Connect with us

Published

on

This photo illustration shows the ChatGPT logo at an office in Washington, DC, on March 15, 2023. 

Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

We are still some way off reaching human-level artificial intelligence despite rapid advances in the technology, according to an early investor in research laboratory DeepMind.

“In terms of artificial general intelligence, OpenAI, ChatGPT stuff: it’s like saying we’re going to jump to the moon,” Humayun Sheikh, a founding investor in AI startup DeepMind, which is now owned by Google, told CNBC in an interview.

related investing news

Positive Alzheimer's drug trial data pushes Eli Lilly shares to another all-time high and brightens our outlook

CNBC Investing Club

“We took a big jump, but we’re not at the moon yet.”

Sheikh, who held around 1.3% of DeepMind’s shares in 2011, said that large language models (LLM) like those developed by Microsoft-backed firm OpenAI, though impressive, are lightyears away from so-called artificial general intelligence, or AGI.

AGI is often referred to as the holy grail of AI. It is a hypothetical system capable of completing any task to the same level as a human.

This is very much: Google is not born yet, but Yahoo is.

Humayun Sheikh

CEO, Fetch.ai

“That’s really how I compare AGI with all the large language model companies which are popping up,” Humayun, who is now co-founder of AI and blockchain startup Fetch.ai, said.

“They are very limited. How you actually get them to do certain things is still in its infancy.”

“This is very much: Google is not born yet, but Yahoo is,” he added.

His comments come as Google-parent Alphabet merges DeepMind with Google Brain, part of the U.S. internet giant’s research division.

Google is racing to compete with Microsoft and other tech companies in the field of AI. Microsoft is making huge strides with its investment into OpenAI and the inclusion of the firm’s LLM technology into its Bing browser and other products.

Earlier this week, Demis Hassabis, the founder of DeepMind, told the Wall Street Journal that some form of AGI might be possible “in the next few years.”

Sheikh said he had a “lot of respect” for Hassabis and that the entrepreneur is “very aware of the ethics of AI.”

“One of the first things he has been always bringing out was, how do we control it? How do we put that boundary around it and make sure AI doesn’t go out of control?,” Sheikh said.

Google acquired DeepMind for $500 million in 2014 and is attempting to bolster its business by doubling down on AI in a bid to fend off the threat to its core search unit from OpenAI. Google launched its own chatbot alternative to ChatGPT, Bard, in March.

AI’s huge potential is seen in its ability to generate entirely new content from user prompts. People have used the technology to create everything from poems to quirky images and movie trailers, while kids are using it to help with their homework.

Experts have raised concern over the risks of sophisticated AI, however, with a group of tech leaders including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak calling for a six-month ban on the development of AI more advanced than GPT-4, the latest version of OpenAI’s massive language processing software.

WATCH: Can China’s ChatGPT clones give it an edge over the U.S. in an A.I. arms race?

Can China's ChatGPT clones give it an edge over the U.S. in an A.I. arms race?

Continue Reading

Technology

Google agrees to pay Texas $1.4 billion data privacy settlement

Published

on

By

Google agrees to pay Texas .4 billion data privacy settlement

A Google corporate logo hangs above the entrance to the company’s office at St. John’s Terminal in New York City on March 11, 2025.

Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images

Google agreed to pay nearly $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle allegations of violating the data privacy rights of state residents, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Friday.

Paxton sued Google in 2022 for allegedly unlawfully tracking and collecting the private data of users.

The attorney general said the settlement, which covers allegations in two separate lawsuits against the search engine and app giant, dwarfed all past settlements by other states with Google for similar data privacy violations.

Google’s settlement comes nearly 10 months after Paxton obtained a $1.4 billion settlement for Texas from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to resolve claims of unauthorized use of biometric data by users of those popular social media platforms.

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement on Friday.

“For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won,” said Paxton.

“This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust.”

Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said the company did not admit any wrongdoing or liability in the settlement, which involves allegations related to the Chrome browser’s incognito setting, disclosures related to location history on the Google Maps app, and biometric claims related to Google Photo.

Castaneda said Google does not have to make any changes to products in connection with the settlement and that all of the policy changes that the company made in connection with the allegations were previously announced or implemented.

“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” Castaneda said.

