New Delhi:

A New York based AI research company that focuses on biotechnology has generated a novel protein using a Protein Language Model (ProLLMs) that works on the similar transformer architecture as that of ChatGPT. 

EvolutionaryScale unveiled a first of its kind AI generated new protein molecule that glows- mimicking the bioluminescence of a jellyfish molecule called green fluorescent protein- on 25 June. The novel protein sequence is significantly different (less than 60 percent resemblance) to the natural protein: a difference dubbed to be possible “over 500 million years of (natural) evolution” by the company. 

The company used its frontier AI language model called EvolutionaryScale Model-3 (ESM3) to achieve this feat and secured 142 million dollars in a seed funding round for the same, including investments from industry giants like Nvidia and Amazon.

We are thrilled to be partnering with AWS and NVIDIA to push the frontier of AI for the life sciences.

— EvolutionaryScale (@EvoscaleAI) June 25, 2024

The ESM3 differs from ChatGPT as it is trained on parameters (internal variables) of three fundamental biological properties of proteins – sequence, structure and functions. The model was trained on 98 billion parameters, making it the biggest biological AI model till date. 

EvolutionaryScale dubs this as a “model trained across all of evolution.” The training set comprised 2.78 billion natural proteins, ranging from “the Amazon rainforest, to the depths of ocean, extreme environments like hydrothermal vents, and microbes in a handful of soil.”

ESM3 lets users generate proteins, using prompts with partial information (sequence, structure, and function keywords) and iterating the model to make predictions until the entire sequence is completed. The model is primarily meant for scientists and gives them unprecedented control over the process of generating proteins.

We have trained ESM3 and we’re excited to introduce EvolutionaryScale.

ESM3 is a generative language model for programming biology. In experiments, we found ESM3 can simulate 500M years of evolution to generate new fluorescent proteins.

Read more: https://t.co/iAC3lkj0iVpic.twitter.com/AhWtC4vxlF

— Alex Rives (@alexrives) June 25, 2024

EvolutionaryScale states their objective is to make biology programmable. “ESM3 takes a step towards the future where AI is a tool to engineer biology from first principles in the same way we engineer structures, machines and microchips, and write computer programs,” states the company website. 

The application of this technology can lead to breakthroughs in multiple fields like drug discovery and development, biomedical research as well as sustainability- an example of which is already demonstrated by EvolutionaryScale by showcasing a protein prototype that is capable of degrading plastic waste. 

The possibilities are endless, with every cell in every organism containing ribosomes (protein complexes that are responsible for protein synthesis). However, there have also been concerns that AI might be misused for creating biological weapons. 

Scientists have taken a proactive approach and laid down “Community Values, Guiding Principles, and Commitments for the Responsible Development of AI for Protein Design” in March, seeking to guide the developments in this domain for the betterment of humanity.

We’re advancing a new global agreement signed by 100+ leading scientists to ensure AI technologies for protein design are developed responsibly. This field can deliver medicines, vaccines, and other innovations that benefit all. https://t.co/pTlFtBWHNhhttps://t.co/XYn986dEAt

— Institute for Protein Design (@UWproteindesign) March 8, 2024

 
EvolutionaryScale has also been praised by experts for releasing a smaller open-source version for others to use freely. The large-scale complete model has not been released, although the training process of the same has been made public, in an attempt to remain transparent and share the technology freely.
 

Studies have identified that 18 elephant routes exist between Tamil Nadu and Kerala
| Photo Credit: ANI

The elephant population in India stands at 25,000 to 30,000, earning the species an “endangered” status. Their range today is estimated to be only 3.5% of what it was earlier, being restricted to the Himalayan foothills, the northeast, some forests of central India, and hilly forests of Western and Eastern Ghats.

Of particular concern is the fragmentation of their habitat: small, forested areas providing sustenance for elephants, interspersed with human-developed landscapes. Fragmentation can also lead to restricted breeding choices. This creates genetic bottlenecks and, in the long term, a reduction in the fitness of the herds.

Frequent movement of elephants between their habitable zones brings them into contact with roads and railway lines. The range of a female elephant covers about 500 sq. km, and traveling over so much distance in the age of fragmented habitats makes a road or railway crossing very likely.

