Author: GT

YouTube on Wednesday announced an expansion of its pilot program designed to identify and manage AI-generated content that features the “likeness,” including the face, of creators, artists, and other famous or influential figures. The company is also publicly declaring its support for the legislation known as the NO FAKES ACT, which aims to tackle the problem of AI-generated replicas that simulate someone’s image or voice to mislead others and create harmful content. The company says it collaborated on the bill with its sponsors, Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and other industry players, including the Recording Industry Association…

Bitcoin is increasingly being used in international trade, particularly by countries looking to avoid U.S.-controlled financial systems. Russia and China have reportedly used Bitcoin to settle energy transactions. Bolivia has announced plans to pay for imported electricity using cryptocurrency, and France’s EDF is considering Bitcoin mining with surplus power usually sent to Germany. These moves reflect a growing interest in using digital assets for cross-border trade as economic tensions continue to rise. On April 2, the Trump administration announced tariffs of up to 104% on Chinese imports. In response, China imposed retaliatory tariffs of up to 84% on U.S. goods,…

The promise of AI is that it’ll make all of our lives easier. And with great convenience comes the potential for serious profit. The United Nations thinks AI could be a $4.8 trillion global market by 2033 – about as big as the German economy. But forget about 2033: in the here and now, AI is already fueling transformation in industries as diverse as financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, marketing, agriculture, and e-commerce. Whether it’s autonomous algorithmic ‘agents’ managing your investment portfolio or AI diagnostics systems detecting diseases early, AI is fundamentally changing how we live and work. But cynicism is…

A study went viral several months ago for implying that, as AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, it develops “value systems” — systems that lead it to, for example, prioritize its own well-being over humans. A more recent paper out of MIT pours cold water on that hyperbolic notion, drawing the conclusion that AI doesn’t, in fact, hold any coherent values to speak of. The co-authors of the MIT study say their work suggests that “aligning” AI systems — that is, ensuring models behave in desirable, dependable ways — could be more challenging than is often assumed. AI as we know it…

Ethereum has underperformed Bitcoin on 85% of all trading days since it launched in 2015. The ETH/BTC ratio, which tracks the value of Ether relative to Bitcoin, dropped to a five-year low of 0.018 on April 9. The last time the ratio fell this low was in December 2019, when ETH was priced at $125 and BTC traded around $7,000. Ethereum is now trading at around $1,670, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin also declined but only by 6%, holding at $75,000—still over 275% higher than its 2017 bull market peak—before surging to over $83,000 near the end of the day. In…

Last week, prediction market startup Kalshi sued New Jersey and Nevada after they tried to shut down its recently launched sports trading operation. In the lawsuit, Kalshi claimed that, since they’re a federally regulated platform, state gaming commissions don’t have the authority to set rules for them. “We’re not necessarily very concerned [because] we are regulated at the federal level,” said Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour last week at a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco. “The state law doesn’t really apply.” If Kalshi wins these lawsuits, the startup could secure its place in the lucrative market of sports betting. However, the…

On Tuesday, investors withdrew $326 million from U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), marking the largest single-day outflow since March 11. This latest pullback comes as traders react to escalating tensions between the U.S. and its trade partners over President Trump’s new tariffs. The implementation of the tariffs, such as the 104% duty on Chinese imports, created uncertainty in global markets, pushing investors to de-risk their portfolios. BlackRock’s IBIT was hit hardest, losing $253 million in its third-worst day since launch. The outflows continued a negative streak for Bitcoin ETFs, which have now seen withdrawals for four consecutive days. These…

United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the first two demonstration satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet constellation stands ready for launch on pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on October 5, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States.Paul Hennessey | Anadolu Agency | Getty ImagesAmazon delayed the launch of its Kuiper internet satellites due to poor weather conditions on Wednesday night.A United Launch Alliance rocket carrying 27 Kuiper satellites was set to lift off from a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, but ULA said it couldn’t continue countdown operations as “stubborn cumulus clouds” and heavy winds…

Anthropic announced on Wednesday that it’s launching a new, very expensive subscription plan for its AI chatbot Claude: Max. An answer to OpenAI’s $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro tier, Max comes with higher usage limits than Anthropic’s $20-per-month Claude Pro subscription, as well as priority access to the company’s newest AI models and features. A bit confusingly, Max comes in two flavors with different price points and usage limits. There’s a $100-per-month Max tier with 5x higher rate limits than Claude Pro and a $200-per-month Max option with 20x higher rate limits. Frontier AI model developers are looking for new ways to…

OpenAI thinks AI benchmarks are broken. Now the company is launching a program to fix how AI models are scored. The new OpenAI Pioneers Program will focus on creating evaluations for AI models that “set the bar for what good looks like,” as OpenAI phrased it in a blog post. “As the pace of AI adoption accelerates across industries, there is a need to understand and improve its impact in the world,” the company continued in its post. “Creating domain-specific evals are one way to better reflect real-world use cases, helping teams assess model performance in practical, high-stakes environments.” As…