For more than two years, every new AI announcement has lived in the shadow of ChatGPT. No model from any company has eclipsed or matched that initial fever. But perhaps the closest any firm has come to replicating the buzz was this past February, when OpenAI first teased its video-generating AI model, Sora. Tantalizing clips--woolly mammoths kicking up clouds of snow, Pixar-esque animations of adorable fluffy critters--promised a stunning future, one in which anyone can whip up high-quality clips by typing simple text prompts into a computer program. But Sora, which was not immediately available to the public, remained just that: a teaser.

While AI could change the world in many unforeseen ways, it's already having one massive impact: a voracious consumption of energy. Generative AI does not simply float upon ephemeral intuition. Rather, it gathers strength via thousands of computers in data centers across the world, which operate constantly on full blast. In January, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast that global data center electricity demand will more than double from 2022 to 2026, with AI playing a major role in that increase. AI industry insiders say the world has plenty of energy capacity to absorb this increased demand, and that technological efficiency improvements could offset these increases.

As wildfire activity reaches record levels, the tech integration company SAIC is developing artificial intelligence technology that can help predict when they'll happen, how to stop them, and how to keep folks safe. A long list of new products and developments made 2023 possibly the biggest year yet for artificial intelligence, with major tech companies breaking into action and everyday consumers becoming increasingly aware of the rapidly developing technology. "2023 was a banner year for AI in that we saw both investment and public interest explode," Samuel Mangold-Lenett, a staff editor at The Federalist, told Fox News Digital. "We also saw how AI can revolutionize every aspect of every major industry. From defense to finance to dating apps, AI proved it's here to stay."

In late 2018, thousands of workers walked out of Google offices around the globe to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment accusations against prominent executives. The same year, hundreds of Salesforce employees signed a letter to CEO Marc Benioff protesting the fact the company sold products to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Also in the headlines was an effort by some Microsoft employees to protest the company's bid for work on the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project. In a letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the employees wrote, "many Microsoft employees don't believe that what we build should be used for waging war." Tech employee activism is nothing new, but the momentum generated by the 2018 wave of protests was.

The world of AI has been shaken by Google's dismissal of AI Ethicist Dr Timnit Gebru last week. This behaviour is emblematic of the self-centred attitudes of major tech companies which also results in lack of commitment to democratisation of technology. With Facebook, Amazon and Apple also in the spotlight for allegedly creating a monopoly, the time has come for SMEs to re-revaluate their AI providers. The tech industry has experienced a meteoric rise this millennium, growing into one of the world's largest industries, with investment increasing by £3.1 billion in 2019 alone. Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have a combined worth of $4 trillion, giving them unprecedented power over the marketplaces they facilitate.

Last October, a couple of days before joining Stanford University as the international policy director at the Cyber Policy Center, Marietje Schaake, a former member of the European Parliament, spoke alongside Eric Schmidt, the ex-C.E.O. of Google, to a large audience of tech employees and academics. It was the keynote event at a conference hosted by the newly launched Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (H.A.I.), at which Schaake would also have a co-appointment. Beneath the scalloped panels of a blond wood ceiling, people sipped coffee and typed on laptops in the plush chairs of a new auditorium at the heart of campus. Schmidt spoke first, striking expected notes. He said that artificial intelligence would power "extraordinary gains" in the next five years and stressed just how central Google--which had helped fund H.A.I.--would be to those advances. He acknowledged that China's use of A.I. for surveillance, especially in the Xinjiang region, was concerning.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow joins Sean Hannity on'Hannity.' I'm starting to get really scared ... and not of the coronavirus. I'm scared about the loss of liberty people around the world are experiencing as normal life grinds to a halt and we hunker down and keep our distance from each other to stop the spread of this microscopic terror. Three weeks ago you would think I was crazy if I told you that U.S. borders would be closed; many stores, restaurants, bars, and factories would be shut down; office workers would be teleworking from home; millions of children would be out of school; and many of us would be told to stay in our homes as much as possible and only leave when absolutely necessary. If an imaginative scriptwriter pitched a movie with this plot just a few weeks ago he might have been told by a movie studio that the idea was too wild and unbelievable even for a fantasy film.

Amazon says that U.S. government requests for customer data have seen a substantial spike so far this year. As reported by TechCrunch, the most recent figures released from the company -- which date between January and June 2019 -- show a 14 percent increase in subpoenas and a nearly 35 percent increase in the number of search warrants. Information handed over by the company comes from several sources according to TechCrunch, including Amazon's Echo voice assistant, Alexa, its e-reader, the Kindle, and even its home security devices sold by Ring. The company also experienced an uptick in interest for its cloud services, Amazon Web Services, which separately reported a 77 percent uptick in the number of subpoena requests over the last six-month period. According to data released in the company's latest report, Amazon's response varied depending on the type of requests.

Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world's largest technology companies, intensifying scrutiny of the social media giant's business practices as it seeks to rebound from a year of scandal and setbacks. A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices, according to two people who were familiar with the requests and who insisted on anonymity to discuss confidential legal matters. Both companies had entered into partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of its users. We'll tell you what's true. You can form your own view.

Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff at Salesforce Dreamfest 17. Employees at Salesforce sent a letter to Benioff asking him to reconsider the company's contract with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. SAN FRANCISCO – Employees at Salesforce signed a letter to their CEO Marc Benioff asking him to reconsider the company's contracts with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the latest in a string of staff protests at major tech companies over government contracts. More than 650 employees signed the letter, according to Bloomberg and Buzzfeed, which obtained a copy. The letter says Salesforce employees are aware that certain company products and tools are being used by CBP, and they are particularly concerned about Salesforce's Service Cloud being used in border activities. "Given the inhumane separation of children from their parents currently taking place at the border, we believe that our core value of Equality is at stake and that Salesforce should re-examine our contractual relationship with CBP and speak out against its practices," the letter said.