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Apple wants to put an AI in your pocket

Apple has been playing its cards close to its chest when it comes to AI. While rival Microsoft has jumped on the ChatGPT bandwagon and is integrating AI into everything despite the bugs and hallucinations, the acronym didn’t even get a mention at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Reports emerged in July, however, that Apple was working on its own generative AI tool, dubbed internally “Apple GPT,” which uses a large language model (LLM) framework called Ajax. On this week’s quarterly earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said Apple was enthusiastic about the technology and has incorporated AI into forthcoming iOS17 features like Personal Voice (voice cloning and text-to-speech) and Live Voicemail (live transcription). He added:

“We’ve been doing research across a wide range of AI technologies, including generative AI, for years. We’re going to continue investing and innovating and responsibly advancing our products with these technologies, with the goal of enriching people’s lives. That’s what it’s all about for us. As you know, we tend to announce things as they come to market, that’s our M.O., and I’d like to stick to that.”

Of course, what everyday users want to know is whether Siri will be getting an AI upgrade. And they certainly appear to be working on it, with the Financial Times reporting that Apple is hiring dozens of researchers and engineers to work on “compressing existing language models so they can run efficiently on mobile devices, rather than in the cloud.” The ads indicated the company is fully focused on bringing LLM technology to mobiles.

Also read: Experts want to give AI human ‘souls’ so they don’t kill us all

There are speed, privacy and security reasons to run the AI locally on the phone hardware rather than in the cloud, given concerns over OpenAI and Claude hoovering up all your personal and business data. Back in 2020, Apple spent $200 million snapping up Seattle startup Xnor, which focuses on this exact problem.

iOS17
Apple’s Personal Voice is coming in iOS17. (Apple)

Passwords even more useless due to AI

Even prior to the advent of AI, computing technology had progressed to the point where the average eight-character password — using a combination of numbers, upper and lower case letters and a special character as recommended — could be cracked in around five minutes. New research indicates that AI password crackers like PassGAN can crack more than half of all commonly used passwords in less than a minute.



Now it turns out that AI can work out your password with greater than 90% accuracy, purely from the sound of you typing. Given that almost everyone types within earshot of a computer or phone mic, that’s a pretty big exploitable area, especially if you log in to a site while on a Zoom call (93% accuracy.)

The tech isn’t quite as good when users touch type or use the shift key, but it’s even clearer that passwords alone without 2FA need to be consigned to the bin of history.

AI password crack
Passwords are increasingly obsolete (Home Security Heroes)

Google and Universal negotiate deal on music deep fakes

Johnny Cash’s fake version of “Barbie Girl” and Frank Sinatra riffing on a big band take of “Gangsta’s Paradise” are a couple of the more amusing AI deep fakes out there. This has provoked alarm from artists, including Drake and Sting, who are understandably concerned at their unique vocals and music styles being ripped off.

Also read: ‘Elegant and ass-backward’: Jameson Lopp’s first impression of Bitcoin

In response, Google has reportedly entered negotiations with Universal Music to create a tool for fans to create their own legitimate deep fakes of popular artists with a fee going back to the copyright holders. Artists would have the ability to opt in or opt out of the system. Google is trying to strike a similar deal with Warner Music, whose CEO, Robert Kyncl, enthused to investors this week that “with the right framework,” AI could “enable fans to pay their heroes the ultimate compliment through a new level of user-driven content . . . including new cover versions and mash-ups.”

Some artists have embraced AI technology, with Grimes offering a 50/50 split of proceeds to AI producers and Paul McCartney using AI to improve John Lennon’s rough demo vocals for “the final Beatles track,” which was abandoned due to poor quality in the ‘90s.

Disney’s AI task force

Hollywood writers and actors strike be damned! Disney has created an artificial intelligence task force to study how AI can be used across the entertainment behemoth. There are 11 current job openings across its theme parks, TV and advertising divisions.

