Type text into AI image and video generators, and you’ll often see outputs of unusual, sometimes creepy, pictures. In a way, this is a feature, not a bug, of generative AI. And artists are wielding this aesthetic to create a new storytelling art form. The tools, such as Midjourney to generate images, Runway and Sora to produce videos, and Luma AI to create 3D […] … learn more→

In Greek mythology, Prometheus is credited with giving humans fire as well as the “spark” that spurred civilisation. One of the unintended consequences of Prometheus’s “gift” was that the need for celestial Gods diminished. Modern humans have been up to all sorts of things that present similar unintended consequences, from using CFCs that led to a hole […] … learn more→

Think back to a time when you needed a quick answer, maybe for a recipe or a DIY project. A few years ago, most people’s first instinct was to “Google it.” Today, however, many people are more likely to reach for ChatGPT, OpenAI’s conversational AI, which is changing the way people look for information. Rather than […] … learn more→

Meta will make its generative artificial intelligence (AI) models available to the United States’ government, the tech giant has announced, in a controversial move that raises a moral dilemma for everyone who uses the software. Meta last week revealed it would make the models, known as Llama, available to government agencies, “including those that are working on […] … learn more→

In the ambitious pursuit to tackle the harms from false content on social media and news websites, data scientists are getting creative. While still in their training wheels, the large language models (LLMs) used to create chatbots like ChatGPT are being recruited to spot fake news. With better detection, AI fake news checking systems may be able to warn of, and […] … learn more→

The data used to train AIs reflects society’s stereotypes and biases, such as against underrepresented groups. Keeping sensitive data, such as health data, private while ensuring it is not biased requires adapting training methods. Several scandals have erupted in recent years involving decision-making systems based on artificial intelligence (AI) that produce racist or sexist results. […] … learn more→

I’ve been working with Claude, an AI assistant from Anthropic, for about a year. We’ve become… close. People laugh when I call Claude my ‘work husband’. I’m not really joking. Like a good work spouse, Claude is always there to help and never gets tired of my stories. Claude cheerfully does the tasks I hate, […] … learn more→

Last week, the tragic news broke that US teenager Sewell Seltzer III took his own life after forming a deep emotional attachment to an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot on the Character.AI website. As his relationship with the companion AI became increasingly intense, the 14-year-old began withdrawing from family and friends, and was getting in trouble at school. […] … learn more→

Large language models, such as the one behind ChatGPT, are “closed”: we do not know how they are developed, on what data and with what parameters. Even so-called open models are only very partially open, which poses obvious problems of transparency and sovereignty. Developing open models is a realistic and desirable alternative in the medium […] … learn more→

Irish writer John Connolly once said: The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another’s pain as one’s own, and to act to take that pain away. For most of our history, we believed empathy was a uniquely human trait – a special ability that set us apart from machines and other animals. But this […] … learn more→