Hello everybody. Welcome to Daily Zaps.

Here’s what we got for ya today:

• 💰 Microsoft invests in Mistral AI

• 🥸 Google’s AI blunder

• 🎭 Tyler Perry puts $800M studio expansion on hold

• ❌ FTC bans use of AI to impersonate government agencies and businesses

Let’s get right into it!  

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BIG TECH

Microsoft invests in Mistral AI

Microsoft has entered into a multiyear partnership with Mistral, a French AI startup valued at €2 billion, marking a significant move just over a year after Microsoft's substantial investment in OpenAI.

This new alliance involves Microsoft acquiring a minor stake in Mistral, a company only 10 months old, to bring Mistral's open and commercial language models to Microsoft's Azure AI platform, making it the second firm after OpenAI to offer a commercial language model on Azure.

The partnership aims at the development and deployment of next-gen large language models, highlighted by the launch of Mistral Large, aimed to rival OpenAI's GPT-4, albeit not open source and ranked as the world's second after GPT-4 for API availability. Mistral Large, alongside a new AI chatbot, Le Chat, will be accessible through Mistral's infrastructure or Azure AI services.

BIG TECH

Google pauses Gemini image tool

Google has temporarily halted the image-generating capabilities of its AI tool, Gemini, for creating images of people, after facing criticism for producing historically inaccurate images that misrepresented racial identities, particularly by displaying people of color in contexts expected to show white individuals.

Despite Google's intentions to design Gemini to reflect a diverse global user base, the tool's responses to specific prompts have raised questions about its ability to handle racial and ethnic nuances sensitively.

This development is a setback for Google as it competes in the generative AI space, further complicated by previous issues with its AI tool Bard, showcasing the complexities and sensitivities involved in developing AI systems that are both accurate and culturally aware.

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ENTERTAINMENT

$800M studio expansion on hold due to OpenAI Sora

Over the past four years, Tyler Perry had planned an $800 million expansion of his Atlanta studio, anticipating to enhance it with 12 new soundstages. However, the advent of artificial intelligence, particularly highlighted by OpenAI's text-to-video model Sora, has put these plans on indefinite hold. Perry, both awed and concerned by AI's capabilities, sees its potential to revolutionize film production by eliminating the need for location shoots and set constructions, thereby significantly impacting labor within the industry.

He emphasizes the dual perspective of a business owner seeing opportunity and an employer worried about the workforce, calling for industry-wide collaboration and regulation to mitigate AI's disruptive impact on jobs. Perry's experience with AI in film production underscores its benefits and challenges, prompting a call to action for thoughtful integration and safeguarding of livelihoods in the face of rapid technological advancement.

GOVERNMENT

FTC bans use of AI to impersonate government agencies and businesses

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking public input on a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking aimed at prohibiting the impersonation of individuals, extending the protections of a new rule against government and business impersonation that was finalized.

This move comes in response to a rise in impersonation fraud complaints and concerns about the potential harm from AI-generated deepfakes. The FTC is considering making it unlawful for firms, such as AI platforms, to provide services used for harmful impersonation. FTC Chair Lina M. Khan emphasized the urgency of addressing AI-enhanced impersonation scams.

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