Google releases new ‘open’ AI models with a focus on safety
Google has released a trio of new, “open” generative AI models that it’s calling “safer,” “smaller” and “more transparent” than most — a bold claim, to be sure. They’re additions to Google’s Gemma 2 family of generative models, which debuted back in May. The new models, Gemma 2 2B, ShieldGemma and Gemma Scope, are designed for slightly different applications and use cases, but share in common a safety bent. Google’s Gemma series of models are different from its Gemini models in that Google doesn’t make the source code available for Gemini, which is used by Google’s own products as well…
EU calls for help with shaping rules for general-purpose AIs
The European Union has kicked off a consultation on rules that will apply to providers of general-purpose AI models (GPAIs) — such as Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI — under the bloc’s AI Act, its risk-based framework for regulating applications of artificial intelligence. Lawmakers want the Code of Practice to help ensure “trustworthy” GPAIs by providing developers with guidance on how to comply with their legal obligations. The EU AI Act was adopted earlier this year and will come into force imminently, on August 1. But it has a phased implementation for compliance deadlines, and Codes of Practice are due…
Leaf helps farms decipher the troves of data they generate
Farms produce a lot of data. From machines to irrigation systems, farms generate a lot of information that could be helpful to both them and the companies that serve them. Traditionally this data has been siloed across different formats, making it hard to read and build off of. Leaf is trying to change that. New York-based Leaf is looking to build the Plaid of farm data, co-founder and CEO Bailey Stockdale told TechCrunch. The company takes a farm’s unstructured data, standardizes it, and loads it into an application programming interface (API). This allows Leaf customers, who range from crop insurance…
Hacked, leaked, exposed: Why you should never use stalkerware apps
There is a whole shady industry for people who want to monitor and spy on their families. Multiple app makers market their software — sometimes referred to as stalkerware — to jealous partners who can use these apps to access their victims’ phones remotely. Yet, despite how sensitive this data is, an increasing number of these companies are losing huge amounts of it. According to TechCrunch’s tally, counting the latest hack on Spytech, there have been at least 21 stalkerware companies since 2017 that are known to have been hacked, or leaked customer and victims’ data online. That’s not a…
Here’s how to disable X (Twitter) from using your data to train its Grok AI
X, formerly known as Twitter, has automatically activated a setting that allows the company to train its Grok AI on users’ posts. X enabled the new setting by default. The good news is that you can switch it off and also delete your conversation history with the AI. If the setting is turned on, X can “utilize your X posts as well as your user interactions, inputs and results with Grok for training and fine-tuning purposes,” according to the platform’s settings page. X goes on to note that “this also means that your interactions, inputs, and results may also be…
