Recently, the famous programming competition platform Codeforces made an important decision - to prohibit the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in programming contests. With the rapid enhancement of AI programming capabilities, Codeforces founder Mikhail Mirzayanov stated that this decision is necessary as the development of neural networks has reached 'a new height that cannot be ignored'. Image source note: The image is generated by AI, image authorized by service provider Midjourney. This new regulation mainly targets the participants of the competitions.

In today's world, deepfakes and synthetic media have become increasingly common due to the advancements in generative artificial intelligence (gen AI). To tackle this challenge, many organizations are working to improve digital watermarking technologies for tracking the origins of content. While no organization has completely succeeded yet, the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) is expanding its membership. C2PA has announced that Amazon has become a new member of the organization's advisory board. C2PA is an open technical standard organization under the Linux Foundation.

After several quarters of growth in shipments, the global smartphone market has finally emerged from its slump. This September, major brands are holding grand launch events; Apple has unveiled the highly anticipated iPhone 16, while Huawei has introduced the Mate XT. Meanwhile, Honor has made an appearance at the IFA in Berlin, announcing its entry into the 'autonomous driving era' with the industry's first AI Agent intelligent entity.

On the occasion of Alibaba's 25th anniversary, the company's founder Jack Ma delivered an inspiring speech on the internal website. Ma emphasized that Alibaba's success is attributed to its unwavering commitment to idealism, belief in the power of the market and the value of innovation, and the conviction that only companies that create genuine value for society can endure.

Cosmos Institute has announced a program aimed at cultivating a new generation of tech talent and entrepreneurs, focusing on fostering individuals who can think deeply and uphold humanistic values in the age of artificial intelligence. The founding members of the institute include Jack Clark of Anthropic and former Department of Defense technology expert Brandon McCall. The core goal is to create AI technologies that respect human dignity and mitigate the negative impacts of automation. The institute has established the 'Human-Centered AI Lab' at the University of Oxford, led by philosopher Philip Kouroupos, with the aim of integrating philosophical principles.

On September 4, 2024, the Beijing ZhiYuan Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (BAAI) announced the launch of the world's first model combat evaluation service featuring text-to-video, called FlagEval Large Model Arena. This service is open to users and covers approximately 40 large models from both domestic and international sources, supporting customizable online or offline evaluations for four major tasks: language Q&A, multimodal image and text understanding, text-to-image, and text-to-video.

Nvidia is facing an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, focusing on its dominant market position in the artificial intelligence sector and whether it has taken measures to stifle competition, including penalizing suppliers that do not use its AI chips. This news has led to a significant drop in Nvidia's stock price, resulting in a market value loss of $279 billion. Although the overall trend of stock prices remains an upward trajectory, the AI boom has driven high sales of its expensive chips. Nvidia's recently launched Blackwell series AI chips are facing delayed market release due to design flaws, intensifying competition with rivals.

IDC has released a report that thoroughly analyzes the domestic market for mobile generative AI large models, with a focus on evaluating the competitiveness of eight popular mobile chatbot applications, including Baidu Wenxin Yiyan. The evaluation is based on four dimensions: market influence, user activity, user engagement, and user experience. The results show that Baidu Wenxin Yiyan excels in multiple aspects, becoming a market leader. Kunlun Wanwei's Tiangong is recognized by users for its rich features and good integration with search engines, but it needs to improve user activity. ByteDance's Doubao is notable for its market influence and user activity.

AI programming sector experiences significant funding surge as Codeium, a new unicorn, secures $150 million at a valuation exceeding $1.25 billion. Led by General Catalyst with participation from Kleiner Perkins and Greenoaks, this round highlights market optimism for AI programming technology. Codeium's platform leverages its proprietary code models to simplify software development and enhance developer productivity. The funds will accelerate pr....

ByteDance is secretly preparing to establish a Large Model Research Institute to strengthen its position in AI large models. The institute has attracted top talents from the industry, including Qin Yujia and Huang Wenhao, who will manage technology projects and report directly to founder Zhang Yiming. This move indicates ByteDance's long-term plans and proactive strategies in AI model R&D, aiming to leverage external expertise for technological a....

Researchers have proposed the 'Human Identity Credentials' (PHC) system as a new alternative to traditional CAPTCHA verification, aimed at confirming online users as real humans. This system provides a unique identity credential for each user through zero-knowledge proof encryption technology, which is stored on personal devices to protect privacy, serving as a replacement for CAPTCHA and biometric verification. However, the system faces issues such as credential abuse, concentration of power, and barriers to use. The research suggests that governments should test the feasibility of PHC through pilot projects, while calling on tech companies to take responsibility for the problems arising from AI, such as misleading AI outputs.

Baidu's Q2 2024 financial report shows total revenue of 33.9 billion RMB, with net profit between 5.5 billion and 7.4 billion RMB, performing better under non-GAAP standards. During the earnings call, Robin Li emphasized that competition in the AI field will be fierce and profitability will be key to survival. Baidu has invested in AI for many years, demonstrating its leading position, especially in the application of large models, with the Wenxin large model averaging over 600 million calls per day. The Intelligent Cloud business grew 14% year-on-year, benefiting from the increased demand for generative AI and large language models. The search business is accelerating its upgrade through the Wenxin large model.

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke discussed GitHub's future development strategy on the Decoder podcast, emphasizing its role as a leading software management platform for developers worldwide, particularly in open-source code storage. GitHub has collaborated with 90% of the Fortune 100 companies globally, introducing features such as issue tracking, automated workflows, and cloud-based development environments. Dohmke pointed out that GitHub aims to be the center of developer tools, rather than replacing other tools, comparing it to...

The latest survey from the Game Developer Collective reveals the complex attitudes of game developers towards the application of generative AI. 30% of respondents expect AI to reduce development costs in the coming year, while 8% anticipate an increase in costs. Regarding quality, 17% of developers believe AI will enhance game quality, whereas 35% express concern over declining quality. Generative AI has sparked controversy in the gaming industry, with opponents arguing that it may cause greater environmental harm and lead to a decrease in product quality. In terms of application, 49% of developers have adopted it.

The AI industry is facing intense competition, turning the sale of AI models into a zero-profit business. Companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have invested billions in training large models, leading to fragile overall operations. Price wars have nearly eliminated the marginal profits for AI model developers, making it difficult for businesses relying solely on model sales. High R&D and hardware costs, combined with pricing competition, have pushe....

Microsoft has fully opened its facial recognition technology Face Check to businesses, aiming to provide more secure identity verification services. By combining users' selfies with verified identity photos, the technology effectively prevents cybercrime, reducing attack pathways reliant on insecure verification methods by 65%. Face Check is integrated into Microsoft Entra's digital identity services, using deep learning algorithms to identify and thwart deep fakes and other deceptive tactics, thereby protecting user privacy. Companies can purchase the service separately, with a fee of $0.25 for each verification.

The Sinan OpenCompass team at the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has collaborated with the Modao ModelScope to launch the Compass Multi-Modal Arena, a new section of a large model evaluation platform focusing on multi-modal large models. Users can upload images and input questions to have two anonymous multi-modal large models generate answers, which can then be subjectively evaluated based on the quality of the generated content, allowing users to select the better-performing model. The platform offers an easy-to-use interface and a unique question bank.