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Financing of historic AI buildout raises systemic risks in US, researcher says

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Financing of historic AI buildout raises systemic risks in US, researcher says <br> The artificial intelligence buildout is on track to require a larger share of ​US output than the rollout of electricity, railroads, interstate highways or the internet, with an increasingly complicated financial structure that poses &zwnj;potentially systemic risks, according to a new study. What had been paid for out of the cash stockpiled by companies like Amazon.com, Meta Platforms and Alphabet&#39;s Google has morphed into an expansion that will consume around 3.6% of gross domestic product annually through 2032, or more than $10 trillion, and is using ever more intricate financing arrangements, Stijn ​Van Nieuwerburgh, a finance and real estate professor at Columbia Business School, wrote in a paper prepared for a Brookings Institution conference ​this week. That estimate is higher than the 2.2% of annual GDP absorbed by railroads in the late 1800s, which was the ⁠next most co...
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‘Extreme concern’ as OpenAI’s ‘rogue agent’ breached Australian govt health database

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‘Extreme concern’ as OpenAI’s ‘rogue agent’ breached Australian govt health database <br> An artificial intelligence (AI) agent developed by US tech giant OpenAI breached an Australian government health statistics system during an internal evaluation, accessing both public and non-public files and writing files into the system, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday. According to CNN, the incident is believed to be the first publicly disclosed case of an AI agent breaching an Australian government network and comes amid growing concern over the ability of increasingly autonomous AI systems to circumvent safeguards and undertake actions beyond those intended by their human operators. Albanese said the AI agent had accessed an Australian Medicare statistics database and bypassed restrictions after failing to obtain information through normal channels. He said there was no evidence that patients&rsquo; personal medical information had been accessed. &ldquo...
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Meta testing a 'human concierge' for its new personal AI agent, Muse

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Meta testing a 'human concierge' for its new personal AI agent, Muse <br> Meta&nbsp;has been testing a &ldquo;human concierge&rdquo; for its new personal AI assistant, Muse, which entails having human contractors quietly handle some of the ​phone calls placed via the digital agent, according to internal company posts seen by Reuters. The Facebook and Instagram owner told employees about the test last week, shortly &zwnj;after the company publicly launched a phone-calling feature for Muse. The Muse agent, which has topped US app download charts in the two weeks since its debut, is designed to autonomously perform tasks like sending emails, shopping and booking travel on a person&#39;s behalf. With the phone-calling feature, a Muse user can tell the agent to dial phone numbers for US businesses and talk with people on the other end to handle errands like booking haircuts, checking whether a store has ​an item in stock or getting quotes from diffe...
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Trump says US will henceforth call AI 'super intelligence'

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Trump says US will henceforth call AI 'super intelligence' <br> US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that US government documents would use &quot;super intelligence&quot; instead of artificial intelligence going forward, and repeated his previous claims that warnings about AI were a hoax. &quot;From this point forward, all of United States documents, and hopefully the world&#39;s will be changed to use the much more accurate term &#39;super&#39; as opposed to artificial. So it&#39;s super intelligence,&quot; Trump said in a speech to the UN General Assembly. &quot;I&#39;m not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the industrial revolution,&quot; he said. He also firmly rejected calls for international supervision of artificial intelligence, calling them a &quot;globalist scheme&quot; to control the new technology. Read More: From smart glasses to AI pins, privacy fears challenge tech...
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UN chief calls for AI curbs and end to wars in his last assembly address

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UN chief calls for AI curbs and end to wars in his last assembly address <br> United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used his final address to the General Assembly on Tuesday to urge world leaders to regulate artificial ​intelligence, end wars, focus on climate change and overhaul UN institutions he warned are struggling to confront mounting global challenges. The former &zwnj;Portuguese prime minister, whose second five-year term ends on December 31, reiterated his calls for global oversight of AI risks, just as the UN&#39;s 15-member Security Council prepares to host AI leaders for a briefing on the powerful technology. Guterres also reflected on the gridlock within the organisation, as nearly 130 world leaders gathered in New York, and Chinese President Xi Jinping and others &mdash; ​including leaders from South Africa, India and Germany &mdash; skipped the diplomatic meeting. Delegates responded with sustained applause when Guterres defended...
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Int'l banks warn AI shopping bots raise scam, fraud and data-privacy risks

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Int'l banks warn AI shopping bots raise scam, fraud and data-privacy risks <br> Using AI agents for online shopping could increase the risk of scams, fraud and data-privacy breaches, banks including NatWest and Bank of America said on Tuesday, as they set out principles for developing the technology. Technology companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta are increasingly promoting AI chatbots as shopping tools, envisioning a future in which shoppers use AI agents to select products and make purchases on their behalf. Retailers, meanwhile, are racing to influence chatbots&#39; recommendations. British retailer John Lewis said in September&nbsp;that searches ​originating from AI agents had risen to 2.5% from 0.3% a year ​earlier, with the trend accelerating. The group of banks, which also includes ING, New Zealand&#39;s ASB Bank, US lender Capital One and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a report that customers were enthusiastic about the p...
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'I live in fear': 1.5 million Pakistani children sexually exploited online

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'I live in fear': 1.5 million Pakistani children sexually exploited online <br> Zara Shah was targeted by a stranger while playing a computer game, drawn into a conversation that would expose her to terrifying online sexual exploitation. Zara, whose name has been changed by AFP for safety reasons, is one of an estimated 1.5 million children in Pakistan who experienced online sexual abuse in one year, according to a report published by the UN children&#39;s agency this month. &quot;We started chatting while playing an online game, and he began acting like a friend. Later, he wanted to meet and, after, started asking me for nudes,&quot; 17-year-old Zara said. &quot;When I refused, he threatened to find my family online and tell them that we had been talking,&quot; she added. According to the UNICEF report, around 85%&nbsp;of perpetrators were known to the victims, aged between 12 and 17. &quot;The abuse may start with a friendly convers...
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