Artificial Intelligence - Page 3

Microsoft could be quietly planning a complete rebrand for its AI suite that is currently under the monkier "Copilot," according to reports from last week.

The report cites a template file for Microsoft's Group Policy Object Editor or AppPrivacy.adml, which makes reference to something called "Windows Intelligence". Notably, Apple decided to brand its AI features and services under the umbrella "Apple Intelligence," which was recently debuted across various Apple products in iOS 18.2 - and respective OS updates. As for Microsoft, the company may be internally referring to its suite of AI features as "Windows Intelligence," and this is no indication of a looming rebranding for Copilot.

Additionally, Microsoft has only been using the "Copilot" branding for a little over a year, and switching to "Windows Intelligence" would be an apparent play-by-play copy of Apple's approach. Microsoft recently rolled out a fleet of new AI-focussed laptops under the "Copilot" branding. These Copilot laptops are available in several prominent brands, such as ASUS, Acer, Dell, and more. Abandoning the Copilot branding would harm the marketing for each of these products.

Quanta Computer is reportedly gearing up to boost production of its AI servers in the US, as the Taiwan AI server giant has its US factories "fully loaded" until the end of 2025.

NVIDIA's new entry with GB200 has been trial-produced in factories in both Taiwan and the United States, with volume of GB200 slowly increasing in Q1 2025 for Quanta Computer, noting that "the situation is very good". Yang Qiling, executive deputy general manager of Quanta attended the recent Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) annual meeting and was interviewed, which is where the new information is coming from.

Qiling noted that Quanta has production capacity on both the east and west coasts othe United States, but will continue to expand its two factories in the US "in response to demand in the future". There was concern about US manufacturing issues that might arise in the new Trump administration, but "Quanta is more comfortable with it".

NVIDIA is reportedly already redirecting orders away from Super Micro Computer, (SCMI) after the company has found itself embroiled in controversy... its accounting firm resigning on the spot, and a DOJ investigation.

SCMI's biggest client is NVIDIA, and its second-biggest client is an entity backed by NVIDIA... pretty much forcing NVIDIA to start redirecting orders away from SMCI to other suppliers. In a new report from DigiTimes, we're learning that NVIDIA has started redirecting its orders placed with SCMI, to other suppliers.

SCMI is now looking at allegations of financial malfeasance, a preliminary DOJ investigation, and the sudden resignation of its accounting firm Ernst & Young which was in the process of auditing SCMI. NVIDIA shifting orders for its new B200 and GB200 AI servers away from Super Micro Computer, with Team Green being its biggest client... isn't looking good at all.

Researchers at "Which?," a UK organization that's a subsidiary of the Consumers' Association, discovered that some air fryers may be sharing their owners personal information and sending it back to China for marketing purposes.

The researchers at the organization looked at three air fryer brands and found that all of them requested permission to record audio through the user's phone, but didn't specify the reason why the microphone permission was necessary. More specifically, the air fryers were from brands such as Aigostar and Xiaomi, both of which were found to be sending their buyers personal data back to servers located in China.

Air fryers weren't the only device the team looked at as it also conducted an analysis on smartwatches, smart speakers and smart TVs. Starting with smart speakers, the researchers found that Amazon's Echo device was more consumer-friendly as it has the option to skip various requests to share data. However, Amazon and Google accounts are required to use the Echo Pop or Nest Mini, which contain trackers that users cannot opt out of.

Amazon's latest feather in the cap of its Prime Video service is a feature that recaps a series you're watching that's powered by AI.

It's called X-Ray Recaps, and the capability uses generative AI to create brief and easily digestible summaries of seasons of TV shows, Amazon explains.

We've all been there, and what with gaps of a year between seasons (or longer in some cases), it's easy to forget what was going on in the various subplots and threads of relationships in the show you were watching.

Meta's plan to construct a nuclear-powered data center to support its exponentially growing AI ventures was foiled when a species of bees was discovered.

