(This article is part of Today’s Cache, The Hindu’s newsletter on emerging themes at the intersection of technology, innovation and policy. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.)
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AI makers warn of ‘extinction risk’
The CEOs of leading AI companies, as well as two out of three “godfathers” of AI have signed a letter warning about the risk of extinction posed by advances in artificial intelligence technology. ChatGPT-maker OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was one of the industry leaders who signed the letter, in spite of threatening to pull out of Europe over the EU’s AI rules.
More than 350 signatories added their names to the letter published by the Center for AI Safety (CAIS) non-profit, expressing concerns about how recent progress in AI could endanger humans at mass. While AI “godfathers” Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio also signed the letter, Meta’s Yann LeCun did not sign. Elon Musk, who is establishing an AI tech company, has also been asked to ally with the signatories.
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Nvidia hits one trillion dollars
Chipmaker Nvidia has joined the club of companies with a market value of at least one trillion dollars as more tech giants turn to harness the potential of generative artificial intelligence and large language models, which run on AI chips made by companies such as Nvidia.
A revenue forecast last week saw Nvidia rocketing past estimates to such a degree that Wall Street termed it “cosmological.” While its shares shot up on the news, Nvidia has struggled to fill the rising demand for its AI chips, and has faced export bans and restrictions in the past as the U.S. tries to curb China’s access to AI technology.
Fidelity marks down Twitter stake value
A Fidelity fund took down the value of its stake in Elon Musk-owned Twitter, marking the third time it has done so since the social media platform’s takeover last year. This brings down the value to around one third of what Musk paid for Twitter, as per Bloomberg. The value of one Fidelity fund’s stake in Twitter was approximately $6.55 million in late April, reported Reuters.
Musk said this month he would be stepping down as Twitter’s CEO. He named former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino as his successor.