<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="429" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_44RTBPTQEBOPJJS4DZGDBIRFWI-820x429.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-546009" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_44RTBPTQEBOPJJS4DZGDBIRFWI-820x429.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_44RTBPTQEBOPJJS4DZGDBIRFWI-300x157.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_44RTBPTQEBOPJJS4DZGDBIRFWI-160x84.jpg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_44RTBPTQEBOPJJS4DZGDBIRFWI-768x402.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_44RTBPTQEBOPJJS4DZGDBIRFWI-1536x804.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_44RTBPTQEBOPJJS4DZGDBIRFWI.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Customers and workers are seen at a Huawei store at Sandton City mall in Sandton, South Africa February 16, 2022. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko <a href="https://www.reutersagency.com/en/licensereuterscontent/?utm_medium=rcom-article-media&amp;utm_campaign=rcom-rcp-lead" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Purchase Licensing Rights</a></figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Oct 24 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Huawei&nbsp;HWT.UL&nbsp;Cloud&#8217;s business in South Africa has grown fast over the past five years and it plans to launch more cloud solutions to expand market share to boost revenue, a company executive said on Thursday.



Increased demand for faster computing from South African firms and the government has attracted big cloud operators into the country, with Huawei the first international vendor to host a local &#8216;hyperscale&#8217; cloud data centre in South Africa in 2019.



Huawei Cloud has served more than 1,000 customers from the government, financial services, education and telecoms sectors as well as some media and e-commerce companies, Jacqueline Shi, president of Huawei Cloud Global Marketing and Sales Service told delegates at the company&#8217;s cloud summit in Johannesburg.



&#8220;With this kind of strong support from different customers, our cloud business in South Africa has increased more than 16 times over the past five years,&#8221; Shi said.



She told reporters that the total revenue amount &#8220;is still not so big&#8221;, which has encouraged the company to launch more cloud solutions and capture a larger share of the country&#8217;s market.



The cloud market in South Africa is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of around 26% between 2023 and 2028 to 113 billion rand ($6 billion) in value, according to market research company Africa Analysis.



The adoption of artificial intelligence is also driving spending by corporate customers.



&#8220;Go to cloud or not, is not an option anymore. The question is how far and how to do it quickly,&#8221; Huawei Cloud South Africa Chief Executive Steven Chen told reporters.



The Chinese tech giant, which is going head-to-head with cloud services rivals Microsoft&nbsp;MSFT.O, Amazon&nbsp;AMZN.O&nbsp;and Alphabet&#8217;s&nbsp;GOOGL.O&nbsp;Google for customers in South Africa, has three data centre zones or locations in Johannesburg.



($1 = 17.6962 rand)



(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_44RTBPTQEBOPJJS4DZGDBIRFWI

Huawei Cloud sees fast business growth in South Africa

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/107240789-1684075132097-gettyimages-1240490159-UK_UBER-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-539941" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/107240789-1684075132097-gettyimages-1240490159-UK_UBER-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/107240789-1684075132097-gettyimages-1240490159-UK_UBER-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/107240789-1684075132097-gettyimages-1240490159-UK_UBER-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/107240789-1684075132097-gettyimages-1240490159-UK_UBER-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/107240789-1684075132097-gettyimages-1240490159-UK_UBER-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/107240789-1684075132097-gettyimages-1240490159-UK_UBER.jpeg 1858w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An Uber-dedicated charger at a BP Pulse electric vehicle charging station in central London, U.K., on Monday, April 11, 2022. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on Tuesday announced that the company is updating its platform with new sustainability-minded features, including an “EV preference” that will let customers opt for fully electric vehicles by default, whenever they hail a ride.



The company previously launched an “Uber Green,” service which has historically included a mix of battery electric vehicles, and hybrid electric models. Now, Uber can offer battery electric vehicles as the sole “green” option in more than 40 cities globally, executives said at Uber’s annual Go Get Zero sustainability conference in London on Tuesday.



Speaking at Uber’s GO-GET Zero event in London, Khosrowshahi said that the company’s rollout of new sustainability-focused features arrives ahead of the 2024 U.S. elections, adding this is a time when the topic of EVs has become a “politically-charged issue.”



However, he noted that the overall trend is moving toward all-electric mobility options.



“The reality is that we will only reach or zero emission goals if policymakers and other businesses do their part as well,” Khosrowshahi said at the event.



“We need more affordable EVs, we need stronger EV mandates, we need incentives for people who are driving the most. We want to make sure that chargers are available at every community, not just the wealthiest. So we all need to step up,” he said.



For drivers, Uber said it is rolling out an “EV Mentor” program, which connects drivers for any questions about electric mobility. The company also debuted an AI chatbot powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, looking to answer questions for drivers on the ride-hail network about what it takes to buy and use a battery electric vehicle instead of a gas-burning vehicle.



Transportation has been responsible for about 25% of carbon emissions from human activity globally, according to estimates by the non-profit International Council on Clean Transportation. Carbon emissions, and other greenhouse gases from human activity, cause long-term shifts in temperatures and weather, while also contributing to respiratory disease by forming smog and air pollution.



Ride-hailing services like Uber’s can contribute to traffic congestion and therefore, pollution, according to analysis by Suvrat Dhanorkar, Gordon Burtch and others published in the journal of Transportation Science. Uber has been working to reduce its environmental footprint and looks to become a “zero-emissions platform” by 2040.



On the delivery side of its platform, Uber is adding farmers’ market produce to Uber Eats offerings in two major U.S. markets: New York City and Los Angeles.



Uber said it will also be investing nearly $1 million to enable restaurants in Paris that sell meals via Uber Eats to switch to more sustainable packaging, such as seaweed-based packaging from NotPLA,&nbsp;bags made of foliage by Releaf, and&nbsp;straws made of agricultural suAgar residuals from IAmPlasticFree.



According to statistics tracked by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), residents in Paris generate more than 400 kg (880 lb) of waste each year. France has implemented laws to reduce this waste, requiring fast food restaurants to move away from disposable, plastic packaging and utensils.



In the U.K., specifically, Uber said it’s launched a partnership with British energy supplier Octopus Energy and Chinese EV firm BYD to co-fund 1,000 free home chargers worth almost £1,000 each for drivers in the U.K.



The deal will give Uber drivers the ability to access Octopus’ “Intelligent Go” tariff to help them with EV charging costs. Drivers will also be able to get 8% off at public charging systems across Octopus’ Electroverse network.



“This is the first partnership between uber a power company and an EV manufacturer and it will meaningfully reduce charging costs for drivers,” Rebecca Tinucci, Uber’s head of global sustainability, said at the London event Tuesday. Tinucci was formerly senior director of charging infrastructure at Tesla.

107240789-1684075132097-gettyimages-1240490159-UK_UBER

Uber gives users option to only hail full-electric cars, launches AI chatbot for EV-curious drivers

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="615" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108038698-1727224394854-OpenAI_Voice-820x615.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-534792" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108038698-1727224394854-OpenAI_Voice-820x615.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108038698-1727224394854-OpenAI_Voice-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108038698-1727224394854-OpenAI_Voice-120x90.jpg 120w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108038698-1727224394854-OpenAI_Voice-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108038698-1727224394854-OpenAI_Voice-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108038698-1727224394854-OpenAI_Voice-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">OpenAI has launched advanced voice mode for audio chats with ChatGPT. Jordan Novet, CNBC</figcaption></figure>



ChatGPT is ready for more natural audio chats.



OpenAI said Tuesday that its popular chatbot now has an advanced voice feature for people who pay for the premium service. The tool allows for more fluid conversations.



The release will continue through the week. The company said it’s not yet available in EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland or the U.K.



OpenAI announced the new capability in May. The rollout got plenty of publicity because of a voice called Sky that resembled that of Scarlett Johansson in the 2013 movie “Her.” Legal counsel working on behalf of Johansson sent OpenAI letters claiming the company didn’t have the right to use the near-identical voice, and OpenAI paused using it in its products, CNBC reported.



In the months since, people have been able to configure ChatGPT to talk to them in other voices through a free tier. The advanced version responds more quickly and will stop talking and listen if you interrupt it. There are now nine voices to choose from, and you can enter instructions for voice chats in the Customizations part of the app’s settings.



“Hope you think it was worth the wait,” Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, wrote in an X post on Tuesday.



It’s an increasingly competitive space for OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft.



For the past couple weeks, Google has been releasing its own Gemini Live voice feature in English on Android devices. And on Monday, Reuters reported that Meta will introduce celebrity voices later this week that can be accessed through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.



OpenAI got a head start in the generative AI chatbot market, when it launched ChatGPT in late 2022. In August, OpenAI told media outlets that ChatGPT had over 200 million weekly active users.



