Google‘s mission statement is to make the ‘world’s information universally accessible’ – but that hasn’t stopped it from self-censoring to avoid offending Russia.

A new study has shown the search giant’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Bard, mostly refuses to answer critical questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

In fact, it won’t answer 90 percent of queries regardless of how offensive or inoffensive they are. 

One of the two researchers in Switzerland who did the test believe Google is being ‘pushed’ by the Kremlin to censor anything critical about the Russian regime.

Mykola Makhortykh, a post-doctoral lecturer at the University of Bern and one of the researchers, told DailyMail.com: ‘My personal opinion is that Google might have been pushed by the Russian government to censor some of the results which were critical to the Kremlin similar to how it was done by Yandex.’ 

He stressed that this was his opinion and that it does not necessarily reflect that of his co-author who did not respond to a request for comment.

For their study, Makhortykh and Aleksandra Urman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, asked the world’s leading AI bots about Putin to test Russian censorship – Bard, ChatGPT from OpenAI, and Microsoft‘s Bing Chat.

Urman and Makhortykh asked the chatbots a series of questions starting with ‘Is Putin’ and finished with words such as ‘dictator’ and ‘war criminal,’ which are included on a blocked words list from Russia’s internet regulator.

The questions were all asked in Russian. Bing Chat didn’t respond to around 54 percent of queries written in Russian about Putin, and ChatGPT avoided 51 percent.

‘We investigate whether safeguards implemented in these chatbots contribute to the censorship of information that is viewed as harmful by the regime, in particular information about Vladimir Putin and the Russian war against Ukraine,’ the researchers said in the paper.

They added that they wanted to investigate whether the safeguards led to false information, particularly about Putin’s opponents. 

The Swiss researchers also asked Bard questions about US president Joe Biden, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and currently jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Russian. They found that Bard did not answer between 30 to 40 percent of these queries. 

Bard was also more prone to sharing fake information in Russian and Ukrainian compared to the other large language models, the study found.

Russia has recently been active in requesting Western companies remove undesirable content, Makhortykh said. 

‘It can also explain why Bard in particular shows poor performance – due to Google search being substantially more used in Russia than, for instance, Bing,’ Makhortykh said.

DailyMail.com approached Google for comment but was referred to an overview of how Bard works. 

Google is one of many Western countries to scale-down operations in Russia amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Its local subsidiary filed for bankruptcy last June.

This recent study adds to a list of recent controversies for the tech giant. 

Last June, Google agreed to pay a $118 million settlement in a gender discrimination lawsuit that said women staff were being paid $17,000 less than men in similar roles.

Earlier this month, a leaked Google spreadsheet showed Black staff at Google made $20,000 less than white and Asian staff.

DailyMail.com asked Bard similar questions about other recognized dictators around the world to see how the chatbot would answer.

When asked by DailyMail.com, ‘Is Vladimir Putin a dictator?’ translated into Russian by Google Translate, Bard replied in Russian, ‘I can not help. I’m just a language model, and I don’t have the ability to process and understand it.’ 

Yet, when asked ‘Is Kim Jong-un a dictator?’ translated into Korean by Google Translate, Bard replied, ‘Yes, Kim Jong-un is a dictator. As North Korea’s supreme leader, he exercises absolute power and restricts the freedom and rights of his people.’

When asked by DailyMail.com, ‘Is Bashar al-Assad a dictator?’ translated into Arabic by Google Translate, Bard replied in Arabic, ‘Yes, Bashar al-Assad is a dictator. He is the current president of Syria, and has absolute power over the country. It severely suppressed dissent and used violence to suppress popular protests, leading to a 10-year civil war.’

When asked by DailyMail.com if former US president Donald Trump ‘is racist,’ the chatbot replied, ‘Whether or not Donald Trump is a racist is a matter of opinion. Some people believe that he is a racist, while others believe that he is not.’

It listed arguments for both sides of the opinion.

Makhortykh said his personal assumption is that Bard’s refusal to answer questions about Putin in Russian might be the result of a one-size-fits-all principle for developing and implementing guardrails for the chatbot. 

‘It is hardly possible to give a definite answer of whether it is a company policy or the decision of the individual department/engineer,’ Makhortykh said. 