While creatives see AI as a threat, a Disney insider says the company believes the bigger threat is not adapting to the new landscape in order to bring budgets down — now topping $300 million for tentpole releases like Indiana Jones. Apart from bringing down the costs of special effects with generative AI, a theme park imagineer told Reuters that AI can make the company’s robots more lifelike, pointing to Project KIWI, which used machine learning technique to give a free-roaming Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy personality and character movements.

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Researchers ‘hypnotize’ GPT-4 to con other users

Disturbing research from IBM suggests that GPT-4 can be tricked into manipulating users. The researchers have shown that GPT-4 can be “hypnotized” to take part in multi-layered Inception-type games that saw the models “leaking confidential financial information, generating malicious code, encouraging users to pay ransoms, and even advising drivers to plow through red lights,” according to Gizmodo.

Even if users figured out one of the “games” the LLM was playing, the researchers had created multiple other “games” the user would fall into. Bard is apparently more difficult to manipulate than GPT-3.5 and GPT-4.

Also read: Blockchain games aren’t really decentralized… but that’s about to change

All Killer No Filler AI news

— Nvidia has just unveiled its GH200 super chip, which has 141GB of next-gen memory, three times the capacity of its popular H100 GPU. Nvidia says the cost of powering LLMs will drop significantly

— A new preprint from former Amazon AI researcher Konstantine Arkoudas analyzed GPT-4’s responses to 21 reasoning problems and concluded that: “Despite occasional flashes of analytical brilliance, GPT-4 at present is utterly incapable of reasoning.” 

— Spotify’s AI feature “DJ” — which recommends new artists and tracks and tells you why you should give them a go — is being rolled out to 50 countries this week. Users of the beta so far have spent around one-third of their listening time using DJ.

— Goldman Sachs predicts that AI investments will soar to $200 billion globally by 2025, accounting for 4% of U.S. gross domestic product and around 2.5% of the GDP of other nations. One in six companies mentioned AI on recent earnings calls.

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— Morgan Stanley is looking into concerns over an AI stock bubble, highlighting that previous bubbles had seen three-year peak returns of 150%. While AI stock darling Nvidia is up by 200% this year alone, broader AI indexes are only up by 50%.

— Researchers at Harvard and the University of Washington found that crowdsourcing business ideas from humans produced much more novel ideas than GPT-4, while prompting those same ideas from the AI produced ideas with better environmental and financial value. They concluded the best way forward may be an “integrative human-AI approach to problem-solving.”

— Nobody trusts AI with company data, according to a Blackberry survey of 2,000 company IT chiefs, which found three quarters are either implementing or considering bans on ChatGPT and other LLMs for data security, privacy and corporate reputation reasons. However, a McKinsey survey found that only 21% of organizations have implemented any policies on generative AI so far.

Video of the week

Redditor SellowYubmarine posted this “AI-generated trailer” for a Magic 8 horror film to the Singularity subreddit. While it highlights that a single user can employ AI tech to come up with a pretty impressive trailer, it still requires considerable effort, with the user employing ChatGPT for dialogue and story ideas Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, Runway, Pika Labs for the visuals and Photoshop, After Effects and Audition for editing.

Still, the new tech means creators will mainly be limited by their imaginations in the future, rather than budgets, as has been the case in the past.

Andrew Fenton

Andrew Fenton

Based in Melbourne, Andrew Fenton is a journalist and editor covering cryptocurrency and blockchain. He has worked as a national entertainment writer for News Corp Australia, on SA Weekend as a film journalist, and at The Melbourne Weekly.

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Govt vows to protect ‘pavement pints’ and make it easier for pubs to extend their opening hours

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Govt vows to protect 'pavement pints' and make it easier for pubs to extend their opening hours

“A wave of new cafes, bars, music venues and outdoor dining” could come to the UK – as the government unveils plans to overhaul planning rules and “breathe new life into the high street”.

