Kalakshar US

Just days after President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping executive order retasking the federal government with regards to AI development, Vice President Kamala Harris announced at the UK AI Safety Summit on Tuesday a half dozen more machine learning initiatives that the administration is undertaking. Among the highlights: the establishment of the United States AI Safety Institute, the first release of draft policy guidance on the federal government’s use of AI and a declaration on the responsible military applications for the emerging technology.

“President Biden and I believe that all leaders, from government, civil society, and the private sector have a moral, ethical, and societal duty to make sure AI is adopted and advanced in a way that protects the public from potential harm and ensures that everyone is able to enjoy its benefits,” Harris said in her prepared remarks.

“Just as AI has the potential to do profound good, it also has the potential to cause profound harm, from AI-enabled cyber-attacks at a scale beyond anything we have seen before to AI-formulated bioweapons that could endanger the lives of millions,” she said. The existential threats that generative AI systems present was a central theme of the summit. 

“To define AI safety we must consider and address the full spectrum of AI risk — threats to humanity as a whole, threats to individuals, to our communities and to our institutions, and threats to our most vulnerable populations,” she continued. “To make sure AI is safe, we must manage all these dangers.”

To that end, Harris announced Wednesday that the White House, in cooperation with the Department of Commerce, is establishing the United States AI Safety Institute (US AISI) within the NIST. It will be responsible for actually creating and publishing the all of the guidelines, benchmark tests, best practices and such for testing and evaluating potentially dangerous AI systems. 

These tests could include the red-team exercises that President Biden had mentioned in his EO. The AISI would also be tasked in providing technical guidance to lawmakers and law enforcement on a wide range of AI-related topics, including identifying generated content, authenticating live-recorded content, mitigating AI-driven discrimination, and ensuring transparency in its use.

Additionally, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is set to release for public comment the administration’s first draft policy guidance on government AI use later this week. Like the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights that it builds upon, the draft policy guidance outlines steps that the national government can take to “advance responsible AI innovation” while maintaining transparency and protecting federal workers from increased surveillance and job displacement. This draft guidance will eventually be used to establish safeguards for the use of AI in a broad swath of public sector applications including transportation, immigration, health and education so it is being made available for public comment at ai.gov/input.

Harris also announced during her remarks that the Political Declaration on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy the US issued in February has collected 30 signatories to date, all of whom have agreed to a set of norms for responsible development and deployment of military AI systems. Just 165 nations to go! The administration is also launching a a virtual hackathon in efforts to blunt the harm AI-empowered phone and internet scammers can inflict. Hackathon participants will work to build AI models that can counter robocalls and robotexts, especially those targeting elderly folks with generated voice scams.

Content authentication is a growing focus of the Biden-Harris administration. President Biden’s EO explained that the Commerce Department will be spearheading efforts to validate content produced by the White House through a collaboration with the C2PA and other industry advocacy groups. They’ll work to establish industry norms, such as the voluntary commitments previously extracted from 15 of the largest AI firms in Silicon Valley. In her remarks, Harris extended that call internationally, asking for support from all nations in developing global standards in authenticating government-produced content. 

“These voluntary [company] commitments are an initial step toward a safer AI future, with more to come,” she said. “As history has shown in the absence of regulation and strong government oversight, some technology companies choose to prioritize profit over: The wellbeing of their customers; the security of our communities; and the stability of our democracies.”

“One important way to address these challenges — in addition to the work we have already done — is through legislation — legislation that strengthens AI safety without stifling innovation,” Harris continued. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/kamala-harris-announces-ai-safety-institute-to-protect-american-consumers-060011065.html?src=rss 

Your EV may go a long way between charges, but can it carry dozens of passengers? GreenPower can boast both of those things with its latest electric school bus called “Mega Beast,” it announced in a press release spotted by Electrek. A massive 387 kWh battery supplies nearly 300 miles of range and it can carry up to 90 people — around three classrooms full of kids. 

The long wheelbase Type D model features “the longest range and has the biggest battery pack in the school bus market,” GreenPower said. It uses a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack that offers high energy density and a longer life span, but a higher initial cost.

Mega Beast is a souped up version of GreenPower’s regular 140 mile range, 197.3 kWh Beast (“Beast” stands for “battery electric automotive school transportation”). Along with double the battery size, it offers better hill-climbing power, the company wrote. 

Why the need for so much range, when buses usually do just two runs per day? This version is designed for longer range routes at rural schools, for example, or school districts that can’t necessarily charge a bus at mid-day. It’s also aimed at regions with “extreme weather conditions and schools that also use the all-electric bus for extra-curricular activities.”

