AI Daily News May 09 2025: 🛡️Google Chrome Deploys On-Device AI to Detect and Block Scams 🛡️Reddit to Enhance Verification Measures Against Human-Like AI Bots 🧠AI Paper Introduces 'WebThinker' for Autonomous Deep Research and more
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Welcome to a new deep dive from AI Unraveled. Great to be here. This is the show created and produced by Etienne Newman, senior engineer and passionate soccer dad from Canada. That's right. And hey, if you're finding these insights valuable, please do take a moment to like and subscribe on Apple. It really helps. It does. So today we're tackling, well, just a fascinating range of recent happenings in artificial intelligence. It feels like things are moving faster than ever.

absolutely it's uh like every day bring something new we've gathered some of the most significant stuff from the big debates shaping ai's future things like regulation right to its you know tangible impact like online safety healthcare breakthroughs global investments are huge right now too exactly and even uh the really ambitious stuff like maybe bringing back extinct species that one always catches my eye definitely sci-fi territory becoming well maybe real so

Our mission today, really, is to cut through all that noise. Yeah, distill it down. And deliver the key insights, give you a clear, hopefully engaging understanding of what truly matters in this rapidly evolving field. Sounds good. And yeah, it is dynamic. I think what's immediately apparent is this ongoing discussion. How do we navigate AI's potential? Right.

While also thinking about the bigger picture, the implications. Exactly. And that tension really comes through when you look at regulation. Totally agree. Our first deep dive actually takes us right there to Capitol Hill. Okay. Leaders from OpenAI, Microsoft, AMD, CoreWeave.

The big players. The ones billing. They were recently sharing their perspectives with the U.S. Senate committee. Yeah. Talking about AI governance. Right. And their primary message from what I saw was leaning towards light touch regulation. Light touch. Explain that a bit. Well, their core argument is that if you make the rules too strict, you could actually stifle the innovation that's driving all this progress.

Okay. So, hurting the progress itself. Yeah. They believe a more flexible approach is essential, especially for the US to maintain its competitive edge globally. Right. They weren't just talking about the AI tools themselves, were they? No, not at all. It's also about building the infrastructure, the data centers, the compute power. And the talent. Finding people who can actually do this stuff. Exactly. They need the talent pool. And their view is that...

Well-considered, maybe lighter regulation could actually help growth in those areas. Okay. And you mentioned the global edge. Did China come up? Oh, definitely. That was a significant undercurrent. In their testimony, sure, but also in the senators' questions. So a worry about falling behind. A clear apprehension, yeah. That if the U.S. gets bogged down in overly burdensome rules, other countries, China specifically mentioned, could gain a significant lead.

So it's this constant balancing act, isn't it? Absolutely. Fostering innovation, staying competitive.

but also dealing with the real questions about safety and ethics. - That's the tight rope. And this regulatory discussion, it feels like it's really just getting started. - Yeah, I think we'll be talking about this for a while. - No doubt, it's gonna shape AI's trajectory. Okay, so maybe shifting from those high level policy debates to how AI is starting to affect our daily lives. Online safety is a good example. - Yeah, this is where it gets tangible, right?

Google Chrome is integrating Gemini Nano, their AI model. Mm-hmm.

directly into the browser to help protect against scams. That's right. Starting with tech support fraud, I believe, in Chrome 137. Yeah, if you have enhanced protection mode turned on. So how does it work? How does AI in my browser spot a scam? So basically, Gemini Nano analyzes the web page content right there on your device in real time. On my device, not sending it off somewhere. Initially, no. It looks for patterns, signals often linked to tech support scams, urgent warnings, asking for info.

Weird pop ups. OK. If it spots something fishy, then a small piece of info goes to Google Safe Browsing just for verification. Ah, like a double check. Exactly. And if it's confirmed, boom, you get a warning right there. Huh. So it's kind of like having a little AI guardian watching over your shoulder while you browse. Pretty much. And doing that first analysis locally, that's key. Why? Speed?

Privacy. Both. It's faster, obviously. And much more private because your whole browsing history isn't constantly being uploaded. Right. That makes sense. Plus, it gives proactive protection. It might catch new scam tactics before they even hit the block lists. And Google's planning to expand this. Yeah. They mentioned bringing it to Android, tackling other kinds of scams, too. Could be a big improvement for online safety overall. That really does sound like a valuable application. Okay. So from digital well-being, let's pivot to physical health.

