IBM is taking on the likes of Microsoft, AWS, and Google by introducing Watsonx, a new generative AI platform, which will help enterprises design and tune large language models (LLMs) for their operational and business requirements. Watsonx comes with a suite of tools for tuning LLMs, a data store built on lakehouse architecture, and an AI governance toolkit, the company said. Watson AI is IBM's artificial intelligence engine that the company had trained on different machine learning algorithms along with question analysis, natural language processing, feature engineering, and ontology analysis. Watsonx can be seen as the evolution of Watson AI. With the Watsonx platform, the company said it is trying to meet enterprises' requirements in five areas including interacting and conversing with customers and employees, automating business workflows and internal processes, automating IT processes, protecting against threats, and tackling sustainability goals.

The breathtaking development of artificial intelligence has dazzled users by composing music, creating images and writing essays, while also raising fears about its implications. Even European Union officials working on groundbreaking rules to govern the emerging technology were caught off guard by AI's rapid rise. The 27-nation bloc proposed the Western world's first AI rules two years ago, focusing on reining in risky but narrowly focused applications. General purpose AI systems like chatbots were barely mentioned. Lawmakers working on the AI Act considered whether to include them but weren't sure how, or even if it was necessary.

Large language models, or LLMs, are a type of neural network that learns to write and converse with users; they back all of the chatbots that have swooped onto the scene in recent months. They learn to "speak" by hovering up massive amounts of text, often websites scraped from the internet, and finding statistical relationships between words. When these systems pattern match, it can lead to feats of creativity: A chatbot can create song lyrics closely matching Jay-Z's style because it's absorbed the patterns of his entire discography. But LLMs don't have awareness of the meanings behind words.

Five hours is enough time to watch a Mets game. It is enough time to listen to the Spice Girls' "Spice" album (40 minutes), Paul Simon's "Paul Simon" album (42 minutes) and Gustav Mahler's third symphony (his longest). It is enough time to roast a chicken, text your friends that you've roasted a chicken and prepare for an impromptu dinner party. Or you could spend it checking your email. Five hours is about how long many workers spend on email each day.

Disposable plastics are everywhere: Food containers, coffee cups, plastic bags. Some of these plastics, called compostable plastics, can be engineered to biodegrade under controlled conditions. However, they often look identical to conventional plastics, get recycled incorrectly and, as a result, contaminate plastic waste streams and reduce recycling efficiency. Similarly, recyclable plastics are often mistaken for compostable ones, resulting in polluted compost. Researchers at University College London (UCL) have published a paper in Frontiers in Sustainability in which they used machine learning to automatically sort different types of compostable and biodegradable plastics and differentiate them from conventional plastics.

Despite the eye-catching claim that large AI language models like ChatGPT have achieved theory of mind, some experts find their abilities lackluster.

ChatGPT has stoked new hopes about the potential of artificial intelligence--but also new fears. Today the White House joined the chorus of concern, announcing it will support a mass hacking exercise at the Defcon security conference this summer to probe generative AI systems from companies including Google. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy also said that $140 million will be diverted towards launching seven new National AI Research Institutes focused on developing ethical, transformative AI for the public good, bringing the total number to 25 nationwide. The announcement came hours before a meeting on the opportunities and risks presented by AI between vice president Kamala Harris and executives from Google and Microsoft as well as the startups Anthropic and OpenAI, which created ChatGPT. The White House AI intervention comes as appetite for regulating the technology is growing around the world, fueled by the hype and investment sparked by ChatGPT.

Ever since the release of ChatGPT last year, new generative AI tools and services have captured people's attention. Now, Meta is warning that bad actors have taken notice of interest in AI chatbots. The Facebook parent said scammers are creating malware that poses at ChatGPT and similar tools. In a security report released Wednesday, Meta said it discovered 10 malware families posing as ChatGPT or related tools since March. Some of the malicious software, which can steal your personal information and compromise accounts, came in the form of browser extensions and links.