Fortunately, not all elephant tracks pose these hazards. The elephants of Bandipur, Mudumalai and Wayanad go on a seasonal summer migration. They head for the Kabini Dam backwaters for both water and green grass. Studies have identified that 18 elephant routes exist between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Wildlife corridors are a solution — these managed lands allow for migration with minimal human contact. One good example is the Motichur-Chilla corridor in Uttarakhand, which allows the flow of elephant genes between the Corbett and the Rajaji National Parks. However, there is always the risk of conflict with humans, with elephants occasionally feasting on crops, or crossing roads and railway tracks.

Train speed

In a Canadian study attempting to mitigate animal-train collisions, train-triggered warning systems comprising flashing lights and bell sounds were installed at various locations along the tracks. These signals activated 30 seconds before train arrival, were aimed at conditioning animals to associate the warnings with approaching trains.

Cameras recorded animal responses to trains with and without warning signals, on both straight and curved tracks. Large animals, such as elks (from the deer family) and grizzly bears left the tracks about 10 seconds before the train arrived when there was no warning system, and about 17 seconds before the train arrived when warning bells and lights were deployed (Transportation Research, vol 87, 2020).

The response to an approaching train is less in curved sections of the track, probably due to reduced visibility. In such places, sound is used by animals. However, the ability to hear an approaching train is significantly influenced by factors such as high train speed.

AI methods

When should an engine driver reduce speed when passing through forests that are elephant habitats? The Indian Railways has a vast network of optical fiber cables. These support telecommunications and carry data, and importantly transmit signals for train control. In a recently introduced system called Gajraj, geophonic sensors on these OFC lines are tuned to pick up the vibrations of the deep and resonant footsteps of passing elephants.

This AI-based intrusion detection system analyses data from the sensors, extracting relevant features such as frequency components and duration of vibration. If elephant-specific vibrations are detected, an alert is promptly sent to locomotive drivers in the area, and train speeds are reduced. The system is now operational in the Alipurduar area of north West Bengal, which has been the site of several tragic accidents in the past.

(The article was written in collaboration with Sushil Chandani, who works in molecular modelling)

New Delhi:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released an Artificial Intelligence Preparedness Index (AIPI) Dashboard on their website on Tuesday, tracking 174 economies globally for AI readiness.   

The Index has categorised each country into Advanced Economy (AE), Emerging Market Economy (EM), and Low-Income Country (LIC). Singapore (0.80), Denmark (0.78), and the United States (0.77) are among the highest-rated AEs, with India categorised as an EM with a 0.49 rating. India ranks 72 in a total of 174 countries, with Bangladesh (0.38) on 113, Sri Lanka (0.43) on 92, and China (0.63) on 31.     

The rating for each country is given based on the assessment of readiness in four key areas – digital infrastructure, human capital and labour market policies, innovation and economic integration, and regulation.

Earlier this year, the IMF published a blog based on their research paper on 14 January, stating that AI could endanger 33 percent of jobs in AEs, 24 percent in EMs, and 18 percent in LICs. Overall, 40 percent of the jobs around the world will be affected by AI, replacing some and complimenting others.

“On the brighter side, it also brings enormous potential to enhance the productivity of existing jobs for which AI can be a complementary tool and to create new jobs and even new industries,” says Economist Giovanni Melina, in the IMF article from Tuesday.

“Under most scenarios, AI will likely worsen overall inequality, a troubling trend that policymakers can work to prevent. To this end, the dashboard is a response to significant interest from our stakeholders in accessing the index. It is a resource for policymakers, researchers, and the public to better assess AI preparedness and, importantly, to identify the actions and design the policies needed to help ensure that the rapid gains of AI can benefit all,” wrote Melina.

For a few days, AI chip juggernaut Nvidia sat on the throne as the world’s biggest company, but behind its staggering success are questions on whether new entrants can stake a claim to the artificial intelligence bonanza.

Nvidia, which makes the processors that are the only option to train generative AI’s large language models, is now Big Tech’s newest member and its stock market takeoff has lifted the whole sector.

Even tech’s second rung on Wall Street has ridden on Nvidia’s coattails with Oracle, Broadcom, HP and a spate of others seeing their stock valuations surge, despite sometimes shaky earnings.

Amid the champagne popping, startups seeking the attention of Silicon Valley venture capitalists are being asked to innovate — but without a clear indication of where the next chapter of AI will be written.

When it comes to generative AI, doubts persist on what exactly will be left for companies that are not existing model makers, a field dominated by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.

Most agree that competing with them head-on could be a fool’s errand.

“I don’t think that there’s a great opportunity to start a foundational AI company at this point in time,” said Mike Myer, founder and CEO of tech firm Quiq, at the Collision technology conference in Toronto.

