The Furious Five for June 20: AI, Tech, and Business Stories You May Have Missed

Redditor Robots Rioting

McKinsey's Take on the Trillion-Dollar Potential of Generative AI

Generative AI's potential to significantly boost global economic value could add between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion annually across diverse use cases, enhancing AI's overall impact by 15-40%. This technology can automate up to 70% of current work activities and may advance the timeline for automation of half of today's tasks to between 2030 and 2060. Further, it could stimulate labour productivity growth between 0.1% to 0.6% per annum through 2040. However, fully leveraging generative AI's benefits necessitates managing inherent risks and supporting workforce transitions with new skills development. Despite its potential, the journey toward full realization is nascent, and substantial challenges remain. (Source: McKinsey)

Revolt at Reddit: Reddit's API Pricing Protest

The "Reddit Revolt" is a significant user and developer backlash against Reddit due to changes in its API pricing, which are predicted to lead to the shutdown of many third-party apps like Apollo and "rif is fun for Reddit". The discontent has been fuelled by perceived miscommunications and alleged dishonesty from Reddit's CEO, Steve Huffman, regarding these changes, including incoming restrictions on third-party apps displaying NSFW content. In response, over 100 subreddits have "gone dark" in protest, and nearly 4,500 communities are pledged to do so. Some speculate that these changes are due to Reddit's plans to go public. (Source: TheVerge)

Mistral AI Sets Sights on OpenAI with $113 Million Seed Funding

Mistral AI, a month-old startup based in Paris, has raised a staggering $113 million in a seed funding round to develop large language models and generative AI, aiming to compete with OpenAI. The funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and involved significant contributors from across Europe, including Bpifrance and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Mistral AI, co-founded by former Google DeepMind and Meta professionals, plans to focus on open-source solutions and target enterprises. The company's first models for text-based generative AI are expected to be launched in 2024. It aims to provide businesses with tools that simplify the integration and use of AI, with a particular focus on open-source models that use publicly available data. This strategy is designed to avoid legal issues related to training data. (Source: TechCrunch)

First-of-its-kind AI Legislation Advances in EU Parliament

The European Union's parliament is advancing draft legislation known as the AI Act, potentially the first comprehensive set of regulations governing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the West. This act includes prohibitions on real-time remote biometric surveillance in public spaces and restrictions on developing facial-recognition databases from surveillance footage or internet scraping. The legislation also aims to control predictive policing systems and regulate how companies train AI models with large datasets. In certain scenarios, companies would have to disclose when content is AI-generated and ensure their AI models don't produce illegal content. Businesses would also need to summarize the copyrighted data used to train their models, giving content creators a potential claim to a share of profits. The proposed act could impose fines of up to 6-7% of a company’s global revenue for certain non-compliance cases. Negotiations to finalize the legislation are to begin immediately, with the aim of reaching a deal before year-end. Some tech researchers support these rules, arguing they could help establish safety standards and slow down the rush to release advanced AI tools. However, tech companies and lobbyists argue that overly prescriptive rules could hinder innovation. (Source: WSJ)

AMD's Chase for Trillions Stumbles: Stock Prices Slide Despite Bold AI Chip Announcement

AMD revealed details of its upcoming artificial intelligence (AI) chip designed to compete with industry leader Nvidia. Expected to be available in Q3 with mass production in Q4, the chip boasts 192 gigabytes of memory, potentially assisting tech companies in managing the costs of AI services like ChatGPT. However, AMD refrained from disclosing the early adopters or the price of the new chip. While the lack of a major client announcement led to a dip in AMD's share price, the company remains optimistic about the chip's potential. The firm also announced high-volume shipments of a general-purpose central processor chip named "Bergamo" to companies, including Meta Platforms. AMD's strategic moves indicate their intention to vie for market share in the AI chip market, currently dominated by Nvidia, and bolster their valuation. (Source: Reuters)

Author: Malik Datardina, CPA, CA, CISA. Malik works at Auvenir as a GRC Strategist that is working to transform the engagement experience for accounting firms and their clients. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent UWCISA, UW, Auvenir (or its affiliates), CPA Canada or anyone else. This post was written with the assistance of an AI language model. The model provided suggestions and completions to help me write, but the final content and opinions are my own.