AI in healthcare. Tell us about this face age tool.

The name alone is pretty intriguing. It is, isn't it? Researchers at Mass General Brigham developed it. It's an AI algorithm and it analyzes facial photos. Just regular photos. Yeah. To estimate a person's biological age, which isn't necessarily the same as their chronological age. How many candles are on the cake versus how the body's actually aging. Exactly. And the really fascinating part came from their study published in the Lancet Digital Health. OK. They found that cancer patients often had a face age older

older than their actual age. Really? So like accelerated aging showing up in their face. That's the implication. And crucially, this older face age correlated with survival outcomes. Wow. That's powerful. It's pretty significant, yeah. It suggests face age might reflect underlying health factors, resilience...

Things that affect how someone responds to treatment. They also found it could help clinicians predict life expectancy better for palliative care patients. So just from a photo, potentially. Yeah. Clinicians could get extra insight, maybe help personalize treatment. That's the potential, yes. Using readily available visual data for non-invasive assessment, it could become a useful biomarker.

Especially in cancer care, sounds like. Definitely an area they're exploring. Okay, so let's zoom out again, broader scale. Global investments in AI. Right. Our sources picked up on Salesforce making a pretty big commitment in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, $500 million over five years. That's substantial. It really is. And it's not just cash, right? They're setting up a regional HQ. In Riyadh, yeah. Expanding their local team, setting up special training programs.

It's a strategic move. Aligns with Saudi Arabia's own AI strategy, I imagine. Their digital transformation goals. Absolutely. And they're deploying their hyperforce platform there, too. Their cloud infrastructure. It really highlights how global AI development has become, doesn't it? Totally. It's not just Silicon Valley anymore. Regions like the Middle East, Saudi Arabia being a prime example here, are becoming really significant players.

attracting big tech, investing heavily themselves. It's a trend we're seeing everywhere. National AI strategies popping up, major tech firms getting involved. AI is becoming foundational, you know, across all sectors, all geographies. OK, speaking of foundational, let's talk about the hardware. What actually powers all this AI? Ah, yes, the chips, the

with silicon. Apple's reportedly ramping up its custom chip development quite a bit. They definitely are. Sounds like they're planning for AI across their whole ecosystem. So what are we hearing specifically? Well, two main things stand out. First, these highly energy efficient chips

Designed for future smart glasses. Smart glasses. Okay. Low power is key there, I guess. Hugely important. Minimize power drain. Handle things like camera control efficiently. Production might start late 2026, maybe 2027. Leveraging Apple Watch tech, perhaps?

Interesting. Custom silicon for glasses. That's a glimpse into the future. What's the other focus? The big stuff. More powerful chips for AI servers to run their Apple intelligence platform. Right. The cloud side?

Project Baltra, is that the name? That's what reports are calling it. And we can't forget the Macs. Ah, the M-series chips. Exactly. They're developing the next generations. M6, M7 are speculated clearly aiming to boost AI capabilities on their computers significantly. So the whole strategy, custom silicon for performance, efficiency. Across the board, from wearables to Macs to the servers behind the scenes, optimizing everything for AI. It really shows their commitment to controlling that core tech.

OK, switching gears, different kind of tech power, digital currencies, Meta's dipping its toes back in. Yeah, cautiously, it seems, exploring stablecoins for payments within their ecosystem. Stablecoins. So less volatile than things like Bitcoin. Right. Usually pegged to something like the U.S. dollar. And the initial focus seems pretty specific.

Low cost, cross-border payouts. Are who? Content creators on Instagram, potentially other platforms. Making it easier and cheaper to pay them, especially internationally. That sounds way more practical than their old Diem project. It does, doesn't it? Less about creating a whole new global currency, more about solving a specific payment problem. Using stable coins to streamline those international transactions, cut fees maybe? That seems to be the idea. A pragmatic re-evaluation.

shows that even after Diem, they still see a potential role for digital currencies. Interesting. Okay. Now for something that sounds very cutting edge,

AI agents doing their own research. Web thinker. Yeah, this is fascinating stuff from researchers in China. Renmin University, BAAI, Huawei's Poisson Lab. Okay, what is web thinker? It's an AI agent framework. The goal is to let large reasoning models, the really smart AIs, do their own in-depth web research. So the AI asks a question.

