According to a European Commission report, the EU must catch up to its 2030 AI targets. The investigation into the EU’s Digital Decade project revealed that only 11% of the EU enterprises currently use designated AI technologies, far short of the 75% target set for 2030. At this rate, the Commission estimates it would take almost a century to achieve this goal.
The report also highlighted other areas for improvement, such as the EU being over a decade behind in producing the desired number of tech unicorns and spreading basic tech skills among the general public. Despite these setbacks, European Commission leaders remain optimistic, pointing out that the report offers a clear path forward. Margrethe Vestager, the EC’s competition commissioner, stressed the need for increased State-level investments to reach the digital transformation targets.
Thierry Breton, the EU’s digital chief, echoed these sentiments, emphasising the importance of investments, cross-border cooperation, and the completion of the Digital Single Market to boost the adoption of key technologies like AI. The findings come amid concerns that the EU’s stringent AI regulations could hinder its global competitiveness, especially compared to less regulated regions like the US and China.
Amazon announced it would discontinue its security robot, Astro for Business, designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Launched in November 2021, Astro for Business targeted various sectors, including retail, manufacturing, and health. The decision comes as Amazon shifts its focus to household robots, aiming to enhance the functionality of Astro for home use.
Initially launched for home use, the Astro robot performs tasks such as home monitoring, setting up routines, and playing music and TV shows while moving around the house. The business version, priced at $2,349.99, was available only in the US and provided round-the-clock business monitoring. However, according to an email sent to customers, Amazon will cease support for Astro for Business on 25 September.
To support affected customers, Amazon is offering a $300 credit for a replacement solution and will stop charging the Astro Secure subscription fee, refunding any unused pre-paid fees. That move aligns with Amazon’s commitment to advancing its in-home robotic solutions.
A senior executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei dismissed concerns that a shortage of advanced AI chips would hinder China’s leadership in AI. Zhang Ping’an, CEO of Huawei Cloud, acknowledged China’s computing power limitations but emphasised the need for innovation over-reliance on the most advanced AI chips. His comments come amid tighter US restrictions on AI chip shipments to China, including bans on sales from companies like Nvidia.
Speaking at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, Zhang urged a shift in perspective, stating that the absence of cutting-edge AI chips shouldn’t be seen as a barrier to leading in AI. He highlighted Huawei’s development of its AI chip, Ascend, which is widely used in China for training AI models despite being less powerful than Nvidia’s offerings.
Zhang advocated for innovative approaches leveraging the cloud to overcome the lack of advanced chips, suggesting that combining cloud, edge, and network technologies can enhance efficiency and reduce energy consumption. He also positioned Huawei Cloud as a leader in providing these innovative solutions.
China leads the world in generative AI patent requests, significantly outpacing the United States, according to the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The technology, which has surged in public awareness since late 2022, was linked to approximately 54,000 inventions over the past decade. More than a quarter of these were filed just last year, highlighting the rapid growth and interest in generative AI.
WIPO’s report, the first of its kind, aims to track trends in generative AI development through patent applications. Over 38,200 generative AI inventions originated from China in the past decade, far surpassing the nearly 6,300 from the USA. South Korea, Japan, and India followed with significantly fewer patents. Generative AI, which includes tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Baidu’s Ernie, is utilised across various industries, including life sciences, manufacturing, and telecommunications.
Despite the many patents, WIPO cautions that quantity does not equate to quality. It remains uncertain which patents will hold market value or have a transformative impact on society. While the US and China are often seen as rivals in AI development, US tech companies currently lead the production of cutting-edge AI systems. In 2023, US-based institutions produced 61 notable machine-learning models, compared to 21 from the EU and 15 from China. The US also leads in AI foundation models and private AI investments.
Although Judy Garland never recorded herself reading ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ fans will soon be able to hear her rendition thanks to a new app by ElevenLabs. The AI company has launched the Reader app, which can convert text into voice-overs using digitally produced voices of deceased celebrities, including Garland, James Dean, and Burt Reynolds. The app can transform articles, e-books, and other text formats into audio.
Dustin Blank, head of partnerships at ElevenLabs, emphasised the company’s respect for the legacies of these celebrities. The company has made agreements with the estates of the actors, though compensation details remain undisclosed. That initiative highlights AI’s potential in Hollywood, especially for creating content using synthetic voices, but it also raises important questions about the licensing and ethical use of AI.
The use of AI-generated celebrity voices comes amid growing concerns about authenticity and copyright in creative industries. ElevenLabs had previously faced scrutiny when its tool was reportedly used to create a fake robocall from President Joe Biden. Similar controversies have arisen, such as OpenAI’s introduction of a voice similar to Scarlett Johansson’s, which she publicly criticised.
As AI technology advances, media companies are increasingly utilising it for voiceovers. NBC recently announced the use of an AI version of sportscaster Al Michaels for Olympics recaps on its Peacock streaming platform, with Michaels receiving compensation. While the market for AI-generated voices remains uncertain, the demand for audiobooks narrated by recognisable voices suggests a promising future for this technology.
Australia is set to transfer its top-secret intelligence data to the cloud under a $2 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services to enhance defence interoperability with the United States. Defence Minister Richard Marles emphasised that the move to distributed, purpose-built facilities would bolster the resilience of data crucial for the defence force, ensuring continued operation even if individual servers fail.
