The adaptive synchronization techniques in federated learning (FL) for scaled global model updates show superior performance over the vanilla federated averaging (FedAvg) scheme. However, existing methods employ additional tunable hyperparameters on the server to determine the scaling factor. A contrasting approach is automated scaling analogous to tuning-free step-size schemes in stochastic gradient descent (SGD) methods, which offer competitive convergence rates and exhibit good empirical performance. In this work, we introduce two algorithms for automated scaling of global model updates. In our first algorithm, we establish that a descent-ensuring step-size regime at the clients ensures descent for the server objective. We show that such a scheme enables linear convergence for strongly convex federated objectives. Our second algorithm shows that the average of objective values of sampled clients is a practical and effective substitute for the objective function value at the server required for computing the scaling factor, whose computation is otherwise not permitted. Our extensive empirical results show that the proposed methods perform at par or better than the popular federated learning algorithms for both convex and non-convex problems. Our work takes a step towards designing hyper-parameter-free federated learning.

The Supreme Court's conservative justices want to reduce government regulation of private industry. Of that they are certain. Unless the private industry is artificial intelligence or social media. On that, they need some time to think. This summer, the Supreme Court issued two decisions that will impact the future of A.I. regulation.

Ministers from the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberal FDP held a joint press conference on Thursday to outline what they said were far-reaching measures. Knives are to be banned at most public events including markets and sport as well as on public transport, and there will be a blanket ban on flick knives. Foreigners ordered to leave the country will have to be deported more quickly and efficiently, they say. Anyone facing a jail term for knife crime would face fast deportation. A task force for the prevention of Islamism is being proposed and biometric facial recognition will be used to help identify suspects.

OpenAI and Anthropic have agreed to share AI models -- before and after release -- with the US AI Safety Institute. The agency, established through an executive order by President Biden in 2023, will offer safety feedback to the companies to improve their models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hinted at the agreement earlier this month. "Safety is essential to fueling breakthrough technological innovation. With these agreements in place, we look forward to beginning our technical collaborations with Anthropic and OpenAI to advance the science of AI safety," Elizabeth Kelly, director of the US AI Safety Institute, wrote in a statement.

A California bill that would establish first-in-the-nation safety measures for the largest artificial intelligence systems cleared an important vote Wednesday. The proposal, aiming to reduce potential risks created by AI, would require companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated to, for example, wipe out the state's electric grid or help build chemical weapons – scenarios experts say could be possible in the future with such rapid advancements in the industry. The measure squeaked by in the state assembly Wednesday and now faces a final vote in the state senate, where it has passed once already, before it heads to the governor's desk for his signature, though he has not indicated his position on it. Governor Gavin Newsom then has until the end of September to decide whether to sign it into law, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature. He declined to weigh in on the measure earlier this summer but had warned against AI overregulation.

Cate Blanchett – beloved thespian, film star and refugee advocate – is standing at a lectern, addressing the European Union parliament. "The future is now," she says, authoritatively. So far, so normal, until: "But where the fuck are the sex robots?" The footage is from a 2023 address that Blanchett actually gave – but the rest has been made up. Her voice was generated by Australian artist Xanthe Dobbie using the text-to-speech platform PlayHT, for Dobbie's 2024 video work Future Sex/Love Sounds – an imagining of a sex robot-induced feminist utopia, voiced by celebrity clones.

The European Union's top diplomat has ramped up pressure on Ukraine's supporters to lift the restrictions on the use of Western weapons inside Russia. In advance of a meeting in Brussels of the bloc's foreign and defence ministers, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday that curbs on the use of weapons against Russian targets needed to be lifted in accordance with international law. "The weaponry that we are providing to Ukraine has to have full use, and the restrictions have to be lifted in order for the Ukrainians to be able to target the places where Russia is bombing them," Borrell told reporters. "Otherwise, the weaponry is useless." The Ukrainian Air Force announced on Thursday that it had destroyed 60 of 74 Russian attack drones and two out of five missiles during an overnight attack.

Google has officially been named a monopoly. On Aug. 5, a federal judge charged the tech giant with illegally using its market power to harm rival search engines, marking the first antitrust defeat for a major internet platform in more than 20 years--and thereby calling into question the business practices of Silicon Valley's most powerful companies. Many experts have speculated the landmark decision will make judges more receptive to antitrust action in other ongoing cases against the Big Tech platforms, especially with regards to the burgeoning AI industry. Today, the AI ecosystem is dominated by many of the same companies that the government is challenging in court, and those companies are using the same tactics to entrench their power in AI markets. Judge Amit Mehta's ruling in the Google case centered on the massive sums of money the company paid firms like Apple and Samsung to make its search engine the default on their smartphones and browsers.

If the next president favors our bosses' interests over our own, the consequences could be dire for all working people in this country and many others. We know how to fight back against a future Trump administration because we have been there before. What's less clear is whether and to what extent we can count on a Harris administration to be our ally. On stage at the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Harris vowed to center the concerns of working people over those of corporate America. If she stays committed to that path in the face of Silicon Valley's well-funded opposition, she will find dedicated allies in tech workers.

The National Police Agency said Thursday it will seek 5.96 billion ( 41.26 million) to strengthen cyberattack countermeasures in its budget request for the fiscal year starting April 2025. The funds will mainly be used to enhance investigation capabilities and improve measures to fight phishing using generative artificial intelligence technology. Of the total, 343 million will be requested partly to procure computers, as there will be about a dozen more staff at the NPA's national cyber department. For the fight against phishing, 26 million will be allocated to the introduction of a generative AI system to detect fake websites. The Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake also left many roads cut off, making it difficult for rescue workers to enter disaster-affected areas.