Week in Review 5.03: Le Chat - new competitor to ChatGPT; what about AI from Apple; Musk sues Altman

From the editorial team

Is Elon Musk trying to take down the biggest players in the AI market? You can never be 100% sure about the real intentions of the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, but that's what a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, filed on his behalf to the California Supreme Court, would suggest. You can read about Elon Musk's official motivations in the Artificial Intelligence section.

In this issue of Digitized Weekly Review, we also write about the new biggest competitor of ChatGPT, various troubles of Google (from a class action lawsuit by European publishers, to the erratic Gemini model), as well as Apple's plans for AI development. From the Digitized Editorial Recommends section, you will also find out whether Europe has a chance to become a global superpower thanks to its technology market.

Welcome!

Weekly news review

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Le Chat: French MistralAI has shown its AI chatbot. Will it threaten ChatGPT from OpenAI?

French MistralAI, one of the most promising European startups dealing with artificial intelligence, has presented its first AI-based chatbot. Le Chat, as the tool is called, was built as an "entry point for conversation enabling interaction with various Mistral AI models", such as Mistral Large, Small or Next. It is also said that Le Chat could seriously threaten ChatGPT from OpenAI. The chatbot is currently available in beta version and can be used by registering as a beta tester. MistralAI also offers a "corporate" version with "self-deployment capabilities and detailed moderation mechanisms".

Google pays independent publishers "five-figure sums" for using its AI tools

As reported by Adweek, Google has launched a private program for several independent media entities, in which they received test access to an unreleased platform based on generative artificial intelligence. The cooperation is to last twelve months and during this time publishers will be obliged to create three articles a day, one newsletter a week, and one marketing campaign a month using Google's tool. In return, they are to receive a "monthly scholarship" reaching "five-figure sums annually".

What is Apple doing about AI? Tim Cook is to announce the company's plans this year

Although Apple has so far developed its generative artificial intelligence technologies more cautiously than competitors such as Microsoft or Google, Tim Cook at the shareholders' meeting on February 28, 2024, emphasized that AI is already playing a key role in the company's products with the logo of a bitten apple. Detailed plans of the giant regarding the development of AI are to be revealed only in the coming months. The company's shareholders rejected a proposal calling on the company to disclose more information about how it uses AI in its operations and its approach to ethical issues related to this technology.

Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for "betraying" the company's mission

On the last day of February 2024, Elon Musk filed a lawsuit with the California Supreme Court in San Francisco, accusing OpenAI and its founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of betraying the company's founding mission. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX also claims that the creators of ChatGPT, by collaborating with Microsoft, prioritized profit over the good of humanity. Musk is trying to force OpenAI to adhere to the company's original founding mission through the lawsuit, which assumed non-profit activity for the benefit of humanity. The billionaire also demands a ban on profiting from technologies developed by OpenAI by partners such as Microsoft and the return of donations intended to finance public AI research.

10 most popular genAI tools in 2023

Representatives of Writterbudy.ai, using SEMrush, an SEO tool, analyzed over 3,000 AI solutions, downloading data from various directories containing a list of such tools. On this basis, they identified the 50 most popular applications, which account for over 80% of traffic in the AI industry from September 2022 to August 2023. Below is a graphic presenting the 10 most popular genAI tools in 2023.

Research and reports worth noting

KPMG Cybersecurity Barometer: staffing and financial troubles of Polish companies

The latest results of the KPMG Cybersecurity Barometer indicate that the main challenge for Polish companies is finding and retaining highly qualified employees in the field of cybersecurity. As many as 53% of entities that participated in the study struggle with this problem. The second most frequently indicated obstacle in the field of protection against cyber attacks is limited financial resources. Additionally, according to the respondents' answers, other challenges, such as the lack of clearly defined indicators and the lack of full business and top management engagement, remain at a similar level of importance.

Gartner Report: Marketers fear AI. Is it justified?

Job market uncertainty related to the rapid development of modern technologies affects almost all industries and marketing is no exception. According to a new report from Gartner, as many as 89% of surveyed marketers fear mass layoffs in their companies, of which 87% feel anxious about the spread of generative AI. At the same time, 55% of people are experiencing increasingly mismatched expectations regarding their positions, and 61% admit that they have encountered a change in technology and/or process in the last twelve months.

AR/VR market to grow 5-fold by 2028. ABI Research forecasts

According to the latest forecasts from ABI Research, the augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technology sector is on the verge of a revolution - by 2028, the number of AR/VR sets delivered is expected to increase more than fivefold, reaching 69 million units. It is predicted that the majority of the market will belong to autonomous devices, and smart glasses will take second place in user preferences.

