Marshall Heilman, a long-time executive at Google Cloud's Mandiant, has left the company to head up insider-risk firm Dtex Systems, he first tells Axios.
Why it matters:Insider threats — or cyber risks related to employees either purposefully or incidentally leaking corporate data — have become a top concern for security executives, but the industry has yet to catch up.
X.ai, Elon Musk's new artificial intelligence company, appears to have raised at least $134.7 million out of a $1 billion target, per a new SEC filing.
When people want to know what ChatGPT is, they're not asking ChatGPT — they're going to a more traditional source: Wikipedia.
Why it matters: An article describing the AI system was the most popular topic on the online encyclopedia's English-language site in 2023, the Wikimedia Foundation reported Tuesday.
Omidyar Network announced a $30 million investment to prioritize immediate AI risks over existential AI risks and to bridge the gap between AI hype and AI hysteria.
Why it matters: Philanthropists are stepping in to help shift the terms of the AI debate and the Omidyar dollars are intended to broaden who participates in AI discussions.
A free online tool, debuting today, taps generative AI to help new moms and others in New York figure out whether they're eligible for paid family leave and guides them through the application process.
Why it matters:Paidleave.ai aims to solve one challenge while providing a pathway for others to harness generative AI to navigate complicated bureaucracies.
Rockstar Games has revealed the next Grand Theft Auto earlier than planned, with a 90-second trailer that's promising a 2025 release for GTA VI and, in a rare turn for the series, a woman in one of the lead roles.
Why it matters: GTA is not just one of gaming's biggest franchises, but one of entertainment's biggest.
A factory planning to pump out 10,000 two-legged robots a year is taking shape in Salem, Oregon — the better to help Amazon and other giant companies with dangerous hauling, lifting and moving.
Why it matters: Agility Robotics says that its RoboFab manufacturing facility will be the first to mass-produce humanoid robots, which could be nimbler and more versatile than their existing industrial counterparts.
A new global alliance for AI open source development launched Dec. 5, firing shots at the makers of closed AI models (OpenAI, Google and Anthropic) which have dominated much of 2023's AI conversation, and who the alliance believes are creating distractions from immediate AI risks.
Why it matters: More than 50 organizations — under leadership from Meta and IBM — have signed up to the AI Alliance including Intel, Oracle, Dell, AMD, Sony, Hugging Face and Stability AI.
The gender disparity in pursuing STEM careers persists among young people ranging from tweens to recent grads, new data shows.
Why it matters: Like their older counterparts, girls aren't warming to STEM, as diversity in the field is critical for representative and responsible advancements — and despite efforts designed to boost their participation.
2023 will go down as a year of much pleasure and much pain, as great games mixed with great upheaval in the industry, both foreseeable byproducts of gaming's explosive success during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, industry leaders tell Axios.
Why it matters: It's been a dramatic year and one that has experts thinking about the downside of a boom.
Hackers stole personal data belonging to 6.9 million people who used services from the genetic testing company 23andMe in October, a company spokesperson confirmed to Axios on Monday.
Why it matters: The personal data, including ancestry reports, some DNA data, birthdates, self-reported location and profile pictures, went up for sale on a popular hacking forum following the breach, according to TechCrunch, which first reported the number of users affected.
It was only a matter of time before venture capitalists got their own generative AI chatbot, to help them save money on outside lawyers and accountants.
Driving the news: The free new tool is called Decile Base and was developed by VC Lab, a sort of "YC for VCs" that has accelerated nearly 400 venture firms since 2021.
AI startup Runway has reached a deal with Getty Images that will allow the company to offer a more "commercially safe" version of its text-to-video engine, executives from both companies tell Axios.
Why it matters: There's a growing push by AI c0mpanies to offer options for businesses with greater legal protections against copyright claims.
Spotify on Monday said it is cutting 17% of its staff, or roughly 1,500 people globally, in its latest round of layoffs this year.
Why it matters: The steep cuts come as a surprise, given Spotify's most recent quarterly earnings report, which marked the first time the company turned a quarterly profit since 2021.
Forget the low-flying crop-dusting planes of yesteryear — some farmers are now turning to drones to apply pesticides, drop seeds and more.
Why it matters: Crop-dusting is both dangerous and increasingly a lost art, as professional pilots seek safer and better-paying jobs at the airlines and elsewhere.
Running AI is much more energy-intensive than other forms of computing, but as leaders gather for the COP28 global climate summit in Dubai, we know relatively little about AI's net impact on climate change.
Why it matters: Increasing adoption of AI may make it one of the biggest uses of energy globally — putting pressure on AI providers to measure and publish data on energy use and energy sources.
