How Big Tech is quietly acquiring AI startups without actually buying the companies

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1. How Big Tech is quietly acquiring AI startups without actually buying the companies

Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others have been getting creative in how they’re poaching talent from top AI startups. Google inked a deal recently with Character.ai to hire away its prominent founder, Noam Shazeer, along with more than one-fifth of its workforce while also licensing its technology.

In March, Microsoft signed a deal with Inflection to use the startup’s models and to hire most of its staff. Amazon followed in June with a faux acquisition of Adept.

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2. ‘Emotion AI’ may be the next trend for business software, and that could be problematic

Emotion AI, a technology that uses machine learning and psychology to detect human emotion, is on the rise in businesses as they deploy AI assistants and chatbots. This tech is more sophisticated than sentiment analysis, which distills human emotion from text-based interactions.

Major AI cloud providers offer services like Microsoft Azure's Emotion API and Amazon Web Services' Rekognition service. However, emotion AI is not without challenges, such as the belief that facial movements cannot determine human emotion, and potential AI regulation such as the European Union's AI Act.

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3. OpenAI launches NEO

OpenAI and robotics company 1X are partnering to develop the android NEO, a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. The NEO will surpass its predecessor, EVE, in mobility and capability, addressing the need for a human-like body in AGI.

The android's neural network, capable of rapid learning from visual data and generating complex actions in real-time, will enable it to acquire new skills through observation of human actions. This could revolutionize industries and redefine the human-machine interface, allowing intelligent agents and non-human workers to play a pivotal role in shaping society.

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4. AI-fakes detection is failing voters in the global South

Detecting AI-generated content is challenging in many parts of the world due to biases in system training. The use of generative AI, including for political purposes, has become increasingly common, but detecting AI-generated content outside the US and parts of Europe is difficult due to biases in the training of systems.

Most tools currently on the market can only offer between an 85 and 90 percent confidence rate when determining whether something was made with AI. Without vast amounts of data, models will often return false positives or false negatives, identifying AI-generated content as real.

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5. Students in UK’s first ‘teacherless’ classroom taught by AI

David Game College in London is introducing the UK's first 'teacherless' GCSE class, using AI platforms and VR headsets to teach 20 students. The platforms learn students' strengths and areas for improvement, creating personalized lesson plans. Three learning coaches monitor students' behavior and offer support, while AI struggles with subjects like art.

However, Chris McGovern, from the Campaign for Real Education, warns that AI dehumanizes learning and takes away interpersonal skills. The UK government has created a bank of anonymised lesson plans and curriculums for AI models.

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