Following an initial report on AI Foundation Models (FMs) last year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has expressed “real concerns” about it and is investigating the dominance of a small number of big tech firms at the centre of the FM market.

Foundation Models 

Foundation models (FMs) are AI systems / large-scale machine learning models that are pre-trained on large amounts of data and can be adapted to a range of different, more specific purposes. Examples include the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) models such as GPT-3 and GPT-4 (different versions of the model behind ChatGPT).

What’s The Issue? 

As highlighted by the original CMA report, fast-changing FMs have the potential to transform how we live and work, i.e. they possess significant potential to impact people, businesses, and the UK economy. The CMA wants to ensure this AI market develops in a way that doesn’t undermine consumer trust or is dominated by a few players who can exert market power that prevents the full benefits being felt across the economy.

The previous report on the FMA market led to a set of proposed guiding principles to help achieve this, including making FM developers and deployers accountable for outputs provided to consumers, asking for sufficient choice for businesses so they can decide how to use FMs, plus stressing the need for fair dealing, i.e. no anti-competitive conduct including anti-competitive self-preferencing, tying or bundling.

Move Away From “Winner Takes All Dynamics” 

Now, in the next step from its previous report and development of guiding principles around the FM market, the CMA has outlined growing concerns. The CMA’s Sarah Cardell, for example, has expressed the need to learn from history and move away from the kind of “winner takes all dynamics” that has led to the rise of a small number of powerful platforms.

3 Areas Of Focus 

The CMA identifies three (what it believes to be key) interlinked risks to fair, effective, and open competition in the FM market. These are:

1. Firms controlling critical inputs for developing FMs restricting access to shield themselves from competition.

2. Powerful incumbents possibly exploiting their positions in consumer (or business-facing) markets to distort choice in FM services and restrict competition in deployment.

3. Partnerships involving key players being able to exacerbate existing positions of market power through the value chain.

In an update paper, the CMA has, therefore, provided details on how each risk would be mitigated by its principles, and also by the actions it’s taking at the moment.

An Interconnected Web 

One point highlighted by the CMA that illustrates the complication of regulating the FM market effectively is the “interconnected web” of “over 90 partnerships and strategic investments involving the same firms: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Nvidia (which is the leading supplier of AI accelerator chips).” 

The CMA says that although it recognises the wealth of resources, expertise and innovation these large firms can bring to bear, the role they will likely have in FM markets, and that such partnerships can play a pro-competitive role in the technology ecosystem, it also recognises that powerful partnerships and integrated firms shouldn’t reduce rival firms’ ability to compete, or be used “to insulate powerful firms from competition”.

As the CMA CEO, said: “The essential challenge we face is how to harness this immensely exciting technology for the benefit of all, while safeguarding against potential exploitation of market power and unintended consequences.”

What Does This Mean For Your Business?  

Given the fast pace with which the FM market is growing and changing, plus the fact that there is an ever more complicated “interconnected web” of partnerships between the big tech companies at the heart of this market, it’s not surprising that regulator wants to stay involved to have any chance of understanding and regulating it effectively. As highlighted by the CMA’s CEO Sarah Cardell, the transformative promise of FMs as a potential “paradigm shift” for societies and economies is the prize. Although the big tech companies have been the big investors in the development of AI so far, it’s still a ‘market’ that needs fair, open, and effective competition where there’s plenty of choice for buyers, prices are kept low enough, and where innovation isn’t stifled.

We’re still at the stage where guidelines are being given and warnings are being issued but if other aspects of big tech company activities are anything to go by, this is going to be a very challenging market for the CMA to stay on top of and regulate. As the CMA has said, it’s going to be a difficult job to confront the “winner takes all dynamics” of the big tech companies and it remains to be seen how much trouble the CMA has regulating this incredible marketplace.

Researchers at Oxford University’s UK Quantum Computing and Simulation Hub claim to have made what could be an important breakthrough in quantum computing security.

The Issue 

As things stand, if businesses want to use cloud-based quantum computing services, they face privacy and security issues when trying to do so over a network, similar to the issues in traditional cloud computing. For example, users can’t keep their work secret from the server or check their results on their own when tasks get too complex for classical simulations, i.e. they risk disclosing sensitive information like the results of the computation or even the algorithm used itself.