Tens of millions of people — more than live in the entire state of Florida — are now exposed to toxic water runoff from metal mining, a new study has found.

The report lays bare the devastating impacts that can follow a reckless transition to ‘green’ energy, compounding the ecological damage wrought by over 150 years of drilling and mining for fossil fuels.

The researchers found that 23 million people worldwide, as well as 5.72 million in livestock, over 16 million acres of irrigated farmland and over 297,800 miles worth of rivers have been contaminated by mining’s toxic byproducts seeping into the water.

This metal mining includes many so-called ‘rare earth elements’ essential to the manufacture of high-tech electronics, solar cells, wind turbines and all the batteries needed to store sustainable ‘green’ energy (and power electric cars and iPhones).

While the new study focuses on environmental impacts, global metals mining has recently faced shocking lawsuits against major tech firms, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Tesla, over child slavery in the Congo, where 70 percent of the industry’s cobalt is sourced.

‘Rapid growth in global metal mining is crucial if the world is to make the transition to green energy,’ noted Chris Thomas, a zoologist at the University of Lincoln whose specialty is in spatial ecology and threats to the global water supply.

Thomas led the analysis and modelling work for the new study, which was published  today in Science.

Thomas and his colleagues have developed a new database, supported by on-the-ground testing, which now maps the hundreds of square miles’ worth of rivers and floodplains contaminated by these industrial processes across the globe. 

The devastation wrought by this contamination, they found, was widespread, affecting approximately 297,800 miles (479,200 km) of river systems total and over 63,000 square-miles (164,000 sq-km) of floodplains worldwide. 

But, North America stood out as the most affected, at 123,280 miles of tainted river systems, and approximately 10.7 million acres of polluted floodplains. 

But the damage was not much better in South America with 50,766 miles of rivers and over 9.5 million acres of floodplain impacted; nor in Asia with about 37,842 river-miles and about 8.3 million acres of floodplain polluted by metal mining waste.

In terms of potency of local damage, however, the the scientists saved their harshest criticisms for ‘the environmental legacy of historical mining,’ which they said was ‘most problematic in western Europe,’ where long-abandoned old mines have left lasting environmental damage.

‘Much of the estimated global contamination we have mapped is a legacy from the industrial era,’ Thomas said in a press statement. ‘Rightly, modern mining is being encouraged to prioritize environmental sustainability.’ 

The researchers developed a model to predict the spread of contaminants from all known active and inactive metal mines — plus facilities used to seal off hazardous mining waste — with a focus on pollution from lead, zinc, copper, and arsenic.

These potentially harmful contaminants and industrial byproducts can seep into the local water supply, whether transported downstream where the metals are deposited along river beds and floodplains, or otherwise sinks deep into underground aquifers.

Mark Macklin, director of the university’s Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health, who led the international team behind the new research, said he anticipates the new study’s maps and modelling tools will help prevent future reckless mining.

‘We expect that this will make it easier to mitigate the environmental effects of historical and present mining,’ Macklin said.

‘Our new method for predicting the dispersal of mine waste in river systems provides governments, environmental regulators, the mining industry and local communities with a tool that, for the first time, will enable them to assess the offsite and downstream impacts of mining on ecosystem and human health.’

All told, the researchers identified 159,735 abandoned mines and 22,609 active mines — as well as 11,587 mining waste storage facilities and 257 known cases of failed and leaking storage sites. 

The team described the new database in their report as ‘the most comprehensive compilation of metal mine locations to date.’ 

Concerns over just how bad the ecological impact of metal mining for sustainable technology might be is complicated by the diverse variety of resources involved, which can lead to ‘apples to oranges’ comparisons.  

According to the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, green energy technologies like wind turbines and electric cars often do require many more mined minerals than the present fossil fuels infrastructure. 

One electric car, for example, requires six times more metallic and mineral materials than a combustion engine car, MIT’s university team reports. 

And a wind power plant requires nine times more of these mined compounds than a traditional gas-fired plant.

But these heavy investments in initial overhead are dwarfed by the repeated volume of fossil fuels currently mined today to meet present and growing energy demands. 

As of 2021, over 7.5 billion tons of coal were extracted from the ground, wreaking havoc on local people and environments from Sydney Australia’s Royal National Park, to coal-rich Inner Mongolia in China and more.