The advanced mode is only available to those with subscriptions to OpenAI’s Plus, Team or Enterprise plans. The most affordable option is the Plus tier at $20 per month.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-here-s-what-to-do"><a></a>Here’s what to do</h2>



If you’re paying, it’s easy to get started, assuming OpenAI has granted access to your device.



First, make sure you have the latest version of the app on your phone.



Open the ChatGPT app.



OpenAI says you’ll receive a notification in the app once it’s turned on access to the new feature. Hit the continue button to get started.



Create a new chat by swiping right or tapping the two-line icon in the top left corner and selecting ChatGPT at the top. To the right of the “Message” text field and the microphone icon, you should see a sound wave icon. Tap that and make sure your sound is on.



In a few seconds, you’ll hear a little “bump” sound, and the circle in the middle of the screen will morph into a fluid sky-like blue and white animation. Start speaking. You should receive a response quickly. Don’t be surprised if audio breaks up a bit.



OpenAI said it has improved accents in some foreign languages and has increased the speed of conversations. But if you don’t like what you’re hearing, you can ask ChatGPT to speak differently. You can tell it to speed up, for example, or incorporate a Southern accent.



With advanced voice mode, you can have ChatGPT tell you a bedtime story, help you get ready for a job interview or even work on your foreign language skills.



But even if you’re paying, you won’t have unlimited access to advanced voice mode. After using it for about a half hour on Tuesday, I started seeing “15 minutes left” at the bottom of the screen.



OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for details about the time limit.

108038698-1727224394854-OpenAI_Voice

OpenAI just launched advanced voice mode for audio chats with ChatGPT. Here’s how to use it

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108031541-1725948491431-gettyimages-2170168255-Illustration_Huawei_Foldable_Phone_Booking-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-529070" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108031541-1725948491431-gettyimages-2170168255-Illustration_Huawei_Foldable_Phone_Booking-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108031541-1725948491431-gettyimages-2170168255-Illustration_Huawei_Foldable_Phone_Booking-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108031541-1725948491431-gettyimages-2170168255-Illustration_Huawei_Foldable_Phone_Booking-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108031541-1725948491431-gettyimages-2170168255-Illustration_Huawei_Foldable_Phone_Booking-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108031541-1725948491431-gettyimages-2170168255-Illustration_Huawei_Foldable_Phone_Booking-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/108031541-1725948491431-gettyimages-2170168255-Illustration_Huawei_Foldable_Phone_Booking.jpeg 1858w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Illustration of a user browsing booking information for Huawei’s new foldable mobile phone in Suqian, Jiangsu province, China, Sept 8, 2024.  Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



As Huawei tries to upstage Apple’s new iPhone with the launch of its own ‘trifold phone’ on Tuesday, its chip capabilities remain a weakness, despite recent breakthroughs, according to one analyst. 



Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday, Martin Yang, senior analyst of emerging technologies at Oppenheimer &amp; Co., said Huawei’s chip remains two or three years behind the cutting edge.&nbsp;



The gap on technology for their systems-on-chip, or SoCs, that merge central processing with cellular connectivity,&nbsp;is “widening because [Huawei] still doesn’t have access to any below 7 nanometer processes,” said Yang.&nbsp;In chip manufacturing, a nanometer denotes the size of transistors on a processor.



The smaller the size of a transistor, the more can be fit on a chip, increasing its level of advancement.&nbsp;



Huawei had made a smashing breakthrough last year when it released its Mate 60 smartphone, which included an advanced 7-nanometer chip originating from China. 



The speed in which Chinese firms were able to reach this benchmark surpassed what many analysts thought possible under U.S. trade restrictions that limited China’s access to advanced semiconductor tech. 



On the back of this success, Huawei has been able to take back market share from Apple in China, the largest smartphone market in the world.&nbsp;



However, unlike with the Mate 50, Huawei has not announced a big chip breakthrough for its latest phone launch.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Meanwhile, Apple is now on its second generation of 3 nanometer processes, and are already showing a 10% to 15% performance boost on this year’s phone compared to last year’s first generation 3 nanometer process, according to Yang.&nbsp;



“I think the chip will not be a big focus area or big marketing point for Huawei’s upcoming phone this week,” Yang said.&nbsp;



Instead, the company will likely try to downplay this chip disadvantage in the coming launch week and instead try to highlight that its phone is the first trifold phone on the market, he added.&nbsp;



Huawei has been accepting preorders for the foldable phone, the Mate XT, since Sept. 7. According to its website, the phone had already received more than 3.5 million preorders as of Tuesday. 



However, the Mate 60 RS, which Huawei released last year similarly had respectable reservations numbers, but failed to transfer them to actual sales, according to Yang. 



“I wouldn’t expect real world shipments in the [3 million range],” he said.



Speaking to CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia,” on Tuesday, Navkendar Singh, of the International Data Corporation, said that while Huawei has dominated in sales of foldable smartphones, the market remains niche due to consumer concerns about price and functionality.

108031541-1725948491431-gettyimages-2170168255-Illustration_Huawei_Foldable_Phone_Booking

In Huawei’s battle against Apple, chips are still a weakness, says analyst

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-2163954491-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-513690" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-2163954491-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-2163954491-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-2163954491-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-2163954491-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-2163954491-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-2163954491-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">PARAGUAY &#8211; 2024/07/30: In this photo illustration, the Artificial intelligence (AI) text logo seen in the background with a silhouette hand holding a smartphone. (Photo Illustration by Jaque Silva/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



The European Union’s landmark artificial intelligence law officially enters into force Thursday — and it means tough changes for American technology giants.



The AI Act, a landmark rule that aims to govern the way companies develop, use and apply AI, was given final approval by EU member states, lawmakers, and the European Commission — the executive body of the EU — in May.



CNBC has run through all you need to know about the AI Act — and how it will affect the biggest global technology companies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-the-ai-act"><a></a>What is the AI Act?</h2>



The AI Act is a piece of EU legislation governing artificial intelligence. First proposed by the European Commission in 2020, the law aims to address the negative impacts of AI.



It will primarily target large U.S. technology companies, which are currently the primary builders and developers of the most advanced AI systems.



However, plenty other businesses will come under the scope of the rules — even non-tech firms.



The regulation sets out a comprehensive and harmonized regulatory framework for AI across the EU, applying a risk-based approach to regulating the technology.



Tanguy Van Overstraeten, head of law firm Linklaters’ technology, media and technology practice in Brussels, said the EU AI Act is “the first of its kind in the world.”



“It is likely to impact many businesses, especially those developing AI systems but also those deploying or merely using them in certain circumstances.”



The legislation applies a risk-based approach to regulating AI which means that different applications of the technology are regulated differently depending on the level of risk they pose to society.



For AI applications deemed to be “high-risk,” for example, strict obligations will be introduced under the AI Act. Such obligations include adequate risk assessment and mitigation systems, high-quality training datasets to minimize the risk of bias, routine logging of activity, and mandatory sharing of detailed documentation on models with authorities to assess compliance.



Examples of high-risk AI systems include autonomous vehicles, medical devices, loan decisioning systems, educational scoring, and remote biometric identification systems.



The law also imposes a blanket ban on any applications of AI deemed “unacceptable” in terms of their risk level.



Unacceptable-risk AI applications include “social scoring” systems that rank citizens based on aggregation and analysis of their data, predictive policing, and the use of emotional recognition technology in the workplace or schools.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>What does it mean for U.S. tech firms?</h2>



U.S. giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Meta have been aggressively partnering with and investing billions of dollars into companies they think can lead in artificial intelligence amid a global frenzy around the technology.



Cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud are also key to supporting AI development, given the huge computing infrastructure needed to train and run AI models.



In this respect, Big Tech firms will undoubtedly be among the most heavily-targeted names under the new rules.



“The AI Act has implications that go far beyond the EU. It applies to any organisation with any operation or impact in the EU, which means the AI Act will likely apply to you no matter where you’re located,” Charlie Thompson, senior vice president of EMEA and LATAM for enterprise software firm Appian, told CNBC via email.



“This will bring much more scrutiny on tech giants when it comes to their operations in the EU market and their use of EU citizen data,” Thompson added



Meta has already restricted the availability of its AI model in Europe due to regulatory concerns — although this move wasn’t necessarily the due to the EU AI Act.



The Facebook owner earlier this month said it would not make its LLaMa models available in the EU, citing uncertainty over whether it complies with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.



The company was previously ordered to stop training its models on posts from Facebook and Instagram in the EU due to concerns it may violate GDPR.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>How is generative AI treated?</h2>



Generative AI is labelled in the EU AI Act as an example of “general-purpose” artificial intelligence.



This label refers to tools that are meant to be able to accomplish a broad range of tasks on a similar level — if not better than — a human.



General-purpose AI models include, but aren’t limited to, OpenAI’s GPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude.