The Breakthrough – ‘Blind Quantum Computing’ 

However, Oxford researchers have now developed “blind quantum computing” which is a method that enables users to access remote quantum computers to process confidential data with secret algorithms and even verify the results are correct, without having to reveal any useful information (thereby retaining security and privacy). In short, this breakthrough has developed a system for connecting two totally separate quantum computing entities (potentially an individual user accessing a cloud server) in a completely secure way.

How? 

The researchers achieved the breakthrough by creating a system from a fibre network link between a quantum computing server and a simple device detecting photons (particles of light), at an independent computer remotely accessing its cloud services.

This system was found to allow ‘blind quantum computing’ over a network as every computation incurs a correction which must be applied to all that follow and needs real-time information to comply with the algorithm. The researchers say it’s the unique combination of quantum memory and photons that’s the secret to the system.

What Will It Mean? 

As study lead-scientist, Dr Peter Drmota, pointed out: “Realising this concept is a big step forward in both quantum computing and keeping our information safe online.” Also, as Professor David Lucas, the Hub’s Principal Investigator, observed: “We have shown for the first time that quantum computing in the cloud can be accessed in a scalable, practical way which will also give people complete security and privacy of data, plus the ability to verify its authenticity”. 

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Quantum computers are able to dramatically accelerate tasks that have traditionally taken a long time, with astounding results, e.g. crunching numbers that would take a classical computer a week, could take a quantum computer less than a second.  As such, quantum computers are capable of solving some of the toughest challenges faced by many different industries, and some of the biggest challenges facing us all, such as how to successfully treat some of our most serious diseases and tackle the climate crisis.

However, they are very expensive and for businesses and organisations, the only hope is that they will be able to have access to quantum computers via the cloud as part of ‘Quantum-as-a-Service’, which at least a dozen companies are already offering. The opportunities for innovation and creating competitive advantages and/or achieving their own industry/sector breakthroughs or medical advances using the power of quantum computing are very attractive to many organisations. However, the security and privacy challenges of connecting with a quantum computer over a network have presented a considerable risk – up until now.

This breakthrough from the Oxford researchers appears, therefore, to be an important step in tackling a key challenge and also for potentially opening up access to quantum computing securely and privately, at scale for many businesses and organisations. The results could be a boost in value-adding innovations, and valuable new discoveries that could change the landscape in some sectors. This breakthrough represents another important step towards the future and puts the power of quantum computing within reach of many more ordinary people.

Apple has announced that beginning in the autumn with select iPhone models, customers and independent repair providers will be able to utilise used Apple components in the repair process.

Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, said: “With this latest expansion to our repair program, we’re excited to be adding even more choice and convenience for our customers, while helping to extend the life of our products and their parts.” 

Apple says that its teams have been working over the last two years to enable the reuse of parts such as biometric sensors used for Face ID or Touch ID, and that, beginning this autumn, “calibration for genuine Apple parts, new or used, will happen on-device after the part is installed.”

Apple has reported sending threat notifications to iPhone users in 92 countries, warning them that they may have been targeted by mercenary spyware attacks. These types of attacks use software designed to infiltrate and monitor computer systems or mobile devices and are typically “state-sponsored” and are used for intelligence gathering, surveillance of dissidents, journalist, and politicians, for corporate espionage, and more.

Apple reports sending these kinds of notifications multiple times a year and says it has notified users to such threats in over 150 countries since 2021. The notifications sent by Apple contain parts such as “Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID -xxx-,” and “This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do.”

Apple relies on its own internal threat-intelligence information and investigations to detect these attacks and is keen to point out that mercenary spyware attacks such as those using Pegasus from the NSO Group, are still very rare.

Following a decade of research, it’s thought that the recent decoding of the complex genome of sugarcane could pave the way for advanced breeding techniques, more agricultural sustainability, and perhaps for developing a cost-effective and sustainable aviation fuel.

What Happened? 

Scientists from The University of Queensland, Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, and Sugar Research Australia (SRA) have achieved a scientific first and breakthrough in finally being able to fully map the sugarcane genome.