Some have tried to build applications that use or mimic the powers of the existing big models, but this is being slapped down by Silicon Valley’s biggest players.

“What I find disturbing is that people are not differentiating between those applications which are roadkill for the models as they progress in their capabilities, and those that are really adding value and will be here 10 years from now,” said venture capital veteran Vinod Khosla.

– ‘Won’t keep up’ –

The tough-talking Khosla is one of OpenAI’s earliest investors.

“Grammarly won’t keep up,” Khosla predicted of the spelling and grammar checking app, and others similar to it.

He said these companies, which put only a “thin wrapper” around what the AI models can offer, are doomed.

One of the fields ripe for the taking is chip design, Khosla said, with AI demanding ever more specialized processors that provide highly specific powers.

“If you look across the chip history, we really have for the most part focused on more general chips,” Rebecca Parsons, CTO at tech consultancy Thoughtworks, told AFP.

Providing more specialized processing for the many demands of AI is an opportunity seized by Groq, a hot startup that has built chips for the deployment of AI as opposed to its training, or inference — the specialty of Nvidia’s world-dominating GPUs.

Groq CEO Jonathan Ross told AFP that Nvidia won’t be the best at everything, even if they are uncontested for generative AI training.

“Nvidia and (its CEO) Jensen Huang are like Michael Jordan… the greatest of all time in basketball. But inference is baseball, and we try and forget the time where Michael Jordan tried to play baseball and wasn’t very good at it,” he said.

Another opportunity will come from highly specialized AI that will provide expertise and know-how based on proprietary data which won’t be co-opted by voracious big tech.

“Open AI and Google aren’t going to build a structural engineer. They’re not going to build products like a primary care doctor or a mental health therapist,” said Khosla.

Profiting from highly specialized data is the basis of Cohere, another of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups that pitches specifically-made models to businesses that are skittish about AI veering out of their control.

“Enterprises are skeptical of technology, and they’re risk-averse, and so we need to win their trust and to prove to them that there’s a way to adopt this technology that’s reliable, trustworthy and secure,” Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez told AFP.

When he was just 20 and working at Google, Gomez co-authored the seminal paper “Attention Is All You Need,” which introduced Transformer, the architecture behind popular large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4.

The company has received funding from Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures and is valued in the billions of dollars.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Geneva:

Humanity is in a race against time to harness the colossal emerging power of artificial intelligence for the good of all, while averting dire risks, a top UN official said Thursday.

“We’ve let the genie out of the bottle,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, head of the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

“We are in a race against time,” she told the opening of a two-day AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva.

“Recent developments in AI have been nothing short of extraordinary.”

The thousands gathered at the conference heard how advances in generative AI are already speeding up efforts to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, such as climate change, hunger and social care.

“I believe we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to guide AI to benefit all the world’s people,” Bogdan-Martin told AFP in an email ahead of the summit.

But she lamented Thursday that one-third of humanity still remains completely offline, and is “excluded from the AI revolution without a voice”.

“This digital and technological divide is no longer acceptable.”

Bogdan-Martin highlighted that AI holds “immense potential for both good and bad”, stressing that it was vital to “make AI systems safe”.

She said that was especially important now, given that “2024 is the biggest election year in history”, with votes in dozens of countries, including in the United States.

And “with the rise of sophisticated deep fakes disinformation campaigns, it’s also the most contentious one,” she said.

“Not only does this misuse of AI threaten democracy, it also endangers young people’s mental health and compromises cyber-security.”

In an address to a separate event focused on AI governance this week, the ITU chief said that “the power of AI is concentrated in the hands of too few”.

Bogdan-Martin hailed that governments and others had become more focused on regulation and protections around the use of AI.

For instance, on Wednesday the European Union announced the creation of an AI Office to regulate artificial intelligence under a sweeping new law.

“It’s our responsibility to write the next chapter in the great story of humanity, and technology, and to make it safe, to make it inclusive and to make it sustainable,” Bogdan-Martin said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has undoubtedly encouraged productivity and innovation globally. But for one small Caribbean Island, it has proved to be transformational. 

Anguilla, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean, witnessed a boom to such an extent that now it generates around a third of its government’s revenue from AI, reported Forbes. Surprisingly, this money is being generated even without a single line of code.

