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OpenAI reaffirms support for India’s AI Missions

Speaking about the progress in the field of AI, he said that in the last decade, the entire field has witnessed huge progress in AI…reports Asian Lite News

Open AI Vice President Srinivas Narayanan on Wednesday said that his company which runs ChatGPT will support the AI Missions and application development initiatives of India.

“Open AI is committed to backing India in its India AI Mission and application development initiatives to ensure that Indian developers can build on our models and benefit society,” Narayanan said while addressing the Global India AI Summit in the national capital today.

The OpenAI executive urged the Union Ministry of Information and Technology to continue with the conversations where the company can add value.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) hosted the two-day Global India AI Summit 2024 in the national capital.

Recognising the importance of the Indian market, Narayanan said that the OpenAI leadership has places the country on top while making policies.

“We have been developing a growing habit as a leadership team to keep learning from India. We’re keeping India in mind in whatever important decisions we are making, the OpenAI VP said.

Speaking about the progress in the field of AI, he said that in the last decade, the entire field has witnessed huge progress in AI.

“We launched GPT just 1.5 years ago. We thought it would be a low-key research preview, but in the last 18 months, we have seen that people are using it in transformative ways, and it’s impacting people’s daily lives, including here in India.”

Highlighting the widespread use of AI, he said that AI is being used in a lot of industries across the world.

“AI has already added speed and dynamism to the already dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem in India. Entrepreneurs understand market gaps. They are building innovative products. We’re reducing the cost of intelligence, enabling developers to write code and helping them create completely conversational and natural interfaces to computing,” he said.

During the same event in his inaugural speech, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasised on the shared responsibility to work towards the safe use of AI.

OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence research organisation founded in December 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco. Sam Altman is its the Chief executive officer of the company. (ANI)

India, France working together on AI, says envoy

France’s Permanent Representative to OECD, Amelie de Montchalin, said that India and France are working together as the two nations share the same vision on what artificial intelligence (AI) can bring as a tool for more development, innovation and prosperity.

Amelie de Montchalin noted that France and India have digital public infrastructure in common.

On being asked about India and France’s role in AI, Montchalin said, “So, India and France are really working together because we have the same vision of what AI can bring as a tool for more development, as a tool for innovation, as a tool for prosperity. But, we also have the same values.”

“We want to keep our sovereign autonomy to make sure that we are having the control of our technologies. We have the same vision of cyber. So, the fact that we work together is also the sign that we want to make sure that AI is at the service of all people, all across the planet, so without division between what we call the north and the south,” she added.

Asked whether there is any discussion between two nations in terms of AI, Amelie de Montchalin said, “So as you know, France and India, we have something in common, which are digital public infrastructure. I was in charge of civil service reform and I was in charge of the digital public services in France. And they are very close and very similar in their thinking from what you do here in India with your very successful digital public infrastructure. So we will continue to work together on this.”

“We are also discussing as part of the global partnership on AI, how to be AI for good, open AI solutions to face climate change, agriculture, smart cities, water resources, and make sure that these algorithms are free, open, not just for India and France, but also to other developing and emerging countries, and this is something I know in India wants to do even more and that France will support and we will do together,” she added.

She lauded India for organising the ‘Global IndiaAI Summit’ and called it a “major success.” She stated that the conference in Delhi is a follow-up to the G20 Summit in Delhi held in 2023. French envoy also talked about the AI Action Summit set to be held in February 2025 and added that India will be invited to the Summit.

Speaking about India’s role in the propagation of AI, Montchalin said, “So I think it’s a major success to have this Delhi conference today, this ministerial meeting of the Global Partnership on AI. I think it’s also the follow-up of your G20. I must say that what happened today between the ministers was something that President Macron and Prime Minister Modi have discussed here in Delhi in September 2023.”

“So, less than one year after, we are having the results and the outcome and the new dynamic of this group now joining more than 40 countries together from the north, from the south, from the east, from the west, from all around the planet to work together. And we will have in February 2025 in Paris what we call the AI Action Summit where India will be invited, where we will continue to work together. And for me, it’s really a good place today to be because the vision we have in common is one that, for me, will bring success to our people, to the planet and to innovation,” she added. (ANI)

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Business Economy Woman

Meet Pragya Misra, OpenAI’s First India Hire

Misra, who earlier worked at Meta-owned WhatsApp and caller identification app Truecaller, is the first employee of OpenAI in India….reports Asian Lite News

Sam Altman-run ChatGPT developer OpenAI is eager to contribute to India’s artificial intelligence (AI) mission by collaborating with developers, users and policymakers, Pragya Misra, the company’s Public Policy & Partnerships lead in the country, said on Wednesday.