The Director General of the Australian Signals Directorate, Rachel Noble, highlighted that the shift will also incorporate increased use of AI to analyse data. Noble stressed the importance of using AI ethically and with careful governance to understand its impact on data and its applications within the intelligence community.
Marles noted the significance of maintaining a common computing environment with US defence forces, especially as modern warfare increasingly relies on top-secret data, such as that used by F-35A joint strike fighter aircraft. He explained that data from sensors feeding into these platforms is vital for targeting, defence, and protection of other assets.
Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, announced that the partnership with Amazon Web Services would enhance national security capabilities and create 2,000 local jobs. Director-General of National Intelligence Andrew Shearer reiterated that interoperability with security partners like the United States remains a top priority.
Meta is set to integrate more generative AI technology into its virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality games, aiming to boost its struggling metaverse strategy. According to a recent job listing, the company plans to create new gaming experiences that change with each playthrough and follow unpredictable paths. The initiative will initially focus on Horizon, Meta’s suite of metaverse games and applications, but could extend to other platforms like smartphones and PCs.
These developments are part of Meta’s broader effort to enhance its metaverse offerings and address the financial challenges faced by Reality Labs, the division responsible for its metaverse projects. Despite selling millions of Quest headsets, Meta has struggled to attract users to its Horizon platform and mitigate substantial operating losses. Recently, the company began allowing third-party manufacturers to license Quest software features and increased investment in metaverse gaming, spurred by CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s growing interest in the field.
Meta’s interest in generative AI is not new. In 2022, Zuckerberg demonstrated a prototype called Builder Bot, which allows users to create virtual worlds with simple prompts. Additionally, Meta’s CTO, Andrew Bosworth, has highlighted the potential of generative AI tools to democratise content creation within the metaverse, likening their impact to that of Instagram on personal content creation.
Generative AI is already making waves in game development, with companies like Disney-backed Inworld using the technology to enhance game dialogues and narratives. While some game creators are concerned about the impact on their jobs, Meta is committed to significant investments in generative AI, even though CEO Zuckerberg cautioned that it might take years for these investments to become profitable.
A French AI research lab, Kyutai, backed by billionaire Xavier Niel, unveiled a new voice assistant, Moshi, that can express 70 different emotions and styles. Revealed at an event in Paris, Moshi demonstrated capabilities such as offering advice on climbing Mt. Everest and reciting poems with a thick French accent. According to Kyutai’s CEO, Patrick Pérez, this assistant could revolutionise human-machine communication.
Moshi enters a competitive landscape dominated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other players like Google and Anthropic. Despite OpenAI’s recent delay in launching a similar voice assistant due to safety concerns, Kyutai plans to release Moshi as open-source technology, allowing free access to its code and research. Such a step aims to foster transparency and collaboration in AI development.
Funded with €300 million and led by former Google DeepMind and Meta Platforms researchers, Kyutai seeks to position Europe as a significant player in AI. During the event, Chief Science Officer Hervé Jégou addressed safety issues, ensuring that tools like indexing and watermarking will track AI-generated audio. The new voice assistant highlights Europe’s potential to advance AI technology globally.
China’s Ministry of Industry has announced the inclusion of 20 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, in a pilot initiative focused on ‘vehicle-road-cloud integration’ for intelligent connected vehicles. The program aims to establish a standardised and unified system by 2026, facilitating the deployment of smart-connected vehicles across the nation, according to a statement released by the ministry on Wednesday.
Why does it matter?
Recently, China announced increased policy support to accelerate the development of smart connected vehicles, which experts believe could make the country the world’s largest market for self-driving cars. As part of these efforts, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology plans to allocate 100 million 11-digit mobile network numbers to enhance communication among vehicles and with back-end management systems. According to McKinsey & Co., projections estimate that China’s autonomous vehicle market could exceed $500 billion in revenue by 2030.
Google’s annual sustainability report reveals a nearly 50% increase in greenhouse gas emissions from 2019 to 2024, primarily due to its data centres and supply chain. The 2024 Environmental Report indicates that Google emitted 14.3 million tons of CO2 equivalent last year, raising concerns about its goal to be net zero by 2030. The company expects emissions to rise further before declining, attributing this trend to the growing energy demands of AI integration and increased investment in technical infrastructure.
Efforts to make data centres more efficient, such as using a new generation of tensor processing units (TPUs), have been offset by the rising energy consumption required for AI. Scope 2 emissions, mainly from data centre electricity use, increased by 37% compared to 2022. The rise outpaced the company’s ability to implement carbon-free energy projects, particularly in the United States and Asia-Pacific region. Differences between Google’s global approach to carbon-free energy and the regional guidelines of the GHG Protocol have also contributed to this mismatch.
Scope 3 emissions, which account for 75% of Google’s overall emissions, rose by 8% year-on-year. These indirect emissions from the supply chain are expected to continue increasing due to capital expenditures and investments in AI-related infrastructure. A single generative AI query consumes nearly ten times the power of a regular Google search, highlighting the significant energy demands of AI technology.
Why does it matter?
Additionally, Google’s data centres consume more than three times the amount of water that Microsoft does to remain cool, underscoring the environmental challenges posed by the tech giant’s operations. The report suggests that while Google is making strides in efficiency, the rapid growth of AI and its associated infrastructure presents significant sustainability challenges.