A member of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, Anguilla is making a fortune by collecting a fee from every registration for internet addresses that end in “.ai”

This is because “.ai” happens to be the domain name assigned to the island, similar to “.jp” for Japan and “.fr” for France. “

Anguilla’s .ai domain registrations surged from 144,000 in 2022 to 354,000 in 2023, generating over 20% of the government’s total revenue for the year. Find out in our Country Focus how this helps diversify the economy, making it more resilient to shocks. https://t.co/ULk3V6oVybpic.twitter.com/qgMdCa4aYo

— IMF (@IMFNews) May 24, 2024

The official report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) states that Anguilla’s country code “.ai” has become a favourite among technology companies across the globe.

The IMF revealed that since the launch of ChatGPT, in November 2022, the registrations for the .ai domain name have surged dramatically.

It added that the registrations soared from 144,000 in 2022 to 354,000 in 2023.

The IMF noted, “They (AI) have also generated an unusual boom in Anguilla, a British overseas territory and member of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, whose .ai country-code internet domain has become a favourite among technology companies across the world. Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, registrations of .ai domain names have skyrocketed—surging from 144,000 registrations in 2022 to 354,000 in 2023.”

Talking about the revenue being generated, the IMF revealed that last year “.ai domain registrations generated EC$87 million.”

It must be noted that this is 20 per cent more than the Anguillan government’s total revenue generation last year.

The IMF added, “In 2023 alone, this surge in .ai domain registrations generated EC$87 million in revenue (approximately $32 million)—just over 20 per cent of the government’s total revenue for the year.”

It continued, “This marks a dramatic increase from previous years when revenue from .ai domain registrations hovered around 5 per cent. Looking ahead, the government expects revenue from .ai domain registrations to stabilize at around 15 per cent of total government revenue, as the initial rush of registrations gradually slows.”

The IMF noted that Anguilla is heavily dependent on tourism activities that account for 37 per cent of its GDP.  The growing trend of .ai domain registrations is now playing a crucial role in diversifying its economy.

New Delhi:

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, stated that artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually eliminate all jobs, but he believes this is not necessarily a bad development, reported CNN. Speaking at a startup and tech event in Paris on Thursday, Musk said, “Probably none of us will have a job,”.

Elon Musk was speaking remotely via webcam at the Viva Tech event where he predicted a future where jobs would be “optional.”

He said, “If you want to do a job that’s kinda like a hobby, you can do a job.” Musk added, “But otherwise, AI and the robots will provide any goods and services that you want.”

Musk highlighted that for this scenario to succeed, there would need to be a “universal high income,” which should not be confused with universal basic income, however, he did not elaborate much on this concept.

The Universal basic income (UBI) refers to the government providing a certain amount of money to everyone, regardless of their earnings.

“There would be no shortage of goods or services,” Musk stated. He highlighted that AI capabilities have advanced rapidly over the past few years, advancing so quickly that regulators, companies, and users are still figuring out how to utilize the technology responsibly.

In the past also Musk expressed his concerns about AI. During his keynote on Thursday, he described the technology as his “biggest fear”. He cited the “Culture Book Series” by Ian Banks, a utopian fictionalized depiction of a society run by advanced technology, as the most realistic and “the best envisioning of a future AI.”

Musk questioned whether people would feel emotionally fulfilled in a future without jobs.

“The question will really be one of meaning – if the computer and robots can do everything better than you, does your life have meaning?” Musk said.

He added, “I do think there’s perhaps still a role for humans in this – in that we may give AI meaning.”

He also advised parents to control and limit the amount of social media their children consume, saying that social media platforms “are being programmed by a dopamine-maximizing AI.”

Industry experts are continuously raising concerns over how various industries and jobs will be transformed as AI proliferates in the market.

CNN reports that in January, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab found that workplaces are adopting AI more slowly than some had expected and feared. The report also noted that many jobs previously identified as vulnerable to AI were not economically beneficial for employers to automate at that time.

Experts largely believe that many jobs requiring high emotional intelligence and human interaction, such as mental health professionals, creatives, and teachers, will not need replacing.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella unveiled a new category of PC on Monday that features generative artificial intelligence tools built directly into Windows, the company’s world leading operating system.

The tech giant estimates that more than 50 million “AI PCs” will be sold over the next 12 months, given the appetite for devices powered by ChatGPT-style technology.

“We are introducing an entirely new class of Windows PCs engineered to unleash the power of distributed AI,” Nadella said at a launch event in Redmond, Washington.

“We call this new category ‘Copilot Plus’… The result is the fastest, most AI-ready Windows PCs ever built,” he added.

