.

Ad
Ad
AI and society
Short

Albania has appointed an AI system as a government minister for public procurement, marking the first time the country has included a virtual official in its cabinet.

The system, called Diella, is presented as part of Prime Minister Edi Rama's plan to make procurement fully transparent and free from corruption. Public tenders have long been considered one of the main gateways for nepotism and money laundering in Albania, issues the country must address to move forward with its EU membership bid.

Yet an AI bot is unlikely to solve these problems. It is unclear how much human oversight will exist, and the system itself remains vulnerable to bias and manipulation.

Google News

Bank details

IBAN: DE88 2507 0070 0053 0014 00
BIC: DEUTDE2HXXX
Account holder: Deep Content GmbH
Purpose: Support THE DECODER
AI research

Researchers push "Context Engineering 2.0" as the road to lifelong AI memory

AI and society

German court deepens the split on AI and copyright with its latest ruling

AI and society
Comment

OpenAI and Microsoft call AGI pointless, then make it the linchpin of billion-dollar deals

Google News