Google Leak: Open Source Will Win AI War (plus Apple Increases Trade-In Value) | May 9th, 2023
Today In Tech News:
- Google Leak: Open Source Will Win AI War
- AI Leaders Meet with VP in DC
- Apple Increases Trade-In Value
- Western Digital Breach Notification
Google Leak: Open Source Will Win AI War
A document from Google regarding the AI arms race was leaked recently that holds grim views for the tech giant’s future AI efforts.
The document was leaked on Discord and shares how open-source AI projects will hold more appeal than both Google Bard and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The anonymous author highlights that when specialized open-source projects are compared to giant Large Language Models like ChatGPT, the projects require considerably less compute and training costs and are more customizable, faster, and private.
The document goes on to show that there isn’t a secret sauce to defend in regard to trade secrets, that giant models are ridiculously expensive to operate, and that when there are free alternatives with comparable ability, users will almost always lean towards the free option.
The two main events that have led to this are Meta’s LLaMA, or Large Language Model Meta AI, being leaked for individuals to experiment with and Standford’s Alpaca which helps fine-tune the LLaMA 7B model quickly and cheaply.
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AI Leaders Meet with VP in DC
Vice President Kamala Harris hosted a meeting Thursday at the White House to discuss the future of AI with industry leaders.
The meeting was to start a discussion regarding how AI can be used to improve society without putting people’s rights and safety at risk.
Attendees included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as well as top administration officials who oversee national security, domestic affairs, commerce, and technology policy.
President Biden also made a short appearance and was able to get hands-on experience with ChatGPT.
In coordination with the meeting, the White House has announced an investment of $140 million to establish seven new AI institutes.
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Apple Increases Trade-In Value
Apple has announced new trade-in prices including increases to the maximum trade-in value of specific devices.
The values have been increased by up to $30 and include iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches.
Highlights of the increases include the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, the iPad Pro, the MacBook Pro, and the Mac mini.
For a full list of the changes, click the link in the description or head to 2minutetechbytes.com and find today’s article.
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Western Digital Breach Notification
In security news, Western Digital has sent out emails to customers regarding the March 26th network breach.
Highlights of the letter include
- the date the incident occurred,
- a general explanation of what happened including what was stolen,
- an expectation that their online store will be available on the week of May 15th,
- and a list of actions that can be taken to help protect personal information.
The unnamed hacking group is expecting an 8-figure ransom and has proven to have stolen customer data including names, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers, emails, hashed passwords, and partial credit card details.
On top of the customer data, the hackers stole Western Digital certificates, a PrivateArk instance, and SAP Backoffice data.
To mitigate your risk of being affected by corporate data breaches
- Do not reuse passwords
- Rotate any current reused passwords
- Generate passwords with long lengths
- Use a password manager
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