BIZ

Elon Musk announces new AI startup

Published

3 months ago

July 13, 2023

editor

Tesla boss Elon Musk has announced the formation of an artificial intelligence startup.

The new company is called xAI, and includes several engineers that have worked at companies like OpenAI and Google.

Mr Musk has previously stated he believes developments in AI should be paused and that the sector needs regulation.

He said the start-up was created to “understand reality”.

It is unclear how much funding the entity has, what its specific objectives are or what kind artificial intelligence the company wants to focus on.

The company’s website says the goal of xAI is to “understand the true nature of the universe.”

The new firm will host a Twitter Spaces chat on Friday, which may reveal further details about its aims.

Elon Musk was the one of the original backers of OpenAI, which went on to create the popular large language model ChatGPT, which has – often controversially – become popular for uses such as assisting students with writing homework.

However, the billionaire’s relationship with the company has soured. He has criticised ChatGPT for having a liberal bias.

“What we need is TruthGPT”, Mr Musk tweeted in February.

He also disagrees with how ChatGPT has been run – and its close relationship with Microsoft.

“It does seem weird that something can be a nonprofit, open source and somehow transform itself into a for-profit, closed source,” Musk said in a CNBC interview.

In March Mr Musk signed an open letter calling for a pause to “Giant AI Experiments”, which to date has around 33,000 signatures.

In an interview with the BBC in April Mr Musk said he had been worrying about AI safety for over a decade.

“I think there should be a regulatory body established for overseeing AI to make sure that it does not present a danger to the public”, he said.

Mr Musk has also pitted himself against AI companies due to the data they use to train chatbots – the software that learns how humans interacts by scraping masses of data from various sources to fuel its knowledge and interaction styles.

The billionaire believes vast amounts of Twitter’s data is scraped from the platform, and that the company should be adequately compensated.

Mr Musk purchased the microblogging platform in a deal worth billions, before making sweeping changes which led to many leaving the platform in protest, including the producer of shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes, as well as model Gigi Hadid and comedian and actor Stephen Fry.

(BBC News)

BIZ

SriLankan enters into partnership with Virgin Australia

Published

2 days ago

September 28, 2023

editor

SriLankan Airlines has entered into a first-ever interline partnership with Virgin Australia that will strengthen the airline’s network in Australia and offer customers extensive connections across the land down under and beyond.

The new partnership reaffirms SriLankan’s commitment to Australia and will present customers the convenience of adding select Virgin Australia domestic or international connections to their SriLankan Airlines booking and managing a multi-airline itinerary under a single ticket.

Dimuthu Tennakoon, Head of Worldwide Sales & Distribution of SriLankan Airlines commented on the partnership by stating, “Australia has one of the largest Sri Lankan diasporic communities, which makes our Australian routes incredibly popular all year around and particularly with people travelling to visit friends and relatives or in pursuit of higher education. This partnership will help us make further inroads in the Australian market through improved connectivity and a range of other benefits for our valued customers.”

SriLankan Airlines currently operates daily from Colombo to Melbourne and from Colombo to Sydney on a thrice-weekly basis. The partnership will enable passengers flying SriLankan to Melbourne or Sydney to connect to the Australian cities of Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Cairns, Darwin, Hobart, Hamilton Island, Launceston, Gold Coast and Perth with Virgin Australia. Passengers will also have the option of flying beyond Australia to New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji. It is a win for Sri Lankan and Indian Australians living in these cities too as they can now fly out from their local city to Sri Lanka or India with a single SriLankan Airlines’ booking. What’s more, passengers can enjoy a seamless journey with a single check-in, including for baggage, at the departure airport and beat transit check-in queues.

The introduction of domestic and international interline flights options with Virgin Australia would improve the accessibility to Sri Lanka for Australian outbound tourists as well. An important customer group for SriLankan, the partnership will unquestionably help develop Australian leisure travel to Sri Lanka. It will also provide easy connections for SriLankan Airlines’ passengers flying to Australia via Colombo from the Maldives, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Since relaunching flights to Melbourne in October 2017 and Sydney in June 2020, close to a million passengers have travelled with SriLankan Airlines to Australia. The new partnership will enhance SriLankan Airlines’ service to Australia as the airline prepares to cruise to new altitudes above the land down under. For more information on SriLankan’s Australian operations visit www.srilankan.com

BIZ

Colombo International Book Fair 2023 kicks off

Published

1 week ago

September 22, 2023

editor

Sri Lanka’s largest book exhibition, ‘Colombo International Book Fair’, commenced today (22) at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH).

The book fair organised by the Sri Lanka Book Publishers’ Association will be held until October 1 from 9.00 am – 9.00 pm.