Misra, who earlier worked at Meta-owned WhatsApp and caller identification app Truecaller, is the first employee of OpenAI in India.

“Excited to share that I’ve joined OpenAI as their first hire in India to lead Public Policy and Partnerships to advance OpenAI’s values of safety, transparency, and human-centric innovation,” she posted on X social media platform.

Misra said that OpenAI is eager to contribute to India’s AI mission “by collaborating with developers, users, academics, civil society, and policymakers to harness AI’s potential for societal benefit for Bharat”.

In March, the government approved the AI mission with an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore.

The mission will establish a comprehensive ecosystem catalysing AI innovation through strategic programmes and partnerships across the public and private sectors.

Misra earlier served as the Director of Public Affairs for Truecaller, where she collaborated closely with ministries, investors, key stakeholders, and media partners.

Prior to that, she worked for three years with Facebook (now Meta), and was the first employee for WhatsApp as well for India.

She also led WhatsApp’s campaign against misinformation in 2018 and has worked with Ernst & Young as well as the Royal Danish Embassy in Delhi. Misra received her MBA from the International Management Institute in 2012.

She also graduated in commerce from Delhi University and holds a Diploma in Bargaining and Negotiations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

She is also a podcaster and Instagram influencer with a follower base of 35,000.

She hosts the Pragyaan Podcast (@pragyaan_podcast), covering topics such as meditation and consciousness.

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8 US newspapers sue OpenAI over copyright infringement

The lawsuit also includes MediaNews Group’s Mercury News, Orange County Register, and Tribune Publishing’s Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel, all under Alden Global Capital….reports Asian Lite News

A group of US newspapers has initiated legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the unauthorised use of millions of copyrighted news articles to train their AI chatbots.

Filed in a New York federal court on Tuesday, the lawsuit involves publications such as The New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, and Denver Post, Associated Press reported.

 Frank Pine, executive editor for MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, emphasised the substantial investments made in news gathering, expressing concern over tech giants exploiting their content for profit.

The lawsuit also includes MediaNews Group’s Mercury News, Orange County Register, and Tribune Publishing’s Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel, all under Alden Global Capital.

Microsoft refrained from commenting, while OpenAI hadn’t responded to requests for comment at the time.

OpenAI, FT ink content licensing deal

 The creator of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT OpenAI on Monday inked a partnership pact with UK-based Financial Times (FT) to licence its content and develop AI tools.

Under this partnership, the global news publisher will licence its material to Sam Altman-run OpenAI to help create generative AI technology that can create text, images and code indistinguishable from human creations.

“Our partnership and ongoing dialogue with the FT is about finding creative and productive ways for AI to empower news organisations and journalists, and enrich the ChatGPT experience with real-time, world-class journalism for millions of people globally,” Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI, said in a statement.

In addition, the FT noted that it became a customer of ChatGPT Enterprise earlier this year.

“This is an important agreement in a number of respects. It recognises the value of our award-winning journalism and will give us early insights into how content is surfaced through AI,” said FT Group CEO John Ridding.

OpenAI has entered into multiple agreements with news organisations to licence their content for training AI models.

Axel Springer, the publisher of several media outlets including Business Insider, Politico, and the European publications Bild and Welt, has signed a similar agreement with OpenAI to extract data from its articles.

In December last year, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that the tech companies used millions of articles to build ChatGPT’s underlying models without proper permission.

In the lawsuit, the company said it had been in licensing discussions with Microsoft and OpenAI for months but none had resulted in a resolution.

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OpenAI CEO invites UAE to lead AI talks

Asked about what can be expected from ChatGPT 5, Altman said, “It is going to be smarter, it will be multimodal, it will be faster. But what I think matters is it’s going to be smarter.”…reports Asian Lite News

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, called for a global system for AI oversight and invited the UAE to lead discussions during the opening session of the second day of the World Governments Summit (WGS) 2024.