For these systems, the AI Act imposes strict requirements such as respecting EU copyright law, issuing transparency disclosures on how the models are trained, and carrying out routine testing and adequate cybersecurity protections.



Not all AI models are treated equally, though. AI developers have said the EU needs to ensure open-source models — which are free to the public and can be used to build tailored AI applications — aren’t too strictly regulated.



Examples of open-source models include Meta’s LLaMa, Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion, and Mistral’s 7B.



The EU does set out some exceptions for open-source generative AI models.



But to qualify for exemption from the rules, open-source providers must make their parameters, including weights, model architecture and model usage, publicly available, and enable “access, usage, modification and distribution of the model.”



Open-source models that pose “systemic” risks will not count for exemption, according to the AI Act.



It’s “necessary to carefully assess when the rules trigger and the role of the stakeholders involved,” he [who said this?] said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>What happens if a company breaches the rules?</h2>



Companies that breach the EU AI Act could be fined between 35 million euros ($41 million) or 7% of their global annual revenues — whichever amount is higher — to 7.5 million or 1.5% of global annual revenues.



The size of the penalties will depend on the infringement and size of the company fined.



That’s higher than the fines possible under the GDPR, Europe’s strict digital privacy law. Companies faces fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of annual global turnover for GDPR breaches.



Oversight of all AI models that fall under the scope of the Act — including general-purpose AI systems — will fall under the European AI Office, a regulatory body established by the Commission in February 2024.



Jamil Jiva, global head of asset management at&nbsp;fintech firm Linedata, told CNBC the EU “understands that they need to hit offending companies with significant fines if they want regulations to have an impact.”



Similar to how GDPR demonstrated the way the EU could “flex their regulatory influence to mandate data privacy best practices” on a global level, with the AI Act, the bloc is again trying to replicate this, but for AI, Jiva added.



Still, it’s worth noting that even though the AI Act has finally entered into force, most of the provisions under the law won’t actually come into effect until at least 2026.



Restrictions on general-purpose systems won’t begin until 12 months after the AI Act’s entry into force.



Generative AI systems that are currently commercially available — like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini — are also granted a “transition period” of 36 months to get their systems into compliance.

In this photo illustration, the Artificial intelligence (AI

World’s first major AI law enters into force — here’s what it means for U.S. tech giants

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="929" height="523" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108009036-1721398542475-gettyimages-2162004949-AA_19072024_1780984.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-511432" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108009036-1721398542475-gettyimages-2162004949-AA_19072024_1780984.jpeg 929w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108009036-1721398542475-gettyimages-2162004949-AA_19072024_1780984-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108009036-1721398542475-gettyimages-2162004949-AA_19072024_1780984-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108009036-1721398542475-gettyimages-2162004949-AA_19072024_1780984-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108009036-1721398542475-gettyimages-2162004949-AA_19072024_1780984-768x432.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 929px) 100vw, 929px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The blue screen of death errors on computer screens are viewed due to the global communications outage caused by CrowdStrike, which provides cyber security services to US technology company Microsoft, on July 19, 2024 in Ankara, Turkey.  Harun Ozalp | Anadolu | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said that over 97% of Windows sensors are back online after an update from the cybersecurity firm caused one of the world’s biggest IT outages.



“To our customers still affected, please know we will not rest until we achieve full recovery,” Kurtz said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday.



Last week, CrowdStrike issued a routine update to its users around the world — which mainly comprise large businesses — that had a bug which caused Microsoft’s Windows operating system to crash.



Many users woke up on Friday to a blue screen error on Windows. The IT outage sparked chaos around the world, with flights being cancelled, businesses closing early and even medical staff scrambling to keep operations running.



CrowdStrike rolled back the update to fix the issue.



The company’s share price has been hammered since the incident, as CEO Kurtz looks to contain the reputational fallout.



“I am deeply sorry for the disruption this outage has caused and personally apologize to everyone impacted. While I can’t promise perfection, I can promise a response that is focused, effective, and with a sense of urgency,” he wrote on LinkedIn.



To apologize for the incident, CrowdStrike sent Uber Eats gift cards to “teammates and partners who have been helping customers through this situation,” a company spokesperson told CNBC.



TechCrunch previously reported the news and added that some people were having trouble using the gift card.



“Uber flagged it as fraud because of high usage rates,” a CrowdStrike spokesperson said.

108009036-1721398542475-gettyimages-2162004949-AA_19072024_1780984

CrowdStrike CEO says 97% of Windows sensors back online after major outage

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2048" height="1366" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/107418094-1716321352537-gettyimages-2153474140-AFP_34TH9TC-scaled.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-511392" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/107418094-1716321352537-gettyimages-2153474140-AFP_34TH9TC-scaled.jpeg 2048w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/107418094-1716321352537-gettyimages-2153474140-AFP_34TH9TC-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/107418094-1716321352537-gettyimages-2153474140-AFP_34TH9TC-820x547.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/107418094-1716321352537-gettyimages-2153474140-AFP_34TH9TC-135x90.jpeg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/107418094-1716321352537-gettyimages-2153474140-AFP_34TH9TC-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/107418094-1716321352537-gettyimages-2153474140-AFP_34TH9TC-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo: via CNBC</figcaption></figure>



OpenAI on Thursday announced a prototype of its search engine, called SearchGPT, which aims to give users “fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.”



The company said it eventually plans to integrate the tool, which is currently being tested with a small group of users, into its ChatGPT chatbot.



The rollout could have implications for Google and its dominant search engine. Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, Alphabet investors have been concerned that OpenAI could take market share from Google in search by giving consumers new ways to seek information online. 



With this prototype, OpenAI is testing the waters for doing just that, promising users the chance to “search in a more natural, intuitive way” and ask follow-up questions “just like you would in a conversation.”



“We think there is room to make search much better than it is today,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote Thursday in a post on X.



Alphabet shares fell more than 3% on Thursday to close at $167.28, while the Nasdaq was down less than 1%.



In May, Google launched AI Overview, which CEO Sundar Pichai called the biggest change in search in 25 years, to a limited audience, allowing users to see a summary of answers to queries at the very top of Google Search.



Though Google had been working on AI Overview for more than a year, public criticism mounted after  users quickly noticed that queries returned nonsensical or inaccurate results within the AI feature — without any way to opt out.



“Google has been kind of shaking in their boots a little bit since this stuff first popped off,” said Daniel Faggella, founder and head of research at Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research, referring to generative artificial intelligence. “We haven’t seem their company crumble in the interim, but we have seen them kind of fumble.”&nbsp;



The SearchGPT announcement follows OpenAI’s launch last Thursday of a new AI model, “GPT-4o mini.” The new model is an offshoot of GPT-4o, the startup’s fastest and most powerful model to date, which it launched in May during a livestreamed event with executives. 



OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, has been valued at more than $80 billion by investors. The company, founded in 2015, is under pressure to stay on top of the generative AI market while finding ways to make money as it spends massive sums on processors and infrastructure to build and train its models.



Last Month, OpenAI announced the hiring of two top executives as well as a partnership with Apple that includes a ChatGPT-Siri integration. Sarah Friar, previously CEO of Nextdoor and finance chief at Square, joined as chief financial officer, and Kevin Weil, an ex-president at Planet Labs and former senior vice president at Twitter and a vice president at Facebook and Instagram, joined as chief product officer.



OpenAI is bolstering its C-suite as its large language models gain importance across the tech sector and as competition rapidly emerges in the burgeoning generative AI market.&nbsp;



Both OpenAI’s new mini AI model and the prototype of SearchGPT are also part of the company’s push to be at the forefront of “multimodality,” or the ability to offer a wide range of types of AI-generated media, like text, images, audio, video and search, inside one tool: ChatGPT.



For SearchGPT, OpenAI’s blog post said the tool’s visual results will lead to “richer understanding” for users.



Last year, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap told CNBC, “The world is multimodal.” He added that as humans “engage with the world, we see things, we hear things, we say things,” so limiting interactions to text is insufficient.

107418094-1716321352537-gettyimages-2153474140-AFP_34TH9TC

OpenAI announces a search engine called SearchGPT; Alphabet shares dip

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="929" height="523" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108008818-1721376380367-gettyimages-2162122113-europapress_6090171_spain_national_team_plane_arriving_durin.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-509305" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108008818-1721376380367-gettyimages-2162122113-europapress_6090171_spain_national_team_plane_arriving_durin.jpeg 929w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108008818-1721376380367-gettyimages-2162122113-europapress_6090171_spain_national_team_plane_arriving_durin-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108008818-1721376380367-gettyimages-2162122113-europapress_6090171_spain_national_team_plane_arriving_durin-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108008818-1721376380367-gettyimages-2162122113-europapress_6090171_spain_national_team_plane_arriving_durin-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/108008818-1721376380367-gettyimages-2162122113-europapress_6090171_spain_national_team_plane_arriving_durin-768x432.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 929px) 100vw, 929px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Spain National Team plane arriving at Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport on July 15, 2024, in Madrid, Spain. Europa Press Sports | Europa Press | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



July 19 (Reuters) &#8211; A global tech outage that appeared to be related to issues at global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and Microsoft was affecting operations in various sectors on Friday including airports, airlines, media and banks.



