Articles about AI

In recent weeks, the term ‘cheapfake’ has shot to the forefront of our national consciousness. Cheapfakes -- and their equally disruptive counterpart, deepfakes -- are becoming much more prevalent today, with the volume of this misleading content estimated to be doubling online every six months. That’s why the world’s leading search engines, social media networks and content publishers are taking notice. In recent weeks, Google announced a far-reaching plan to reduce the discoverability of deepfakes in their search rankings.

Luckily, you don’t need the resources of Google to spot altered media. Here, we’ll examine the primary differences between cheapfakes and deepfakes as well as the AI-based tools that can be used to decisively detect them.

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Microsoft is delving into the depths of human brain function, trying to replicate its most complex processes in artificial intelligence. While this might sound like progress, it raises a chilling question: Are we on the brink of creating an AI that could outthink and overpower its creators?

In collaboration with top universities, Microsoft Research Asia is spearheading projects that mimic the brain's intricate neural networks. CircuitNet, one such project, isn't just another AI -- it’s a system designed to think like a human. By replicating the brain's connectivity patterns, CircuitNet could potentially surpass current AI capabilities, processing information with an efficiency and accuracy that traditional systems can’t match.

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On paper, artificial intelligence makes for the perfect intern -- it’s keen to please, happy to do anything thrown its way, and gets on with tasks so efficiently. It’s also prone to making mistakes. And like a human intern, AI tools need training and monitoring rather than being catapulted straight into senior positions --  it is extremely well suited to the repetitive and predictable tasks that we often ask junior staff to handle.

Unlike people, AI works 24/7, never stresses out -- it can complete a vast number of tasks in a short period of time. This makes it ideal for the mundane jobs that people tend to find boring and time-consuming. Take a function such as VAT ledger data analysis, which can contain millions of rows of data -- for a human to correctly analyze every row would not only take an age but would also be mind-numbingly boring. By contrast, AI can examine it in seconds -- think of it as an ‘infinite intern’.

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An Office for National Statistics (ONS) report shows that one in three UK workers now believe AI could take their job. This concern has been intensified by narratives that overlook AI’s success in collaborating with humans. In reality, the most effective AI applications have been those that serve as assistants to employees, enhancing their role and maximizing their productivity, rather than replacing them.

Businesses undoubtedly understand the potential AI has to boost the productivity of employees, with more than three in every four organizations either using or exploring the use of AI. However, employers are equally unaware of the complexity of their employees’ workflows. A recent WalkMe report shows that enterprise leaders believe their business is using an average of 21 applications each week. The true number is 211, with more than 20 percent of those being AI applications.

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Today, hundreds of millions of people use tools like ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas, or Midjourney to create new visuals. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have become part-and-parcel of our daily lives and are propelling the arrival of a new digital era. We now work more efficiently, can better meet professional or creative challenges, and accelerate new innovation.

But AI now has much more intrinsic value than supporting our daily tasks. It is integral to powering our critical services and keeping society running, whether that’s facilitating loan agreements or providing key access to higher education, mobility platforms or medical care. Identity verification, fundamental to online access, was traditionally seen as a gateway to credit checks and opening a bank account, but thanks to AI it now supports services from healthcare to travel and eCommerce.

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Often perceived as a necessary evil in the past, organizations are taking an increasingly proactive and committed approach to the regulation of technology and cybersecurity. Many are even going a step further by embracing independent standards to fill any gaps legislation may not address or, while waiting for laws to catch up with new developments.

Given today’s searing pace of change, characterized by the rapid rise of technologies like GenAI, this marks a positive way forward for businesses that care about their customers as well as their profits.

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While some Windows 11 users might prefer not to have Copilot included in Microsoft's latest operating system, there are also those using older, unsupported versions of Windows who would like to try the tech giant's AI assistant, if only to see what all the fuss is about.

Although Microsoft doesn’t provide Copilot for the likes of Windows XP, Windows 7, Vista, or Windows 8.1, you can still install and run it yourself.

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Primate Labs, the Canadian developer behind PC benchmarking tool Geekbench 6, has unveiled a new addition to its benchmarking family: Geekbench AI 1.0.

Available across the big five desktop and mobile platforms, Geekbench AI allows you to benchmark your devices using a series of frameworks to determine their AI capabilities. But why the need to test your own devices? The era of Artificial Intelligence is upon us, as tech companies fall over themselves in their attempts to convince us that computers can genuinely think for themselves. While the truth of AI -- more a case of machine learning than true intelligence -- doesn’t live up to the hype, that doesn’t mean the AI label is completely useless.

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No matter how you look at it, AI is currently booming. The AI market is on track to reach $407 billion by 2027 (compared to $86.9 billion in 2024). Last year, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer application in history when it reached 100 million monthly active users just two months post launch. McKinsey declared 2023 as Generative AI’s breakout year, and a follow-up 2024 survey found that the percentage of organizations using Generative AI jumped from approximately 50 percent to 72 percent from 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, a culture shift within tech and business has accelerated AI adoption seemingly overnight.

Long before Generative AI entered the scene, tech C-suites were concerned about being left behind. AI’s disruptive potential has only exacerbated this. Companies with the bandwidth to do so are developing their own AI systems or converting existing ones over to AI. Such behavior is motivated primarily by reputation management. No major player wants to look like they were left behind as their competitors innovated to newer heights.

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In Generative AI: Navigating the Course to the Artificial General Intelligence Future, celebrated author Martin Musiol -- founder and CEO of generativeAI.net and GenAI Lead for Europe at Infosys -- delivers an incisive and one-of-a-kind discussion of the current capabilities, future potential, and inner workings of generative artificial intelligence.

In the book, you'll explore the short but eventful history of generative artificial intelligence, what it's achieved so far, and how it's likely to evolve in the future. You'll also get a peek at how emerging technologies are converging to create exciting new possibilities in the GenAI space.

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The course starts by setting the foundation with an introduction to machine learning, Python, and essential libraries, ensuring you grasp the basics before diving deeper.

It then progresses through exploratory data analysis, data scrubbing, and pre-model algorithms, equipping you with the skills to understand and prepare your data for modeling.

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Every country in the world has a vested interest in the outcome of the US election in November. The choice of either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will have huge impact around the globe, and there are some countries that are actively engaged in trying to sway voters and influence 2024 US election.

That the likes of Russia and China are engaged in targeting the result of the poll is unsurprising, but Microsoft has issued a warning that Iran is also planning to influence this year's US presidential election. A report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center highlights evidence of Iranian cyber-influence operations which have already been running for months.

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Generative AI is hard to avoid whether you like it or not. Images created by artificial intelligence proliferate online, as do news reports and countless other types of content -- including essays and research articles.

While it is sometimes incredibly easy to tell when Gen AI has been used to create a portion of text, this not always the case. But that could be set to change as OpenAI is working on a way to watermark Gen AI text, just as has been possible with images created by AI.

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After a lengthy period of testing, Microsoft has announced that the oddly named "new Outlook for Windows" has hit general availability. This means that commercial users, as well as those with personal accounts, are now able to take advantage of the latest version of Microsoft's email client.

As was the case with the previous stage of the rollout, full-scale general availability sees the new Outlook for Windows remaining an opt-in experience -- although this will change. There is, of course, a healthy (or unhealthy, depending on your view...) dose of AI sprinkled throughout, but there is much more to this update.

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Skype is one of those apps that has found numerous ways to irritate users over the years. But in something of a surprise move, Microsoft has announced a change that will instead delight.

Considering that this is a company that has faced complaints and criticism for stuffing ads into its Windows and Office products, the announcement feels very out of character. But the killing off of ads is not the only change in Skype.

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