Tech & Society
Innovation Can’t Win: Bureaucracy chokes AI growth as lawmakers tighten grip
Politicians and pundits have conjured visions of doom to convince lawmakers to clamp down on AI. What if terrified legislators choke off innovation in AI?
Tech & Society
Tech & Society
AI Burns All the Energy: Will AI’s growing power demands drain the grid?
The globe’s growing AI infrastructure requires huge amounts of electricity, possibly more than power providers can generate responsibly. Could AI models suck energy resources dry?
Letters
The Psychology of AI Doom: Why do people who are well informed about AI worry about unrealistic dangers? There are incentives for doomsaying.
Welcome to our special Halloween issue of The Batch, in which we probe fears, anomalies, and shadows of AI.
Tech & Society
AI Giants Go Nuclear: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft bet on nuclear power to meet AI energy demands
Major AI companies plan to meet the growing demand with nuclear energy.
Letters
To Fight Climate Change, It’s Time to Consider Geoengineering: Hurricanes Helene and Milton took hundreds of lives, not to mention other disasters driven by climate change. Stratospheric aerosol injection could save countless lives.
To Fight Climate Change, It's Time to Consider Geoengineering
Tech & Society
A Year of Contending Forces: State of AI report highlights 2024’s major trends and breakthroughs
A new report documents the interplay of powerful forces that drove AI over the past year: open versus proprietary technology, public versus private financing, innovation versus caution.
Business
U.S. Cracks Down on AI Apps That Overpromise, Underdeliver: U.S. Federal Trade Commission launches Operation AI Comply to tackle deceptive business practices
The United States government launched Operation AI Comply, targeting businesses whose uses of AI allegedly misled customers.
Business
Malaysia’s Data Center Boom: Malaysia emerges as an AI and cloud computing hub, drawing billions in investment
Malaysia’s location, natural resources, and investor-friendly government are perfect for data centers, turning part of the country into an AI-fueled boomtown.
Tech & Society
German Court Says LAION Didn’t Violate Copyrights: LAION wins copyright case in Germany
A German court dismissed a copyright lawsuit against LAION, the nonprofit responsible for large-scale image datasets used to train Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and other image generators.
Letters
Nobel Prizes for AI!: Nobel committees for physics and chemistry honored AI researchers. How can the AI community itself can celebrate the next generation of innovators?
Congratulations to Geoff Hinton and John Hopfield for winning the 2024 Physics Nobel Prize!
Letters
A Victory for Innovation and Open Source: California’s governor vetoed SB 1047, which would have hurt innovation without making anyone safer. Now let’s work on mitigating AI’s real risks and realizing its potential benefits.
We won! California’s anti-innovation bill SB 1047 was vetoed by Governor Newsom over the weekend.
Tech & Society
International Guidelines for Military AI: Global coalition endorses blueprint for AI’s military use
Dozens of countries endorsed a “blueprint for action” designed to guide the use of artificial intelligence in military applications.