Under the proposals, ministers also want to reform licensing rules to make it easier for disused shops to be converted into hospitality venues.

In a statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she planned to scrap “clunky, outdated rules… to protect pavement pints, al fresco dining and street parties”.

The reforms also aim to prevent existing pubs, clubs, and music venues from suffering noise complaints when new properties hit the market.

Developers who decide to build near those sites will be required to soundproof their buildings.

Customers drink in an outdoor seating area of a pub in London during pandemic in December 2021
Image:
Reuters file pic

As part of dedicated “hospitality zones”, permission for al fresco dining, street parties and extended opening hours will be fast-tracked.

The government says the reforms aim to modernise outdated planning and licensing rules as part of its Plan for Change, to help small businesses and improve local communities.

More on Hospitality

The rough plans will be subject to a “call for evidence” which could further shape policy.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the proposals will “put the buzz back into our town centres”.

“Red tape has stood in the way of people’s business ideas for too long. Today we’re slashing those barriers to giving small business owners the freedom to flourish,” he said.

The hospitality industry has broadly welcomed the changes but argued tax reform was also essential.

Kate Nicholls, chairwoman of UKHospitality, described the proposals as “positive and encouraging”.

However, she added: “They can’t on their own offset the immediate and mounting cost pressures facing hospitality businesses which threaten to tax out of existence the businesses and jobs that today’s announcement seeks to support.”

Read more from Sky News:
Licensing reforms for London venues
Pubs forced to adapt to survive

While supporting the reforms, Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), had a similar message.

“These changes must go hand in hand with meaningful business rates reform, mitigating staggering employment costs, and a cut in beer duty so that pubs can thrive at the heart of the community,” she said.

In July, BBPA estimated that 378 pubs will shut this year across England, Wales and Scotland, compared with 350 closures in 2024, which it said would amount to more than 5,600 direct job losses.

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Pubs closing at a rate of one a day

Bar chain Brewdog announced this week that it would close 10 sites, partly blaming “rising costs, increased regulation, and economic pressures”.

Andrew Griffith MP, shadow business secretary, said: “Though any cutting of red tape for hospitality businesses is welcome, this is pure hypocrisy and inconsistency from Labour.”

He said the government was “crippling the hospitality industry by doubling business rates, imposing a jobs tax and a full-on strangulation of employment red tape”.

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Heathrow-funded group sending ‘incredibly misleading’ mail to homes across west London, campaigners allege

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Heathrow-funded group sending 'incredibly misleading' mail to homes across west London, campaigners allege

A campaign group for a third runway at Heathrow that gets funding from the airport has been distributing “incredibly misleading” information to households in west London, according to opponents of the expansion.

The group, called Back Heathrow, sent leaflets to people living near the airport, claiming expansion could be the route to a “greener” airport and suggesting it would mean only the “cleanest and quietest aircraft” fly there.

It comes as the airport prepares to submit its planning application for a third runway ahead of the 31 July deadline, following the government’s statement of support for the expansion.

File photo dated 4/1/2016 of an Emirates Airbus A380 plane lands over houses near Heathrow Airport, west London. Exposure to aircraft noise could increase the likelihood of suffering heart attacks, according to a study. Researchers at University College London (UCL) found people who live near airports - and are subjected to noise from planes taking off and landing - may be at greater risk of poor heart health. Issue date: Wednesday January 8, 2025.
Image:
A plane lands over houses near Heathrow Airport. Pic: PA

Back Heathrow calls itself a “local campaign group of over 100,000 residents” and does not mention the funding it receives from the airport in the newsletter.

Its website also does not mention the current financial support and says it “initially launched with funding from Heathrow Airport but we have since grown”.

Back Heathrow also told Sky News it had “always been open” about the support it receives from the airport.

At the bottom of every web page, the organisation says: “Back Heathrow is a group of residents, businesses and community groups who have come together to defend the jobs that rely on Heathrow and to campaign for its secure future.”