Why? 

Sugarcane is the last of the world’s 20 major crops to have its genome mapped. The value of genome mapping of our major crops is essentially in supporting the development of advanced agricultural practices and contributing to sustainable farming, enhanced food security, and improved nutritional outcomes.  For example, it can lead to:

– Crop Improvement – identifying genes related to yield, disease resistance, and nutritional quality, speeding up the development of superior crop varieties.

– Disease management – helping create disease-resistant strains, reducing reliance on chemical pesticides.

– Climate adaptation – facilitating the development of crops that can withstand changing climates and environmental stresses.

– Nutritional enhancement – enabling the fortification of crops with essential nutrients, addressing dietary deficiencies.

– Resource efficiency – leading to crops that use water and nutrients more efficiently, supporting environmental sustainability.

– Economic growth – boosting farm productivity and income, particularly in developing economies where agriculture is vital.

In the particular case of sugarcane, report co-author Professor Robert Henry from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, sees the value of mapping its genome as:

– Delivering knowledge to level the playing field with other crops.

– Giving the chance to create more resistant sugarcane crops.

– A major step forward in research to turn sugarcane and other plant biomass into aviation fuel.

It’s worth pointing out that although sugar cane is a food crop, Professor Henry is developing renewable carbon products from plant biomass for usage as a cost-effective and sustainable aviation fuel as part of the ARC Research Hub for Engineering Plants to Replace Fossil Carbon. The genome mapping of sugar cane is, therefore, being seen within the move to net zero as a way to lead to the production of a source of renewable carbon, i.e. a better raw material to replace fossil carbon.

Principal Investigator and CSIRO Research Scientist Dr Karen Aitken has also highlighted how sugarcane’s genome mapping breakthrough could also address the critical challenge of stagnating sugar yields by showing its previously inaccessible genetic diversity. She also says it is a “step forward for sugarcane research and will improve our understanding of complex traits like yield and adaption to diverse environmental conditions as well as disease resistance.” 

The Benefits Go Way Beyond Sugar 

One key benefit of the breakthrough, as highlighted by Sugar Research Australia cytogeneticist Dr Nathalie Piperidis, is that unveiling the sequence is likely to create many opportunities way beyond sugar itself. Dr Piperidis says: “Not only does the work hold the promise of enhancing our understanding of this amazing crop but it will also offer unprecedented ways to advance breeding techniques within the industry to produce a range of renewable and commercially viable products that include but go way beyond sugar.”

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

With the need to feed a growing world population amid the challenges of climate change, and with the need to decarbonise, there are sound reasons for wanting to crack the genetic codes of popular world crops. For example, being able to develop versions that can cope with challenging environmental conditions and which can be disease-resistant could help.

Sugar cane’s genome has been tough to crack, so this is a major achievement, not just for the future of foodvbut perhaps also in contributing to the development of a cost-effective and sustainable aviation fuel (from a sugar cane biomass). This is something that could really help tackle a major carbon challenge, i.e. how to decarbonise the aviation industry and ween it off fossil fuels.

Also, as CSIRO Research Scientist Dr Karen Aitken highlighted about the breakthrough, it could help address the critical challenge of stagnating sugar yields. Crucially though, as Sugar Research Australia cytogeneticist Dr Nathalie Piperidis has identified, this breakthrough in genome decoding could create important opportunities far beyond just sugar. For example, it could also have the promise to create a wide range of other renewable and commercially viable products in many different industries.

In short then, whilst this discovery has important implications for future food production, its benefits could go way beyond that, perhaps even in helping to tackle the massive challenge of decarbonising the aircraft industry. This helps illustrate the true value of seemingly small scientific breakthroughs and how they can have potential benefits way beyond the obvious. In a world which now has rapidly advancing AI and soon the promise of wider scale commercial quantum computing it remains to be seen how this could further speed up crucial climate change and decarbonising breakthroughs that could benefit us all.

This week’s Social and AI news video-update explains how to pin WhatsApp messages for convenience, which is a handy feature you may wish to try.

https://videovault.vip/videos/social/2024-Apr-Pinning-WhatsApp-Messages.mp4