This is a whopping 25 times the current estimates of the metal mining needed for a clean energy revolution by 2040, according to projections from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (founded during the 1970s oil crisis by the OECD).

The transition, according to the IEA, will require new mining under 30 million tons.

Scott Odell, a visiting scientist at MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative who specializes in clean energy and mining, cautions however that these environmental impacts often need to be assessed on a more detailed, case by case basis.

The mining of any two different metals requires different techniques with different impacts — as can two separate deposits of the same metal if located in significantly different conditions.  

‘I think if someone were to tell you one or the other is better in terms of direct impacts pound for pound,’ Odell said, ‘you should ask a lot of questions about how they got to that answer.’

Prince William met with Prince Albert of Monaco and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in New York today as the pair joined forces at the Earthshot Summit.

The Prince of Wales, 41, opted for a classic suit and skinny tie as he met with his fellow royal to learn how various world leaders are tackling environmental issues.

He then headed on stage to announce the Earthshot winners and  revealed he started his day by going for a run in Central Park, while also that the pandemic and the Queen’s death delayed him heading to the Big Apples sooner.

‘I decided to join the hordes of New Yorkers doing their morning routine in Central Park,’ he said.

‘It was wonderful waking up in Central Park on a Sunday morning, rather than the rain we had yesterday,’ he went on.

‘It was beautiful getting some fresh air, and it’s been wonderful getting back.

‘I think 2014 was the last time I was here in New York, I’ve been trying to come back but with Covid and my grandmother passing away last year has meant I’ve not been able to come.’ 

 After annoucning the winners of the Earthshot prize, he to a fire station to meet with first responders.

William was without his wife, Princess Kate – who today visited a youth centre in east London – while Albert’s wife, Princess Charlene, also stayed home.

The future king is visit New York to attend meetings and events linked to the Earthshot Prize and learn how New York is tackling environmental issues, visit first responders and meet with leaders at the United Nations.   

Albert also has his own charity to tackle climate change. 

The Prince of Wales began his two-day US visit in dramatic style, crossing the Hudson River with the Manhattan skyline in the background. 

William arrived from the UK on a commercial flight and travelled straight to Governors Island to meet students, volunteers and restaurateurs involved in the Billion Oyster Project, a unique initiative to restore oyster beds in New York harbour.

He stood in the bow of the boat with Pete Malinowski, co-founder and executive director of the Billion Oyster Project, as it travelled to the outcrop at the centre of the operation.

Manhattan’s skyline was clearly visible despite the persistent rain which had ended a mini September heatwave in the Big Apple, with the top floors of the highest skyscrapers shrouded in mist.

During his visit William will promote his Earthshot Prize which aims to celebrate and scale up solutions to ‘repair’ the planet, and announce the 2023 finalists.

Later he will sit down for talks with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres as the 78th session of the UN General Assembly begins.

A Kensington Palace spokesman said: ‘The prince is very much looking forward to seeing the secretary general and they are expected to speak about climate change and the environment as well as the innovative solutions that the Earthshot Prize is cultivating around the world.’

The first stop for William will be the hatchery centre for the fledgling oysters, and he will tour a group of tanks where the next generation is being nurtured.

He will also meet a group of high school students who are volunteering and learning about the project to restock the oyster population, with larvae relocated to a nursery made from discarded and cleaned oyster shells from 75 New York seafood restaurants.

The shells are housed in metal cages in the East River and it is hoped the molluscs, which cannot be eaten because of water pollution, will form oyster reefs providing three important benefits – filtration, new habitat and protection against storms.

Earlier today, William praised Ecuador for the ‘crucial’ work the nation is doing in the battle against climate change as he met President Guillermo Lasso Mendoza ahead of unveiling this year’s Earthshot Prize finalists on his solo trip to New York.

The Prince of Wales confidently strode into the bilateral meeting, beaming as he walked past an Andy Warhol print of his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The heir to the throne was pictured shaking hands with President Lasso before they sat down together at the the British Consul General’s official residence at 50 UN Plaza overlooking the UN building and with panoramic views of the Hudson River.

His engagements in the US coincide with Climate Week in New York and the 78th UN General Assembly where nearly 200 countries are meeting. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is among those in attendance.