Heathrow Airport said it had always been clear about funding Back Heathrow, but would not disclose how much it provides.

Parmjit Dhanda in 2009 at the hustings to be Speaker of the House of Commons. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Parmjit Dhanda in 2009 at the hustings to be Speaker of the House of Commons. Pic: Reuters

Who’s behind Back Heathrow?

The group’s executive director is former Labour minister Parmjit Dhanda, who was MP for Gloucester from 2001 to 2010 and sits on the National Policy Forum – the body responsible for developing Labour policy.

Latest accounts for Back Heathrow show it had five employees, including its two directors, in the financial year ending 30 June 2024. The second director is John Braggins, a former campaign adviser to Tony Blair.

The business had £243,961 in cash, the accounts show.

What are the group saying?

In the newsletter, executive director Mr Dhanda said people ask if Heathrow is sustainable. In answering the question, he appeared to suggest the airport can dictate what types of planes use Heathrow.

“We can build a cleaner, greener and smarter airport – using more sustainable aviation fuel, ensuring only the cleanest and quietest aircraft fly here, reduce stacking in our skies and modernise our airspace to cut emissions in flight,” he wrote.

When asked by Sky News what Back Heathrow meant and what the source for the claim was, the organisation pointed to the airport’s traffic light system of noise and emission measurements for the 50 largest airlines serving Heathrow.

“The scheme helps to see what areas certain airlines are excelling in and where improvements can be made,” a spokesperson said.

But those “cleaner and greener” claims were dismissed as “myths” by one campaigner.

Back Heathrow's spring 2025 newsletter
(use this one)
Image:
Back Heathrow’s spring 2025 newsletter

Finlay Asher is an aerospace engineer and co-founder of Safe Landing, a group of aviation workers and enthusiasts seeking climate improvements in the industry.

He said the emissions savings from sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) were “highly debatable” – but added that even if they were taken at face value, use of these fuels is “relatively low” and so only provides small emissions reductions.

“Air traffic growth at Heathrow will wipe this out,” he said.

Mr Asher also disputed the claim that only the cleanest and quietest aircraft will fly at Heathrow. “There is no policy in place which prevents older generation aircraft from being operated out of any airport,” he said.

As for reducing “stacking” – where aircraft wait over an airport to land – Mr Asher said if that’s the goal, “adding more aircraft to the sky won’t make this easier”.

Opposition to Back Heathrow’s claims also came from Rob Barnstone, founder of the No Third Runway Coalition, which is funded by five local authorities surrounding Heathrow Airport.

He said that regardless of fuel efficiencies or new quieter engines, having the additional 260,000 flights Heathrow has said will be created with an extra runway – in addition to the airport’s current cap of 480,000 – would create “an awful lot of noise”.

“For all the best will in the world, Heathrow is a very, very, very noisy neighbour… When you’re adding a quarter of a million additional flights, that’s going to create an awful lot of emissions, even if they’re using planes that are ever so slightly less environmentally damaging than previous planes,” Mr Barnstone said.

Green claims

Under the heading of “UK sustainable fuel industry for Heathrow”, Back Heathrow said “advances in electric and hydrogen powered aircraft can ensure we meet our environmental targets”.

Elaborating on this, Back Heathrow told Sky News: “Zero-emission electric and hydrogen aircraft are very much the end goal for civil aviation and countries like Norway have set 2040 as the year that all of their short-haul flights will be by electric planes.”

The statement was called “incredibly misleading” by Dr Alex Chapman, senior economist at the left-leaning think tank New Economics Foundation (NEF).

“There’s just absolutely no confidence that those aircraft are going to have any meaningful impact on emissions and commercial aviation in any reasonable time frame. And, yeah, we can all speculate as to what may not happen in 50 years’ time. But I think the people living around the airport should be given the information about what’s actually realistic.”

