Congress wants Tech companies to pay up for AI training data

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1. Congress wants Tech companies to pay up for AI training data

At a Senate hearing on AI's impact on journalism, lawmakers agreed that AI companies should pay media outlets for using their work in AI projects. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, chaired the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, and Josh Hawley, a Republican, agreed. Media industry leaders at the hearing described how AI companies were imperiling their industry by using their work without compensation.

Journalists like Curtis LeGeyt, Danielle Coffey, and Roger Lynch argued that AI companies were infringing on copyright under current law. However, some independent AI experts argue that mandatory licensing would be impractical, favor big firms like OpenAI and Microsoft, and create enormous costs for startup AI firms.

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2. Unified-IO 2 shows what GPT-5 could look like

The Allen Institute for AI has introduced Unified-IO 2, a 7-billion-parameter AI model capable of processing and producing text, image, audio, video, and action sequences. The model was trained on a wide range of multimodal data and can be guided by prompts. It can answer questions, compose text, analyze text content, recognize image content, provide descriptions, perform image processing tasks, and create new images based on text descriptions.

Unified-IO 2 performs well on over 35 benchmarks and sets a new high on the GRIT benchmark for image tasks. The team plans to further scale Unified-IO 2 and improve data quality to optimize its performance in different application domains.

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3. George Carlin's daughter horrified by AI-generated "Comedy Special" of her dead dad

An AI comedy duo, Dudesy, has allegedly used George Carlin's voice without his family or estate's consent. The "comedy special," titled "George Carlin: I'm Glad I'm Dead," was posted on YouTube and other platforms by Dudesy. Carlin's adult daughter Kelly claims they were not contacted by the company that generated the AI product and believes they should take his name off the product.

Dudesy included a disclaimer at the start of the video that the content was an "impersonation" of the comedian. Carlin and her father's estate are researching their own legal avenues to protect their father's source material from being used by AI machines to create content in the future.

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4. Walmart to promote AI-powered shopping

Walmart has announced a partnership with Microsoft to create AI-powered shopping experiences. The company will use LLMs from Microsoft's Azure OpenAI service to study shopper behavior and suggest future purchases. The AI will be available on iOS and Android mobile devices and through the company's website. The new search features will provide more options for interacting with the retailer's digital inventory, offering recommendations for specific events.

The company will also expand tools for store associates to streamline job-related tasks and workflows. Walmart will also introduce 'Walmart InHome Replenishment', which uses artificial intelligence to predict when items in a shopper's cart need to be replenished. The retailer will also integrate augmented reality into its shopping experience, with 'Shop with Friends' and drone delivery testing programs expanding to Texas.

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5. AI for agriculture: How Indian farmers are harvesting innovation

India's smallholding farmers face numerous challenges, including climate change, pest infestations, declining yields, financial constraints, post-harvest issues, and market fluctuations. The World Economic Forum's Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture Innovation (AI4AI) initiative aims to support India's agricultural transformation by utilizing AI and related technologies.

One successful implementation is the 'Saagu Baagu' pilot, which improved the chili value chain for over 7,000 farmers in Khammam district. The state government has played a key role in this transformation by creating infrastructure and policies, including India's first agriculture data exchange and agri data management framework. The project now aims to impact 500,000 farmers across ten districts, potentially transforming the agricultural landscape of the region.

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