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Google’s plan to build 50-hectare ‘energy-gobbling’ AI data centre on farmland sparks fury in Austria
Google has proposed building a large-scale artificial intelligence data centre spanning 50 hectares on farmland in Austria, a plan that has provoked strong opposition from local residents and campaigners. Critics have branded the facility “energy-gobbling”, reflecting widespread concern about the vast electricity and water demands of AI infrastructure and the loss of agricultural land to…
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Udio taps content-security BuyDRM to secure its AI music ‘walled garden’
Udio has partnered with content-security specialist BuyDRM to protect the streaming of its AI-generated music, using the company’s KeyOS MultiKey Service to provide multi-DRM support across Google Widevine, Apple FairPlay and Microsoft PlayReady. The deal, announced on 14 July, is part of the technical groundwork underpinning Udio’s transformation from a defendant in music-industry copyright litigation…
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Jeff Bezos and UK government invest in £2bn British startup CuspAI
Jeff Bezos and the UK government’s sovereign AI fund have invested in CuspAI, a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence startup that aims to become a “search engine for rare materials” to speed up scientific and industrial breakthroughs. The company wants to use AI to discover new materials that reduce reliance on rare metals such as iridium and…
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Auditors tell UK government to do the math before banking on £45B AI savings
The UK’s National Audit Office (NAO) has urged civil service leaders to properly assess how artificial intelligence will affect the size, shape and skills of the public sector workforce before assuming it will deliver the government’s projected £45 billion in annual savings. The watchdog says departments have yet to show how AI-driven efficiencies would translate…
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Sacked traffic controller exposed for using AI in legal battle to save his job after he was fired for allegedly urinating in public in front of workmate
A traffic controller who was dismissed after allegedly urinating in public in front of a colleague has been caught using artificial intelligence in his subsequent legal fight against the sacking. The case highlights the growing, and sometimes controversial, use of AI tools by individuals pursuing employment disputes, raising questions about transparency and the reliability of…
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AI ops tools will create console sprawl and break IT more often: Gartner
Yet by 2030, a quarter of the IT ops work you do now will be handled by an unsupervised clanker
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Chinese President Xi Jinping wants emergency response systems to keep AI in check
Chinese President Xi Jinping used a major speech on artificial intelligence to call for greater international openness around AI development while warning that safeguards are needed to prevent misuse. He argued AI is shifting from the digital to the physical world and represents a historic opportunity for open-source collaboration, but also urged countries to establish…
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Netflix paid $587M for Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking startup
Netflix has disclosed in a regulatory filing that it paid $587 million in cash to acquire InterPositive, an AI filmmaking startup co-founded by actor and director Ben Affleck. The deal, first announced in March, sees the entire InterPositive team join Netflix, with Affleck taking on a senior advisory role. The acquisition underscores Netflix’s growing bet…
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Can an Apple lawsuit derail OpenAI’s hardware plans?
On the latest episode of Equity, we debate whether Apple’s lawsuit will cast over OpenAi’s much-discussed plans to get into hardware and go public.
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I hate that I don’t hate this song made with Suno
Musician 1010Benja has released a track, “Semiramis’ Dream,” made using the AI music generator Suno, arguing openly against the stigma attached to such tools rather than hiding his use of them. The Verge’s review notes that the song, the opening track on his EP Time Has Nothing To Do With What You Choose…, avoids the…