📚️ Show me the data

🧵 In today's edition:

• 📚️ Show me the data

• ☁️ India’s AI weather predictor

• 🍎 Apple begins its data hunt

• 🤑 AI Fundraising News

• 🗞️ AI Quick-Bytes

• 🐦 Tweet Post of the Day

📚️ Show me the data

This year, lawmakers reached some pretty important AI policy milestones: 

• President Biden’s Executive Order on AI

• The U.K. AI Safety Summit

• The E.U. AI Act

Now, Reps. Anna Eshoo and Don Beyer have introduced the AI Foundation Model Transparency Act, a bill that “calls for the transparency of sources behind foundation models,” aiming to clarify if AI models used copyright data for training.

The bill mandates AI companies to disclose how training data is sourced and retained during inference, as well as how it aligns with currently established safety frameworks.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will collaboratively establish reporting rules, covering details like: 

• Computational power used,

• Risk assessments, and

• Alignment with NIST's AI Risk Management Framework.

Overall: This bill aligns with the Biden administration's AI executive order, pushing for standardized reporting in the AI landscape.

If passed, the AI Foundation Model Transparency Act will change transparency “requirements” into a federal “rule,” allowing for more responsible AI.

Read more: The Verge

☁️ India’s AI weather predictor

With global warming and worsening weather conditions, India urgently needs advanced forecasting to help it fight against the increasing frequency of floods and droughts. 

A potential solution? AI, of course 🙄 

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is looking at ways to develop AI-based climate models and advisories, offering a cost-efficient alternative to supercomputers traditionally used for predictions.

The IMD also plans to augment its weather observatories, extending data collection to the village level. This move could significantly improve the granularity and precision of forecasts, catering to localized weather patterns.

Overall: While this effort could yield great results, experts emphasize the importance of high-resolution data for precise forecasts. 

Simply put, better data + observation networks = more reliable predictions. 

Read more: Yahoo Tech

🍎 Apple begins its data hunt

In our Friday newsletter, we shared an intriguing AI prediction for 2024: Apple will look to make its mark in the AI space. 

True to forecast, the tech giant seems to be diving in early, engaging in negotiations with major publishers and news organizations. 

Their objective? Securing permission to utilize content for the training of their upcoming AI system.

The deal? Apple is reportedly offering multi-year agreements valued at a minimum of $50 million for access to news archives. 

However, publishers have some concerns: 

• They are concerned about legal complications from a broad licensing deal for their archives.

• They are also concerned about losing their competitive edge to Apple.

Overall: Apple is approaching the development the “right way” - by seeking explicit permission and demonstrating a commitment to compensating publishers.

This scenario raises interesting questions about how Apple will navigate the uncertain trail of legally using copyrighted material while creating a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved.

2024 should be an interesting year for copyright law…

Read more: Engadget

🤑 AI Fundraising News

• Arkon Energy raises $110M in funding to acquire an additional 200-megawatt capacity across new data centers in Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas to serve both bitcoin miners and AI/machine learning clients with high-power computing needs.

• Rabbit raises $10M in funding to build a low-cost mobile device with an AI-powered operating system. The r1 device will be launched at the CES consumer electronics event and comes with its own custom operating system, Rabbit OS, based on an internally developed generative AI model called LAM.

🗞️ AI Quick-Bytes

What else is going on?

• World's first restaurant completely run by robots and AI is officially ready for launch.

• Artists use tech weapons against AI copycats.

• AI to help churches and castles fight the wave of graffiti and vandalism.

• Hair you go: Hong Kong start-up HairCoSys uses AI to bring personalized care to the masses.

• OpenAI is in talks to raise new funding at a valuation of $100 Billion or more.

• Humane AI Pin orders will start shipping in March.

• Google Cloud exec: Enterprise AI is game-changing, but companies need to prepare their data.
  

🐦 Tweet Post of the Day

A sort of long but really interesting read! 📚️