Below is a list of disruptions that have been reported:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-airlines-airports">AIRLINES, AIRPORTS</h2>



&#8211; Berlin airport has halted all flights until 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) due to a technical fault, the operator said.



&#8211; Spanish airport operator Aena reported a computer systems &#8220;incident&#8221; at all Spanish airports which may cause flight delays.



&#8211; Amsterdam&#8217;s airport Schiphol, one of the major air transport hubs in Europe, said it was affected by a global cyber outage, and advised travellers to contact their airlines.



&#8211; Top Dutch airline KLM said it could not handle flights on Friday and that it suspended most of its operations. Air France, KLM&#8217;s parent company, said that its operations were disrupted.



&#8211; Turkish Airlines is experiencing problems with ticketing, check-in, and booking due to a global technical issue in its information systems, it said in a post on X.



&#8211; Major U.S. carriers including American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines issued ground stops on Friday morning citing communication issues.



&#8211; A SAS spokesperson said the Scandinavian airline was expecting delays.



&#8211; Australia&#8217;s national airline Qantas and Sydney airport said planes were delayed but still flying.



&#8211; Passengers at Britain&#8217;s Edinburgh Airport were unable to use automated boarding pass scanners on Friday, and monitors at security displayed a message saying &#8220;server offline&#8221;, a Reuters witness reported.



&#8211; Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific&nbsp;0293.HK&nbsp;said in a note to customers that self-service check in facilities at Hong Kong International Airport were unavailable due to &#8220;unexpected technical issues&#8221;. It advised customers to arrive early or check in online before coming to the airport.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-financials">FINANCIALS</h2>



&#8211; Australia&#8217;s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank, said some customers had been unable to transfer money due to the service outage.



&#8211; Several major oil and gas trading desks in London and Singapore were struggling to execute trades due to a cyber outage on Friday, six industry sources told Reuters.



&#8211; Macquarie Capital was unable to provide liquidity for unexpired warrants on HKEX due to technical problems.



&#8211; South Africa&#8217;s Capitec said card payments, ATM and app services were fully restored following significant nationwide disruptions linked to CrowdStrike.



&#8211; LSEG Group&#8217;s Workspace news and data platform suffered an outage on Friday that affected user access worldwide, causing disruption across financial markets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-media">MEDIA</h2>



&#8211; Sky News, one of Britain&#8217;s major television news channels, was off air on Friday.



&#8211; Australia&#8217;s state broadcaster ABC said it was experiencing a &#8220;major network outage&#8221;, without giving a reason.



&#8211; Regular programming at Sky News Australia was disrupted.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-emergency-services-healthcare">EMERGENCY SERVICES, HEALTHCARE</h2>



&#8211; A health booking system used by doctors in England is offline, medical officials said on X on Friday.



&#8211; Several hospitals in the Netherlands had to scale down their operations because of the power outage, Dutch press agency ANP reported.



&#8211; Victorian state police in Australia said some internal systems had been hit by the outage but emergency services were operating normally.



&#8211; Copenhagen&#8217;s fire department said on X it was experiencing problems receiving automatically transmitted fire alarms following the outage, and urged people to call 112 in case of a fire.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-other">OTHER</h2>



&#8211; A spokesperson for New Zealand&#8217;s parliament said its computer systems had also been affected.



(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Compiled by Anna Pruchnicka, Andrey Sychev; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

108008818-1721376380367-gettyimages-2162122113-europapress_6090171_spain_national_team_plane_arriving_durin

Global tech outage delays flights and disrupts services around the world

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="588" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/YDXUHLFUPRP4RNSFLEWADBZOR4-820x588.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-500391" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/YDXUHLFUPRP4RNSFLEWADBZOR4-820x588.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/YDXUHLFUPRP4RNSFLEWADBZOR4-300x215.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/YDXUHLFUPRP4RNSFLEWADBZOR4-125x90.jpg 125w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/YDXUHLFUPRP4RNSFLEWADBZOR4-768x551.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/YDXUHLFUPRP4RNSFLEWADBZOR4-1536x1102.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/YDXUHLFUPRP4RNSFLEWADBZOR4-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">FILE PHOTO &#8211; The tower of the headquarters of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is seen in Basel, Switzerland March 18, 2021. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, June 25 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Central banks should embrace the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)has said, but stressed the technology should not replace humans when it comes to setting interest rates.



In its first major report into the rapidly advancing world of AI, the central banking umbrella group said policymakers need to harness its immense power to monitor data in real time in order to &#8220;sharpen&#8221; their inflation-predicting abilities.



That was something found badly wanting in the wake of COVID-19 and Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine when the U.S. Federal Reserve, ECB and other major central banks all failed to grasp the strength of the global inflation surge.



New AI models should reduce the risk of a repeat although their untested nature and the fact they can &#8220;hallucinate&#8221; mean they should not become robo-ratesetters, Cecilia Skingsley, a top official at the BIS, said.



&#8220;We like to hold humans accountable,&#8221; the former Swedish central banker said, referring to the crucial role borrowing costs play in society and the need for judgment.



&#8220;So I can&#8217;t really see a future where an AI will be setting (interest) rates.&#8221;



The BIS, often dubbed the central bankers&#8217; central bank because of the joint work it does, already has eight projects involving AI.



Hyun Song Shin, its head of research and top economic adviser, said policymakers should not view it as &#8220;something magical&#8221; but did say it can help find needles in haystacks and spot vulnerabilities in financial systems.



The technology is also likely to radically reshape labour markets, impacting productivity and economic growth. Widespread adoption could see firms adjust prices more quickly in response to macro-economic changes with repercussions for inflation.



The BIS cautioned that AI also introduces risks, such as new types of cyber attacks, and may amplify existing ones, such as herding, bank runs and financial asset fire sales.



&#8220;The call for action to central banks is to foster a community of practice,&#8221; Shin said. &#8220;To share experience, to share best practice, but also to share data and the models themselves.&#8221;



(Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Jason Neely)

FILE PHOTO – The tower of the Bank for International Settlements is seen in Basel

Central banks must prepare for profound impact of AI, BIS says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ZJ7VVLBOAZNETDZF34KQ7NPIJ4-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-497768" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ZJ7VVLBOAZNETDZF34KQ7NPIJ4-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ZJ7VVLBOAZNETDZF34KQ7NPIJ4-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ZJ7VVLBOAZNETDZF34KQ7NPIJ4-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ZJ7VVLBOAZNETDZF34KQ7NPIJ4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ZJ7VVLBOAZNETDZF34KQ7NPIJ4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ZJ7VVLBOAZNETDZF34KQ7NPIJ4-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LAGOS/NAIROBI/JOHANNESBURG, June 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;When the Nigerian government announced plans in April to develop a multilingual AI tool to boost digital inclusion across the West African nation, 28-year-old computer science student Lwasinam Lenham Dilli was thrilled.



Dilli had struggled to scrape datasets from the internet to build a large language model (LLM), used to power AI chatbots, in his native Hausa language as part of his final-year project at university.



&#8220;I needed texts in English and their corresponding translation in Hausa but I couldn&#8217;t get anything online, (there was) no clean data,&#8221; Dilli told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.



&#8220;(Creating local language LLMs) is a way to ensure that our local dialects and languages will not be forgotten or left out of the AI ecosystem,&#8221; he added.



The world has been swept up in a whirlwind of AI mania, with tools such as OpenAI&#8217;s ChatGPT, Meta&#8217;s Llama 2, and Mistral AI captivating millions globally with their ability to generate human-like text.



But for many tech-savvy Africans, the excitement has been tempered by a frustrating reality: when languages like Hausa, Amharic, or Kinyarwanda are entered into the chat, many of these advanced systems falter, often producing nonsensical responses.



Technology experts warn the lack of LLMs in African languages will lead to the exclusion of millions of people on the continent, increasing both the digital and economic divide.



The Nigerian government-led initiative to develop a multilingual LLM aims to level the playing field.



&#8220;The LLM will be trained on five low-resource languages and accented English to ensure stronger language representation &#8230; for development of artificial intelligence solutions,&#8221; said Nigeria&#8217;s Digital Economy Minister Bosun Tijani in April.



The government will partner with Nigerian AI startups, and local data will be collected by volunteers who are fluent in any of five Nigerian languages: Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Ibibio, and West African lingua franca—Pidgin.



To build the model, the project will also draw on the expertise of more than 7,000 fellows from Nigeria&#8217;s tech talent programme &#8211; a government scheme to train three million people in skills such as coding and programming.