“For various reasons, the UAE would be well-positioned to lead discussions on this matter. I propose hosting a one-day conference where global leaders can brainstorm and strategise on these important issues,” said Altman, speaking via video conferencing in a session with Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications.

Altman said, “I often use the example of the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, as a model for handling the impact of the most powerful AI systems. Establishing auditing and safety measures before deploying superintelligence or artificial general intelligence (AGI) is crucial.”

He noted that the readiness of the UAE positions it to lead global discussions on leveraging artificial intelligence systems while implementing secure measures.

Altman highlighted the ‘remarkable’ future awaiting humanity with the advancement of AI systems. Once fully developed, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will revolutionise education, healthcare, and new sciences, he said.

Altman said despite its growth, the world is still witnessing the early stages of AI. “We haven’t seen this much world changing, and I think the reason is that the current technology we have is like a black and white TV screen,” said Altman, noting that “we have a long way to go.”

AI will make intelligence broadly available, inexpensive and a tool to let humanity build the future. However, its full advancement and growth will require time and patience, similar to that of the progress of cellular phones from primitive mobiles to today’s iPhones.

“In a few more years, the technology will be much better than it is now and, in a decade, it should be remarkable,” said Altman. “We don’t realise how limited we are now, and how limited our intelligence is and how expensive and difficult the technology is.”

Altman urged governments to adopt AI technologies to better serve citizens and modernise the workplace.

Asked about what can be expected from ChatGPT 5, Altman said, “It is going to be smarter, it will be multimodal, it will be faster. But what I think matters is it’s going to be smarter.”

Altman said ChatGPT, which was developed by OpenAI, revolutionised education and made scientists more productive.

“Imagine a world where everyone gets a great personal tutor, a great personalised medical advice, and how we can use these tools to discover new sciences and build healthy environments,” said Altman.

He stressed the need for governments to collaborate towards adopting the new technologies, putting the right measures in place and patience until the new technologies take their full shape.

Altman noted that this generation is unbelievably lucky to be living “in the best time of human history,” noting that although rules are shifting, the ability AI will give people to express their creative imagination and will is remarkable.

Running until 14th February, this year’s WGS brings together more than 25 heads of state, more than 85 international and regional organisations and global institutions, 140 governments, and distinguished global thought leaders and experts.

Over 200 prominent speakers are addressing global future trends during more than 110 dialogues and sessions. WGS 2024 also hosts more than 4000 attendees, as well as more than 23 ministerial meetings and executive sessions attended by more than 300 ministers.

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Tech Lite

OpenAI’s ChatGPT finally enters classrooms in US

The three key areas of concentration include: enhancing student success, forging new avenues for innovative research and streamlining organisational processes…reports Asian Lite News

Arizona State University (ASU) in the US and OpenAI have announced a partnership to bring ChatGPT into the classrooms. The university became the first higher education institution to collaborate with OpenAI, the AI research and deployment company behind ChatGPT.

Starting in February, ASU will invite submissions from faculty and staff to implement the innovative uses of ChatGPT Enterprise.

The three key areas of concentration include: enhancing student success, forging new avenues for innovative research and streamlining organisational processes.

“By providing access to advanced AI capabilities, these tools are levelling the playing field, allowing individuals and organisations – regardless of size or resources – to harness the power of AI for creative and innovative endeavours,” said Lev Gonick, ASU Chief Information Officer.

The collaboration between ASU and OpenAI brings the advanced capabilities of ChatGPT Enterprise into higher education, setting a new precedent for how universities enhance learning, creativity and student outcomes.

“Our collaboration with OpenAI reflects our philosophy and our commitment to participating directly in the responsible evolution of AI learning technologies,” said ASU President, Michael M. Crow.

The platform prioritises user privacy, employing enterprise-grade security measures to safeguard user data. These measures are meticulously designed to protect against digital threats, providing a secure environment to utilise the platform’s functionalities, said the university. “Learning is core to why so many users love ChatGPT. ASU continues to lead in innovation by integrating ChatGPT into its educational programmes,” said OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap.

“We’re keen to learn from ASU and to work towards expanding ChatGPT’s impact in higher education.”

