Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,

In a surprising move, Hugging Face has announced the launch of a new open-source robotics project led by a former Tesla scientist. Meanwhile, a whistleblower has raised concerns and contacted the FTC regarding Microsoft’s image generator.

Let's jump into it!

Read Time: 4.0 min

Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI

• A Chart to Kickstart Your Day 📈: AI usage statistics in business

• Microsoft Employee Raises Alarm Over AI Image Generator 🚨

• Hugging Face Ventures into Open Source Robotics 🤖

• AI Tutorial: How to generate ads in seconds with AI

• AI Tools to check out

• The Latest in AI and Tech 💡

A chart to kickstart your day

AI usage statistics in business

• AI is most commonly used in business for customer service (56%) and cybersecurity/fraud management (51%), according to a Forbes survey.

• Businesses appear confident in employing AI for customer-related tasks but are less inclined to use it for employee recruitment, with only 26% utilizing it for this purpose.

TOGETHER WITH MIT

AI: Balancing Risk and Return

Innovative technologies are revolutionizing business as we know it, and they’re more accessible than ever. But to truly harness the transformative potential of AI, you need to know how and when to use it. And which pitfalls to avoid.

The six-week Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy online short course from MIT Sloan School of Management and MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory explores AI’s business applications and challenges. 

Choose this program to:

• Optimize your business: Leverage AI, ML, and robotics to drive efficiencies, improve productivity, and support your growth.

• Develop a strategic roadmap: Apply your knowledge to effectively integrate AI into your business.

• Gain a dual perspective: Benefit from a course designed by two prestigious schools — the MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT CSAIL.

• Conveniently build career-critical skills: Follow a program that fits your schedule and benefit from 24/7 support and various payment options.

AI News

MICROSOFT

Microsoft Employee Raises Alarm Over AI Image Generator 🚨

A Microsoft employee has sounded the alarm over the company's new AI image generation tool, Copilot Designer. Shane Jones, a principal software engineering lead, has warned that this technology is capable of creating disturbing and potentially illegal content.

Details:

• According to Jones, Copilot Designer can generate violent, sexual, and explicit imagery, while also ignoring copyright laws. It can depict scenes related to underage substance abuse, graphic violence, and other sensitive topics.

• His warnings and requests to temporarily withdraw the product were ignored by the company.

• He has now escalated the matter to the FTC chairwoman and Microsoft's board, demanding greater transparency, stricter protections, and an independent review.

Microsoft now faces pressure to rein in the risqué outputs of Copilot Designer before additional controversies arise.

Source

HUGGING FACE

Hugging Face Ventures into Open Source Robotics 🤖

Hugging Face, the New York City-based startup maintaining the popular open-source machine learning and AI code repository of the same name, is embarking on an ambitious new open-source robotics project.

Details:

• The project will be led by Remi Cadene, a former Tesla staff scientist who previously worked on the company's own robotics project, Optimus.

• In keeping with the company's ethos, Cadene stated that the project would be "open-source, not as in Open AI," taking a lighthearted jab at OpenAI's recent legal tussle with Elon Musk.

• Hugging Face, primarily known for its software focus until now, is branching out into hardware with this robotics initiative.

The move signals Hugging Face's entry into the increasingly competitive humanoid robotics space, currently dominated by players like Tesla (Optimus) and Figure (backed by OpenAI).

Source

AI Tutorial

How to generate ads in seconds with AI

We will be using Adwin, a tool that sets up, writes, manages, and tracks the performance of Google ads for your business

Here’s how to use it:

1. Go to https://usestyle.ai/adwin and sign in

2. Enter your website

3. Select your Business type

4. Choose your goal

5. Preview your Google ads

Once that is set up you can check your metrics to see how effective your ad campaign was:

You can also choose to focus your campaign in a specific location

AI Tools to check out

✍🏻 Writesonic: AI writer that creates SEO-friendly content for blogs, Facebook ads, Google ads, and more.

🌐 Butternut AI: Create a stunning website in 20 seconds with AI

📽 OpusClip: AI video tool that repurposes long videos into shorts in one click.

👩‍💻 Ema: AI employee that boosts productivity across every role in your organization.

🤖 ClickAI: Show the AI the flow you want to automate and instantly get maintenance-free QA automation

The latest in AI and Tech

India goes big on AI

India has announced a substantial 103 billion rupee ($1.2 billion) investment in AI projects. The funding will drive the development of computing infrastructure, large language models, support for AI startups, and the deployment of AI applications within the public sector.

Amazon funds AI startup to improve recycling

Glacier announced it has raised $7.7 million in a funding round led by New Enterprise Associates and Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund. This support will advance Glacier's mission to enhance recycling rates through innovative AI and automated sorting solutions.

Google engineer indicted for stealing AI secrets

A federal grand jury has indicted Linwei Ding, a Google engineer, on charges of stealing over 500 confidential files containing trade secrets related to Google's artificial intelligence chip software and hardware designs while covertly working for China-based companies.

Stability AI employees banned from Midjourney

Midjourney has banned all Stability AI employees from using its software until further notice, following an alleged data scraping incident that resulted in a significant server outage.

Microsoft confirms Surface and Windows AI event

Microsoft has confirmed it will hold a “digital event” on March 21st titled "New Era of Work." The tech giant is expected to unveil new Surface devices powered by the latest Intel and Qualcomm processors optimized for artificial intelligence capabilities.

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Gina 👩🏻‍💻