Global Stock Markets Dive Amid AI Bubble Fears

Global stock markets have seen a sharp decline as fears grow that the surge in valuations for artificial intelligence (AI) companies is losing steam.

U.S., Asian, and European markets all dropped following warnings from bank executives about a possible significant market correction, spurred by record highs that made several firms seem overvalued.

On Tuesday, the tech-centric Nasdaq and S&P 500 experienced their largest single-day drops in almost a month.

Tech stocks heavily influenced the Nasdaq’s decline, which closed down by 2%. The AI stocks of the “grand seven” companies—including Nvidia, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), and Meta (the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp)—all recorded losses.

The S&P 500 faced setbacks primarily from tech stocks, notably Palantir, which saw an almost 8% decrease despite raising its earnings expectations just a day prior, ultimately finishing the session down by more than 1%.

Palantir has also found itself in the crosshairs of prominent short sellers who wager on a decline in its stock value.

Michael Burry, the investor renowned for predicting the 2008 financial crisis and inspiring the film The Big Short, has taken positions on two major AI firms, Palantir and Nvidia, drawing backlash from Palantir’s management and contributing to a drop in its stock price.

In a CNBC interview, Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir, criticized Burry and other short sellers for attempting to “cast doubt on the AI revolution.”

Asian markets mirrored the decline experienced in the United States, suffering their largest drop in seven months amid concerns regarding tech stock performance, with Japanese and South Korean indexes falling over 5% from record highs reached just a day before. European markets in the U.K., France, and Germany also saw slight declines on Wednesday morning.

The market downturn follows cautionary statements from the CEOs of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs about a potential correction.

Their warnings echo concerns raised by Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank, who predicted in October that the market might crash within the next six months to two years.

“The chorus is getting louder,” stated Jim Reid, an analyst at Deutsche Bank. “We’re having discussions about whether we are on the verge of a stock price correction.”

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“The last 24 hours have revealed a clear risk-off trend, as apprehensions regarding high valuations of tech companies have negatively impacted investor confidence,” Reid remarked.

Other analysts have raised doubts about investing in AI companies, noting that while substantial funding has been directed to a handful of tech firms, like OpenAI and Nvidia, the returns on investment thus far remain minimal.

Bitcoin prices briefly dipped below $100,000 (£76,764) for the first time since June, as investors divested from high-risk assets like cryptocurrencies due to economic uncertainty.

While Bitcoin hit a peak of over $126,000 in early October, it fell 3.7% throughout the month, marking its worst monthly performance in a decade, according to CoinMarketCap statistics.

Source: www.theguardian.com

The Rapidly Approaching Future: Creative Workers and Experts Discuss Their Hopes and Fears Regarding the Rise of AI

Oliver Fiegel, a 47-year-old Munich-based photographer, was reading a newspaper on Germany’s National Sunday when he saw a strange look on the top page image. The images showed the boy chasing soccer on the pitch. However, some of the wild flowers on the grass floated without stems. Half of the goal net was missing. The boy’s hands were shaped.

Photographer Oliver Fiegel, 47, said he would no longer be able to make a living from his trading alone in the industry in 18 years. Photo: Oliver Fiegel/Guardian Community

Over the past few years, many of Fiegel’s photography clients have been newspapers and magazines. However, the job has recently dried up. The image he felt showed one reason for “generic illustrations,” the provided caption said.

Fiegel was irritated. The use of artificial intelligence rather than human creatively represented the crafts that he spent years training and was tainted and erased by the emergence of cheaper and faster generative AI tools.

“AI has had the most devastating impact on the industry.” observer How is the rise of generative AI tools changing their working lives, for better or worse, amidst the economic changes of earthquakes? “It’s happening very quickly.”

Fiegel, a photographer for almost 18 years, said he was no longer able to make a living and was forced to fundamentally diversify his income streams. Now he is considering opening a natural wine bar instead.

In advanced economies such as the UK, Germany and the US, about 60% of jobs are exposed to AI, according to AI, a survey conducted by the International Monetary Fund last year, with about half of them potentially negatively affected. In the UK alone, AI can drive down private sector jobs up to 3M, according to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, but some unemployment could be offset by a new role in economic change.

“I still only know a few photographers who can live out of this deal,” Fiegel said. “It’s not easy. I’ve identified it as being creative for the rest of my life.”

Longtime translator Karl Kerner said the AI tools had a negative impact on him. Photo: Karl Kerner/Guardian Community

Since 1994, Karl Kerner has focused on non-fiction scientific texts as a translator among English, German and Norwegians. This type of translation requires expert knowledge and careful terminology, he said.

“I’m basically out of business now,” Kerner said. “This AI has become like a tsunami.” In the past few years of AI-driven translation and editing tools, the number of “[work] Requests have just diminished,” he added.