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OpenAI outlines plan to combat misinformation ahead of polls

The company said that it is working to prevent relevant abuse — such as misleading “deepfakes”, scaled influence operations, or chatbots impersonating candidates...reports Asian Lite News

As countries around the world prepare for elections in this year, OpenAI has outlined its plan to combat misinformation, with a focus on promoting transparency around the source of information.

The company said that its teams are working to prevent abuse, provide transparency on AI-generated content, and improve access to accurate voting information. “We have a cross-functional effort dedicated to election work, bringing together expertise from our safety systems, threat intelligence, legal, engineering, and policy teams to quickly investigate and address potential abuse,” OpenAI said in a blogpost on Monday.

The company said that it is working to prevent relevant abuse — such as misleading “deepfakes”, scaled influence operations, or chatbots impersonating candidates. “Prior to releasing new systems, we red team them, engage users and external partners for feedback, and build safety mitigations to reduce the potential for harm,” OpenAI said. To provide transparency around AI-generated content, the company said that it is working on several provenance efforts. Early this year, it will implement the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity’s digital credentials — an approach that encodes details about the content’s provenance using ‘cryptography’ — for images generated by DALL·E 3. OpenAI is also experimenting with a provenance classifier — a new tool for detecting images generated by DALL·E.

As the US gears up for the presidential election later this year, the maker of ChatGPT mentioned that they are working with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), the nation’s oldest nonpartisan professional organisation for public officials. “ChatGPT will direct users to CanIVote.org, the authoritative website on US voting information when asked certain procedural election-related questions — for example, where to vote,” the company explained.

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EU joins UK regulators in examining $13 bn Microsoft-OpenAI deal

The Commission will carefully review all input received through the calls for contributions…reports Asian Lite News

The European Commission on Tuesday announced to examine whether Microsoft’s $13 billion investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is reviewable under the EU merger regulation.

The EU launched two calls for contributions on competition in virtual worlds and generative artificial intelligence (AI) and sent requests for information to several large digital players.

“We are inviting businesses and experts to tell us about any competition issues that they may perceive in these industries, whilst also closely monitoring AI partnerships to ensure they do not unduly distort market dynamics,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy.

Virtual worlds and generative AI are rapidly developing. It is fundamental that these new markets stay competitive, and that nothing stands in the way of businesses growing and providing the best and most innovative products to consumers, she added.

The Commission will carefully review all input received through the calls for contributions.

Following that review, the Commission may organise a workshop in the second quarter of 2024 to bring together all different perspectives emerging from the contributions and continue this reflection.

“In addition, the European Commission is looking into some of the agreements that have been concluded between large digital market players and generative AI developers and providers. The European Commission is investigating the impact of these partnerships on market dynamics,” it said in a statement.

Venture capital investment in AI in the EU is estimated at more than 7.2 billion euros in 2023. The size of the virtual worlds market in Europe is estimated to have reached more than 11 billion euros in 2023.

“Both technologies are expected to grow exponentially in the next years and are likely to have a major impact on how businesses compete,” said the commission.

Last month, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK asked parties and interested third parties to comment on whether the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI, including recent developments, has resulted in a relevant merger situation and, if so, the impact that the merger could have on competition in the UK.

“The invitation to comment is the first part of the CMA’s information gathering process and comes in advance of launching any phase 1 investigation, which would only happen once the CMA has received the information it needs from the partnership parties,” said Sorcha O’Carroll, Senior Director for Mergers at the CMA.

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Authors sue Microsoft, OpenAI for copyright infringement

San Altman-run OpenAI and Microsoft have been hit by another class-action lawsuit by book authors, who alleged that the company “simply stole” their copyrighted works to help “build a billion-dollar artificial intelligence system”.

The lawsuit was filed in the Manhattan federal court late on Friday by non-fiction authors Nicholas Basbanes and Nicholas Gage, reports NBC. Basbanes and Gage seek to represent a class of writers “whose copyrighted work has been systematically pilfered by” Microsoft and OpenAI.

“They’re no different than any other thief,” the lawsuit alleged, adding that it will include all people in the US “who are authors or legal beneficial owners” of copyrights for works that have or are being used by the defendants to “train their large language models”.

The lawsuit seeks damages of up to $150,000 for each work that the defendants infringed, the report mentioned.

The lawsuit alleged that OpenAI’s system relies on being trained by ingesting “massive amounts of written material,” which includes books written by Basbanes and Gage. Microsoft or OpenAI were yet to comment on the new lawsuit.

