TGIF. We’ve got one last tech news briefing to get through this week, so let’s dive in. Starting, of course, with AI and ChatGPT.
1. An outage, privacy probes, and $1M grants
ChatGPT is back up and running after a major outage struck the conversational AI app yesterday. The chatbot is usually accessed through OpenAI’s website, but starting before Thursday 9:23 pm AEST and up until 10:27 pm AEST that site was down. The outage came as reports (per Reuters) revealed Canada’s privacy regulators were launching a joint investigation into ChatGPT-parent OpenAI’s data collection and usage, becoming the latest major government to take a closer look at the regulation of AI. Elsewhere, though, it seems OpenAI CEO is feeling a little philanthropic, handing out 10, $100,000 grants for experiments in democratic processes to determine how AI software should be governed to address bias and other factors.
We’re launching ten $100,000 grants for building prototypes of a democratic process for steering AI. Our goal is to fund experimentation with methods for gathering nuanced feedback from everyone on how AI should behave. Apply by June 24, 2023: https://t.co/kJG2bNnons
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 25, 2023
2. Twitter is not so good at complying with Aussie requests
Over to The Guardian and it’s reporting that Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has said Twitter is being “inconsistent” with its responsiveness to government requests. Apparently, there is only one (1) remaining public policy contact for Twitter in the Asia Pacific region – and they’re located in Singapore. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said it was “terrible practice” for Twitter to fail to respond to letters from her office, or the office of Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland. Big yikes.
3. New cyber ambassador for Australia
Australia has a new Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology, Brendan Dowling. Dowling will be charged with leading Australia’s international engagement on cyber affairs and critical technology issues, while delivering cyber capacity building, crisis response, and resilience across our region, according to a statement from Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong. Dowling is going to help push this new cyber strategy along as part of his new gig.
4. Opposition says NBN is getting smashed by Starlink
Here’s one from Sky News for something new. Shadow Communications Minister David Coleman appeared on the company’s TV channel yesterday, saying “The NBN is getting absolutely smashed by Elon Musk. The NBN lost 4,000 customers last week and last three weeks, it’s lost 8,000 customers”. He then used his time to put shade on the government, because that’s politics, baby. Here’s a YouTube link to his appearance because we can’t just say something without linking.
5. Trillion-dollar valuation for Nvidia
Nvidia is one of those companies that many people who use its kit don’t know about. But this week, that’s all changing. Nvidia is on a hot streak. The company’s value surged 24 per cent yesterday in one of the largest one-day gains in value for a U.S. stock. Per Reuters, the surge more than doubled the stock’s value for this year and increased the chip designer’s market capitalisation by about $US184 billion to nearly $US939 billion. That’s nearly $1.5 trillion in Aussie terms.
BONUS ITEM: The world’s first 110-inch, 16K TV has over 132 million pixels. We are gobsmacked.
Have a fabulous weekend.