Large electric school buses with around 100 miles of range can cost $300,000 to $400,000, up to four times the price of a diesel-powered school bus. However, maintenance costs are lower and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently launched the Clean School Bus Program providing $5 billion over five years to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and low-emission models. Other companies building electric buses include Daimler via its Thomas-Built Buses division, along with Blue Bird. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-90-passenger-school-bus-has-nearly-300-miles-of-range-044741117.html?src=rss 

The antitrust lawsuit Epic Games and Match Group have filed against Google was supposed to go to trial on November 6, but now it looks like the video game developer might go at it alone. Google and Match, the parent company of Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge, have reached an agreement and have agreed to drop all claims against each other. According to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, Google has agreed to return the $40 million Match had place in escrow to cover the service fees it would supposedly owe the Alphabet unit while the dispute is ongoing.

Match also announced in its earning report that its apps will be using Google’s User Choice Billing program starting on March 31, 2024. Under the program, users will have the option to choose between Google’s and the developer’s billing systems when purchasing an app or paying for a subscription. If they choose to use Google’s system, then Match will have to pay Google 15 percent for recurring subscriptions and 30 percent for one-off payments. Google’s cut is reduced to 11 percent and 26 percent, respectively, for payments that go through the developer’s provided alternative. The dating services provider said that the terms they agreed on will offset the additional costs its apps will incur implementing the User Choice Billing program over three years starting in 2024.

Tinder’s parent company originally sued Google in 2022, accusing it of violating federal and state antitrust laws. Match said that Google previously assured it that it could use its own payment system. However, when it announced a new policy that would require all Android developers to process payments through the Play Store billing system, Google allegedly threatened to remove its apps from the store if it didn’t comply. Match also claimed that the company had been rejecting app updates that maintained the payment system it was using.

Later that year, Match had joined up with Epic Games, and the two consolidated their antitrust lawsuit against their common foe. They even expanded their allegations and accused Google of paying major developers hundreds of millions of dollars to keep their apps in the Play Store. Bloomberg says Epic is now scheduled to face Google in court alone on November 2, and the judge is waiting for both parties to decide whether they want a jury to make the decision for their case. Epic had also sued Apple over the same issue, but in Google’s case, the court has to acknowledge that Android users can sideload applications to their devices. The video game developer hasn’t dropped any hints that it’s also hashing out an agreement with the bigger company, but we’ll know for sure if the trial still pushes through on November 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-and-match-group-settle-antitrust-case-before-it-goes-to-trial-041158809.html?src=rss 

A California jury has found that Tesla was not at fault for a fatal 2019 crash that allegedly involved its Autopilot system, in the first US trial yet for a case claiming its software directly caused a death. The lawsuit alleged Tesla knowingly shipped out cars with a defective Autopilot system, leading to a crash that killed a Model 3 owner and severely injured two passengers, Reuters reports.

Per the lawsuit, 37-year-old Micah Lee was driving his Tesla Model 3 on a highway outside of Los Angeles at 65 miles per hour when it turned sharply off the road and slammed into a palm tree before catching fire. Lee died in the crash. The company was sued for $400 million plus punitive damages by Lee’s estate and the two surviving victims, including a boy who was 8 years old at the time and was disemboweled in the accident, according to an earlier report from Reuters.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Tesla sold Lee defective, “experimental” software when he bought a Model 3 in 2019 that was billed to have full self-driving capability. The FSD system was and still is in beta. In his opening statement, their attorney Jonathan Michaels also said that the “excessive steering command is a known issue at Tesla.”

Tesla’s defense argued that there was no such defect, and that an analysis cited by the plaintiffs’ lawyers identifying a steering issue was actually looking for problems that were theoretically possible. A fix to prevent it from ever happening was engineered as a result of that analysis, according to the company. Tesla blamed human error for the crash, pointing to tests that showed Lee had consumed alcohol before getting in the car, and argued that there’s no certainty Autopilot was in use at the time.

The jury ultimately found there was no defect, and Tesla was cleared on Tuesday. Tesla has faced lawsuits over its Autopilot system in the past, but this is the first involving a fatality. It’s scheduled to go on trial for several others in the coming months, and today’s ruling is likely to set the tone for those ahead.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/teslas-autopilot-was-not-to-blame-for-fatal-2019-model-3-crash-jury-finds-210643301.html?src=rss