In 2024, cloud corporations will drive demand for AI servers

This year, cloud giants will drive demand for high-end AI servers, according to TrendForce's forecast. It is predicted that Microsoft (20.2%), Google (16.6%), AWS (16%) and Meta (10.8%) will together account for over 60% of global demand. The leaders will be servers based on NVIDIA graphics processors. AI servers, according to the analysis, are systems with Nvidia, AMD or other top-class ASIC systems.

SMEs will be keen to implement firewalls by 2028

The size of the global next-generation firewall market will increase from $5 billion in 2023 to $8.6 billion by 2028, with an average annual growth rate of 11.4% in the years 2023 - 2028, MarketsandMarkets forecasts. According to the report, the market's development is related to the spread of remote work, which increases the risk to the company's network.

Digitization and cybersecurity in Poland

1.5 billion PLN for local governments for cybersecurity

Over 2,000 local governments from all provinces have received support as part of the Cybersecure Local Government project. They will receive up to 850 thousand zlotys for cybersecurity activities. - The huge interest in the project from local governments shows that they are aware of cybersecurity threats and - what's more - ready to counteract them. The Cybersecure Local Government program is not only to provide them with financial support, but also, within the competences of the Ministry of Digitization and NASK, substantive support - explains Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski. On February 27, the first agreement with the Izabelin commune was signed to implement a grant for the amount of 850 thousand zlotys.

Minister Barbara Nowacka appointed the Council for the Computerization of Education

By the order of the Minister of Education of February 28, 2024, the head of the department Barbara Nowacka appointed the Council for the Computerization of Education. The main tasks of the Council are: supporting the Ministry of Education in the implementation of digital technologies in the education system; initiating activities to improve the quality of education in the education system using information and communication technology tools; presenting recommendations to the Minister regarding the directions of activities in the education system related to the development of the information society and knowledge-based economy in Poland.

It's worth knowing

Amazon lobbyists removed from the European Parliament

Amazon lobbyists have been removed from the European Parliament at the request of the employment committee - Reuters reports. A total of fourteen employees of the corporation lost their long-term passes to the EP after they repeatedly refused to participate in hearings on labor issues. It's about employment conditions in Amazon's logistics centers. "It is unjustified for members of parliament to be lobbied by Amazon, while at the same time being deprived of the right to represent the interests of European citizens and to investigate claims related to the violation of fundamental rights enshrined in EU treaties and EU labor law" - it was written in the application to the President of the European Parliament Roberta Matsoli.

Over 30 European media groups demand compensation from Google. Agora is among them

Agora and its subsidiaries have joined the ranks of over thirty European media groups, on behalf of which Greyfield Capital filed a lawsuit in the District Court in Amsterdam against Google Netherlands B.V., Agora reported. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation in the amount of approx. 2.1 billion euros for violation of fair competition rules in the European online advertising technology market in the years 2014-2023. The potential compensation due to the companies from the Agora capital group has been estimated at over 44 million euros.

Here is the world's first bike equipped with AI and 5G

Orbic company presented the world's first electric bike with 5G, which integrates an artificial intelligence system to increase the safety of users. The AI-powered object avoidance system monitors what is happening behind the cyclist and warns him of any potential threats, such as approaching vehicles. This is possible thanks to a high-resolution camera and a series of sensors, the data from which is analyzed by artificial intelligence.

Digitized editorial team recommends

Technology market. Can Europe catch up with the world thanks to AI?

At the end of February, Microsoft bought shares in the French startup Mistral AI. This company, which has been in existence for less than a year, is already valued at 2 billion dollars and is sometimes referred to as a threat to OpenAI. What does this tell us about the European technological ecosystem and its chances of catching up with the world? More on this topic in the analysis by Piotr Zalewski.

"Shameful and bad": Google admits it has lost control over its AI generating images

Google Gemini user asked AI to create "German soldiers from 1943". In response to his query, he saw graphics that indeed showed soldiers in Nazi uniforms, except that one of them was black, one was a Native American, and one was Asian.

Similar results, in which images generated by AI have little in common with the historical realities of a given era (e.g., ethnically and gender diverse Founding Fathers of the United States, who were white slave owners), have appeared more.

Google therefore fell victim to its own misguided political correctness and - which does not happen often - apologized for the situation, claiming that the AI model has become "too sensitive". You can read more about the background of this situation in the article below from TechCrunch.