Trending AI news stories + paper

Today's Top AI news stories and papers

AI news stories

1. Fake Biden robocall telling Democrats not to vote is likely an AI-generated deepfake

   A robocall impersonating President Joe Biden, urging New Hampshire residents not to vote in the state's Democratic primary, is suspected to be an AI-generated deepfake aimed at voter suppression. Experts, while not sure, believe the audio was artificially generated due to its unnatural cadence and the availability of technology that can convincingly mimic voices. The incident has raised concerns about the use of AI in spreading disinformation and the challenges in regulating such technology, especially regarding voter manipulation and election integrity.

2. Voice cloning startup ElevenLabs lands $80M, achieves unicorn status

   ElevenLabs, a startup specializing in AI-powered voice cloning tools, has raised $80 million in a Series B funding round, elevating its valuation to over $1 billion and bringing its total funding to $101 million. The investment will fuel further product development, infrastructure expansion, AI research, and enhanced safety measures for ethical AI development. Despite its rapid growth and technological advancements, ElevenLabs faces controversies over the misuse of its technology and concerns from the voice acting industry regarding the ethical implications and future of AI-generated voices.

3. Stability AI unveils smaller, more efficient 1.6B language model as part of ongoing innovation

   Stability AI has introduced Stable LM 2 1.6B, a compact and efficient language model designed for text content generation, aiming to make generative AI more accessible to developers by incorporating multilingual data and recent advancements in language modeling. Despite its smaller size, Stable LM 2 1.6B outperforms some larger models, showcasing the trend of achieving better performance with reduced size, although it may exhibit issues like high hallucination rates or potential toxic language. The company emphasizes transparency and offers a range of model options to empower developers, including a unique half-cooked model format intended to facilitate specialization for various tasks or datasets.

4. Humans Still Cheaper Than AI in Vast Majority of Jobs, MIT Finds

   An MIT study revealed that replacing humans with AI in the majority of jobs is currently not cost-effective, with only 23% of roles, primarily utilizing computer vision, being feasibly replaceable. The research assessed the economic viability of AI in various U.S. industries, particularly focusing on jobs requiring computer vision, such as teachers and property appraisers. Despite concerns about AI replacing human jobs, the study indicates that in most cases, the high cost of implementing AI, especially in visual recognition tasks, makes it an impractical substitute for human workers.

5. Using artificial intelligence and satellites, U of M helps farmers detect aphid infestations

   The University of Minnesota is utilizing artificial intelligence and satellite technology to help farmers efficiently detect aphid infestations in their fields. This innovative approach, involving satellite-based remote sensing and analysis of light wavelengths, allows for a broad assessment of aphid levels, contrasting the traditional, time-consuming method of manual field checks. The aim is to develop a user-friendly website or app for farmers, potentially saving them significant time and resources while managing these crop-damaging pests.

AI Repos

1. xtekky / gpt4free

2. microsoft / generative-ai-for-beginners

3. Codium-ai / AlphaCodium