His loss of identity had a major impact, said Kerner, who is born in New York and now lives in Tonsburg, Norway. “All night, everything about this linguistic culture is worthless. It does something for you, because you were professional. [It’s like] Someone takes the rug from under you.”

Kerner, 64, began working for an agricultural consultant. “It’s not a good age to join the job market. It wasn’t easy,” he said.

But technology is also helping him with some translation work he still gets. Instead of translating words by word, he can send the text to automated translation software, and use his knowledge to eliminate inaccuracies and mistranslations, significantly reducing working hours. “I’m not a Techno Forbe, I think it’s attractive,” he said.

Other workers have more positive experiences as they integrate AI into their daily work.

Alexander Calvey, a self-employed Locum GP in Surrey, said he used AI Scribe to write down his notes, saving him time and improving quality. The results mean he can “focus more on the patient than on the notes.”

Calvey, who also works for a private GP provider, added that he managed to increase The number of patients he sees is sometimes 4-5 per hour. In the future, as technology improves, Calvey feels that AI will have more use to guide questions and treatments.

ChatGpt Chatbot has become the sounding album of Paul, a 44-year-old university researcher on mathematics and philosophy based in Stockholm. He said the tool would help summarize the literature and brainstorm research questions.

“It knows a lot, I know other things that I don’t want to be challenging,” he said, allowing me to study those topics more deeply.

However, Paul’s use ChatGpt is not just his professional job. He also uses it for personal tasks, such as providing analysis if he experiences strange dreams.

A mother’s pencil portrait by freelance illustrator Jenny Turner. Illustrations: Jenny Turner/Jeturnarath/Guardian Community

Despite this feature, he is concerned about the amount of information that companies that control generative AI tools learn about their users. He said he is “very worried” about the “power of a small number of companies’ high-tech giants.”

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer said he hopes that AI will be “mainlined to the vein” of the nation to promote productivity and economic growth. But this month, the TUC is calling for urgent government action to protect workers in the creative industry amidst the risk of disruption and unemployment.

For Jenny Turner, a 33-year-old freelance illustrator in the northeastern England, the decline in fee demand was “very sudden” and coincided with the spread of AI imaging tools. Turner previously sold his work on Etsy. For example, she charges about £100 for a portrait drawn by a colored pencil. However, in the last few years she has begun to see AI-generated images beneath her work in the “You Like too” section.

“I can’t compete any more…it’s on sale at a price I could never drop,” she said. “It really hit me hard and made me feel empty like you were wasting everything. It just gets upset and makes you mad.”

Turner said after drawing from a young age and studying at university, she was now forced to abolish her illustrations on Etsy and consider other jobs. “If that’s what happens in everything,” she said, “How many people aren’t going to do their job?”

Source: www.theguardian.com

EU increases pressure on Meta due to fears of Russian election meddling on Facebook

The European Union delivered a direct message to the owners of Facebook in Silicon Valley on Tuesday due to concerns about President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to influence the European Parliament with pro-Russian lawmakers.

Meta has a deadline of five days to outline its plan to tackle fake news, fake websites, and Kremlin-funded advertisements, or face serious consequences.

The EU is worried about Facebook’s handling of fake news, especially 40 days after the European Parliament elections and during a year when many people around the world are voting.


Thierry Breton, the Internal Market Commissioner, emphasized that electoral integrity is a top priority and warned of swift action if Facebook does not address the issues within a week.

He stated, “We expect Meta to inform us within five working days of the measures they are taking to mitigate these risks, or we will take all necessary steps to safeguard our democracy.”


The commission has initiated formal proceedings against Meta ahead of the elections taking place across Europe from June 6 to 9.

There are concerns that Russia might exploit Facebook, with its over 250 million monthly active users, to influence the election outcome in its favor.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo suggested that Russia’s aim to support pro-Russian candidates in the European Parliament was evident through alleged payments to parliamentarians.

While specific examples were not provided, concerns include foreign-funded advertisements on Facebook.

An official stated, “They are mistaken if they think they are not profiting from this.”

Additionally, there is insufficient transparency in the tools for identifying illegal or questionable content.

The EU has highlighted delays in removing links to fake news platforms, known as “doppelganger sites”.

Last week, a Czech news agency’s website was hacked to display fake news, including a false claim about an assassination attempt on the Slovak president.

French Europe Minister Jean-Noël Barrault raised concerns about Russian propaganda targeting France to disrupt public debate and interfere in the European election campaign.

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One more issue with Facebook is Meta’s decision to restrict discussions on sensitive topics like the Middle East to prevent user-generated content.

This practice known as “shadowbanning” has raised transparency concerns, and the EU is urging Facebook to clarify its decision-making process.

The official added, “Users must be informed when this occurs and have the opportunity to challenge it, or it could lead to controversy.”

There are also worries that Facebook might discontinue CrowdTangle, a service that assists in monitoring disinformation for fact checkers, journalists, and researchers.