Of all the tech giants, Microsoft has pushed the most aggressively to infuse the powers of generative AI into its products, often leaving rival Google to play catch-up.

ChatGPT-style AI, which is called Copilot at Microsoft, is available across the company’s products, including Teams, Outlook and its Windows operating system.

Microsoft even tried, so far unsuccessfully, to rejuvenate Bing, its online search engine, with generative AI powers.

The pivot to AI has been celebrated by Wall Street, with Microsoft now the world’s biggest company by market capitalization, taking the spot from Apple.

Nadella’s announcement on AI comes on the heels of those made by Google and ChatGPT-maker Open AI last week.

The companies showcased updates to their chatbots, featuring more human-like interactions and new abilities to understand their surroundings via video, though the innovations are not yet available to users.

Google also announced it was adding AI answers to its world leading search engine, despite fears it may eat into its advertising revenues.

Microsoft is OpenAI’s main investor and has injected some $13 billion in the form of cloud computing credits that fulfill the ChatGPT-makers huge needs for computing.

‘AI revolution’

Analysts believe that the hunger for AI products is helping buoy Microsoft and Google’s cloud computing businesses, with clients ready to pay a premium to adopt ChatGPT-like capabilities.

In a note to clients, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said that AI will add $25 billion-$30 billion to Microsoft’s sales by 2025.

“The spending on AI is unprecedented across the tech world and this is just the first phase of the AI Revolution playing out,” Ives said.

Microsoft’s injection of AI into PC’s and devices comes just ahead of an Apple event next month that is widely expected to see ChatGPT’s abilities feature in a new iPhone.

Media reports also signal that Apple could announce a partnership between Apple and OpenAI.

The tech giants are racing the products out the door despite worries that generative Ai poses a threat to society.

Authorities, including in the usually low-regulated US, are drawing up ways to more closely track the developments in AI, and potentially put limits on its deployment.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across industries worldwide has made tasks efficient and easier. And with that, there’s also been a growing concern about potential job losses to the technology. However, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy believes the concern about AI replacing jobs is “overblown”.  

In a recent interview, Mr Murthy weighed in on AI’s potential to replace human jobs, particularly in coding. “The most powerful instrument ever invented by God is the human mind,” he told Moneycontrol.

Recalling the introduction of “case tools” in 1975, he said that many at the time thought it would replace human employment in software development. “It didn’t happen… When that technology of case tools and programme generators were invented,” adding that “those tools couldn’t handle” bigger and more complex problems.

Mr Murthy suggested focusing on how AI can “amplify” human labour, as per the outlet. The former Infosys CEO believes we should be able to “tame that beast and make it an assistive tool.” 

“I am a confirmed optimist regarding the role of technology in general and specifically in AI.”

It’s not the first time Mr Murthy has dismissed the notion that AI would replace human jobs. 

Even in February 2024, during a speech at the foundation day of the All India Management Association (AIMA), he said that while AI improves our lives, humans will always make sure it doesn’t dominate us. Mr Murthy said that the human mind remains superior to technology, always staying ahead. “Humans have the power of the mind,” he said, “no computer can compete with that.”

A government research institute in the United Arab Emirates on Monday released a new open source GenAI model, which could rival the ones from big technology companies.

Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) said it was releasing the Falcon 2 series: Falcon 2 11B, a text-based model, and Falcon 2 11B VLM, a vision-to-language model that can generate a text description of an uploaded image.

TII is a research centre within Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council.

The UAE, a major oil exporter and influential Middle East power, is making huge investments in artificial intelligence. But that bet has also drawn scrutiny from the U.S. officials who last year issued an ultimatum: American or Chinese technology.

Emirati AI firm G42 pulled out Chinese hardware and divested stakes in Chinese companies before securing a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft that was coordinated with Washington.

Advanced Technology Research Council Secretary General Faisal Al Bannai, who is also an adviser to the president on strategic research and advanced technology, said the UAE was demonstrating it can be a major player in artificial intelligence.

The Falcon 2 series come as companies and countries are racing to develop their own large language models following the 2022 release of ChatGPT by OpenAI. While some have opted to keep their AI code proprietary, others, like UAE’s Falcon and Meta’s Llama, have made their code publicly available for anyone to use.

Al Bannai said he was optimistic about Falcon 2’s performance and that they were working on “Falcon 3 generation”.

“We’re very proud that we can still punch way above our weight, really compete with the best players globally,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)