Apple watchers also expect new colors for the iPhone at the annual launch event, this year titled ‘It’s Glowtime’ Apple is slated to unveil its latest iPhone and a slew of other new hardware on Monday during its biggest product launch event of the year. The event, held at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, features the tagline “It’s Glowtime” with the company’s logo surrounded by a colorful aura. New colors for the iPhone and other Apple products are rumored to be coming. Continue reading...

Groundbreaking bill aims to reduce potential AI risks – requiring model testing and disclosure of safety protocol A California bill that would establish first-in-the-nation safety measures for the largest artificial intelligence systems cleared an important vote Wednesday. The proposal, aiming to reduce potential risks created by AI, would require companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated to, for example, wipe out the state’s electric grid or help build chemical weapons – scenarios experts say could be possible in the future with such rapid advancements in the industry. The measure squeaked by in the state assembly Wednesday and now faces a final vote in the state senate, where it has passed once already, before it heads to the governor’s desk for his signature, though he has not indicated his position on it. Governor Gavin Newsom then has until the end of September to decide whether to sign it into law, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature. He declined to weigh in on the measure earlier this summer but had warned against AI overregulation. Continue reading...

Non-traditional pets get millions of online views. But the rising trend poses questions about animal welfare In a quiet neighborhood in California’s capital, residents have gotten used to the screaming temper tantrums of a two-year-old. “No, Merlin!” they’ll hear his mother shout whenever he’s had enough of his favorite snack. “No more ice cubes!” “We haven’t had any complaints from the neighbors yet,” says Mia Alali, the mother in question. That might be because Merlin is just about the cutest two-year-old in California. He also happens to be a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig. Continue reading...

Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson allege company misused work to teach chatbot Claude The artificial intelligence company Anthropic has been hit with a class-action lawsuit in California federal court by three authors who say it misused their books and hundreds of thousands of others to train its AI-powered chatbot Claude, which generates texts in response to users’ prompts. The complaint, filed on Monday by writers and journalists Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson, said that Anthropic used pirated versions of their works and others to teach Claude to respond to human prompts. Continue reading...