Five Top Tech Takeaways: Apple's AI Gambit, Meta's Forays into AI, Canada Deals with LegalGPT, and Moody's Take on Shell Companies

 

Apple's AI Revolution: iPhone 16 to Feature Cutting-Edge Generative AI

Apple is set to integrate advanced generative AI features in its upcoming iPhone 16 series, leveraging acquisitions and internal developments to enhance AI capabilities, particularly in video compression and large language model efficiency. With significant investments in AI technology, Apple aims to run AI applications directly on iPhone hardware, reducing reliance on cloud services. This move positions Apple as a strong competitor in the generative AI space, with significant reveals expected at the Worldwide Developers Conference, including potential Siri advancements powered by a large language model.

(Source: iPhone in Canada).

Key Takeaways:

• Apple is intensifying its integration of generative AI into the iPhone 16, focusing on in-house AI capabilities and acquisitions.
• The company's goal is to enable AI applications to run directly on iPhones, minimizing cloud dependency.
• Significant advancements, including Siri's potential upgrade with a large language model, are anticipated at Apple's upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference.

Transforming the Future of Connectivity: Meta's Focus on AGI

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, is actively entering the race to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), reorganizing Meta's AI research group, FAIR, to align closer with its generative AI product teams. This move aims to leverage Meta's AI breakthroughs directly for its vast user base. Zuckerberg, facing fierce competition for AI talent and resources, emphasizes the importance of generative AI in achieving general intelligence. Meta, boasting significant computing power with a large stock of Nvidia GPUs, is focusing on open-source AI development, contrasting with other companies' more closed approaches. This strategy reflects Zuckerberg's vision of AI's role in future connectivity, blending human and AI interactions across Meta's platforms.

(Source: The Verge).

Key Takeaways:

• Meta restructures to focus on AGI, integrating FAIR with its generative AI product teams.
• Zuckerberg commits to open-source AI development amid intense industry competition for talent and resources.
• Meta's vision includes blending AI with human interaction, enhancing connectivity across its platforms.

Seven Risk Indicators to Identify Shell Companies: Moody's Latest Tool

Moody’s has developed a Shell Company Indicator to aid in detecting financial crimes involving shell companies, identifying seven key indicators of risk: outlier directorships, mass registration, jurisdictional risk, financial anomalies, dormancy, circular ownership, and outlier ages. These indicators help in identifying suspicious behaviors and patterns that may suggest the presence of shell companies, used for illegal activities like money laundering and fraud. The tool is crucial for compliance, risk analysis, and due diligence processes, especially in light of global events like Russia's invasion of Ukraine affecting jurisdictional risk flags. National legislations are also evolving to combat the misuse of shell companies, underlining the importance of tools like Moody’s Shell Company Indicator in the fight against financial crime.

(Source: Moody's).

Key Takeaways:

• Moody's data indicates a staggering 11.5 million outlier directorships, highlighting individuals with an unrealistic number of roles in multiple companies.
• The Shell Company Indicator has identified 4.2 million instances of mass registration and over 655,000 cases of company dormancy, signaling potential shell company activities.
• The tool flags more than 60,000 instances of circular ownership and over 38,000 cases involving outlier ages of beneficial owners, both critical indicators of shell company risk.

AI in the Courtroom: Canada's First Encounter with Fake Legal Cases

A recent incident in a B.C. courtroom marks Canada's first case involving the use of artificial intelligence to create fake legal cases. (This was seen previously in the US; see here.) Lawyers Lorne and Fraser MacLean discovered that opposing lawyer Chong Ke used ChatGPT to prepare legal briefs, unknowingly submitting fictitious cases. This misuse of AI in legal proceedings has raised serious concerns about the integrity of the legal system, highlighting the potential for erroneous judgments and wasted resources. The incident has prompted warnings from legal experts and regulatory bodies, emphasizing the need for lawyers to verify AI-generated content and the potential consequences of misusing such technology in court proceedings.

(Source: Global News).

Key Takeaways:

• AI-generated fake legal cases were discovered in a B.C. courtroom, marking a first in Canada's legal history.
• The incident has sparked concerns about the reliability and misuse of AI tools like ChatGPT in legal research and documentation.
• Legal authorities and experts are warning of the serious implications and potential consequences for lawyers misusing AI technology in legal proceedings.

The Future of Smart Glasses: A Look at Meta AI's Capabilities

The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have introduced new AI features, including "multimodal AI" and real-time information updates. While multimodal AI, which responds to queries based on visuals, shows promise, especially in applications like real-time translations and landmark identification, its real-time information accuracy is questionable. Meta AI struggles with current events, often providing incorrect answers. Despite the potential for useful applications, the current version of Meta AI demonstrates significant limitations in reliability and practicality.

(Source: Engadget)

Key Takeaways:

• Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses now feature multimodal AI, allowing interaction based on visual inputs, useful for translations and text summaries.
• The glasses' real-time information capability is currently unreliable, often providing inaccurate responses to basic questions.
• Despite the innovative technology, the practical application and accuracy of Meta AI need significant improvement to be truly useful.

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.

Tech, AI, Auditing & Beyond: 5 Stories from Last Week

Here's a look at 5 things you may have missed from last week

Robot lawyer getting arrested. 

Lawyer gets GPTed: Google the citation, before you submit that legal brief 

A lawyer used OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT to research cases for a lawsuit against an airline. He submitted a brief full of fake cases that the chatbot made up. The judge found out and ordered him to explain himself. The lawyer admitted he used the chatbot and did not verify its sources. He asked the chatbot if it was lying and it said no. The judge is considering sanctions for the lawyer and his firm. Chatbots unreliable: This case shows the dangers of using chatbots for research without checking their facts. Chatbots can mimic language patterns but not always tell the truth. Other chatbots like Microsoft’s Bing and Google’s Bard have also lied or made up facts in the past. (Source: TheVerge)

Nvidia: One trillion reasons why we're in the AI boom

US chipmaker Nvidia has reached a market value of more than $1tn, joining a select group of US companies. The firm’s share price surged by more than 30% since last week, after forecasting strong demand for its products due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI). Nvidia’s hardware powers most AI applications today, with one report suggesting it has 95% of the market for machine learning. The firm expects to bring in $11bn in sales in the next quarter, almost 50% more than analysts had expected. AI is seen as the next supercharged growth area, but valuations can be hard to justify. (Source: BBC)

AI Execs: Are they getting frank about their Frankensteins?

Top AI execs (and others who have cashed in on the AI boom) are now warning us about what they have released into the wild. Here is the statement that they released: "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." (Source: CBC) 

Bad bots: Tessa advises people with eating disorders to lose weight

AI chatbot named Tessa that was implemented by the U.S. National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) to help those with eating disorders was implemented to replace human call operators. However, it was taken down after reports that it had started to give out harmful dieting advice. Activist Sharon Maxwell claimed on Instagram that Tessa offered her advice on how to lose weight and recommended counting calories, following a 500 to 1,000 calorie deficit each day and measuring her weight weekly. (Source: NPR, Global)

OSFI on AI: The importance of a robust governance framework 

OSFI, in a recently released report, discusses the importance of a robust governance framework for ensuring that AI models used in the financial industry remain effective, safe, and fair. AI governance was one of the topics discussed at the Financial Industry Forum on Artificial Intelligence (FIFAI) workshops. The conversations touched on four main principles guiding the use and regulation of AI in the financial industry: Explainability, Data, Governance, and Ethics. The Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation defines governance as structures, systems, and practices an organization has in place to assign decision-making authorities, define how decisions are made, establish an organization’s strategic direction and oversee the delivery of its services. (Source: OSFI)

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.