Sunday, October 13, 2024

Image Credits: Hiretual

With AI models constantly hungry for more training data, AI companies are increasingly turning to synthetic datasets. In other words, they're using data generated by another AI.

However, training models with synthetic data has its risks. Kyle Wiggers notes that this approach suffers from the same "garbage in, garbage out" challenge of all AI. And with synthetic data, biases can be amplified in each succeeding generation of training.

For example, one study found that the use of synthetic data can create models whose "quality or diversity progressively decrease." And as models become more complex, it could become harder to spot their hallucinations.

Keep reading to see what else TechCrunch is covering this weekend.

Weekend news and opinion

Image Credits: Kind Humanoid

A three-person startup could bring humanoid robots into the home: Kind Humanoid is working with Yves Behar to explore how robots could help in our homes. Brian Heater explains what drew the legendary designer to work with a small startup and where Kind Humanoid goes next. Read more

An interview with the CEO of Africa's biggest AI startup: Tage Kene-Okafor speaks to Karim Beguir, CEO of InstaDeep, which BioNTech acquired last year. Beguir argues that "where we are today in biology AI is similar to GPT in 2020." Read more

The EU's controversial "chat control" proposal: The European Commission has drafted a plan that would require messaging apps and other digital services to scan user communications for child sexual abuse material. Natasha Lomas discusses the proposal's privacy implications. Read more

What else we're reading 📘

Bloomberg profiles Lina Khan, the Federal Trade Commission chair whose aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement has made her a target of tech industry figures like Reid Hoffman. However, Khan says the recognition that the government's approach to antitrust needed to be "revisited and adapted and updated to match the realities of how businesses are operating in the 21st century" is not going away. Read more

Meanwhile, The New York Times looks at the downfall of Ryan Salame and Michelle Bond, a one-time "crypto power couple" who's now facing prison time. Read more