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Privately held companies have been left to develop AI technology at breakneck speed, giving rise to systems like Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.

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A majority of Europeans want government restrictions on artificial intelligence to mitigate the impacts of the technology on job security, according to a major new study from Spain’s IE University.

The study shows that out of a sample of 3,000 Europeans, 68% want their governments to introduce rules to safeguard jobs from the rising level of automation being brought about by AI.

That number is up 18% from the amount of people who responded in the same way to a similar piece of research that IE University brought out in 2022. Last year, 58% of people responded to IE University’s study saying they think that AI should be regulated.

“The most common fear is the potential for job loss,” Ikhlaq Sidhu, dean of the IE School of SciTech at IE University

The report was produced by IE University’s Center for the Governance of Change, an applied-research institution that seeks to enhance the understanding, anticipation and managing of innovation.

Standing out from the rest of Europe, Estonia is the only country where this view decreased — by 23% — from last year. In Estonia, only 35% of the population wants their government to impose limits on AI.

Generally, though, the majority of people in Europe are favorable of governments regulating AI to stem the risk of job losses.

“Public sentiment has been increasing towards acceptance of regulation for AI, particularly due to the recent rollouts of generative AI products such as ChatGPT and others,” Sidhu said.

It comes as governments around the world are working on regulation for AI algorithms.

In the European Union, a piece of legislation known as the AI Act would introduce a risk-based approach to governing AI, applying different levels of risk to different applications of the technology.

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

Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to hold an AI safety summit at Bletchley Park, the home of the codebreakers who cracked the code that helped end World War II, on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2.

Sunak, who faces a multitude of political challenges at home, has pitched Britain as the “geographical home” for AI safety regulation, touting the country’s heritage in science and technology.

Worryingly, most Europeans say they wouldn’t feel confident distinguishing between content that’s AI-generated and content that’s genuine, according to IE University, with only 27% of Europeans believing they’d be able to spot AI-generated fake content.

Older citizens in Europe expressed a higher degree of doubt about their ability to determine AI-generated and authentic content, with 52% saying they wouldn’t feel confident doing so.

Academics and regulators are concerned by the risks around AI coming up with synthetically-produced material that could jeopardize elections.

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Ambarella stock rips 20% higher after earnings as AI demand boosts guidance

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Ambarella stock rips 20% higher after earnings as AI demand boosts guidance

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Ambarella stock roared 20% higher Friday as the chip designer reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and issued strong guidance.

Here’s how the company did compared to LSEG expectations:

  • Earnings: 15 cents per share adj. vs 5 cents per share expected
  • Revenue: $96 million vs $90 million expected

Ambarella, which is known for its system-on-chip semiconductors and software used for edge artificial intelligence, said it expects third-quarter revenue between $100 million and $108 million, beating the LSEG estimate of $91 million.

The company boosted its fiscal year revenue growth outlook to a range of 31-35%, to $379 million at the midpoint, which topped the $350 million expected by LSEG.

“After a multi-year period of significant edge AI R&D investment, our broad product portfolio enable us to address a rising breadth of edge AI applications,” CEO Fermi Wang said in a call with analysts Thursday.

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Wang singled out strength in “portable video, robotic aerial drones and edge infrastructure.”

Edge computing refers to the direct processing and storing of data at the device level instead of those actions being handled remotely in the cloud at a data center.

Ambarella had a net loss of $20 million, a loss of 47 cents per share in the second quarter. That narrowed from the same quarter a year ago, when the company had a net loss of $35 million, a loss of 85 cents per share.

The company said stock-based compensation and the amortization of acquisition-related costs weighed on earnings.

In June, Bloomberg reported that the company was considering a sale and had held talks with banks. Shares climbed 20% higher on the news.

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Ambarella year-to-date stock chart.

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Marvell stock slumps 16% after data center revenue, forecast disappoint

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Marvell stock slumps 16% after data center revenue, forecast disappoint

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

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Shares of Marvell Technology plunged 15% on Friday after the artificial intelligence chipmaker’s data center revenue fell short of estimates and it gave lackluster guidance for the current quarter.

Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: 67 cents adjusted vs. 66 cents expected
  • Revenue: $2.01 billion vs. $2.01 billion expected

Revenue jumped 58% from a year ago in the fiscal second quarter that ended Aug. 2, a record for the company that was fueled in part by “strong AI demand” for its custom silicon and electro-optics products, Marvell CEO Matt Murphy said in a statement.

The company had net income of $194.8 million, or 22 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $193.3 million, a loss of 22 cents per share, during the same period last year.

For the fiscal third quarter, the company called for revenue to be $2.06 billion, plus or minus 5%. That was slightly below the $2.11 billion forecast by analysts, according to LSEG.

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Marvell is known for creating customized chips and hardware, which it offers to cloud providers such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Sales in its data center segment reached $1.49 billion during the quarter, which fell short of Wall Street’s projected $1.51 billion, according to StreetAccount.

On a conference call with investors, Murphy said the company expects “overall data center revenue in Q3 to be flat sequentially,” which he attributed to nonlinear growth in its custom AI chips business. Fourth-quarter growth is expected to be “substantially stronger” than the third quarter, Murphy said.

He added that “lumpiness” of the guidance is normal as large hyperscalers build out infrastructure.

Still, some investors were hoping for greater clarity around the company’s pipeline of new customers.

“Without this, we find it very difficult underwriting the company’s 20% data center market share target,” Cantor analysts wrote in a Thursday note to clients. “Thus, we wait for more bottoms up granularity before potentially turning more positive.”

Analysts at Bank of America downgraded Marvell’s stock to neutral from buy on Friday and lowered their price target to $78 per share from $90, partly on concerns around the company’s AI growth prospects “in the near/medium term.”

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India’s Reliance ties up with Google and Meta to drive AI push

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India's Reliance ties up with Google and Meta to drive AI push

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, arrives to pay his last respect to Indian industrialist Ratan Tata at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) ahead of its cremation in Mumbai on October 10, 2024. 

Punit Paranjpepunit Paranjpe | AFP | Getty Images

Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries on Friday announced new partnerships with Google and Meta to accelerate the company’s push into artificial intelligence.

Speaking at an annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani also disclosed ambitions to list Reliance Jio, India’s largest mobile network, in the first half of 2026.

“A decade ago, digital services became a new growth engine for Reliance — the opportunity before us with AI is just as large, if not larger,” Ambani said, as he revealed a new fully owned subsidiary called Reliance Intelligence.

In a pre-recorded video played during the AGM, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that Reliance would leverage the internet giant’s AI and cloud computing capabilities to boost innovation across sectors like energy, retail, telecommunications and financial services.

The pair will establish a dedicated cloud region in India, powered by clean energy provided by Reliance Industries and connected through Jio’s network.

Separately, Ambani also announced a new joint venture with Meta to make use of the tech group’s open-source AI models and deliver “sovereign, enterprise-ready AI for India.”

Under the new venture, Reliance Industries and Meta have committed an initial investment of $100 million to capitalize the unit in a ratio of 70% and 30% respectively, the two companies said in a joint statement Friday.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg hailed the partnership as “a key step forward towards ensuring that everyone has access to AI and eventually super intelligence.”

The partnerships signal a deeper push from U.S. tech names into India at a time when the country is seeing significant economic growth. It is not the first time that either Google and Meta has shown an interest in Reliance.

In 2020, Meta invested $5.7 billion into Jio Platforms, which is the parent company of Reliance Jio. Google separately announced a $4.5 billion investment in Jio Platforms that same year.

Jio Platforms owns a number of brands, including its telecommunications business Reliance Jio, which has grown rapidly over the past decade thanks to competitive pricing.

Reliance’s deeper pacts with Google and Meta come at a precarious time for U.S.-India relations. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed hefty tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil.

Trump’s tariffs versus India’s growth story - who wins?

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