And then goes and finds the answer online itself. Pretty much. It can dynamically search the Internet, navigate Web pages, pull out the info it needs. Whoa. And then draft a report or summary all within its own reasoning process. That's a huge step, giving these powerful models their own research assistance, essentially. Exactly. Could dramatically speed up research make AI less reliant on humans feeding it information, more self-sufficient?

The potential for accelerating discovery there seems enormous. It really does. Leading to maybe AI research assistants tackling really complex tasks autonomously. Okay, but that increasing sophistication, it also creates challenges, right? Like on social media. Ah, yes. The bot problem. Our sources mention Reddit is planning to enhance verification, trying to spot human-like AI bots better. Exactly. This came after some unauthorized experiment apparently deployed some premeditated

some pretty convincing bots. - Yikes. - So Reddit wants to get better at telling real users apart from AI bots designed to mimic humans, you know, bots that might manipulate discussions or spread bad info. - But they still wanna protect user anonymity. That's a core Reddit thing. - That's the balancing act for them. They're reportedly looking at maybe using third party verification services to help. - It really highlights that ongoing battle, doesn't it? AI gets better at sounding human. - Platforms need better tools to spot the fakes.

To maintain trust and authenticity. It's a crucial fight for online communities. Yeah. Okay, finally, let's hit the really imaginative topic. Using AI to bring back extinct species. De-extinction. Yeah, still sounds like pure sci-fi sometimes. But AI is actually playing a key role. A huge role across pretty much the whole process. Like what? Well, reconstructing ancient DNA, which is often really fragmented and degraded. AI helps piece it together. Predicting gene functions in these extinct animals.

Optimizing the gene editing needed to, say, put mammoth traits into an elephant relative. Wow. Complex stuff. Very. And even modeling the ecological impacts. What happens if you do bring a species back? How does it fit into today's ecosystem? AI helps model that too. We're seeing actual companies working on this, right? Colossal Biosciences. Yep. They're famously working on the woolly mammoth, the dire wolf. They even have commercial spinoffs in mind. And others like Revive and Restore.

Focus more on endangered species. Right. Using similar genetic rescue techniques for species still around but struggling. Different approaches, same underlying tech potential. It's incredibly ambitious. Yeah. But there must be huge challenges. Oh, absolutely. Massive technical hurdles still. Big ecological questions and, of course, serious ethical considerations. Animal welfare, resource allocation, disrupting ecosystems. All need careful thought.

But the flip side is the research itself. It's driving innovation in genetics, conservation tech, stuff that helps us now. And for anyone really interested, there's an e-book on this. Yeah, sources mentioned one on Google Play for a deeper dive into de-extinction. Amazing. It's just remarkable thinking about the breadth of AI we've covered today. It really is. From government regulation debates all the way to reconstructing ancient DNA.

AI's impact is just profound. And spreading everywhere. We also saw glimpses of other things. FDA talking with OpenAI, Meta getting a new head for FAIR, Amazon's Kiro coding app, Shopify's Sidekick getting smarter. Augment Codes remote agent, Amazon's listing tool, Hugging Faces agent. It's a whirlwind. Definitely dynamic. You know, speaking of mastering complex fields, if you, the listener, are looking to level up your own skills,

Maybe ace some in-demand certifications. Good transition. Check out Etienne's AI-powered JamGetTech app. It covers areas like cloud, cybersecurity, finance, business, healthcare. Lots of key areas. Yeah, it's got performance-based questions, quizzes, flashcards, labs, simulations, really designed to help you conquer, I think it's over 50 certifications now. That's impressive. Gamma tech app worth looking into. Definitely. But yeah, stepping back.

It just underscores the speed, the multifaceted nature of AI advancement. It really does. Improving online security, changing health care, maybe reshaping whole industries. Even how we think about life itself with de-extinction, the implications are huge. So as AI keeps evolving so fast, what's next? What's the next aha moment that really transforms things? And how do we adapt when it arrives? Exactly. So I mean, think about it. We definitely encourage you to keep exploring this fascinating, ever-changing world of

artificial intelligence.