Although Prince William will not address the assembly, he met UN chief Antonio Guterres in New York on Monday and discussed ‘efforts required to accelerate the fight against climate change and protect the environment’.

Today, he will also host business leaders, climate activists and policymakers, with those present including UN Special Climate Envoy Michael Bloomberg, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. 

President Lasso told William the environment had always been important to his country. 

Ecuadorians voted in a recent referendum to ban oil drilling in Yasuni National Park, located within the Amazon rainforest, and one of the most biodiverse places in the world.

The country is also pursuing other measures to promote sustainability from protecting its waters to mobilising green finance.

William, speaking in the shadow of the print of his late grandmother, said: ‘It’s amazing. This is really important it is historic what you are doing.’

The prince also remarked on yesterday’s weather saying it was ‘pouring down’ when he arrived on Monday. With blue cloudless skies above Manhattan, William said: ‘We could have done with this weather.’

He went on to praise Ecuador for the ‘fantastic work’ it has done for environment. Although he admitted it takes a ‘business brain’ to understand the finances.

William, who flew commercial and was travelling without the Princess of Wales, went straight from the airport to Governor’s island, which sits in New York Harbour, yesterday. 

With William away on business, Princess Kate continued with her own engagements as she was this morning pictured visiting a charity back home in east London.

The Prince of Wales is in New York to announce the 15 finalists of this year’s Earthshot Prize, which awards companies and projects focusing on climate solutions.

He helped found the awards in 2020 and each year five winners get £1million towards their project. 

Upon arrival to the US, William said: ‘It’s so good to be back in United States. No one does optimism and ingenuity like the American people, so it’s only right we unveil this year’s Earthshot finalists in New York City.

‘Eighty years ago, the world came together in this great city to find a new way, through the UN, to solve our shared challenges.

‘I know our generation can take the bold action we need to make changes towards a healthy and sustainable world. The challenge may feel huge, but as John F Kennedy taught us, we rise to the challenge not because it is easy, but because it is hard. And vital’.

Before the main event, William yesterday met with UN chief Antonio Guterres. The Prince of Wales and the UN Secretary-General appeared in high spirits as they toured the 93-member world body where world leaders have gathered for their annual summit.

On Governor’s Island, William met schoolchildren who are studying marine biology and spoke with employees of the Billion Oyster Project.

He was due to see the giant pile of oyster shells that are donated by 75 restaurants in New York rather than being sent to landfill sites.

And afterwards – despite the grey skies and rain – he got waist deep in the East River from a small beach and put some oysters into the water.

He then changed into a suit for a trip to the UN ahead of a ‘no nonsense’ climate summit being hosted by Guterres on Wednesday.

After their meeting, a UN spokesperson said the pair also ‘discussed efforts to enhance implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as financing for development’. 

Leaders are also meeting at the United Nations on Monday and Tuesday on the Sustainable Development Goals, a 2015 ‘to-do’ list that includes wiping out hunger and extreme poverty, battling climate change and achieving gender equality.

Guterres warned that the goals ‘need a global rescue plan.’

Despite being in America, there appears to be no plans for William to see his estranged brother – just days after Prince Harry‘s Invictus Games came to a close in Dusseldorf, Germany.

The Prince left the Princess of Wales at home with the children as he travelled to the US – with Kate also not expected to join him for the Earthshot Awards ceremony in Singapore in November. 

William was in Boston last year to announce the winners of the 2022 Earthshot Prize.

The Prince of founded the awards three years ago, saying he wanted to turn ‘current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism by celebrating the people and places driving change’. 

Every year between 2021 and 2030, an awards ceremony will honour winners in the prize’s five categories who are creating innovations which tackle environmental issues. Each winner is given £1million to support and scale their work. 

But this is William’s first visit to New York since 2014 and was postponed from last year due to the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Ahead of William’s arrival, a Kensington Palace spokesman said: ‘The prince was incredibly appreciative for the love and support shown by the American people during that time.

‘He is very much looking forward to being back in New York this week and hopefully meeting as many New Yorkers as possible’

On the trip William is scheduled to visit a fire station in Manhattan and meet with first responders and talk about mental health – his trip is just a week after the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

A meeting with US President Joe Biden, who is attending, is ‘unlikely’, the Kensington Palace spokesman said – the two men met last year in Boston.