According to a new report from The Financial Times, Meta was negotiating a deal with an owner of an already established nuclear power plant, but the deal fell apart due to environmental and regulatory problems. The deal was for the operator of the nuclear power plant to provide electricity to a presumably nearby soon-to-be-constructed data center. The publication didn't reveal the location of the proposed data center, or the nuclear power plant operator, but it did reveal a rare species of bees was discovered on the land the project was meant to be built.

The FT report stated Mark Zuckerberg discussed this point at a company meeting last week, where he said the discovery of the bee species complicated the project, and contributed to the ultimate cancellation. The unfortunate setback for Meta won't stop the company from finding a new building location, along with a clean energy supply. With the rise in AI data centers and the incredible amounts of power needed to fuel them, nuclear power has been thrown back into the conversation as a viable solution.

Meta has seemingly responded to the recent reports that top Chinese institutions linked to China's government have taken Meta's publicly available Llama model for military purposes by granting US government agencies access for defense purposes.

The announcement from Meta came after a report from Reuters claimed six researchers from three Chinese institutions, including two under the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) leading research body, used an early version of Meta's powerful AI model called Llama. The report claimed Meta's AI model was used by the researchers as a base for what is called "ChatBIT," and that this AI model was "optimised for dialogue and question-answering tasks in the military field," according to a paper reviewed by Reuters.

Notably, Meta's Llama model is open-source, meaning it is publicly available. However, Meta prohibits the use of any of its Llama models for military purposes, and, under its own guidelines, lists the following prohibited use cases for its AI models - "military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, espionage". These guidelines fall in line with the push from the US government not to fall behind in the race to develop the most sophisticated AI model, as providing adversial countries with the tools to develop more sophisticated systems would jeopardize the US's substantial lead in the space.

Apple only just released iOS 18.1, which included the company's first slew of Apple Intelligence features. The new iOS update is currently being rolled out in different regions around the world, and we have already got a taste of what iOS 18.2 has in store.

We already know that Apple plans to release new Apple Intelligence features in the coming months, as the company stated in its announcement that Genmoji, Image Playground, and other AI features would be arriving at an unannounced date in December. Now, iOS 18.2 beta has been released to developers, and judging by what's included the coming iOS update will include some new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to the one's that have already been released.

According to reports the iOS 18.2 beta version includes additional improvements to the Camera Control button on iPhone 16 models, such as the inclusion of focus and exposure lock controls. Moreover, iOS 18.2 will include an update for the Find My app that allows the sharing of lost AirTags and other items with anyone. Apple has also enabled users the choice of upgrading to ChatGPT Plus, a subscription program to ChatGPT that enables larger image and file uploads, real-time conversations with AI, and various other features designed to improve AI interaction.

Huawei unveiled its new Ascend 910B AI chip earlier this year, but it has been discovered that a chip made by TSMC was found inside of the AI processor... which isn't good, at all.

In a new report from the Taipei Times, we're learning that this could be a (huge) breach of US export restrictions, that have been in place against seeing sensitive technologies used by Chinese companies and the CCP government. This incident has triggered "significant concern" in the IT industry, as it appears that "proxy buyers are acting on behalf of restricted Chinese companies to bypass the US rules, which are intended to protect its national security".

How was this discovered? Canada-based research firm TechInsights performed a die analysis of Huawei's new Ascend P910B AI trainer, releasing its findings on October 9. Inside, was a TSMC chip that was part of a multi-chip system that Huawei used for the AI trainer, with TSMC informed of the discovery on October 23. TSMC said it had notified the governments in Taipei and Washington of the issue.

AMD and Fujitsu have just announced a new strategic partnership to create computing platforms for AI and high-performance computing (HPC).

The new partnership includes aspects from technology development to commercialization, and will further boost the creation of open source and energy-efficient platforms using advanced processors with "superior power performance and highly flexible AI/HPC software" that aims to accelerate open-source AI and HPC initiatives.

The insane rise of AI including generative AI, cloud service providers (CSPs) and users are wanting optimized architectures, at various price and power-per-performance configurations explains AMD in the press release.