Silas Adekunle, co-founder of Awarri, an AI startup that is part of the initiative, said building a nuanced AI tool that understood Nigeria&#8217;s unique language and cultural landscape presented many challenges.



&#8220;We have so many different accents and languages, and this (LLM) will enable many people and developers to build products that leverage AI but are for the Nigerian market,&#8221; said Adekunle.



&#8220;The scale of the project, especially with limited resources, has required us to be creative in how we train the model, gather the data, compute and label what we have.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-closing-the-ai-language-gap">CLOSING THE AI LANGUAGE GAP</h2>



Africa is home to more than 2,000 languages spoken across 54 countries, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).



However, the majority of African languages remain underrepresented on the internet. English dominates the digital space, accounting for around 50% of all websites, followed by Spanish, German, Japanese, and French.



Along with the Nigerian government initiative, there are also a small but growing number of African startups rising to the challenge of developing AI tools in languages like Swahili, Amharic, Zulu and Sesotho.



In Kenya, for instance, health tech firm Jacaranda Health has pioneered the first LLM operating in Swahili to improve maternal healthcare in East Africa.



Built on Meta&#8217;s Llama 3 system, UlizaLlama (AskLlama) aims to refine Jacaranda Health&#8217;s SMS service for low-income Swahili-speaking expectant mothers who have queries ranging from dietary concerns and fetal movement to exercise during pregnancy.



The platform currently provides pre-written automated responses, but once UlizaLlama is integrated by the end of June, it will tailor responses to individual needs, offering more detailed pregnancy guidance and emergency support.



&#8220;A lot of these expectant moms can&#8217;t just do a Google search. UlizaLlama&#8217;s goal is to make sure that we get them the accurate answers in the fastest possible time,&#8221; Jay Patel, Jacaranda Health&#8217;s director of technology, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.



&#8220;We&#8217;re shooting for about 85% accuracy to start with and a faster response time. At the moment, it takes a few minutes to respond, but we are hoping to get that down to less than a minute in the future.&#8221;



In South Africa, the Masakhane initiative is using open-source machine learning to translate African languages.



Lelapa AI, a South African AI research lab, has pioneered VulaVula – a for-profit language processing tool that translates, transcribes and analyses languages in English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Sesotho.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-data-scarcity-ethical-concerns">DATA SCARCITY, ETHICAL CONCERNS</h2>



But AI experts say building LLMs in African languages poses significant challenges, ranging from availability of data to ethical concerns over consent, compensation and copyright.



Many African languages are low-resource languages, meaning there is a scarcity of data to train these models effectively &#8211; unlike high-resource languages such as English or French.



Michael Michie, co-founder of Everse Technology Africa, an AI startup building intelligence into data protection and privacy, said collecting the data needed to train LLMs also raised ethical questions.



In many African communities, oral tradition predominates, and certain communities may not be interested in sharing their language to train LLMs and this should be respected.



&#8220;There are currently no regulations or laws in African countries that address issues related to consent, privacy and compensation to communities when collecting data to train AI tools &#8211; this needs to be addressed,&#8221; said Michie.



&#8220;There are questions of who owns the language and who benefits. There needs to be guidelines to prevent exploitation and ensure the development of these LLMs benefits the people they are meant to serve,&#8221; he added.



Open-source initiatives like Creative Commons, which allow creators to legally share their work with specified conditions like ensuring attribution and non-commercial use, are also not a perfect solution, said some AI experts.



&#8220;At the moment there&#8217;s this push of saying everything should just be under Creative Commons,&#8221; said Vukosi Marivate, associate professor of computer science at the University of Pretoria and co-founder of Lelapa AI.



But if everything is open source, it may be harder to properly reimburse and acknowledge the original contributors to these language models, he said.



&#8220;A lot of people are working on LLMs now because of the prestige, that&#8217;s where the money is, but we need to make sure that our languages are actually being taken care of.&#8221;



(Reporting by Bukola Adebayo, Nita Bhalla and Kim Harrisberg; Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile)

FILE PHOTO: Illustration shows AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and computer motherboard

From Swahili to Zulu, African techies develop AI language tools

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="573" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/EU77SXNC7VKF5PUJALHFIPSWDU-820x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-460717" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/EU77SXNC7VKF5PUJALHFIPSWDU-820x573.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/EU77SXNC7VKF5PUJALHFIPSWDU-300x210.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/EU77SXNC7VKF5PUJALHFIPSWDU-129x90.jpg 129w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/EU77SXNC7VKF5PUJALHFIPSWDU-768x537.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/EU77SXNC7VKF5PUJALHFIPSWDU-1536x1074.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/EU77SXNC7VKF5PUJALHFIPSWDU-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">FILE PHOTO: A MultiChoice logo is displayed outside the company&#8217;s building in Cape Town, South Africa February 2, 2024. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



Pan-African broadcaster MultiChoice reported a steeper full-year loss, as it lost subscribers in its key South African and Nigerian markets, and the naira slumped against the dollar.



Tim Jacobs, the Chief Financial Officer of MultiChoice Group, told CNBC Africa a tough customer environment characterized by declining affordability, resulted in a loss of one million subscribers, led by Nigeria and South Africa where numbers dropped by 5 percent and 9 percent respectively. However, efforts to mitigate losses seemed to be showing signs of progress, he said.



South Africa, Multichoice&#8217;s biggest market has grappled with power shortages over the past few years, with the economy barely growing in 2023, and unemployment remaining close to a record high. In Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has devalued the naira twice and cut fuel subsidies, resulting in inflation surging for 16 consecutive months. <code> </code>



&#8220;We are seeing customers under significant financial pressure and affordability being a big issue,&#8221; Jacobs said. &#8220;We actually started the end of last quarter of the previous financial year with load-shedding and significant pressure on the consumer. That flowed into the first half of this year and we saw that kind of overall trend, you know, kind of persist through the year,&#8221; Jacobs said.



Amidst the struggles in the traditional television segment, MultiChoice found encouragement in the growth of its streaming service DStv Stream, which witnessed a 139% increase, with 90% of customers being new additions to the platform. Jacobs said this shift towards streaming, primarily among a younger audience, reflects evolving consumer preferences. 



Trading in other African markets was no less difficult, with inflation rates soaring to the upper 20s and 30s, he said. The harsh economic conditions have forced consumers to prioritize basic necessities over discretionary expenses like pay television, leading to what Jacobs called a temporary decline in subscriber numbers. 



Operationally, earnings were rescued by tough cost-cutting measures, that saved the company R1.9 billion. However this was outdone by foreign exchange losses of R4.5 billion, the bulk of them at R3.5 billion owing to the devaluation of the naira exchange rate. 



While acknowledging the traditional television model was under pressure, Jacobs sees solace in the appeal of local content, which constituted 33% of broadcast minutes and garnered 46% of viewership. He acknowledges the global shift towards on-demand content consumption, but argues this will be a gradual transition.



Despite the challenges, sports content continues to be a robust acquisition driver for MultiChoice, with major sporting events bolstering platform engagement. He said the company&#8217;s extensive lineup of local and international content will be a key differentiator in a very competitive media landscape.

FILE PHOTO: MultiChoice logo is displayed outside the company in Cape Town

MultiChoice Losses Mount as Subscriber Numbers Slump; Invests in Streaming Services

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107412522-1715225276125-gettyimages-2012746910-jh_coders2_0063-820x461.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-486123" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107412522-1715225276125-gettyimages-2012746910-jh_coders2_0063-820x461.webp 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107412522-1715225276125-gettyimages-2012746910-jh_coders2_0063-300x169.webp 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107412522-1715225276125-gettyimages-2012746910-jh_coders2_0063-160x90.webp 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107412522-1715225276125-gettyimages-2012746910-jh_coders2_0063-768x432.webp 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107412522-1715225276125-gettyimages-2012746910-jh_coders2_0063.webp 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">55% of leaders say they’re concered about having enough talent to fill roles in the year ahead as AI skills become more relevant than ever before, new study finds. Pixdeluxe | E+ | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Today’s winners are learning how to leverage artificial intelligence to stay competitive and relevant — employees and businesses alike.



“AI is not going to replace you. You’re going to be replaced by someone who uses AI to outperform you,” said Laurence Liew, director for AI Innovation at AI Singapore, during a panel discussion at Salesforce’s World Tour Essentials event in Singapore.



While a lot of professionals (45%) worry AI will replace their job, the majority (55%) of leaders are concerned about a lack of talent to fill roles, according to the 2024 Microsoft Work Trends Index.



There is a dearth of talent, and consequently a huge opportunity for people who can learn AI skills, with as many 71% of corporate leaders saying they’d prefer a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced one without them, according to the report.



While AI has been the talk of the town ever since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, big companies have been slow to integrate the technology and help upskill their talent pools.