The case against Facebook on Tuesday marks the sixth by the European Commission since the Digital Services Act (DSA) came into effect.

However, many question whether these actions are sufficient to combat misinformation. NATO officials have compared disinformation to a weapon as potent as physical warfare during a panel in Brussels.

Authorities argue that Facebook is not idle in addressing these issues, but the existing measures are inadequate, opaque, and not effective enough.

Under the new DSA laws implemented in August, the EU has the authority to levy fines up to 6% of social media companies’ revenue or bar them from operating in the union.

Facebook responded, stating, “We have robust processes for identifying and mitigating risks on our platform. We are collaborating with the European Commission and will share further details of our efforts with them. We look forward to the opportunity.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

The Challenge: A computer game that encourages you to face your fears | Art and Design

IIt's a quiet morning in a London gallery studio voltaire And Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley invited me to prototype her latest artwork. It's a horror-inspired video game in which players fight to overcome the issues holding them back, from fear of failure to addiction. This is also the centerpiece of her first organized solo exhibition with the theme of change. I worked on the game, but by the fourth round I was still crap. Artificial screams echo around the empty gallery. “That must be super difficult!” laughs Brathwaite-Shirley. “It's all based on what I'm trying to overcome or have overcome. It didn’t take one turn, it took many.”

The Rebirthing Room is Brathwaite-Shirley's latest participatory work. The idea came to me after a conversation with a curator about the usefulness of Art Her Gallery. “We were talking about how we could do more with the space. What could we do with it other than just showcasing work?” she says. “That’s when I thought, “It would be great if you came to the gallery and left a different person.'

The 29-year-old started making interactive art in 2020 after misguided comments from visitors made her question the purpose of her work. At the time, her portfolio consisted of videos and animations documenting her London burlesque scenes and her black transgender peers. The work, rendered in what she describes as her “beautiful retro aesthetic,” created an alternate reality for community members. It is an unconventional archival method to fill in the blind spots in historical records. “Someone said to me, “I really like your work because it allows me to be visual and ignore what you're saying,'' Brathwaite-Shirley recalls. “I thought, “This is the best feedback of my life, because I can't do that anymore!''

Another history…”Thou shalt not accept” in 2023. Photo: Perttu Saksa/Courtesy of the artist and Helsinki Biennale

Since then, she has started incorporating choices made by the audience to advance the work. In 2022 she released her Get Home Safe, an arcade her-style game inspired by her own experiences wandering around Berlin at night. The player is tasked with guiding the protagonist safely through dark streets. Meanwhile, “I Can't Follow You Anymore,” released in browser-based last year, asks audiences to navigate a revolution and decide who will be saved or sacrificed. “In interactive work, you have to make an effort to see something,” she says. “What fascinates me is the choices people make and the feelings they leave behind. I think that's when the real works of art start to emerge.”

Keen to prioritize content over aesthetics, Brathwaite-Shirley's new work takes advantage of the rudimentary pre-rendered graphics of early computer games. It's intentionally lo-fi, built from 2D animation, iPad drawings, and old software, with a VHS-style finish. The forest grass on the screen is made from edited photographs of her hands, and the sounds are an extension of her archival project, developed from recordings of her screaming into her mobile phone. . “I never want to touch this super shiny stuff,” she says. “I like to make people's brains work a little bit more.”

With disorienting sound effects and low lighting, Rebirthing Room is a fully immersive experience. Surrounding the screen and handmade controllers operated by the audience are giant trees covered in cloth and rows of real corn, a reference to the horror movies she grew up watching.

“I don’t need this super shiny thing”…Screenshot of the playback room Photo: Image provided by the artist

“What I love about horror is that it makes you want to experience experiences and emotions that you would never experience in normal life,” she says. “If a movie is really good, there's something about it that sticks around. It's that perfect balance of being really scary, but also interesting enough to keep you watching.”

In addition to being a nifty device to “fool” viewers into their own values ​​and beliefs, Brathwaite-Shirley's digital universe, full of demons, villains, and gore, is well-suited to the current climate. You can feel it when you are there. She says it's important to highlight not only the hostility from her outsider group, but all the “nasty nuances” that exist within her own self. She said: “I feel like we're in a very censored time; [where] Even speaking about views that your particular political group subscribes to feels dangerous because you feel like you have to say it the way they want to hear it. Therefore, for me, presenting a utopia in the environment we are currently in is a huge waste. ”

Challenging audiences is something she would like to see more of in the art world, but she feels it prioritizes too much of a fun, Instagram-friendly experience. Her purpose is not to make her people enjoy her own work. She finds the more visceral and emotional responses more interesting. She told me that when she finishes a show with nothing but praise, she feels like her work is of no use.

She is interested in how viewers will respond to Room of Rebirth. Will they play until they succeed? Or will they just give up like I did? only time will tell. “I’m looking forward to seeing how we can go even further next time,” she says.

Source: www.theguardian.com