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“The revolution has launched”: OpenAI’s Sam Altman charts the promise and peril of AI at Toronto event (BETAKIT)

In a fireside chat at Toronto’s Design Exchange with Shopify co-founder and CEO Tobias Lütke, Altman expressed a great deal of optimism about the current pace of AI research and development, while also noting the risks. 

“Toronto, by the way, should be one of the hubs for this in the world,” Altman added. “This should be a big moment for Toronto.”

OpenAI CEO tells Senate that he fears AI’s potential to manipulate views (THE WASHINGTON POST)

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman expressed support for an international organization that would set standards for artificial intelligence, saying there is precedent in how governments around the world have approached regulating nuclear weapons.

Caucus group launched to deal with emerging technology like AI, blockchain (BETAKIT)

Citing blockchain and artificial intelligence as two forms of tech rapidly impacting Canada’s social and economic fabric, Michelle Rempel Garner and Colin Deacon said they launched the cross-partisan working group of Canadian parliamentarians.

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ServiceNow Invests In AI-Based Enterprise Startups With $1B Venture Commitment (CRUNCHBASE)

ServiceNow, a cloud infrastructure company based out of California, is diving into the AI arms race with a $1 billion contribution to its venture firm, ServiceNow Ventures, to invest in artificial intelligence and automation companies targeting enterprise use cases.

Mayor Tory’s departure, competing bids, and financial pressure on province and feds place Collision’s future in Canada in doubt (BETAKIT)

While major North American tech conference Collision has privately communicated intentions to extend its Toronto stay by at least another year, no official agreement has been reached, BetaKit has learned. Securing that agreement might be harder than in years past.

The conference has upped its ask to north of $40 million CAD for an extended three-year stay, as five other cities vie to host the conference.

The race to bring generative AI to mobile devices (FINANCIAL TIMES)

As tech companies rush to embed generative AI into their software and services, they face significantly higher computing costs.

Running generative AI on mobile handsets, rather than through the cloud on servers operated by big tech groups, could answer one of the biggest economic questions raised by the latest tech fad.

How Inkbox CFO Louise Hucal handled the process of being acquired by a global corporation (BETAKIT)

Louise Hucal has worked in Fortune 500 companies and been involved in multiple M&A deals as an employee. However, pen maker Bic’s acquisition of temporary tattoo startup Inkbox felt more personal.

“We were not in the ‘be acquired’ head space at all at that point in time and were still comfortably funded by our venture partners,” Hucal said.

Apple Restricts Employee Use of ChatGPT, Joining Other Companies Wary of Leaks (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)

Apple has restricted the use of ChatGPT and other external artificial intelligence tools for some employees as it develops its own similar technology.

Apple is concerned workers who use these types of programs could release confidential data.

ChrysaLabs raises $15 million to help farmers unearth soil data using AI (BETAKIT)

Montréal-based agtech startup ChrysaLabs, which provides soil-testing technologies, has raised a $15-million CAD funding round.

Founded in 2017, ChrysaLabs offers a sampling probe that can help farmers unearth deeper insights into their soil. According to ChrysaLabs, the probe can analyze 40 different soil parameters, using artificial intelligence to deliver real-time insights.

Sanctuary rolls out Phoenix, a Carbon-based humanoid AI labor robot (NEW ATLAS)

Canada’s Sanctuary AI has revealed a new humanoid robot, shooting for the “world’s first human-like intelligence in general purpose robots (GPR).”

The humanoid form certainly isn’t the most efficient shape for a useful robot – but it’s an excellent shape for a robot that’s designed to take over as many human tasks as possible.

The apocalypse isn’t coming. We must resist cynicism and fear about AI (THE GUARDIAN)

Stephen Marche, who recently joined the Betakit Podcast, pens an opinions piece that runs counter to the “doomerism” surrounding the AI conversation.

“Let’s get a sense of what this alien is before we blow it out of the sky. Maybe it’s beautiful.”

Alberta’s tech sector remained resilient in first quarter of 2023 (BETAKIT)

According to briefed.in’s latest report, startups in Alberta raised $225.5 million in the first quarter of 2023. This represents a 30 percent increase in investment from the previous quarter and a 10 percent increase year-over-year.

AI is coming for voice actors, but some see an opportunity
(THE GLOBE AND MAIL)

When Voices.com, a website that connects voice actors with clients, announced it had launched Voices.ai, a service for voice actors to clone their voice and earn royalties, it received more blowback than expected.

For those who depend on their voices for their livelihoods, deriving passive income from an AI clone might be appealing. But for others, it represents an insidious creep toward their own demise.

Québec attracted more venture funding than any other Canadian region in Q1 2023 (BETAKIT)

Despite seeing a decline in venture funding both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, Québec attracted more investment than any other Canadian region in the first quarter of 2023.

The post A|I: The AI Times – OpenAI’s Sam Altman says this Canadian city should become a hub for AI first appeared on BetaKit.