There is a gap in the modern workplace between what appears necessary and what is seemingly feasible.



While 79% of executives believe their company should adopt AI to stay competitive, the pressure to generate immediate returns on investment has slowed AI transition, according to the Microsoft study.



As a result, employees around the world are taking matters into their own hands, learning to use AI tools on their own. While upskilling on AI at home can lead to a competitive edge, it also poses a few problems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-risks-of-self-learning-ai">The risks of self-learning AI</h2>



Experts say one of the biggest issues with upskilling on AI at home is that many people don’t know how to do it safely and effectively.



To the naked eye, there are many “free” AI resources online such as ChatGPT and other tools using large language models (LLMs), but experts say these tools aren’t actually free. LLMs are algorithms that can identify, summarize, translate, forecast, and produce information by employing huge datasets.



“There’s nothing free in this world. Your data is the commodity that you are trading,” Liew said. “You should not be using your company data or any of your own personal data [when using free online AI tools].”



Doing so can put sensitive personal or company data at risk. Part of upskilling on AI tools is learning how to do so safely and effectively.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The must-have AI skill</h2>



The top skill to learn today is communicating effectively with existing AI-powered LLMs, according to Liew. Open AI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini employ LLMs.



“People use ChatGPT wrongly — because it looks exactly like Google search,” Liew told CNBC Make It.



When working with an LLM, the key is to be specific in your prompts.



“You have to give the AI a lot of context — treat AI like a very hardworking intern that will make mistakes occasionally &#8230; If you think about it, if you’re [asking] an intern to do something, it won’t be one sentence. The intern would probably be scratching their head on what to do,” he said.



The best way to upskill on AI tools at home is to use them, according to Liew. Through practice, you can learn how to feed the LLM more descriptive prompts that will help generate your desired outcome.



“You still need to know [your domain] very well [but] the mundane part of looking through 20 files is now done by the AI system — imagine when you can turn around [work] at that kind of speed — the type of transformation that can happen,” Liew said.



Although AI tools may still seem foreign, by next year, “it will be like knowing how to use your spell-checker in Microsoft Word,” Liew said.

107412522-1715225276125-gettyimages-2012746910-jh_coders2_0063

AI may not replace you, but someone who uses it can — here’s the No. 1 skill you need to stay relevant

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-820x461.png" alt="" class="wp-image-484270" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-820x461.png 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-300x169.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-160x90.png 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor-768x432.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Shenzhen-based LimX Dynamics shows off one of its humanoid robots. Limx Dynamics</figcaption></figure>



BEIJING — ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence is speeding up research and bringing humanoid robots closer to reality in China, home to many of the world’s factories.



AI has been around for decades. What’s changed with the emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot is the ability of AI to better understand and generate content in a human-like way. While the U.S.-based tech is not officially available in China, local companies such as Baidu have released similar chatbots and AI models.



In robotics, the development of generative AI can help machines with understanding and perceiving their environment, said Li Zhang, chief operating officer of Shenzhen-based LimX Dynamics.



About three months after joining the two-year-old startup, Li said he shortened his expectations for how long it would take LimX to produce a humanoid robot capable of not just factory work, but also helping out in a households.



Li originally expected the entire process to take eight to ten years, but now anticipates some use cases will be ready in five to seven years. “After working for a few months, I saw how various tools’ abilities were improved because of AI,” he said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.



“It has accelerated our entire research and development cycle,” he said.



Companies are rushing into the opportunity. OpenAI itself is backing humanoid robot startups, while Elon Musk’s Tesla is developing its own, called Optimus.



Electric car giant BYD last year invested in Shanghai-based Agibot just months after its founding, according to PitchBook.



And at a high level, Chinese state media in November published a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping watching a humanoid robot at an exhibition center during his first trip to Shanghai since the pandemic. The robot was developed by Fourier Intelligence.



Before humanoid robots reach households, as LimX ultimately intends, factories can be a lucrative, enclosed scenario in which to deploy them.



China surpassed Japan in 2013 as the world’s largest installer of industrial robots, and now accounts for more than 50% of the global total, according to Stanford’s latest AI Index report.



Electronics, automotive and metal and machinery were the three leading sectors for industrial robot installation in China, the report said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-impact-on-human-jobs"><a></a>Impact on human jobs</h2>



When it comes fully replacing human workers, however, AI advancements alone aren’t enough.



Even if AI allows a robot to think and make decisions on par with humans, mechanical limitations are a major reason why humanoids can’t yet replace human laborers, LimX’s Li said.



One of LimX’s backers, Future Capital, has also invested in a company called Pan Motor that specializes in motors for humanoids.



Generative AI doesn’t directly help with robotic motion, pointed out Eric Xia, partner at Future Capital, an investor in LimX. But “advances in large language models can help humanoid robots with advanced task planning,” he said in Chinese, translated by CNBC.



LimX’s other investors include Lenovo Capital.



A shift toward factory robots can accelerate, once the cost-per-robot comes down.



Steve Hoffman, chairman of a startup accelerator called Founders Space, said he is working with a Chinese startup called Fastra, which he expects can begin mass robot production in one year. He said he spent time in China this year teaching local businesses how to integrate generative AI.



“We have already received six orders from research institutions,” he said, noting the startup aims to lower the cost per robot to between $50,000 to $100,000 by rollout.



“If we can hit a $50,000 price point, we can sell a lot of robots,” he said, pointing out the robots’ batteries can be charged as they work, 24 hours a day. “Could pay for the robot in a year.”



In pharmaceutical research, generative AI can reduce costs, without cutting into human labor.



“You don’t save costs in our business by having less people. You actually save costs by making fewer experiments that fail,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, chairman of the board, executive director and CEO of Insilico Medicine, which has offices in Hong Kong, New York and other parts of the world.



He noted how large pharmaceutical companies have typically had to spend thousands of dollars to replicate a molecule for testing — and would run a few thousand such tests per program. He claimed that with the help of AI, Insilico only needs to synthesize about 70 molecules per program.



The company published a paper in Nature in March claiming to have reached phase 2 clinical trials for an AI-generated drug.

107405596-1713952166593-231228limxoutdoor

Generative AI is speeding up human-like robot development. What that means for jobs

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-476716" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003.jpeg 929w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Vertigo3d | E+ | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The chief technology officer of Ceres Power has warned that as artificial intelligence tools become more widely used for efficiency, there is a risk that this could result in even higher energy consumption.



“What scares me is the energy consumption if you’re using ChatGPT [for simple queries],” Caroline Hargrove said during an “IOT: Powering the Digital Economy” panel on the new energy landscape.



Hargrove is CTO of Ceres Power, a developer of clean energy technology, including electrolysers for green hydrogen.



An International Energy Agency report, published in January, highlighted that on average a typical Google search uses 0.3 watt-hours of electricity versus 2.9 watt-hours for a ChatGPT request.



The report suggested that when this technology is incorporated into 9 billion searches daily, it would require nearly 10 terawatt-hours of additional electricity a year.  



More broadly, the IEA’s report said that by 2026, the “AI industry is expected to have grown exponentially to consume at least ten times its [electricity] demand in 2023.”



Hargrove said if this consumption was not managed properly “then the perverse effect could happen that we use so much more energy.”



“So as much as I’m a big fan in using the data to really optimize everything, we should use it to reduce our consumption, but the perverse effect can happen when you have a new toy and, and people getting behind it at [such] a rate,” she said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-responsible-users-of-ai"><a></a>‘Responsible users’ of AI</h2>



Mary de Wysocki, chief sustainability officer at technology company Cisco, made a similar point in that it was important to be “responsible users of [AI] where we know where can add the benefit and not just use it because it’s potentially fun.”



Meanwhile, Bertrand Piccard, founder and chairman of the environmental non-profit organization Solar Impulse Foundation, said AI is a “fantastic way to reduce energy consumption” if it is well managed.



Piccard referred to the example of smart electricity grids using this technology that “will integrate intermittent renewable energy … with storage, with the distribution, with the consumption which means that almost no energy will be lost.”



“So [these are] the things that give me hope,” he said.



A report by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition, published in March, looked at the risks that AI could pose amid the climate crisis, including its growing energy demand.



Based on its findings, the coalition recommended that regulators ensure technology companies are transparent in reporting the energy used and emissions produced by their AI models.



CAAD also said governments should enforce these transparency rules with “clear, strong penalties” if companies fail to comply.

107361439-1705616097110-gettyimages-1494104649-2023_vrtg_may_05_0003

Green hydrogen tech boss warns of AI energy consumption risk

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-476713" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002.jpeg 929w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Win-initiative/neleman | Stone | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



With about 100 million tracks available and over 600 million subscribers, helping listeners find the music they will love has become a navigational challenge for Spotify. It’s the promise of personalization and meaningful recommendations that will give the vast catalog more meaning, and that is central to Spotify’s mission.