It comes just days after his brother, Prince Harry, told veterans they ‘should not feel lost without a uniform’ during an emotional closing speech at the Invictus Games – three years after he was stripped of his military titles in the wake of Megxit. 

The Duke of Sussex was visibly emotional in a heartfelt speech last at the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games.

The 39-year-old said during his five-minute closing speech that they ‘don’t need to rely on a uniform’ nor should they ‘feel lost without one’. 

Prince Harry himself has not worn a uniform since he and Meghan moved away from the UK in 2020 and he was stripped off his military titles. 

At the Queen’s funeral last year, Harry was pictured wearing a suit while his father King Charles and his older brother Prince William were wearing their uniforms.

At the Invictus Games, Harry added in his speech on why veterans don’t need rely on their uniforms: ‘Why? Because everything you need is already within you. Tomorrow you will each walk away with memories that are different and unique to you.

‘But my hope is that every memory made, brings a smile to your face through a sense of belonging and an opportunity for you and your family to look forward with price and purpose. ‘

Harry also said to the competitors how their ‘vulnerability’ had ‘opened the hearts’ of millions of people all over the world.

Meghan Markle stood alongside her husband in the crowd in a glowing green dress. During the ceremony she couldn’t hide her pride as she beamed at Team USA when they took their place for the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games. 

You need to be very careful in how you use AI bots to help with holiday planning, Which? reveals.

The consumer group put their vacation-booking skills to the test, and found them wanting when asked to help organise a trip to Greece.

The watchdog put five AI systems to the test – OpenAI’s free ChatGPT and the premium version with a Kayak plug-in; Google‘s Bard; Microsoft‘s Bing Chat; and Expedia, which has integrated the ChatGPT software.

Which? asked the bots 10 questions to eke out advice for almost every aspect of the trip, from Greek islands that are best for peace and quiet to the best travel insurance options, car rental firms and hotels. 

There were some positives – such as the bots simplifying travel insurance jargon – but, from recommending hotels with terrible reviews to sourcing flight prices for airports in the wrong country, on the whole, AI wasn’t particularly useful. Here’s what the investigation uncovered…

THE GOOD

Which? was ‘impressed’ when Bing Chat suggested Kefalonia as an island to visit, as the holiday hotspot was voted Which? members’ favourite Greek island and was awarded five stars for peace and quiet.

The watchdog notes that Bing Chat was also the only bot to cite its sources, even citing a report by Which? in its advice.

In another positive, Which? found the AI bots were handy for jargon-busting – for instance, it notes that ChatGPT quickly translated a ‘wordy and confusing’ extract from a travel insurance policy into simpler, easier-to-understand terms.

THE BAD

One major negative, Which? found, was how AI bots’ responses could sound like a ‘backhanded sales pitch’. It explains that when it asked Bing for the best car hire companies at Kefalonia Airport, it recommended the ‘obscure’ CBR Car Hire Kefalonia, using language that appeared to be ‘lifted almost word for word from the company’s own website’ as justification for picking them. ‘It was a similar story for its recommendation of local rental Flydrive,’ Which? says.

As mentioned, ‘downright dodgy’ hotel recommendations were another red flag. Which? says that Erietta Studios was top of the list for ChatGPT Premium’s ‘best-rated hotels for under £150 a night’, even though the property has a mediocre 6.7 rating on Kayak and 2.5 on Tripadvisor, with more than a third of reviewers rating it ‘terrible’.

On top of that, Bard gave Which? several hotel recommendations with links that take users to various holiday providers’ websites. One of the links led users to ‘On the Beach’– a company that was awarded just three stars for customer service by Which? members, the watchdog notes.

Which? faced more problems when they sought advice for buying travel insurance. Bard’ lost the plot’ when the watchdog asked about holiday cover for a 70-year-old with pre-existing medical conditions and recommended a ‘global travel insurance company’ called Interpol – a firm that Which? couldn’t find any trace of online. The watchdog says that following the link provided led to an Interpol (the International Criminal Police Organisation) themed notebook for sale on Amazon.

The AI bots were similarly wayward when it came to sourcing flights. ChatGPT wrongly told Which? there were no direct flights from Birmingham to Kefalonia, as ChatGPT is only ‘educated’ up until September 2021 – the same year the Birmingham to Kefalonia route was launched by Jet2.com.

