The Department of Energy on Tuesday announced a sweeping artificial intelligence program that would give it a big role — and a unique one — in the federal government's AI research efforts.
Driving the news: The department announced the Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security and Technology (FASST) initiative at the AI Expo for National Competitiveness in Washington.
The State Department released its highly anticipated international cyber strategy at the RSA Conference on Monday.
Why it matters: The strategy sets the tone for how the U.S. tackles international cyber diplomacy efforts, including conversations with allied nations about cyber norms, sanctioning ransomware gangs and establishing data governance policies.
The nation's cyber defense agency has finally found its footing as the go-to intermediary between private companies and the U.S. government to defend against major cyberattacks.
Why it matters: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is the youngest U.S. agency, and it's faced several growingpains as it's put down roots in the federal government.
Apple on Tuesday debuted a more powerful iPad Pro using a next-generation M4 processor, along with updates to the midrange iPad Air line, including a larger screen option.
Why it matters: While Apple has not announced new artificial intelligence features, the company touted the potential for the tablets to handle AI tasks.
LOS ANGELES – President Biden and former President Trump will definitely have a debate for the 2024 election, says Jeffrey Katzenberg, key adviser to Biden's re-election campaign and founding partner of WndrCo.
Why it matters: Katzenberg's declaration shows chances are rising that there will be a 2024 presidential debate, after the Biden campaign had declined to commit to one for months.
Biden had told Howard Stern that he's "happy to debate" Trump during his April 24 interview for Stern's Sirius XM radio show.
Catch up quick: Last year, Former President Trump asked the Commission on Presidential Debates to move up the scheduled debates.
Trump made this same request in 2020, but ended up not participating in 1 out 3 presidential debates.
Most recently, he skipped all the Republican presidential debates for the 2024 election.
The presidential debates will take place Sept. 16, Oct. 1 and Oct. 9. The vice presidential debate is set to take place on Sept. 25.
Axios businesseditor Dan Primack interviewed Katzenberg at Axios' first BFD Talks reception.
This event was in partnership with Wheelhouse and sponsored by West Monroe.
Flashback: Katzenberg also recalled meeting a young Trump roughly 50 years ago, who was with his father at the time, and said he was a "colossal a**hole."
Separately, the former Hollywood media mogul also discussed the Paramount Global and Skydance merger that expired last Friday and said it would have been a "great win" for Paramount and the film industry.
When it comes to Sony and Apollo's $26 billion cash offer, Katzenberg says there may be a private equity issue since Sony wouldn't be allowed to hold an FCC license for CBS because it's foreign.
AI has been a major point of contention within the film industry, but Katzenberg thinks the new technology is going to have a positive impact.
"Generative AI is going to be the most empowering and powerful set of tools ever put in the hands of filmmakers by a factor," says Katzenberg.
But, he thinks it'll be another 10 years before AI really interrupts the industry.
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In a View from the Top conversation, West Monroe president Gil Mermelstein says technology is a trend they are seeing in the deal-making space.
He also stressed that AI is a major innovation that many companies bring to the table.
"We see a lot of companies with all kinds of claims. Sometimes they're real, sometimes they're not. That's part of our job to decipher," said Mermelstein on new AI tech.
Dotdash Meredith, one of the largest digital publishers in the U.S., inked a deal with OpenAI to license its content to train OpenAI's algorithms and also work together on new AI products and provide real-time, authoritative information to ChatGPT users.
Why it matters: Dotdash is heavily reliant on advertising traffic from intent-based search queries. Generative artificial intelligence is expected to have a significant impact on publishers who rely on that type of traffic.
Automating entire marketing campaigns — from crafting a message to targeting an audience — is the latest feat promised by generative AI, as a startup called Typeface launches a new all-in-one service shared first with Axios.
Why it matters: Marketing has emerged as one of the key early business uses for generative AI, alongside coding and customer support.
