💰Apple’s $110B buyback

ALSO: Japan creates an AI regulation framework

Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes

Apple just had the biggest stock buyback in history. It’s preceded by falling iPhone sales, an upcoming Worldwide Conference with AI announcements, and multiple AI rumors. Let’s see what the world’s biggest phone maker has planned.

• 💰The biggest stock buyback in history - Apple.

• 🥷Japan created an International framework for regulating AI.

• 🤑Anthropic launches an IOS app and Enterprise plan.

• 🚨Microsoft bans the police from facial recognition AI.

💰The biggest buyback in history - Apple

What happened: Apple’s making a splash. They just had the biggest stock buyback in US history at $110B. Shortly after, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, drummed up the hype for iPhone’s upcoming AI offerings. But… they won’t have anything to show until June.

The details: 

• Apple performed the largest stock buyback in US history at $110B.

• The stock buyback may be Apple’s way of saying they are no longer a “growth” stock, but rather a stock that continuously returns for investors.

• This comes after higher than expected revenue, despite iPhone sales falling a by 10%.

• Tim Cook immediately began hyping up iPhone’s upcoming AI features, saying Apple will have more to show soon.

• Apple is expected to showcase their AI features during the Worldwide Developer Conference in June.

• WallStreet is eagerly waiting for Apple’s big AI reveal in June. Expect stocks to shoot up at announcement.

• Reports say Apple is working with OpenAI on their iPhone’s AI features.

• (FYI: iPhones currently have a glitch where the alarm sometimes won’t go off.)

Why it matters: The buyback might signal Apple’s change in direction when it comes to their stock. And the most popular phone/device in the world might just get the most popular AI in the world locally on the phone. Whatever Apple does will shape the face of AI for the general consumer. And their announcement is bound to create a massive spike in their stock.

As of market close May 02, 2024.

🔥 Adobe developed VideoGigaGAN, an AI model which upscales blurry videos to appear HD. And guess what? It’s pretty damn good actually. There’s a lot of potential here. I’d suggest checking out their site for examples.

🫠An EU law could require messaging apps to scan a user’s device for child sexual abuse material. It would also require messaging apps to scan for grooming activities as they take place. The problem? This could lead to millions of false positives. Lawmakers have no idea how this could technically be done in the first place. Critics say there’s no technology that exists which could do what the law says (at least without doing more harm than good).

🥷Japan created a framework for regulating AI

What happened: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida released an international framework for regulating generative AI. This promises to help speed up regulation across multiple countries (if it works well).

The details:

• The framework aims to establish standardized guiding principles and a code of conduct for AI developers through the Hiroshima AI Process.

• 49 countries and regions have already sign on, though specific nations were not listed by Kishida. 👀

• Japan and the US recently created joint agreements about AI and chip manufacturing, hoping to ween off of reliance on China.

• Big AI companies will likely reject any attempt to regulate them (OpenAI and Google already do this).

Why it matters: One of the biggest issues with AI is the free rein the (very) few companies who control AI have. There’s no public protection for deepfakes. There’s no protection from false infromation. So the largest challenge governments have had is… figuring out how they should regulate AI. This is an answer to that problem. Let’s hope it’s a good one.

One of the biggest concerns with AI regulation is over-regulation of open-source AI projects. This would leave major companies in control of the “less” regulated AIs and lead to their dominance in the market. So there has to a balance. You can’t let AI run free, but you also can’t squander innovation and competition.

🤑Anthropic launches an IOS app and Enterprise plan

What happened: Anthropic just revealed their first Enterprise offering and posted a free iPhone app. These are the guys behind Claude, which is a model that competes closely with ChatGPT. You can download the app right now.

The details: 

• The Enterprise version is also called “Team”. It’s meant for small teams in a corporate environment.

• Team will cost $30 a month and require five users.

• A big feature for the enterprise version is multi-step conversations and document processing capabilities (one of the biggest uses for AI in corporations right now).

• Some companies who use Claude in business are Pfizer and Zoom. Big names, and proof this is useful.

• The iPhone version features files uploading and syncing your conversations. An Android version is on the way.

• Amazon has invested billions of dollars into Anthropic. They are very well funded.

Why this matters: The Enterprise offering is the big one here. This is a business level service, and it’s how companies will use AI on a daily basis. While this is different than OpenAI creating a custom AI model for you, it’s still valuable. If you work in a white-collar environment, services like these are what your company will use to power their AI productivity chain.

🚨Microsoft bans the police from facial recognition AI

What happened: Microsoft just reaffirmed their ban on police officers using AI facial recognition through Azure OpenAI Service. Just what we need. Police controversy mixed with AI controversy. 🥊 

The details:

• The updated terms clearly prevent any use of Azure OpenAI Service from being used by or for U.S. police departments in facial recognition tasks.

• This (seems to) applies to law enforcement globally and bars using mobile phone cameras to do the job.

• This comes a week after Axon announced a new product which uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 to summarize audio from body cameras.

• This is obviously dangerous because AI can hallucinate or just be outright stupid/wrong. It’s nowhere near ready enough.

• (Axon makes technology and weapons for law enforcement.)

Takeaway: AI’s role in law enforcement will be very important for daily life. It’s hard to fault police for wanting to use AI for better surveillance. But this technology could lead to seriously dystopia-ish results. We have enough problems with wrongful imprisonment and accusations already, let’s not add AI inaccuracies to the pile. Let’s hope lawmakers actually do something about this and create a good middle ground (doubtful).

🍫 A world of chocolate…

Source: Midjourney

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