The streaming audio giant’s suite of recommendation tools has grown over the years: Spotify Home feed,<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__newsroom.spotify.com_2019-2D05-2D02_five-2Dways-2Dto-2Dmake-2Dyour-2Ddiscover-2Dweekly-2Dplaylists-2Deven-2Dmore-2Dpersonalized_&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&amp;r=0CWepIbi9zbaptf4QjVSaQ&amp;m=h9I6Nob4JYekdULzm3jgGOyZdoRdqnNui4auLB7TtMlDKP_ZGUWB6PrjmpMYbufk&amp;s=0QBH1FDSLbahb2il0Si1F0IY6Roe1C9utj_AdXH9x-A&amp;e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> </a>Discover Weekly<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__newsroom.spotify.com_2019-2D05-2D02_five-2Dways-2Dto-2Dmake-2Dyour-2Ddiscover-2Dweekly-2Dplaylists-2Deven-2Dmore-2Dpersonalized_&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&amp;r=0CWepIbi9zbaptf4QjVSaQ&amp;m=h9I6Nob4JYekdULzm3jgGOyZdoRdqnNui4auLB7TtMlDKP_ZGUWB6PrjmpMYbufk&amp;s=0QBH1FDSLbahb2il0Si1F0IY6Roe1C9utj_AdXH9x-A&amp;e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">,</a> Blend, Daylist, and<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__newsroom.spotify.com_2021-2D03-2D31_introducing-2Dnew-2Dspotify-2Dmixes-2Dpersonalized-2Dplaylists-2Dfeaturing-2Dyour-2Dfavorite-2Dartists-2Dgenres-2Dand-2Ddecades_&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&amp;r=0CWepIbi9zbaptf4QjVSaQ&amp;m=h9I6Nob4JYekdULzm3jgGOyZdoRdqnNui4auLB7TtMlDKP_ZGUWB6PrjmpMYbufk&amp;s=T0MnheFfxWq86g36mOmmh_m-Wzgl35V9p7jnRNYwGtM&amp;e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> </a>Made for You Mixes. And in recent years, there have been signs that it is working. According to data released by Spotify at its 2022 Investor Day, artist discoveries every month on Spotify had reached 22 billion, up from 10 billion in 2018, “and we’re nowhere near done,” the company stated at that time.



Over the past decade or more, Spotify has been investing in AI and, in particular, in machine learning. Its recently launched AI DJ may be its biggest bet yet that technology will allow subscribers to better personalize listening sessions and discover new music. The AI DJ mimics the vibe of radio by announcing the names of songs and lead-in to tracks, something aimed in part to help ease listeners into extending out of their comfort zones. An existing pain point for AI algorithms — which can be excellent at giving listeners what it knows they already like — is anticipating when you want to break out of that comfort zone. 



The AI DJ combines personalization technology, generative AI, and a dynamic AI voice, and listeners can tap the DJ button when they want to hear something new, and something less-directly-derived from their established likes. Behind the dulcet tones of an AI DJ there are people, tech experts and music experts, who aim to improve the recommendation capacity of Spotify’s tools. The company has hundreds of music editors and experts across the globe. A Spotify spokesperson said the generative AI tool allows the human experts to “scale their innate knowledge in ways never before possible.” &nbsp;



The data on a particular song or artist captures a few attributes: particular musical features, and which song or artist it has been typically paired with&nbsp;among the millions of listening sessions whose data the AI algorithm can access.&nbsp;Gathering information about the song is a fairly easy process, including release year, genre, and mood — from happy to danceable or melancholic. Various musical attributes, such as tempo, key, and instrumentation, are also identified. Combining this data associated with millions of listening sessions and other users’ preferences helps to generate new recommendations, and makes the leap possible from aggregated data to individual listener assumptions.



In its simplest formulation, “Users who liked Y also liked Z. We know you like Y, so you might like Z,” is how an AI finds matches. And Spotify says it’s working. “Since launching DJ, we’ve found that when DJ listeners hear commentary alongside personal music recommendations, they’re&nbsp;more willing to try something new (or listen to a song they may have otherwise skipped),” the spokesperson said.&nbsp;



If successful, it’s not just listeners that get relief from a pain point. A great discovery tool is as beneficial to the artists seeking to build connections with new fans.



Julie Knibbe, founder &amp; CEO of Music Tomorrow — which aims to help artists connect with more listeners by understanding how algorithms work and how to better work with them — says everyone is trying to figure out how to balance familiarity and novelty in a meaningful way, and everyone is leaning on AI algorithms to help make this possible. Be she says the balance between discovering new music and staying with established patterns is a central unresolved issue for all involved, from Spotify to listeners and the artists.



“Any AI is only good at what you tell them to do,” Knibbe said. “These recommender systems have been around for over a decade and they’ve become very good at predicting what you will like. What they can’t do is know what’s in your head, specifically when you want to venture out into a new musical terrain or category.”&nbsp;



Spotify’s Daylist is an attempt to use generative AI to take into account established tastes, but also the varying contexts that can shape and reshape a listeners’ tastes across the course of a day, and make new recommendations that fit various moods, activities and vibes. Knibbe says it’s possible that improvements like these continue, and the AI gets better at finding the formula for how much novelty a listener wants, but she added, “the assumption that people want to discover new music all the time is not true.”



Most people still return, fairly happily, to familiar musical terrain and listening patterns.&nbsp;



“You have various&nbsp;profiles of listeners, curators, experts … people put different demands on the AI,” Knibbe said. “Experts are more difficult to surprise, but they aren’t the majority of listeners, who tend to be more casual,” and whose Spotify usage, she says, often amounts to creating a “comfortable background” to daily life.



Technology optimists often speak in terms of an era of “abundance.” With 100 million songs available, but many listeners preferring the same 100 songs a million times, it’s easy to understand why a new balance is being sought. But Ben Ratliff, a music critic and author of “Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty,” says algorithms are less solution to this problem than a further entrenching of it.



“Spotify is good at catching onto popular sensibilities and creating a soundtrack for them,” Ratliff said. “Its Sadgirl Starter Pack playlist, for instance, has a great name and about a million and a half likes. Unfortunately, under the banner of a gift, the SSP simplifies the oceanic complexity of young-adult depression into a small collection of dependably ‘yearny’ music acts, and makes hard clichés of music and sensibility form more quickly.” 



Works of curation that are clearly made by actual people with actual preferences remain Ratliff’s preference.&nbsp;Even a good playlist, he says, might have been made without much intention and conscience, but just a developed sense of pattern recognition, “whether it’s patterns of obscurity or patterns of the broadly known,” he said.



Depending on the individual, AI may have equal chances of becoming either a utopian or dystopian solution within the 100-million track universe.&nbsp;Ratliff says most users should keep it more simple in their streaming music journeys. “As long as you realize that the app will never know you in the way you want to be known, and as long as you know what you’re looking for, or have some good prompts at the ready, you can find lots of great music on Spotify.”&nbsp;

107400835-1713107631482-gettyimages-89133867-win308_sub305_002

How Spotify AI plans to know what’s going on inside your head, and find the right track for it

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-474613" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1701923070-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co., during a Bloomberg Television interview on the sidelines of the JPMorgan Tech Stars Leadership Forum in London, UK, on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. &#8220;Your children are going to live to 100 and not have cancer because of technology,&#8221; Dimon said. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Jamie Dimon, the veteran CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, said he was convinced that artificial intelligence will have a profound impact on society.



In his annual letter to shareholders released Monday, Dimon chose AI as the first topic in his update of issues facing the biggest U.S. bank by assets — ahead of geopolitical risks, recent acquisitions and regulatory matters.



“While we do not know the full effect or the precise rate at which AI will change our business — or how it will affect society at large — we are completely convinced the consequences will be extraordinary,” Dimon said.



The impact will be “possibly as transformational as some of the major technological inventions of the past several hundred years: Think the printing press, the steam engine, electricity, computing and the Internet.”



Dimon’s letter, read widely in the business world because of his status as one of the most successful leaders in finance, hit a wide variety of topics. The CEO said that he had ongoing concerns about inflationary pressures and reiterated his warning that the world may be entering the riskiest era in geopolitics since World War II.



But his focus on AI, first mentioned in this format in a 2017 shareholder letter, stood out. The technology, which has gained in prominence since ChatGPT became a viral sensation in late 2022, can generate human-sounding responses to queries. Enthusiasm for AI has fueled the meteoric rise in chipmaker Nvidia and helped propel tech names to new heights.  



JPMorgan now has more than 2,000 AI and machine learning employees and data scientists, Dimon said. But the technology could ultimately touch all of the bank’s roughly 310,000 employees, assisting some workers while replacing others.