In September last year, the Authors’ Guild and 17 well-known authors like Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Jodi Picoult filed a lawsuit in the Southern district of New York against OpenAI.

According to the complaint, OpenAI “copied plaintiffs’ works wholesale, without permission or consideration” and fed the copyrighted materials into large language models.

In the same month, authors Michael Chabon, David Henry Hwang, Rachel Louise Snyder and Ayelet Waldman alleged in a lawsuit that OpenAI benefits and profits from the “unauthorised and illegal use” of their copyrighted content.

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Microsoft-OpenAI Partnership Faces Scrutiny

There have recently been a number of developments in the governance of OpenAI, some of which involved Microsoft…reports Asian Lite News

The UK’s competition regulator will look into the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, including recent developments, to understand the impact the merger could have on competition in the UK.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is examining whether Microsoft’s association with OpenAI could affect the artificial intelligence (AI) market.

“The Invitation to Comment (ITC) is the first part of the CMA’s information gathering process and comes in advance of any launch of a formal phase 1 investigation,” the market watchdog said in a statement.

There have recently been a number of developments in the governance of OpenAI, some of which involved Microsoft.

In light of these developments, the CMA is now issuing an ITC to determine whether the Microsoft /OpenAI partnership, including recent developments, has resulted in a relevant merger situation and, if so, the potential impact on competition.

Last month, OpenAI board sacked CEO Sam Altman in a dramatic move, Later, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella offered him a job to lead its advanced AI research.

Finally, OpenAI reinstated Altman at the helm, with an entirely new board, thus ending an intense drama.

There are speculations on why Altman was fired in the first place, but nothing concrete has come out as the new board is reviewing the whole saga.

According to the CMA, the speed at which AI is scaling across use cases and markets is unrivalled in economic history, while advances in powerful foundation models (FMs) mean that this is a pivotal moment in the development of this transformative technology.

“Critical among these is the need for sustained competition between AI developers which will help to deliver innovation, growth and responsible practices across the sector, as well as the need for open and effective competition in the deployment of FMs across a range of downstream activities,” said the CMA.

The CMA will review whether the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership has resulted in an acquisition of control — that is, where it results in one party having material influence, de facto control or more than 50 per cent of the voting rights over another entity — or change in the nature of control by one entity over another.

“The invitation to comment is the first part of the CMA’s information gathering process and comes in advance of launching any phase 1 investigation, which would only happen once the CMA has received the information it needs from the partnership parties,” said Sorcha O’Carroll, Senior Director for Mergers at the CMA.

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Business Tech Lite Technology

Microsoft on OpenAI Board, Altman Takes Charge

OpenAI’s new board consists of chair Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo, the only remaining holdout from the previous board….reports Asian Lite News

Sam Altman has officially returned to OpenAI as CEO after an intense drama earlier this month, with Microsoft getting a non-voting observer seat on the company’s board.

OpenAI’s new board consists of chair Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo, the only remaining holdout from the previous board.

Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI, with a 49 percent stake in the for-profit entity that the nonprofit board controls, reports The Verge.

In a memo to employees, Altman said that he harbours “zero ill will” towards Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist who was behind Altman’s ouster.

“While Ilya will no longer serve on the board, we hope to continue our working relationship and are discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI,” Altman said in the memo.

“The fact that we did not lose a single customer will drive us to work even harder for you,” he told employees.

He said that OpenAI will advance research plan and further invest in its full-stack safety efforts.

“Our research roadmap is clear; this was a wonderfully focusing time. I share the excitement you all feel; we will turn this crisis into an opportunity! I’ll work with Mira (Murati) on this,” Altman said.

OpenAI board chair Taylor told employees that they are thrilled that “Sam, Mira and OpenAI President and co-founder Greg Brockman are back together leading the company and driving it forward”.

“We will build a qualified, diverse board of exceptional individuals whose collective experience represents the breadth of OpenAI’s mission – from technology to safety to policy. We are pleased that this Board will include a non-voting observer for Microsoft,” he added.

Altman was earlier fired as CEO of OpenAI, the developer of AI chatbot ChatGPT, and the earlier board had said it “no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”

Later, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announced to hire Altman and Brockman to help the company pursue its advanced AI dreams with a new vertical.

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