Top 3 tech, startup and sustainability stories of the week, 25th - 29th Nov, 2024

Top 3 tech, startup and sustainability stories of the week, 25th - 29th Nov, 2024

This week's stories are about deepfake, GenAI and sustainability

1-UK startup unveils AI deepfake detection browser

Surf Security, a London-based startup, introduced a beta version of what it claims to be the first browser equipped with a built-in tool to detect AI-generated deepfakes. I saw this story at The Next Web and the feature, available via company’s browser or as a standalone extension, can reportedly identify whether an online interaction involves a real human or an AI imitation with up to 98% accuracy.

The company employs advanced neural network technology, described as “military-grade,” to identify deepfakes. Its system leverages State Space Models to analyze audio frames for inconsistencies, detecting AI-generated voices across various languages and accents.

“Our focus has been on achieving high accuracy and speed,” said Ziv Yankowitz, CTO at Surf Security. The neural network has been trained on deepfakes produced by leading AI voice cloning platforms, he added.

The tool is compatible with audio content from online videos, recorded files, and live communication platforms like WhatsApp, Zoom, Slack, and Google Meet. Users can verify whether audio—live or recorded—is authentic or AI-generated with the click of a button.

Deepfakes, which leverage AI to create hyper-realistic fake audio and video, pose an escalating threat. Recent investigations by the BBC revealed deepfake audio mimicking David Attenborough, falsely attributing statements about topics like geopolitics to the renowned broadcaster.

Surf Security's deepfake detection tool aims to assist enterprises, media outlets, law enforcement, and militaries in combating the growing risks posed by AI voice cloning.

The company plans to launch the full version of its deepfake detector early next year.


UK startup unveils AI deepfake detection browser (Image: The Next Web)

2-GenAI spending soars, OpenAI loses market share as Anthropic gains ground

Business investment in genAI increased by a staggering 500% this year, growing from $2.3 billion in 2023 to $13.8 billion, according to a Menlo Ventures report.

I read this story at Cnbc and the study, which surveyed 600 IT decision-makers at companies with 50 or more employees, revealed notable shifts in enterprise AI market dynamics. OpenAI’s market share fell from 50% to 34%, while Anthropic doubled its share from 12% to 24%. Menlo Ventures, an investor in Anthropic, attributed this shift to the success of Claude 3.5 and the trend of companies utilizing multiple large AI models.

Other players saw varied changes: Meta’s market share held steady at 16%, Cohere remained at 3%, Google increased from 7% to 12%, and Mistral dropped one percentage point to 5% in 2024.

Foundation models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude, dominated enterprise spending. Large language models alone received $6.5 billion in investment, highlighting their central role in generative AI adoption.

The report highlighted AI agents—advanced tools capable of performing complex, multistep tasks—as a major area of interest and investment for 2024. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI, and Anthropic are actively developing this technology. Unlike traditional chatbots, AI agents can generate their own to-do lists and handle tasks with minimal user input.

Among GenAI use cases, code generation emerged as the most prominent, with over 50% of respondents naming it as a primary application. Other uses included support chatbots (31%), enterprise search and retrieval, data extraction and transformation, and meeting summarization.


GenAI spending soars, OpenAI loses market share as Anthropic gains ground

3-16% of global companies on track for 2050 net-zero goals: report

The fourth edition of Accenture’s Destination Net Zero report unfolded that 45% of G2000 companies are falling behind in their net-zero goals and continue to see rising emissions. However, it also highlighted encouraging progress, with 52% of surveyed companies reporting reductions in both carbon emissions and emission intensity  since 2016.

European companies are comparatively ahead in their net-zero efforts, with 21% on track to meet their net-zero targets and only 33% reporting increased emissions. In contrast, only 17% of North American companies are prepared for net-zero by 2050, according to the report.

Accenture’s report also identified some positive trends in corporate decarbonization. The percentage of companies with net-zero targets covering scopes 1, 2, and 3 remained unchanged at 37%, but the proportion of companies without any emissions reduction targets dropped from 45% in 2023 to 34%. Additionally, there was a notable increase in companies with net-zero targets that include scope 1 and scope 2 emissions (those within operational control), rising from 18% in 2023 to 28% in 2024. Overall, 65% of companies now have net-zero emissions targets.

Furthermore, the report showed that companies are increasingly adopting “decarbonization levers,” such as energy efficiency, waste reduction, renewables adoption, circular principles, and building decarbonization. More than 80% of G2000 companies are using at least one of these strategies, and 30% are employing over 15 different actions to reduce their carbon footprint, the report announced.


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