AI News roundup: Meta's new AI model, ChatGPT's woes in Europe and more

ChatGPT-owner OpenAI threatened with defamation lawsuit

An Australian mayor has threatened a defamation suit against OpenAI, alleging that its chatbot, ChatGPT, made some false claims about him, probably the first of its kind action in the generative AI space.

• Brian Hood, the mayor of Hepburn Shire, in Australia’s Victoria, has asked OpenAI to correct the offending information given out by the chatbot, news agency Reuters reported.


• ChatGPT claimed that Hood was found guilty in a foreign bribery scandal, which involved a subsidy owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 2000s.


• OpenAI has in the past said the chatbot is given to errors as well as inaccuracies and even has a disclaimer on its website.

Meta has a new AI model that identifies objects in images and videos

Called "Segment Anything", this AI model can detect objects from photos and videos, and allows users to select those objects by clicking them or using text prompts.

• As Reuters reports, If a user uploads an image, and types "cat", then the AI will recognise all the animals that match the description in the given photo.


• It can also be paired with other AI models, and can help with 3D reconstruction of objects from an image, or even use an AR or VR display to draw from.


• Meta has released both the AI model and dataset under a "non-commercial licence", which means they can be used for free, but not in commercial products meant for sale.

ChatGPT in the eye of the storm in Europe

Italian regulators said last Friday that the firm had no legal basis to engage in massive data collection and questioned the way it was handling the information it had gathered.

• France's data regulator said on Wednesday it had received two complaints about the AI program ChatGPT, as European authorities deepened their scrutiny of the chatbot days after Italy banned it.


• Italian regulators said last Friday that the firm had no legal basis to engage in massive data collection and questioned the way it was handling the information it had gathered.


• European authorities including those of France, Ireland and Germany have since approached their Italian counterpart to try to establish a common position on ChatGPT.