🗞 Elon Musk's xAI Sparks Frenzy as Investors Vie for Stake in $18B AI Venture

🔎 The Latest on the AI Frontier:

• Elon Musk's xAI Sparks Frenzy as Investors Vie for Stake in $18B AI Venture 🚀

• Tech Leaders Join Federal AI Safety Board to Protect Critical Infrastructure 🧯

• Meta's Stock Tumbles as Zuckerberg Reveals Increased AI Spending 📉

• Microsoft's AI Demand Outpaces Supply Despite Surge in Capital Expenditures 💸

• Sanctuary AI CEO: Transformer Models Revolutionizing Robotics and AGI 🤖

• German Artists Create AI Camera That Generates Deepfake Nude Photos 📷

• Baltimore Athletic Director Arrested for Using AI to Create Fake Racist Audio 🚨

💸 Elon Musk's AI venture, xAI, is closing on a $6 billion funding round at an $18 billion pre-money valuation, with investors clamoring to participate. Read More

• xAI plans to connect the digital and physical worlds by leveraging training data from Musk's companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company, and Neuralink, potentially benefiting projects like Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus.

• Musk's social media platform, X, already owns a stake in xAI and has incorporated its chatbot, Grok, as a paid add-on, providing the AI company with massive distribution.

• The funding round is expected to include participation from Sequoia Capital, Future Ventures, and potentially Valor Equity Partners and Gigafund, whose founders are part of Musk's inner circle.

🧯 Tech leaders join the new federal AI Safety and Security Board to advise the Department of Homeland Security on protecting critical infrastructure from AI threats. Read More

• The board, chaired by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, includes OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google parent Alphabet's chief Sundar Pichai, and Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, among others.

• The board will work with the DHS to form recommendations for preventing potential harm from using AI in critical infrastructure, such as the power grid and transportation, while also exploring opportunities to improve services through AI technology.

• Established by a Biden administration executive order in October, the board will hold its first meeting in May and is expected to meet quarterly, with AI developers required to disclose safety test results and other information to the federal government before making them public.

📈 Meta's stock falls 10% as CEO Mark Zuckerberg reveals increased AI spending, spooking investors. Read More

• Zuckerberg tried to calm Wall Street's nerves, noting that Meta has historically seen volatility in its stock during phases of investing in new products before monetizing them.

• Meta CFO Susan Li raised the company's full-year total expenses estimate to between $96 billion and $99 billion due to higher infrastructure and legal costs.

• Despite investor concerns, experts believe Meta's AI investments will likely pay off in the long run, with the company focusing on two divisions: one dedicated to consumer users and the other focusing on advertisers.

🌐 Microsoft's demand for AI services in the cloud is outpacing supply, despite a 79% surge in capital expenditures to $14 billion in the latest quarter. Read More

• Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood stated that the company has "demand that exceeds our supply by a bit" for consumption-based AI services in the cloud, which may have impacted AI results and will have an effect in the fiscal fourth quarter.

• Capital expenditures are set to increase "materially" in the current quarter, primarily for cloud infrastructure, and Hood called for higher capital expenditures in the new fiscal year starting July 1.

• Microsoft aims to scale its infrastructure to meet the growing demand for its cloud and AI products, with Azure revenue rising 31% in the fiscal third quarter, including a 7 percentage point contribution from AI.

🤖 Sanctuary AI CEO believes that transformer AI models are revolutionizing robotics, bringing the industry closer to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI). Read More

• The CEO suggests that by collecting vast amounts of experiential data from robots and applying sequence-to-sequence or transformer models, it may be possible to create intelligent, sentient-like beings capable of navigating and predicting the world.

• He emphasizes that AGI and embodiment in humanoid form are two sides of the same coin, as an intelligent machine needs to be in the world to truly understand it, and a humanoid without AGI would be of limited value.

• The CEO predicts that intelligent humanoid robots will first appear in manufacturing, logistics, and e-commerce distribution centers, and as the technology improves, they will eventually outnumber humans on the planet and be used for space exploration.

📷 German artists create AI camera called NUCA that generates deepfake photos by digitally removing subjects' clothing, sparking debates about AI's impact on privacy. Read More

• NUCA uses 3D design, print software, and a smartphone to capture images, which are then passed to the cloud for AI processing that removes the subject's clothing within about 10 seconds.

• The AI analyzes the subject's gender, face, age, and body shape to develop a replication of what it believes their naked body would look like, without asking for permission.

• While the artists have no plans to commercialize NUCA and intend to showcase its capabilities at an art exhibition to spark public debate, the technology raises concerns about the potential misuse of AI for blackmail or other unethical purposes.

🚨 Baltimore high school athletic director arrested for allegedly using AI to create fake racist audio of principal, causing temporary job loss and safety concerns. Read More

• Dazhon Darien, 31, allegedly retaliated against Principal Eric Eisworth, who had launched an investigation into the potential mishandling of school funds by Darien.

• The three-month probe, involving local police and the FBI, concluded that the audio was forged using AI tools, leading to Eisworth's temporary removal and triggering a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school.

• Darien was arrested at Thurgood Marshall Airport while trying to board a flight to Houston and has been charged with several criminal counts, including disrupting a school operation and stalking.

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