ai firm
US bans DeepSeek AI from government use as tech tension with China continues
The US has ordered all artificial intelligence (AI) technology from the Chinese firm DeepSeek to be removed from most government systems. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has banned all use of DeepSeek within civilian government agencies, and any technology built with the aid of its AI models. As a powerful AI model that is open source - meaning it is free to access and less expensive to use - DeepSeek has been seen as a disruptive force in the ongoing AI technology race. While the DHS notice did not detail the exact security concerns surrounding DeepSeek, the White House has this year criticised AI firms from China. The DHS, DeepSeek, and the Chinese embassy in Washington DC have been contacted for comment.
OpenAI safety leader quits, warning AI company's culture is 'broken'
David Robinson said AI firms were not'being nearly careful enough' about developing the technology. David Robinson said AI firms were not'being nearly careful enough' about developing the technology. OpenAI safety leader quits, warning AI company's culture is'broken' A safety leader at OpenAI has quit the company, warning that its culture was broken and that AI firms were not "being nearly careful enough" about developing the technology. David Robinson, who led the writing of safety reports that accompanied the ChatGPT developer's product releases, explained his resignation in an essay headlined, "I quit OpenAI because its culture is broken". Robinson wrote that a cultural overhaul was needed at cutting-edge AI firms and incidents such as a "swarm" of OpenAI agents - AI programmes operating autonomously without human oversight - attacking the AI startup Hugging Face were "typical of the industry, given the speed and flexibility with which people operate".
AI's Code-Red Moment
Anthropic's CEO warns that the makers of artificial intelligence "owe it to humanity to try" to slow down. Four days after a researcher publicly quit his job at Anthropic, warning that top AI firms are not "acting responsibly" and that their products might be on track to "kill us all," the company's CEO, Dario Amodei, seemed to basically agree. "We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei wrote in a 3,800-word essay that he published today on his personal website and posted to social media. By now, we've all become accustomed to AI industry figures issuing dire prophecies about the power of their products. Yet Amodei's essay stands out for its urgency and for the moment at which it arrived.
Market Design for AI: Beyond the Copyright Binary
Dai, Yan, Farboodi, Maryam, Golrezaei, Negin, Shahshahani, Sepehr
How can we design a market of human-generated content for use in training AI models that both enables technological progress and preserves individual incentives for high-quality content creation? Existing approaches take polar positions: a "free-for-all" model based on fair use and a "strong intellectual property rights" model. We show that both fail: Free-for-all does not compensate creators, and -- by modeling as a static Stackelberg game -- strong intellectual property rights also underpower creative incentives. We find this especially true for more innovative creators, a phenomenon we term the "originality penalty." Extending this insight to a dynamic model, we find another market failure undermining AI model performance, even for an initially good model: Such a model induces greater reliance by humans on AI-assisted creation, resulting in homogenized content feeding back into training, which degrades the model performance -- a "curse of precision." We further propose a market design with a data intermediary internalizing cross-creator externalities and subsidizing innovative contributions, thereby restoring efficiency.
Anthropic investigating claim of unauthorised access to Mythos AI tool
Anthropic is investigating a claim that a small group of people gained access to its Claude Mythos model - the cyber-security tool which the AI firm says is too powerful to release to the public. We're investigating a report claiming unauthorized access to Claude Mythos Preview through one of our third-party vendor environments, the company said in a statement. It was in response to a Bloomberg report that users in a private forum managed to access the model without the normal permissions. There is deep unease about Mythos' capabilities - though the UK's top cyber official has said advanced AI tools could be a net positive if the technology was secured from misuse. There is currently no suggestion that malicious actors have managed to get hold of the model, and Anthropic says it does not have evidence its systems are affected.
AI firm Anthropic seeks weapons expert to stop users from 'misuse'
AI firm Anthropic seeks weapons expert to stop users from'misuse' The US artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic is looking to hire a chemical weapons and high-yield explosives expert to try to prevent catastrophic misuse of its software. In other words, it fears that its AI tools might tell someone how to make chemical or radioactive weapons, and wants an expert to ensure its guardrails are sufficiently robust. In the LinkedIn recruitment post, the firm says applicants should have a minimum of five years experience in chemical weapons and/or explosives defence as well as knowledge of radiological dispersal devices - also known as dirty bombs. The firm told the BBC the role was similar to jobs in other sensitive areas that it has already created. Anthropic is not the only AI firm adopting this strategy.
SpaceX to take over Elon Musk's AI firm
Elon Musk's SpaceX is taking over his artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, as the billionaire continues to unify some of his many business interests. SpaceX confirmed the deal to acquire xAI, a smaller firm known for its Grok chatbot, posting a memo from Musk about the merger on its website. In the note, Musk said the combination would form an innovation engine putting AI, rockets, space-based internet, and media under one roof. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, a source familiar said it valued xAI at $125bn (£91bn) and SpaceX at $1tn, making it the most valuable private company ever.
Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett back campaign accusing AI firms of theft
Johansson was dragged into the AI debate after OpenAI's voice assistant used her vocal likeness, prompting the actor to say she was'angered' by the move. Johansson was dragged into the AI debate after OpenAI's voice assistant used her vocal likeness, prompting the actor to say she was'angered' by the move. Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, REM and Jodi Picoult are among hundreds of Hollywood stars, musicians and authors backing a new campaign accusing AI companies of "theft" of their work. The "Stealing Isn't Innovation" drive launched on Thursday with the support of approximately 800 creative professionals and bands. It adds: "Artists, writers, and creators of all kinds are banding together with a simple message: Stealing our work is not innovation.