AI Archives - WPTF-AM

Schools use AI to monitor kids, hoping to prevent violence. Our investigation found security risks

Schools are turning to AI-powered surveillance technology to monitor students on school-issued devices like laptops and tablets. The goal is to keep children safe, especially amid a mental health crisis and the threat of school shootings. Machine-learning algorithms flag suspected problems like bullying, self-harm or suicide and then alert school officials. But these tools raise serious questions about privacy and security. When The Seattle Times and The Associated Press partnered to investigate school surveillance, reporters inadvertently received access to almost 3,500 unredacted student documents through a records request. The documents were stored without a password or firewall, and anyone with the link could read them.… Continue Reading

Trump’s AI ambition and China’s DeepSeek overshadow an AI summit in Paris

PARIS (AP) — The geopolitics of artificial intelligence will be in focus at a major summit in France this week. World leaders, executives and experts will gather in Paris for the AI Action Summit to hammer out pledges on guiding the development of the rapidly advancing technology. It’s the latest in a series of global dialogues around AI governance. It comes at a fresh inflection point as China’s buzzy and budget-friendly DeepSeek chatbot shakes up the industry. U.S. Vice President JD Vance — making his first trip abroad since taking office — will attend. And China’s President Xi Jinping will be sending his special envoy, signaling high stakes for the meeting.… Continue Reading

DeepSeek’s new AI chatbot and ChatGPT answer sensitive questions about China differently

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese tech startup DeepSeek’s new artificial intelligence chatbot has sparked discussions about the competition between China and the U.S. in AI development, with many users flocking to test the rival of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Observers are eager to see whether the Chinese company has matched America’s leading AI companies at a fraction of the cost. The chatbot’s ultimate impact on the AI industry is still unclear, but it appears to censor answers to sensitive topics, a practice commonly seen on China’s internet. For example, when it was asked on Tuesday about Beijing’s bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989, it said the event was beyond its scope and suggested talking about something else.… Continue Reading

Tech stocks tumble as a Chinese competitor threatens to upend the AI industry; Nvidia down 16%

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s superstars are tumbling as a competitor from China threatens to upend the artificial-intelligence frenzy they’ve been feasting on. The S&P 500 fell 1.7% Monday. Big Tech stocks took some of the heaviest losses, with Nvidia down 16%, and they dragged the Nasdaq composite down 3.2%. Stocks outside of AI-related industries held up much better, though, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 137 points. A Chinese company called DeepSeek said it had developed a large language model that can compete with U.S. giants at a fraction of the cost.… Continue Reading

Paul McCartney says he fears AI will rip off artists

LONDON (AP) — Paul McCartney has urged the British government not to make a change to copyright laws that he says could let artificial intelligence companies rip off artists. The government is consulting on whether to let tech firms use copyrighted material to help train artificial intelligence models unless creators opt out. McCartney told the BBC that would make it harder for artists to retain control of their work and undermine Britain’s creative industries. “You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don’t own it, and they don’t have anything to do with it. And anyone who wants can just rip it off,” he said in an interview extract released Saturday.… Continue Reading

Google forges ahead with its next generation of AI technology while fending off a breakup threat

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google on Wednesday unleashed another wave of artificial intelligence designed to tackle more of the work and thinking done by humans as it tries to stay on technology’s cutting edge while also trying to fend off regulatory threats to it internet empire. The next generation of Google’s AI is being packaged under the Gemini umbrella unveiled a year ago. Google is framing its release of Gemini 2.0 as a springboard for AI agent built to interpret images shown through a smartphone, perform a variety of tedious chores, remember the conversations they have with people, help video game players plot strategy and even tackle the task of doing online searches.… Continue Reading

Stock market today: Tech stocks and AI pull Wall Street to more records

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes reached more records after tech companies talked up how much artificial intelligence is boosting their results. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% Wednesday to add to what looks to be one of its best years of the millennium. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7%, while the Nasdaq composite added 1.3% to its own record. Salesforce pulled the market higher after highlighting its artificial-intelligence offering for customers. Marvell Technology jumped even more after saying it’s seeing strong demand from AI. Treasury yields eased, while bitcoin climbed after President-elect Donald Trump nominated a crypto advocate to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.… Continue Reading

Founder of artificial intelligence company used by schools in Los Angeles, NYC, Atlanta is arrested

NEW YORK (AP) — The founder of an artificial intelligence company that worked with large school districts nationwide has been arrested on fraud charges. Joanna Smith-Griffin had been arrested Tuesday in North Carolina. She is the founder of the AI technology company ALLHere Education Inc. It serviced schools in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta using a chatbot that created learning plans for each student. Federal authorities say she defrauded investors out of millions of dollars by inflating the company’s financial information to secure investments. It was not immediately clear who would represent her in an afternoon court appearance in North Carolina.… Continue Reading

Google Maps adds AI features to help users explore and navigate the world around them

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — Google Maps is heading down a new road steered by artificial intelligence. The shift announced Thursday will bring more of the revolutionary AI technology that Google already has been baking into its dominant search engine to the widely used digital maps service that the internet company launched nearly 20 years ago as part of its efforts to expand into new frontiers. Google Maps recently surpassed 2 billion worldwide monthly users for the first time, a milestone that illustrates how dependent people have become on the service. With the introduction of Google’s AI technology, the maps are now being set up to become an entertainment guide in addition to a navigational tool.… Continue Reading

Researchers say an AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Whisper is a popular transcription tool powered by artificial intelligence, but it has a major flaw. It makes things up that were never said. Whisper was created by OpenAI. It’s being used in many industries worldwide to translate and transcribe interviews, generate text in popular consumer technologies and create subtitles for videos. OpenAI has promoted Whisper as having near “human level robustness and accuracy.” But more than a dozen computer scientists and software developers tell The Associated Press that isn’t always the case and that it’s prone to making up chunks of text and even entire sentences. An OpenAI spokesperson says the company studies how to reduce that and updates its models incorporating feedback received.… Continue Reading