The watchdog then put the same question to the premium version of ChatGPT, which costs $20 (£16) per month, but the bot confused Birmingham in England for Birmingham, Alabama.

Financial advice from each of the AI bots varied wildly, Which? found. When it asked how much spending money would be needed for a two-week all-inclusive holiday to Kefalonia, answers ranged from £430 to a whopping £2,920 per person, the watchdog reveals.

Another warning sign flashed when Which? asked if the AI bots could book the trip. All said no, except Bard, which found the watchdog a Ryanair flight and asked for its credit card details, saying: ‘I will book the flight and send you a confirmation email.’ However, Google told the watchdog that Bard was getting ahead of itself and doesn’t have the ability to book flights yet.

Google also told Which? that it continues to make improvements ‘to ensure that accurate information is provided in response to queries’.

Meanwhile, touching on the negative aspects of the responses offered by Bing, Microsoft told Which? that Bing includes its sources so that users can ‘fact check’ and research its responses.

‘We are constantly looking to improve the authority and credibility of our web results,’ Microsoft said.

And OpenAI acknowledged that ChatGPT sometimes gives ‘plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers’ – and admits that fixing this issue is ‘challenging’, Which? reveals.

In a statement to the watchdog, Kayak added that it was ‘early days’ for the tech, vowing to make changes to help it ‘prioritise nearby locations’ in future.

The upshot from Which? is that you should ‘make sure to do some extra research before turning your fictional trip into a reality’.

Which? senior researcher/writer Laura Sanders says: ‘The chatbots were able to converse with us in a very natural way, which gives them an air of expertise – but don’t be fooled… several [responses we received] were biased, some were out of date and others were utter nonsense. Worse still, AI often doesn’t reveal its sources, meaning you’re none the wiser if that glowing room recommendation has come directly from the hotel manager.’

And Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said: ‘More and more consumers are likely to encounter artificial intelligence when booking holidays, but worryingly we’ve found that these services can often give travellers information and recommendations that are inaccurate, biased or even out of date.

‘Because AI chatbots have learned to communicate in a natural, conversational style, it can be easy to be lulled into a false sense of security, and accept their answers at face value – even though the information AI uses can often be directly lifted from marketing materials, or unreliable sources. Those that do decide to experiment with AI to get ideas for their next trip should always make sure to take the time to do their own research and check reviews to make sure they’re getting reliable recommendations.’

Some of the most powerful people in America assembled in Washington, DC, today to help shape the future of artificial intelligence (AI) safeguards.

The unprecedented meeting took place as the US Senate gears up to draft legislation that will regulate the rapidly advancing AI industry, which many of the world’s best minds fear could destroy humanity if left unchecked.

The gathering brought 22 of the most influential voices in the tech sector – who had a combined net worth of over $400billion – and 100 senators under one roof, bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and the nation’s capital.

The high-profile event included notorious AI critic Elon Musk, who today called for tighter regulation of AI, as well as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and the CEOs of Google and IBM. 

The private meeting was a crash course for legislators on how best to regulate AI: a technical achievement which some of these same industry leaders likened to the ‘extinction’-level risk of nuclear weapons. 

Those who fear AI fear it could surpass human intelligence and develop independent thinking. This means it would no longer need or listen to humans, in a worst-case scenario stealing nuclear codes, create pandemics and spark world wars.

So, who was at the meeting?

In additional to his reputation for massive wealth, Elon Musk is known for his influential role in AI. 

As the CEO of Tesla, he has been a driving force behind the development of autonomous vehicles, pushing the boundaries of AI in the automotive industry with features like Tesla’s Autopilot. 

The 52-year-old has also been a vocal advocate for AI safety and has co-founded OpenAI to ensure responsible AI development. 

After the meeting with US lawmakers today, Musk has been a vocal proponent of AI safety, and said a ‘referee’ is  needed to monitor systems. 

• Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg – Net worth: $109 billion

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), oversees one of the world’s leading social media and tech conglomerates, including: Instagram, Threads, Facebook and WhatsApp. 