“Over time, we anticipate that our use of AI has the potential to augment virtually every job, as well as impact our workforce composition,” Dimon said. “It may reduce certain job categories or roles, but it may create others as well.”



This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon Interview

Jamie Dimon says AI may be as impactful on humanity as printing press, electricity and computers

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="598" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-820x598.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-474536" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-820x598.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-300x219.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-123x90.jpg 123w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-768x560.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-1536x1120.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/100432242-larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-getty-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Every tech company is talking up its AI opportunity. Oracle is no exception. But during an earnings call in March, Oracle’s Larry Ellison laid out a future market opportunity focused on a major customer that investors may think about less often that Fortune 500 companies.



The Oracle founder, former CEO and current chairman and chief technology officer, sees national and state government applications being run on platforms like Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to a much greater degree than today, and indicated that it’s starting to happen in a variety of ways.



“We talk about, you know, winning business with companies. For the first time, we’re beginning to win business for countries,” Ellison said. “We have a number of countries where we’re negotiating sovereign regions with the national government.”



Major tech companies vying for massive government contracts in the cloud are nothing new. Microsoft and Amazon had a lengthy battle over a cloud deal with the Department of Defense, and both those AI players as well as Oracle and Google ended up all in on a $9 billion DoD contract in 2022.



But Ellison went further in his prediction when speaking with analysts on the recent earnings call, saying “Every government, pretty much every government, is going to want a sovereign cloud and a dedicated region for that government.”



Oracle, which works with Nvidia and Microsoft on generative AI capabilities, has already helped use cloud tech to cut red tape for countries. One example Ellison gave was Albania. It is trying to ascend to the European Union with the help of chatGPT, with the generative AI helping to decipher and summarize its laws and aid the country in what it needs to change in order to be compliant with E.U. regulations.



“It took Serbia eight years to harmonize their laws to be able to join the E.U.,” Ellison said. “Albania is facing the same thing, but with generative AI, we can read the entire corpus of the Albanian laws and&nbsp;actually harmonize their laws with the EU in probably more like 18 months to two years.”



Some analysts are skeptical of Ellison’s talk as being anything more than typical C-suite rallying for a key business unit. Oracle shares are up about 21% YTD, but Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow expressed concern about lower OCI growth during its latest earnings, which could “worry investors, as this is the main investment story.”



A version of future featuring cloud services and artificial intelligence-powered solutions can make government more efficient. Ellison said for starters, redundancy is a focus for government, in the case of disaster and disaster recovery. But it’s also moving into health care information and internet access projects.



Countries including Serbia are standardizing on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and using generative AI for processes like automating health care. Deals related to delivery of internet services in partnership with Elon Musk’s Starlink to remote areas are taking place in Kenya and Rwanda, where OCI and Starlink are mapping rural farms to see which crops are growing in what area, and if they are getting enough nutrients like nitrogen and water. “These maps are AI-assisted, help them plan their agricultural output and predict their agricultural output, predict markets, the logistics of the agricultural output, doing all of all of those things as next-generation national applications,” Ellison said.



Food security, rural school and rural hospital internet access, are other examples of what Ellison said are among the “all sorts of interesting new AI applications out there that you’ve probably never heard of before, at least I hadn’t heard of before until these last 12 months now that we’ve worked on and we’re now in the process of delivering.”



He also mentioned automation of vaccination programs, and other healthcare program “across the board.”



“We’re living in a world where like data and information is the gold of the future,” said Dan Gardner, CEO of digital strategy agency Code and Theory. “If the government can get access and action on that their data faster, why would we want to slow that down? We want that to be as efficient as possible. A lot of that is like mundane human resources, that maybe those people could be doing something else that is way more valuable.”



Cloud and generative AI applications allowing countries to give rural areas internet access could increase educational opportunities and create more economic value. It could also allow citizens to have more insight into government processes, said Tapan Parikh, Cornell University associate professor. “One thing technology’s always been good at is potentially making bureaucracies more efficient, or at least more transparent internally,” he said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-black-mirror-governments">‘Black Mirror’ governments</h3>



But the push to move more government processes to the cloud is also opening the door to new risks, especially as countries trust newly developed generative AI systems. While they may make processes faster than ever, there are bound to be mistakes as the technology develops and could make citizen data accessible to cyber criminals. “We shouldn’t use these technologies as an excuse to not maintain oversight and control over political processes,” Parikh said. “Certainly, I think that’s a very important thing, particularly when you’re dealing with countries that may not have the same kind of governance capacity.” Oracle did not respond to a request for additional comment on Ellison’s earnings call discussion.



“There’s the ‘Black Mirror’ bad side of it: Big Brother, data wars, AI warfare and all that stuff,” Garder said. “As far as like removing red tape and being more efficient and getting better use out of crops across the country, that’s incredible. That’s the multiplier of humanity that could really improve because of AI.”



AI raises a host of concerns.



Gardner pointed to the proliferation of more generative content in an election year around the world and all the issues related to tech-enabled interference. “Maybe it’s not like chips on the ground. But it’s data security, authentication of who you are, who governments are, what content you’re viewing, all the connection points between financial systems, and AI governance. Using AI as a tool of destruction is quite scary.”&nbsp;



“No big government in the world can afford to move all of their services and especially critical ones like defense, taxes, health care, completely into the cloud and into the hands of gen AI,”&nbsp;said Simone Bohnenberger, chief product officer at cloud company Phrase. “It’s just not in the realm of, I think it’s not responsible to do that. The potential risks outweigh the benefits of doing that.“ OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, is mostly trained on existing content on the internet. That could pose a problem, especially when text from lesser known languages like Albanian need to be analyzed, Bohnenberger said. “If you look at the World Wide Web or the internet, the vast majority of content there’s English, I think a quarter of the content is English, followed by Chinese,” she said. “Albanian is a minority. It’s very questionable for me how well that actually works for a small country like Albania and like an outlier language, because there’s just not much data you can train a model on. And if you don’t have much data, then the outputs will be very messy.”



Then there’s security and data risks with allowing foreign companies access to citizen data, Parikh said. Even the U.S., with all its resources, has been vulnerable to data hacks, including a recent February incident with contractor CGI Federal which exposed personally identifiable information on employees. The recent battle between the U.S. and China over TikTok is an example of how control of sensitive consumer data can be interjected into geopolitics. “I think certainly that’s a concern going forward for countries who are working with vendors from different countries,” Parikh said.

Technology

Huawei Cloud sees fast business growth in South Africa

Uber gives users option to only hail full-electric cars, launches AI chatbot for EV-curious drivers

OpenAI just launched advanced voice mode for audio chats with ChatGPT. Here’s how to use it

In Huawei’s battle against Apple, chips are still a weakness, says analyst

World’s first major AI law enters into force — here’s what it means for U.S. tech giants

CrowdStrike CEO says 97% of Windows sensors back online after major outage

OpenAI announces a search engine called SearchGPT; Alphabet shares dip

Global tech outage delays flights and disrupts services around the world

Central banks must prepare for profound impact of AI, BIS says

From Swahili to Zulu, African techies develop AI language tools

MultiChoice Losses Mount as Subscriber Numbers Slump; Invests in Streaming Services

AI may not replace you, but someone who uses it can — here’s the No. 1 skill you need to stay relevant

Generative AI is speeding up human-like robot development. What that means for jobs

Green hydrogen tech boss warns of AI energy consumption risk

How Spotify AI plans to know what’s going on inside your head, and find the right track for it

Jamie Dimon says AI may be as impactful on humanity as printing press, electricity and computers

Oracle’s Larry Ellison thinks every government will want to build a ‘sovereign’ AI cloud in the future

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Technology

Huawei Cloud sees fast business growth in South Africa

Uber gives users option to only hail full-electric cars, launches AI chatbot for EV-curious drivers

OpenAI just launched advanced voice mode for audio chats with ChatGPT. Here’s how to use it

In Huawei’s battle against Apple, chips are still a weakness, says analyst

World’s first major AI law enters into force — here’s what it means for U.S. tech giants

CrowdStrike CEO says 97% of Windows sensors back online after major outage

OpenAI announces a search engine called SearchGPT; Alphabet shares dip

Global tech outage delays flights and disrupts services around the world

Central banks must prepare for profound impact of AI, BIS says

From Swahili to Zulu, African techies develop AI language tools

MultiChoice Losses Mount as Subscriber Numbers Slump; Invests in Streaming Services

AI may not replace you, but someone who uses it can — here’s the No. 1 skill you need to stay relevant

Generative AI is speeding up human-like robot development. What that means for jobs

Green hydrogen tech boss warns of AI energy consumption risk

How Spotify AI plans to know what’s going on inside your head, and find the right track for it

Jamie Dimon says AI may be as impactful on humanity as printing press, electricity and computers

Oracle’s Larry Ellison thinks every government will want to build a ‘sovereign’ AI cloud in the future

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters