數碼港主辨的年度創投盛事「2024 數碼港創業投資論壇」(CVCF) 今明兩天於數碼港舉行，為期兩天的活動以「創新挑戰者:建構創投新願景」為主題，雲集超過 90 位具全球影響力的創投專家及行業領袖，從嶄新視角探索創新創業領域前景，並深入探討 Web3.0 和人工智能(AI)等新興科技如何幫助企業與投資者在快速發展的創投市場中突圍而出，開創新機遇。同場，數碼港慶祝「數碼港投資者網絡」成立七周年，並公布數碼港初創的融資成就。 「2024 數碼港創業投資論壇」由香港特區政府創新科技及工業局局長孫東教授致開幕辭， 數碼港主席陳細明則致歡迎辭。隨後，數碼港投資者網絡策劃小組主席、中手游科技集團有限公司共同創辦人及副董事長、國宏嘉信資本創始合夥人冼漢廸回顧「數碼港投資者網絡」成立七年以來的發展歷程和卓越成就，並聯同一眾嘉賓主持開幕禮，為論壇揭開序幕。 創新科技及工業局局長孫東教授在致辭時表示:「CVCF 一直為香港創科界『連接願景、培 育未來』，論壇匯聚了創新和技術，以及風險基金領域的頂尖人才，共同探討如何支持初創企業創造更多具突破性和嶄新的解決方案。行政長官在上周施政報告中宣布了一系列新的創科措施，為我們的創科生態圏注入更多動力。我們將設立 100 億港元『創科產業引導基金』，加強引導市場資金投資指定策略性新興和未來產業，同時優化現有的『創科創投基金』，與業界配對成立聯合基金，投資香港初創生態圈。我們還將推出『創科加速器先導計劃』，吸引海內外具豐富經驗的專業初創企業服務機構在香港建立加速器基地，促成初創企業壯大。」 數碼港主席陳細明致歡迎辭時表示:「上周發表的 2024 施政報告提出將加大投資和引領市場資金，包括設立 100 億元『創科產業引導基金』和推出『創科加速器先導計劃』等一系列舉措，從上層發展策略和體制建設上，進一步加大對創科產業的投資力度，提速整個產業發展。數碼港作為香港數碼科技旗艦及創業培育基地，將積極配合特區政府策略，透過 『數碼港創業投資論壇』等國際活動，進一步發揮香港在『一帶一路』倡議下的獨特角色， 促進跨境交流合作，攜手業界，扶植初創企業在大中華、東盟以至中東地區開拓商機。」 論壇上，數碼港宣佈與德鼎創新(Draper Dragon)簽署合作備忘錄，共同成立 「香港數碼 港 Draper Dragon Web3.0 加速器」。借鑒德鼎創新在矽谷的創業孵化經驗，與數碼港蓬勃 的 Web3.0 生態圈相結合，從人才培育、項目孵化及投資等多維度，接通矽谷和香港的相關產業發展，加速香港 Web3.0 領域的實際應用。德鼎創新亦會從完成加速器計劃的初創項目中挑選合適項目進行投資，以提升行業創新效率，助力香港 Web3.0 創新與國際同步。協議在數碼港主席陳細明、德鼎創新管理合夥人李廣新的共同見證下，由數碼港首席公眾使命 官陳思源及德鼎創新管理合夥人王岳華簽署。 Draper Dragon 創始人 Tim Draper 在預錄致辭中表示:「我很高興能與數碼港合作，為 Draper University 引薦來自 Web3.0 世界的創業家。我衷心期待著與數碼港和一眾創業者建立持續的合作關係。我認為 Web3.0 和去中心化是能夠改變我們做事方式的重大轉型技術。新 技術將為各領域，從銀行業到保險、醫療保健到法律帶來改變。我相信 Web3.0 的力量將為世界帶來新的運作方式，令人與人之間更緊密，生活也變得更豐盛和美好。」 「數碼港投資者網絡」投資額按年增加64% 「數碼港投資者網絡」(CIN)一直吸納全球實力雄厚的投資單位，與數碼港高潛力企業進行投資對接，該網絡至今已踏入成立七周年。自成立以來，CIN 總投資額高達 25 億 9,700 多 萬港元，比去年增加超過 5 億 6,000 萬港元，增幅按年增加 64%。累計促成 96 個項目對接， 較去年增加 21 個項目，增加數量按年增加 1.5 倍。今年 CIN 新加入逾 30 個投資單位，使總 投資單位數目超過 200 個，當中包括來自中國内地及亞太地區的投資者，可見網絡成員背景 多元化，匯聚環球創投資金。 數碼港亦一直通過旗下「數碼港投資創業基金」(CMF)投資數碼港生態圈內高潛力初創 企業，並積極協助其引資。截至 2024 年 9 月，CMF 已投資 28 個初創企業項目，包括年内 投資研發植物肉食品的Green Monday，凸顯綠色科技及可持續發展對未來社會的重要性。 目前 CMF 投資以及共同投資的投資總額已超過 19.4 億港元，引資比率為 1:9，可見數碼港強大的引資實力。 LinkedIn Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp The post 「2024數碼港創業投資論壇」順利舉行，「數碼港投資者網絡」七周年累計投資額突破25億元 appeared first on VeriMedia. source

Periods of heavier-than-usual call traffic are inevitable for any type of call center. If you can handle call queue management effectively, it presents an opportunity for your team to strengthen customer relationships and relish the achievement of a job well done. If not, peak calling hours can become stressful communication choke points that lead to high customer churn and rampant employee burnout. The tiniest tweaks in your approach can make all the difference — we’ve gathered the best examples below. 1. Implement a callback option Offering callers the option to receive a call back rather than waiting on hold is a win-win. It’s one less caller in the queue, immediately, and that caller is usually excited to get back to their life instead of waiting on hold. When the call-volume subsides, you can call them back, and it’s fine. I love the option of getting a call back, and it’s becoming so common that I am starting to get frustrated when companies don’t offer it. It’s such a better experience than having to half pay attention to lo-fi hold music on speaker phone while I try to accomplish something else. For inbound scenarios, especially customer service, I’d look for call center software that makes setting up a call backs option very easy. It’s most likely nested under call center Interactive Voice Response (IVR) features, and you might see it designated as queue callback, virtual hold, customer callback, automatic callback — it’s all the same thing. This is one of the easiest ways to improve the customer experience by reducing frustration during peak hours. It also takes the strain off your agents and means they are dealing with fewer callers coming off long holds. I would not implement this function for urgent calls. If a customer has an emergency, for example, the callback option is not going to be well received. 2. Broaden IVR self-service options A call center IVR system costs a good deal of money, so it stands to reason that a business should try and get the most out of it. Start by looking at your IVR containment rate — every percentage point higher you can drive that number is another fraction of callers who don’t need to speak to an agent. Look for adding self-service options to help with basic troubleshooting, check account balances, or make a payment using the IVR. Automating each of these tasks reduces the number of calls transferred to live agents, which allows them to focus on more complex issues. A knock-on effect is that wait times are reduced, which in turn boosts customer satisfaction. The operational cost savings is also significant. You probably have some idea of how much each call costs — usually somewhere between $3-$10 per call, potentially more — well, each call successfully resolved by the IVR is money saved. On top of that, the decreased volume will minimize the need to schedule extra staff to handle peak times. That means less hiring and less training. Reviewing your IVR self-service options should be part of any call queue management strategy. What can you streamline, what can you improve, what additional responsibility can your IVR take over from busy agents? 3. Offer online help resources Help your customers help you by publishing accurate and useful information about topics callers care about. Your website can serve as a tremendous resource to customers and it will decrease call volume during peak hours. The first benefit is that fewer people will have to call in when they can figure out the answer to their question, problem, or concern just by visiting your website. You can also prompt callers who are in the queue to use website resources, which can help the caller serve themselves without talking to an agent (win-win). And even if the caller cannot 100% resolve their problem on their own, they have learned more about the issue from your site, which likely makes the call with the agent a lot smoother. A lot of people prefer not having to get on the phone in order to accomplish something. Publishing FAQs and Guides about your product is truly helpful for your customers and is one of the lowest-cost call queue management tactics out there. If you have any trouble justifying the budget to make sure that your online help resources are top-notch, remember that creating helpful content is exactly what Google wants to see and will drive high-intent, extremely relevant, organic search traffic to your site. This is an ancient SEO content strategy that still works today. It’s either you or your competitor getting that traffic, so, about that budget? Win more traffic for your brand’s site while solving high call queuing times — not bad at all. 4. Capture customer info before calls Customers don’t enjoy wasting time and effort repeating themselves. Asking them to do so is enough to earn a poor Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score, even if your agents do everything else to perfection. You can help callers save time, ensure they never have to repeat themselves, and reduce call queue management requirements by using the IVR to request caller information instead of waiting for the agent to pick up. While the caller is still on hold, the IVR can authenticate their identity and collect vital information like their preferred language, social security number, account number, birth date, and the nature of their call. This information can be used to route the call appropriately without an agent having to pick up and transfer the call to another agent. Additionally, the information improves the quality of customer interaction because the agent doesn’t have to request and receive information verbally. There’s less opportunity for error and the agent can begin assisting the customer as soon as they answer. Maybe you have set this up already, but have you captured as much helpful information as possible? For example, say you have the caller’s number tied to a record in your call center CRM software, great — but the customer might

London-based scaleup Huma announced today the expansion of its digital healthcare solutions with the acquisition of eConsult. This is one of the UK’s largest digital triage and consultation platforms across primary and emergency care. Founded in 2011, Huma works with healthcare providers and big pharma to improve clinical outcomes with digital solutions. Since its founding, the company has been strategically expanding its portfolio of services, aiming to accelerate the digitalisation of healthcare. “The acquisition [of eConsult] brings us one step closer to becoming the end-to-end technology platform for the industry to deliver digital-first care at scale seamlessly,” said Dan Vahdat, Huma’s founder and CEO. The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! According to Huma, over two-thirds of primary and secondary care providers in the UK already use its solutions. The acquisition of eConsult adds another platform to the company’s NHS services. “The NHS knows it needs to do much more with technology to help both patients and clinicians,” said Murray Ellender, CEO at eConsult. Launching Huma Workspace Today, the company also launched Huma Workspace, a platform that offers automation solutions tailored to GPs, community hospitals, and secondary care facilities. It provides a series of services spanning from appointment bookings and automated prescriptions to screening tools, remote monitoring, and virtual wards. It also features eConsult’s digital triage and consultation tools. Huma Workspace is integrated with major hospital systems and primary care providers of electronic medical records (EMR), such as Epic and SystemOne. The scaleup says that it’s the first platform of its kind to be embedded into the NHS app. The rollout follows the launch of the Huma Cloud Platform in July, a “Shopify-like” tool for the healthcare ecosystem to develop and build digital health services. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder and prominent tech investor, offered an optimistic vision for artificial intelligence on Tuesday, introducing his concept of “super agency” that frames AI as a tool for human empowerment rather than replacement. Speaking at a TED AI conference fireside chat with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin in San Francisco, Hoffman previewed themes from his upcoming book on super agency, positioning AI as the next frontier of human capability enhancement. “If you look back at technology, it actually massively increases human agency,” Hoffman said. “Each of these major technological leaps give us superpowers.” He drew parallels between historical innovations like horses and automobiles to today’s AI systems, which he characterized as “cognitive superpowers.” AI election risks and regulation: Silicon Valley leader pushes back on concerns The timing of Hoffman’s messaging appears strategic, coming amid growing anxiety about AI’s impact on jobs and democracy. While acknowledging concerns about job displacement and election misinformation, Hoffman maintained that transition challenges are manageable. On election integrity, Hoffman downplayed immediate risks from AI-generated deepfakes in the 2024 race, though he acknowledged future concerns. “Undoubtedly, there is some use of AI crime and misinformation… but it doesn’t yet have a significant impact,” he said, suggesting technical solutions like “encryption timestamps” could help authenticate content. Hoffman also defended California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent veto of sweeping AI regulation, praising instead the White House’s approach of seeking voluntary commitments from tech companies before implementing specific rules. “Having essentially vague, uncertain penalties and uncertain evaluations is a very good way to quell the future development of emerging technology,” he argued. Enterprise AI opportunities: Where startups can still compete with big tech For enterprise leaders watching AI developments, Hoffman emphasized that despite the dominance of large tech companies in developing foundation models, opportunities remain for startups building applications on top of them. “There’s a massive amount of AI now,” he said, pointing to areas like sales, marketing, and computer security as fertile ground for innovation. Notably, Hoffman envisioned AI democratizing access to expertise, describing a future where everyone with a phone could access “the equivalent of a GP everywhere in the world.” This vision aligns with growing enterprise interest in AI assistants and automated customer service solutions. Silicon Valley’s political divide: Tech leaders split on AI policy and regulation The discussion revealed tensions in Silicon Valley’s political landscape, with Hoffman addressing what Boorstin characterized as a rightward shift among tech leaders. The conversation took a pointed turn when Hoffman appeared to criticize fellow tech leader Elon Musk’s support of Trump, without naming him directly. When discussing tech leaders’ rightward shift, Hoffman questioned the motives of “some people who are out there campaigning and spreading pretty wild conspiracy theories… not just on x.com but in other places.” He suggested such support might be driven by “self-interested” pursuits like “getting government contracts,” rather than genuine policy convictions. The veiled reference to Musk, who has pledged millions to Trump’s campaign and frequently posts pro-Trump content on his X platform, highlights growing divisions among Silicon Valley’s elite over the upcoming election. Hoffman, a prominent Democratic supporter and backer of Vice President Kamala Harris, attributed some of the broader rightward movement to “single issue voters around cryptocurrency” and business interests seeking favorable regulation. He emphasized that a “stable business environment you can invest in is much more important” than pursuing narrow interests like corporate tax cuts. Future of work and AI’s next chapter Hoffman’s vision suggests a fundamental shift in how we should think about AI adoption. While much of Silicon Valley frames artificial intelligence as a replacement for human work, his “super agency” concept positions it as an amplifier of human potential. “Humans not using AI will be replaced by humans using AI,” Hoffman predicted, arguing that the real divide won’t be between humans and machines, but between those who embrace AI’s capabilities and those who don’t. The stakes of this transition extend far beyond Silicon Valley. As AI capabilities expand, Hoffman’s optimistic vision will be tested against mounting concerns about job displacement and technological control. But his core message is clear: the future belongs not to those who resist AI, but to those who learn to harness it as a tool for human empowerment—even if that means fundamentally rethinking what it means to be human in an AI-enabled world. source

October 25, 2024 AI Surge, Vendor Risks Fuel Election Security Concerns The explosion of the tech known as artificial intelligence and persistent vendor security holes are amplifying longstanding concerns about efforts by hostile nations and other cyberattackers to disrupt and discredit U.S. elections as officials work to guard against both familiar and novel risks. October 25, 2024 OpenAI, Authors Battle Over Execs’ Texts And Proof Of Harm California labor law doesn’t shield OpenAI from producing CEO Sam Altman’s and President Greg Brockman’s texts and social media messages relevant to a copyright infringement lawsuit, authors alleging OpenAI and Microsoft illegally used their copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence program ChatGPT have told a New York federal judge. October 25, 2024 Delta Says CrowdStrike Must Pay For Catastrophic IT Outage When cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike implemented “untested and faulty updates” to its software, knocking out computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems worldwide, Delta Air Lines’ operations were crippled, costing it $500 million as thousands of flights were canceled, according to the airline’s lawsuit lodged Friday in Georgia state court. October 25, 2024 How Big Crash Verdict Revealed Blueprint For Suing Amazon A rare $16.2 million verdict against Amazon recently awarded by a Georgia jury is proof that a blueprint of sorts now exists for pinning liability on the retail giant in crash cases involving independent contractors, according to a veteran attorney who helped win the case. October 25, 2024 Crypto Rapidly Transforming IRS Criminal Cases, Agent Says Cryptocurrency is altering the size of many criminal cases that federal law enforcement agencies are handling, an Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator told the UCLA Tax Controversy Conference, commenting that over the past three years the agency broke its record for asset seizures three times. October 25, 2024 Apple-Google Pact Plaintiff Stuck With 9th Circ. Appeal A Ninth Circuit panel has refused to let a training school send its case accusing Google of paying Apple to refrain from developing its own search engine back to district court in light of a recent D.C. federal judge’s decision that Google monopolizes the search market. October 25, 2024 9th Circ. Backs 7-Year Sentence Over Chip Exports To China The Ninth Circuit on Friday upheld the seven-year prison sentence imposed on a former University of California, Los Angeles, electrical engineering professor convicted of illegally exporting high-powered semiconductor chips to China, saying the district court did not err in holding that the conduct amounted to an evasion of national security controls. October 25, 2024 Sports Co. Says SEC’s $4M Damages Bid Spells Disaster A multimillion-dollar securities fraud judgment against two companies linked to a virtual sports trading platform would be disastrous for the already-struggling organizations, their attorney argued before a D.C. federal judge Friday. October 25, 2024 Social Media MDL Judge Rips Meta, AGs’ Agency Doc Fight A California federal judge Friday slammed counsel for Meta and dozens of state attorneys general during a contentious hearing in multidistrict litigation over claims social media is addictive for not reaching agreements on Meta’s demands for documents from 275 state agencies, telling both sides’ attorneys, “we should’ve never gotten here.” October 25, 2024 AT&T Unit Continues To Argue FCA Does Not Apply To E-Rate Congress could have designed the E-rate program to be distributed by the government using its own money, but it didn’t, and that’s why reimbursements under the program don’t qualify as claims under the False Claims Act, an AT&T subsidiary has told the U.S. Supreme Court. October 25, 2024 ‘Open AI’ TM Owner Asks 9th Circ. To Nix Injunction A man accused by OpenAI of preventing the ChatGPT-maker from registering its name as a trademark urged the Ninth Circuit on Friday to vacate an injunction blocking him from using the “Open AI” mark while his case is pending, arguing he’s the mark’s senior holder and calling the injunction “extraordinary and unprecedented.” October 25, 2024 VLSI Urges Fed. Circ. To Punish OpenSky After Vidal Didn’t U.S. Patent Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal vowed to sanction OpenSky Industries “to the fullest extent of [her] power” for filing a bad faith patent challenge, but then imposed sanctions that, if anything, rewarded the misconduct, VLSI Technology has told the Federal Circuit. October 25, 2024 AT&T Settles Alleged FCC Subsidy Violations For Nearly $2.3M The Federal Communications Commission said Friday that AT&T has agreed to pay almost $2.3 million to resolve claims it broke the rules for two major federal broadband subsidy programs. October 25, 2024 Claims Court Can’t Hear DOJ IT Deal Corrective Action Case A Court of Federal Claims judge has tossed a dispute over the scope of the U.S. Department of Justice’s corrective action on an information technology task order, saying the case fell within a statutory bar on most task order-related protests. October 25, 2024 Copyright Head Touts Claims Board, AI Studies At Conference As Shira Perlmutter completes four years as the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office, she told attorneys Friday the agency dealt “with just a dizzying array of issues” — with artificial intelligence technology being ever present — but the Copyright Claims Board was one of her top accomplishments. October 25, 2024 Lyft To Pay $2.1M FTC Fine Over Driver Earnings Claims Lyft Inc. will pay $2.1 million and clarify its claims about driver pay in order to settle allegations from the Federal Trade Commission that the ride-hailing company made deceptive statements about what drivers could expect to earn hourly and through special incentives, according to a Friday announcement from the agency. October 25, 2024 9th Circ. Dubious Of Tesla Investors’ Appeal Of $12B Trial Loss Ninth Circuit judges appeared skeptical Friday of Tesla investors’ argument that an erroneous trial instruction improperly led a jury to reject their $12 billion claim over Elon Musk’s 2018 tweets that he had “funding secured” to take the electric car giant private. October 25, 2024 AI Researchers Lose Bid For DMCA Anti-Hacking Carveout Researchers who want to look into whether generative artificial intelligence was producing content that was

“Process Orchestration: Harnessing the Transformative Power of Automation by Everest Group, endorsed by UiPath“ Organizations looking to scale their automation programs, executives responsible for digital transformation and automation initiatives, and operational leaders responsible for optimizing business operations will benefit from this report by Everest Group, endorsed by UiPath. In the digital age, enterprises constantly seek innovative ways to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. This has led to increased adoption of Intelligent Automation (IA) technologies, such as process intelligence, Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), and conversational AI, over the past few years. Enterprises have successfully deployed automations for low-hanging fruits and simpler, high-volume repetitive tasks. However, they face challenges when scaling these initiatives to more complex, long-running processes. This report examines Enterprise business priorities and barriers to scaling automation Why IA is incomplete without process orchestration Process orchestration solutions Process orchestration use cases across key industries Key challenges and best practices when adopting process orchestration for scaling automation Offered Free by: UiPath See All Resources from: UiPath source

The artificial intelligence boom has already changed how we understand technology and the world. But developing and updating AI programs requires a lot of computing power. This relies heavily on servers in data centres, at a great cost in terms of carbon emissions and resource use. One particularly energy intensive task is “training”, where generative AI systems are exposed to vast amounts of data so that they improve at what they do. The development of AI-based systems has been blamed for a 48% increase in Google’s greenhouse gas emissions over five years. This will make it harder for the tech giant to achieve its goal of reaching net zero by 2030. Some in the industry justify the extra energy expenditure from AI by pointing to benefits the technology could have for environmental sustainability and climate action. Improving the efficiency of solar and wind power through predicting weather patterns, “smart” agriculture and more efficient, electric autonomous vehicles are among the purported benefits of AI for the Earth. It’s against this background that tech companies have been looking to renewables and nuclear fission to supply electricity to their data centres. Nuclear fission is the type of nuclear power that’s been in use around the world for decades. It releases energy by splitting a heavy chemical element to form lighter ones. Fission is one thing, but some in Silicon Valley feel a different technology will be needed to plug the gap: nuclear fusion. Unlike fission, nuclear fusion produces energy by combining two light elements to make a heavier one. But fusion energy is an unproven solution to the sustainability challenge of AI. And the enthusiasm of tech CEOs for this technology as an AI energy supply risks sidelining the potential benefits for the planet. Beyond the conventional Google recently announced that it had signed a deal to buy energy from small nuclear reactors. This is a technology, based on nuclear fission, that allows useful amounts of power to be produced from much smaller devices than the huge reactors in big nuclear power plants. Google plans to use these small reactors to generate the power needed for the rise in use of AI. This year, Microsoft announced an agreement with the company Constellation Energy, which could pave the way to restart a reactor at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power station, the site of the worst nuclear accident in US history. However, nuclear power produces long-lived radioactive waste, which needs to be stored securely. Nuclear fuels, such as the element uranium (which needs to be mined), are finite, so the technology is not considered renewable. Renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power suffer from “intermittency”, meaning they do not consistently produce energy at all hours of the day. Sam Altman says fusion could be an answer to the issue of AI’s power demands. jamesonwu1972 / Shutterstock These limitations have driven some to look to look to nuclear fusion as a solution. Most notably, Sam Altman of OpenAI has shown particular interest in Helion Energy, a fusion startup working on a relatively novel technological design. In theory, nuclear fusion offers a “holy grail” energy source by generating a large output of energy from small quantities of fuel, with no greenhouse gas emissions from the process and comparatively little radioactive waste. Some forms of fusion rely on a fuel called deuterium, a form of hydrogen, which can be extracted from an abundant source: seawater. In the eyes of its advocates, like Altman, these qualities make nuclear fusion well suited to meet the challenges of growing energy demand in the face of the climate crisis –- and to meet the vast demands of AI development. However, dig beneath the surface and the picture isn’t so rosy. Despite the hopes of its proponents, fusion technologies have yet to produce sustained net energy output (more energy than is put in to run the reactor), let alone produce energy at the scale required to meet the growing demands of AI. Fusion will require many more technological developments before it can fulfil its promise of delivering power to the grid. Wealthy and powerful people, such as the CEOs of giant technology companies, can strongly influence how new technology is developed. For example, there are many different technological ways to perform nuclear fusion. But the particular route to fusion that is useful for meeting the energy demands of AI might not be the one that’s ideal for meeting people’s general energy needs. AI is reliant on data centres which consume lots of energy. Dil_Ranathunga / Shutterstock The overvaluation of innovation Innovators often take for granted that their work will produce ideal social outcomes. If fusion can be made to work at scale, it could make a valuable contribution to decarbonising our energy supplies as the world seeks to tackle the climate crisis. However, the humanitarian promises of both fusion and AI often seem to be sidelined in favour of scientific innovation and progress. Indeed, when looking at those invested in these technologies, it is worth asking who actually benefits from them. Will investment in fusion for AI purposes enable its wider take-up as a clean technology to replace polluting fossil fuels? Or will a vision for the technology propagated by powerful tech companies restrict its use for other purposes? It can sometimes feel as if innovation is itself the goal, with much less consideration of the wider impact. This vision has echoes of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s motto of “move fast and break things”, where short-term losses are accepted in pursuit of a future vision that will later justify the means. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Midjourney, the hit AI image generation startup founded and run by former Magic Leap engineer David Holz, is wowing users with a new feature unveiled last night: AI image editing. As a good portion of Midjourney’s 20 million+ users (including some of us at VentureBeat) likely know, Midjourney previously allowed users to upload their own images gathered outside of the service to its alpha web interface and/or Discord server to serve as a reference for its AI image generator diffusion models — the latest one being Midjourney 6.1. After receiving an uploaded reference image, the Midjourney AI model is able generate new images based on the user’s provided file. However, this reference feature didn’t actually make any alterations to the source image — merely using it as a kind of loose starting point. Now, with Midjourney’s new “Edit” feature, users can upload any image of their choosing and actually edit sections of it with AI, or change the style and texture of it from the source to something totally different, such as turning a vintage photograph into anime — while preserving most of the image’s subjects and objects and spatial relationships. It even works on doodles and hand drawings that the submits, turning scribbles into full art pieces in seconds. Midjourney posted a video demo showing how to use the new features which we’ve embedded below: VentureBeat uses Midjourney and other AI tools to create content for our website, social channels and other formats. Note that despite its popularity, Midjourney is one of several AI companies being sued by a class action of human artists for alleged copyright infringement due to its scraping of human-created works without express permission, authorization, consent, or compensation to train its models. The case remains in court for now. The Midjourney Image Editor only appears to be restricted to its latest AI model, Midjourney 6.1, which makes sense. In a message to Midjourney’s Discord community, Holz wrote that: “All of these things are very new, and we want to give the community and human moderation staff time to ease into it gently…” As a consequence, the new Midjourney Editor feature is for now restricted to users who have generated more than 10,000 images with the service, those with annual paid memberships, and those who have been a subscriber for a year or more. However, if you fit those criteria, you can use the new Midjourney Image Editor by following the directions below. How to find and start using Midjourney’s Image Editor The new Midjourney Image Editor is only available on the alpha web interface, available at alpha.midjourney.com. Once there and signed in, the qualifying user should see a new button along the left sidebar menu about halfway down with an icon showing a small pencil on a pad. Hovering over will show that it reads “Edit” (or the text will automatically display on its own persistently if your browser window is wide enough). Clicking on this should pull up the new Editor screen, which should prompt the user with two major options “Edit from URL” and “Edit Uploaded Image.” The latter requires the user to have a file saved on their machine, whereas the former can accept a wide range of images hosted on various websites such as Wikimedia Commons, if the user simply pastes in the correct link to the web-hosted image. For purposes of this article, I included a URL to the following image of a concept car from Wikimedia Commons. Once a copy of the file is uploaded to Midjourney via the URL or the user’s own file repository, the image should appear in the middle of the new editor screen like so: You’ll note there are a wide variety of options and various buttons on the left inner sidebar menu that users can select to modify the image with Midjourney 6.1, including “1. Erase” which allows the user to remove and paint over portions of the image with AI using a brush and a text prompt, “2. Move/Resize” which allows the user to move the image around the virtual canvas and extend its edges with new matching AI imagery, and “3. Restore” which is the inverse of Erase and lets the user retain any portions of the source image that they accidentally painted over with the Erase brush. The user can control the brush size with a slider on the left sidebar as well as the “scale” of the image, zooming in or out, and the aspect ratio itself with more presets below that. There’s also a “Suggest Prompt” button which Midjourney explains via a helpful hover over text is designed to aid the user in generating a prompt describing the image they’ve just uploaded — in case they want to alter that prompt or use it to generate a whole new similar image. The suggested prompt text should automatically appear in the prompt entry box/bar at the top of the screen. Looking at our concept car example, I went ahead and used the Erase brush tool on the driver and used the text prompt entry bar at the top of the Midjourney web interface to replace the driver with a “flaming skeleton driving.” After I typed my text prompt in the top entry bar/box, I hit the button marked “Submit Edit” or enter on my keyboard to apply the changes. As with Midjourney’s raw image generator, the Editor creates four versions automatically for each text prompt — visible on the right sidebar under the “Submit” button. Here is the best result from my experiment: The user can then choose to keep making new changes to this resulting image, upscale with Midjourney’s build in upscaler via a button below, or download it as is. Retexturing turns images into new adaptations in different styles In addition, the discerning reader and Midjourney user will note there was also another whole set of options