Here are the top tech news stories from the past week or so:
- Uber Faces £250m Legal Case in London: Uber is facing a legal case worth at least £250m brought on behalf of almost 11,000 London black cab drivers. The claimants allege that Uber misled Transport for London (TfL) about how its app worked to obtain a license to operate in the city.
- Generative AI and the Problem of Compensating Creators: Eight prominent US newspapers have sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement regarding the companies’ use of generative AI tech. A research paper co-authored by an OpenAI scientist proposes a framework to compensate copyright owners proportionally for their contributions to creating AI-generated content.
- Precision From Chaos: The Unexpected Strategy Behind Smarter Robots: Engineers at Northwestern University have developed the MaxDiff RL algorithm, enhancing AI in robotics by allowing robots to explore randomly and learn efficiently. This method significantly boosts robots’ performance and reliability across various applications.
- Ukraine’s AI Foreign Ministry Spokesperson: The new genre of AI could be as transformative as the Industrial Revolution, according to the UK’s outgoing chief scientific adviser. He urged Britain to act immediately to prevent many people from becoming jobless due to the rise of AI.
- Russian Cyber Attacks Targeted Defence and Aerospace Sectors: Russian cyber attacks have targeted the defence and aerospace sectors, according to a report from Berlin. The report did not specify the extent of the damage but highlighted the increasing frequency and sophistication of such attacks.
- Battery Lithium Charge Doping: Scientists have developed a battery capable of charging in just a few seconds. The breakthrough was made with next-generation sodium batteries, which are cheaper and safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries.
- Google Antitrust Case: US prosecutors opened a landmark antitrust trial against Google, alleging that the company intentionally stifled competition from challenging its massive search engine. The tech giant is accused of spending billions to operate an illegal monopoly that has harmed every computer and mobile device user in the United States.