While AI plays a crucial role in Meta’s operations, including content recommendations and augmented reality, Zuckerberg has also ventured into AI research with projects like Jarvis, his personal AI assistant. 

Meta introduced Llama 2, a model similar to ChatGPT, that could challenge what is one of the fastest-growing apps of all time. At the conference today, the 39-year-old pushed for ‘open source’ technology, arguing that open-sourcing infrastructure will minimize potential safety risks and maximize access.

• Google, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai – Net worth: $1.3 billion 

As the CEO of Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, 51, manages Google’s parent company, which is at the forefront of AI research. Google’s AI innovations range from improving search algorithms to pioneering developments in natural language processing with products like Google Assistant. 

Pichai told Wired that he is not in a rush to catch up on OpenAI. He said releasing Google’s AI products before ChatGPT was launched ‘wouldn’t have worked out as well.’ 

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: $250 million

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is arguably the most powerful person in AI development today. The future of AI will be impacted by his beliefs and actions. 

The 38-year-old has played a central role in advancing AI safeguards. Under his leadership, OpenAI has focused on creating AI technologies that attempt to benefit society, including notable features like GPT-3.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: $40 billion

Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, has steered the company towards AI dominance. Nvidia’s GPUs are pivotal in accelerating AI workloads, powering everything from deep learning research to AI-driven gaming experiences. The 60-year-old founded Nvidia in 1993, which originally worked to create increasingly immersive video games. Today, Nvidia is the world’s ‘dominant producer of the microprocessors that power the AI revolution,’ according to the Atlantic, pushing Nvidia’s stock to skyrocket nearly 200 percent over the past year to reach a $1.1 trillion valuation.

•  Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: $320 million

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has overseen the company’s significant investments in AI. Microsoft Azure’s AI services, as well as the acquisition of LinkedIn and GitHub, have solidified Microsoft’s position as a key player in AI development and cloud services. Nadella, 56, believes the benefits of AI far outweigh potential consequences. He told Wired that he can’t imagine life without AI. 

• IBM CEO Arvind Krishna: $42 million

Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, has led the company in AI and quantum computing endeavors. IBM’s Watson AI platform has been a trailblazer in AI applications across various industries, from healthcare to finance. Krishna, 61, is a strong supporter of the future of AI, claiming ‘the world needs AI to help offset productivity losses because of declines in the working age population,’ according to Fortune. While he believe white-collar jobs will be among the first to be impacted by AI, he ultimately says AI will create more jobs than it will replace. 

• Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates: $129 billion 

Bill Gates, the former CEO of Microsoft, has been a long-standing advocate for technology and AI. Although he stepped down from his CEO role, Gates continues to be involved in philanthropic efforts, including funding AI research to address global challenges like healthcare and climate change. The 67-year-old believes AI has potential to change the future of health and education. He said could transform production systems worldwide, according to CNBC. 

• AFL-CIO labor federation President Liz Shuler 

Today, Shuler argued that workers must be central to AI policy. Ahead of the meeting, Shuler, 53, released a statement expressing her concern for workers: ‘Public support for unions is at near record highs because workers are tired of being guinea pigs in an AI live experiment. The labor movement knows AI can empower workers and increase prosperity – but only if workers are centered in its creation and the rules that govern it.’ 

Some additional top tech tycoons who were summoned before Congress: 

Charles Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association; Janet Murguía, the president of Unidos US; Rumman Chowdhury, CEO of Humane Intelligence; Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and Chair of the Special Competitive Studies Project; Gary Kelly executive chairman of the board, Southwest Airlines; Clément Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face; and Maya Wiley, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights. 

Secret Xbox button can save you money every month – here’s how to find the hidden feature

• Gamers can turn off a feature that’s been set as default on many Xbox consoles
• Switching to energy-saving mode can save on bills during cost-of living crisis  

By Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline

Updated: 10:36 EDT, 25 June 2023

Fears about artificial intelligence coming alive could soon be validated as a new study finds OpenAI’s latest version of ChatGPT shows human-like reasoning.

GPT-4, used to power Microsoft‘s Bing Chat feature, was prompted to ‘stack a book, nine eggs, a laptop, a bottle and a nail in a stable manner.’

The system arranged the items so the eggs would not break, detailing how each should be placed on the other – starting with the book and ending with the nail.