Even if the technology were available, the runway may not be ready for it, Dr Chapman said.

“Perhaps more importantly, there’s been no indication so far that the proposed new runway is being built to cater for those types of aircraft, because a runway that caters to electrical, hydrogen powered aircraft would be very different to one that was for conventional fuel, particularly in terms of the fuelling infrastructure around it that would be required: pipes to pipe hydrogen, massive charging power facilities.”

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Heathrow CEO on expansion plans

While work is under way to develop electric aircraft, there are currently no commercial electric flights taking place. The best-case scenario is battery-powered flights that may be suitable for short journeys.

But as a major international airport, more than 40% of Heathrow’s flights are long-haul and medium-haul.

And while airlines such as easyJet have called for government funding to develop hydrogen flying suitable for short-haul flights, there are obstacles to making regular commercial flights a reality.

Providing enough hydrogen for the plane journeys from renewable sources will be challenging, as will transporting the fuel, and reworking airport infrastructure for hydrogen refuelling.

Plans for hydrogen aircraft are at least a decade away, with Airbus saying it wants to get a 100-seat hydrogen plane in the air by 2035 – although Back Heathrow’s estimates for a third runway have flights taking off in 2034.

For now, rising emissions from flying are risking the UK’s climate targets, according to the independent government advisers of the Climate Change Committee, who found flights contribute more greenhouse gas than the entire electricity supply sector.

Back Heathrow's spring 2025 newsletter
(use this one)
Image:
Back Heathrow’s spring 2025 newsletter

Expanding at ‘full capacity’

On the first page of the newsletter, Back Heathrow says “Heathrow is at full capacity”, but the company told Sky News the airport has been “operating at 98% capacity since 2005”.

Despite its 98% capacity, Heathrow Airport has broken passenger number records every year for the past 14 years – excluding the pandemic years of 2020 to 2023.

Dr Chapman said Heathrow is at capacity regarding the government-imposed flight cap, not at the capacity of the current runway infrastructure.

“So if the government were, for example, to lift that cap on the number of aircraft movements, it’s pretty likely that they could actually fly 10% to 20% more flights out of the existing infrastructure,” he said.

As aeroplanes have expanded to carry more passengers, the airport has welcomed more people, he added.

The airport earlier this month announced plans to increase its capacity by 10 million passengers a year, before a third runway is built, and to raise the charge paid by passengers to fund the investment.

Read more:
New internet rules come into force – here’s what is changing
Good economic news as sunny weather boosted retail sales

How have the group and the airport responded?

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Back Heathrow represents tens of thousands of local people who want to make their views known on the importance of Heathrow to their communities and livelihoods today and into the future.

“We have always been clear that, alongside individual residents, local business groups and trade unions, we provide funding for Back Heathrow to provide a voice for local people who historically have not been heard in the debate about expanding Heathrow.”

Speaking for the campaign group, Mr Dhanda said: “At Back Heathrow we are proud of our link to Heathrow Airport (the clue is in the name).

“We have always been open about the fact that we receive support from the airport and that they helped set the organisation up to balance the debate about expansion at a time when the voices of ordinary working people from the diverse communities around Heathrow were not being heard.”

“Back Heathrow also receives support from trade unions, local businesses and residents from amongst the 100,000 registered supporters it now has,” he added.

“We want an end to the dither and delay. Back Heathrow supporters want to see economic growth and the thousands of new jobs and apprenticeships a new runway will create.”

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Demographics will ‘leapfrog’ Bitcoin adoption in Pakistan — Bilal Bin Saqib

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<div>Demographics will 'leapfrog' Bitcoin adoption in Pakistan — Bilal Bin Saqib</div>

<div>Demographics will 'leapfrog' Bitcoin adoption in Pakistan — Bilal Bin Saqib</div>

A young and tech-savvy population, combating inflationary pressures, is driving Bitcoin adoption and a new financial system in Pakistan.

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