Disney and Universal sue AI image creator Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement

Disney and Universal sued an artificial intelligence company on Wednesday, alleging copyright infringement. In their lawsuit, the entertainment giants called Midjourney’s popular AI-powered image generator a “bottomless pit of plagiarism” for its alleged reproductions of the studios’ best-known characters.The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims Midjourney pirated the libraries of the two Hollywood studios, making and distributing without permission “innumerable” copies of their marquee characters such as Darth Vader from Star Wars, Elsa from Frozen, and the Minions from Despicable Me. Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The suit by Disney and Universal over images and video represents a new frontier in the raging legal wars over the copyright and the creation of generative artificial intelligence

‘They went too far’: Musk says he regrets some of his posts about Trump

Elon Musk has expressed contrition for some of his tweets about Donald Trump last week, in an apparent effort to retreat from an explosive falling out that has threatened to damage the Tesla boss’s business interests.Musk was by far the biggest donor to Trump’s presidential campaign, but tensions between the two erupted into public view last week and rapidly escalated, as the world’s richest man called for the president’s impeachment and mocked his connections to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a series of posts.On Wednesday, Musk posted on X, the social network he owns: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”Musk’s public apology came after the tech billionaire privately called Trump on Monday night, the New York Times first reported, citing three people familiar with the matter

Meta to announce $15bn investment in bid to achieve computerised ‘superintelligence’

Meta is to announce a $15bn (£11bn) bid to achieve computerised “superintelligence”, according to multiple reports.The Silicon Valley race to dominate artificial intelligence is speeding up despite the patchy performance of many existing AI systems.Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, is expected to announce the company will buy a 49% stake in Scale AI, a startup led by Alexandr Wang and co-founded by Lucy Guo, in a move described by one Silicon Valley analyst as the action of “a wartime CEO”.Superintelligence is described as a type of AI that can perform better than humans at all tasks. Currently AI cannot reach the same level as humans in all tasks, a state known as artificial general intelligence (AGI)

UK students and staff: tell us your experiences with AI at university

The use of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools are becoming increasingly commonplace in UK higher education. A February survey of 1,000 students showed an “explosive increase” in use of generative AI in particular over the previous 12 months.With this in mind, we’d like to find out more about how AI is affecting students at university.How has AI impacted your studies? Have you used AI tools? Have you been suspected of using AI when you haven’t? What guidance have you been given by universities or tutors about using AI? Do you have any concerns?We’d also like to hear from university teaching staff – what is the impact of AI on students’ work? What are the challenges?You can tell us about your experiences with AI at university using this form.Please share your story if you are 18 or over, anonymously if you wish

As big tech grows more involved in Gaza, Muslim workers are wrestling with a spiritual crisis

Is working in big tech halal? Muslim workers are reckoning with the possibility that their jobs go against their religious obligationsBefore Ibtihal Aboussad was fired by Microsoft for protesting the company’s work with the Israeli military during a celebration of the firm’s 50th anniversary, she sent two emails.The first went to all of her colleagues. She appealed to their universal humanity and urged them to stand against Microsoft’s contracts to provide cloud computing software and artificial intelligence products to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).She sent the second to the “Muslims at Microsoft” email list. Its subject line read: “Muslims of Microsoft, Our Code Kills Palestinians

AI can ‘level up’ opportunities for dyslexic children, says UK tech secretary

Artificial intelligence should be deployed to “level up” opportunities for dyslexic children, according to the UK science and technology secretary, Peter Kyle, who warned there was currently not enough human capacity to help people with the learning difficulty.Kyle, who is dyslexic and uses AI to support his work, said the government should carefully look at “how AI can transform education and help us assess and understand a young person’s abilities into the future”.He spoke as the TV chef Jamie Oliver, who is also dyslexic, launched a campaign calling for improved teacher training on dyslexia and earlier screening of children to detect the condition sooner. About 6 million people in the UK are estimated to have dyslexia, which primarily affects reading and writing skills.Kyle told the Guardian he had felt “quite emotional” when seeing AI technology used to help young people learn with “incredible empathy, encouragement and knowledge”