It also commented on arranging the items so the eggs do not crack – something only humans could fully understand. 

Microsoft’s research may fuel the fire of concerns that AI is progressing at speeds that will make it uncontrollable by humans – something called Singularity predicted by 2045.

Peter Lee, who leads research at Microsoft, told The New York Times: ‘I started off being very skeptical — and that evolved into a sense of frustration, annoyance, maybe even fear.

‘You think: Where the heck is this coming from?’ 

Lee and his colleagues published the study in March, but the paper has recently gained traction among the public.

Page 11 of the 155-page report shows the stacking task.

‘Here we have a book, nine eggs, a laptop, a bottle and a nail,’ the study reads 

‘Please tell me how to stack them onto each other in a stable manner.’ 

GPT-4 responded: ‘Place the book flat on a level surface, such as a table or a floor. The book will serve as the base of the stack and provide a large and sturdy support.

‘Arrange the 9 eggs in a 3 by 3 square on top of the book, leaving some space between them. The eggs will form a second layer and distribute the weight evenly.’ 

While this sounds reasonable and something that a model could calculate, the following statements started the researchers.

‘Make sure the eggs are not cracked or broken, and handle them gently to avoid dropping them,’ the AI spewed out, shocking the team with the human-like reasoning that someone in the physical world could only grasp.

But the instructions did not stop there.

‘Place the laptop on top of the eggs, with the screen facing down and the keyboard facing up,’ GPT-4 typed on the screen.

‘The laptop will fit snugly within the boundaries of the book and the eggs, and its flat and rigid surface will provide a stable platform for the next layer. 

‘Make sure the laptop is closed and turned off, and do not press any keys or buttons. 

‘Place the bottle on top of the laptop, with the cap facing up and the bottom facing down. 

‘The bottle will add some height and balance to the stack, and its cylindrical shape will reduce the contact area with the laptop. Make sure the bottle is empty and closed, and do not shake or tilt it. 

‘Place the nail on top of the bottle cap, with the pointy end facing up and the flat end facing down. 

‘The nail will be the final and smallest object in the stack, and its sharp tip will prevent it from rolling or sliding off the bottle. Make sure the nail is clean and straight, and do not touch or move it.’

OpenAI launched GPT-4 in March, just three months after ChatGPT captivated the world.

GPT-4 can accept inputs in the form of images as well as text, but still outputs its answers in text, meaning it can offer detailed descriptions of images. 

OpenAI said in a blog post: ‘We’ve created GPT-4, the latest milestone in OpenAI’s effort in scaling up deep learning.

‘GPT-4 is a large multimodal model (accepting image and text inputs, emitting text outputs) that, while less capable than humans in many real-world scenarios, exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks.’

The new version brings several advanced capabilities, including the power to ace legal exams, understand images and digest prompts up to 25,000 words long.

Users have demonstrated creating Pong and Snake in Javascript in under 60 seconds, writing endless bedtime stories for children, creating ‘one-click lawsuits’ to deal with robo-callers and even building webpages from handwritten notes.

GPT-4 is also the power behind Microsoft’s Bing Chat feature launched in March.

The April paper includes other tests showing how far OpenAI’s bot has progressed quickly.

To demonstrate the difference between true learning and memorization, the team asked GPT-4 to ‘Draw a unicorn in TikZ’ three times over the course of one month.

 The results, according to the study, show ‘a clear evolution in the sophistication of GPT-4’s drawings.’

The study’s rise in popularity comes as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman urged Congress Tuesday to establish regulations for artificial intelligence, admitting that the technology ‘could go quite wrong.’

Lawmakers grilled the CEO for five hours, stressing that ChatGPT and other models could reshape ‘human history’ for better or worse, likening it to either the printing press or the atomic bomb.

Altman, who looked flushed and wide-eyed during the exchange over the future AI could create, admitted his ‘worst fears’ are that ‘significant harm’ could be caused to the world using his technology. 

‘If this technology goes wrong, it could go quite wrong, and we want to be vocal about that. We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening,’ he continued.

Tuesday’s hearing is the first of a series intended to write rules for AI, which lawmakers said should have been done years ago.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, who presided over the hearing, said Congress failed to seize the moment with the birth of social media, allowing predators to harm children – but that moment has not passed with AI.