“We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”

Continue Reading

Technology

Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

Published

on

By

Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

Omada Health smart devices in use.

Courtesy: Omada Health

Virtual care company Omada Health filed for an IPO on Friday, the latest digital health company that’s signaled its intent to hit the public markets despite a turbulent economy.

Founded in 2012, Omada offers virtual care programs to support patients with chronic conditions like prediabetes, diabetes and hypertension. The company describes its approach as a “between-visit care model” that is complementary to the broader health-care ecosystem, according to its prospectus.

Revenue increased 57% in the first quarter to $55 million, up from $35.1 million during the same period last year, the filing said. The San Francisco-based company generated $169.8 million in revenue during 2024, up 38% from $122.8 million the previous year.

Omada’s net loss narrowed to $9.4 million during its first quarter from $19 million during the same period last year. It reported a net loss of $47.1 million in 2024, compared to a $67.5 million net loss during 2023.

The IPO market has been largely dormant across the tech sector for the past three years, and within digital health, it’s been almost completely dead. After President Donald Trump announced a sweeping tariff policy that plunged U.S. markets into turmoil last month, taking a company public is an even riskier endeavor. Online lender Klarna delayed its long-anticipated IPO, as did ticket marketplace StubHub.

But Omada Health isn’t the first digital health company to file for its public market debut this year. Virtual physical therapy startup Hinge Health filed its prospectus in March, and provided an update with its first-quarter earnings on Monday, a signal to investors that it’s looking to forge ahead.

Omada contracts with employers, and the company said it works with more than 2,000 customers and supports 679,000 members as of March 31. More than 156 million Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition, so there is a significant market opportunity, according to the company’s filing.

In 2022, Omada announced a $192 million funding round that pushed its valuation above $1 billion. U.S. Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Fidelity’s FMR LLC are the largest outside shareholders in the company, each owning between 9% and 10% of the stock.

“To our prospective shareholders, thank you for learning more about Omada. I invite you join our journey,” Omada co-founder and CEO Sean Duffy said in the filing. “In front of us is a unique chance to build a promising and successful business while truly changing lives.”

WATCH: The IPO market is likely to pick up near Labor Day, says FirstMark’s Rick Heitzmann

The IPO market is likely to pick up near Labor Day, says FirstMark's Rick Heitzmann

Continue Reading

Technology

Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

Published

on

By

Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

Liz Reid, vice president, search, Google speaks during an event in New Delhi on December 19, 2022.

Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images

Testimony in Google‘s antitrust search remedies trial that wrapped hearings Friday shows how the company is calculating possible changes proposed by the Department of Justice.

Google head of search Liz Reid testified in court Tuesday that the company would need to divert between 1,000 and 2,000 employees, roughly 20% of Google’s search organization, to carry out some of the proposed remedies, a source with knowledge of the proceedings confirmed.

The testimony comes during the final days of the remedies trial, which will determine what penalties should be taken against Google after a judge last year ruled the company has held an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search.

The DOJ, which filed the original antitrust suit and proposed remedies, asked the judge to force Google to share its data used for generating search results, such as click data. It also asked for the company to remove the use of “compelled syndication,” which refers to the practice of making certain deals with companies to ensure its search engine remains the default choice in browsers and smartphones. 

Read more CNBC tech news

Google pays Apple billions of dollars per year to be the default search engine on iPhones. It’s lucrative for Apple and a valuable way for Google to get more search volume and users.

Apple’s SVP of Services Eddy Cue testified Wednesday that Apple chooses to feature Google because it’s “the best search engine.”

The DOJ also proposed the company divest its Chrome browser but that was not included in Reid’s initial calculation, the source confirmed.

Reid on Tuesday said Google’s proprietary “Knowledge Graph” database, which it uses to surface search results, contains more than 500 billion facts, according to the source, and that Google has invested more than $20 billion in engineering costs and content acquisition over more than a decade.

“People ask Google questions they wouldn’t ask anyone else,” she said, according to the source.

Reid echoed Google’s argument that sharing its data would create privacy risks, the source confirmed.

Closing arguments for the search remedies trial will take place May 29th and 30th, followed by the judge’s decision expected in August.

The company faces a separate remedies trial for its advertising tech business, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 22.

Continue Reading

Trending