Robo Daily

Harm caused by health advice from AI chatbots is hard to detect because the conversation stays on the platform of the AI company, the person has nowhere to report the problem and outside researchers cannot measure the damage, according to a perspective paper published in Nature Health. The authors propose transparency requirements for AI companies and independent monitoring.

An agent that acts on its environment cannot always reach the best possible energy efficiency if it keeps all the information it needs for optimal prediction, an international team led by Hans Briegel of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of Innsbruck has shown. In some environments it has to forget parts of its own action history, including information that would have improved its predictions.

Initiatives to label books as written by humans, and not artificial intelligence, are gaining ground following a string of scandals where authors were suspected of using the technology without admitting it. Several labelling schemes, including from Britain, France and Germany, were being showcased at the world's biggest book industry fair in Frankfurt this week, where the challenges posed by AI were hotly debated.

Chinese AI cybersecurity tool Artex said it stopped programmers from accessing its source code, acknowledging misuse by "bad actors" after South Korea linked it to several recent bank hacks. Artex was designed to help organisations strengthen their cyber defences through security testing to find potential weak points. But the South Korean government said this week it was "highly likely" Artex had been used in data breaches at more than seven financial institutions, including major banks.

Two Latvian men who were arrested by UK police inside a military base in southeastern England managed by the US military were released on bail on Friday. The men, aged 32 and 36, were let out "with strict conditions, while detectives continue their investigation," UK counter-terrorism police said. They were found at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Molesworth base in Cambridgeshire -- linked to US and NATO intelligence hubs -- early Thursday after police located a "small breach" in the perimeter.

A new broad set of economic development guidelines adopted by Chinese leadership includes demands for establishing artificial intelligence safeguards while expanding the use of AI across industries, state news agency Xinhua reported Friday. Xinhua said that the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council had issued a set of guidelines "aimed at accelerating the development of new quality productive forces".

Europe's main auto group welcomed Friday an interim EU-China deal that included hybrid vehicles as "a positive step in easing trade tensions". "Today's announcement can help facilitate the transition to a new era of Chinese presence in the European market in an orderly way and this is in the long-term interests of all parties," Sigrid de Vries, director-general of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), said in a statement.

France and Germany insisted on Friday their joint programme to develop a next-generation battle tank remained on track, despite the collapse of the two countries' flagship fighter jet project. The FCAS fighter jet, to be developed by France, Germany and Spain, was seen as a key test of European efforts to work more closely on defence as they seek to present a united front in the face of a hostile Russia.

OpenAI on Friday hit back at three former safety researchers who accused the ChatGPT-maker of firing them for warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence. Refuting claims that the exits were related to safety, the AI firm said an internal probe had uncovered "a significant breach of trust" beyond what they had disclosed.

Donald Trump's campaign to rename artificial intelligence as "super intelligence" is unlikely to win over a wary public and could make matters worse, experts say, even as the US president threatens to treat holdouts as enemies. On Thursday, he warned that anyone refusing to adopt the term would be considered an "ENEMY" by the White House, without saying what that would mean. He had floated the name change in September before the UN General Assembly, saying it sounded much better.