News Highlights

We don’t only report the news, we make the news. Our news highlights and archive here.

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Serena Ramirez Serena Ramirez

Elon Musk's Grok 3 Is Here—Because of Course It Is

Grok 3, Elon Musk’s latest AI venture, arrives with grand claims of superiority, but its proprietary nature, security concerns, and political entanglements raise questions about whether it’s a true breakthrough or just another chapter in the ongoing AI arms race.

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Serena Ramirez Serena Ramirez

AI-Driven Layoffs at Meta, Salesforce, and Workday

The rise of AI-driven layoffs at major tech companies like Meta, Salesforce, and Workday highlights a rapidly evolving job market where automation is no longer a distant threat but a present reality, forcing workers to compete not just with each other—but with AI itself.

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Serena Ramirez Serena Ramirez

Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold Wins Nobel Prize

Google DeepMind, one of the leading forces in building ethical and practical AI systems, has recently been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for its work on a system called AlphaFold.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

Santa Cruz County Board to Discuss AI

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors is set to hold an important meeting on September 19th to discuss artificial intelligence and its impacts on the local community. This conversation is welcomed as AI technology continues to rapidly advance and affect more aspects of our lives.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

Can ChatGPT “see”?

Microsoft recently found that GPT-4 could generate images, despite not being specifically trained for this task. Local AI experts Will Mayall takes the blinders off of ChatGPT.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

The AI Karaoke Catastrophe You Won't Want to Miss

What happens when you get a group of locals together at a wine bar, with a local musician, and let AI rewrite the lyrics to your favorite songs in some sort of AI karaoke? Pour decisions, of course!

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

AI, Your Unseen Confidant

As AI increasingly shapes our world, its understanding of us grows. This advancement brings potential benefits but necessitates careful privacy considerations.

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AI Doug Erickson AI Doug Erickson

Letter to Santa Cruz County Supervisors

As we find ourselves poised on the cusp of this era powered by A.I., it becomes vitally important that we recognize the promise held within this technology to elevate and enhance our communities. These tensions between privacy and convenience, between innovation and regulation, are the knots we must untangle as we navigate our way towards the future. And as we do so, a measure of humor and self-awareness might not be amiss.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

AI News: AI Regulations Begin

Europe took a step toward AI regulations last week with a European Parliament vote on the AI Act, a proposed law that would establish requirements for AI makers and users based on risk levels.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

Recording: AI for Knuckleheads

Artificial intelligence includes many specialized algorithims which process large sets of data. The panel discussed various types of AI as well as the considerations underlying their use and application.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

Xnor.ai is on the Edge AI

Company Xnor.ai has announced a small energy efficient chip using state-of-the-art deep learning algorithms.

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