Catch up on select AI news and developments from the past week or so.

Justice Department: Harsher Penalties for Criminal AI Use

The Justice Department is shifting its focus on AI. Officials warned last week that companies and people who deliberately misuse the technology to advance a white-collar crime like price fixing, fraud or market manipulation will be at risk for a harsher sentence.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco emphasized the importance of corporate compliance programs in managing AI risks, indicating that the department will evaluate how effectively companies mitigate these risks.

Europe's AI Rules Gain Final Approval

This week the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Artificial Intelligence Act, five years after regulations were first proposed.

The AI Act, to take effect later this year, is expected to act as a guideline for governments worldwide that are attempting to come to grips with ways to regulate the quickly evolving technology.

The AI Act is expected to officially become European Union law by May or June. Provisions will start taking effect in stages. The 27 member countries are required to ban prohibited AI systems six months after the rules officially come into force.

Violations of the AI Act could result in fines of up to 35 million euros ($38 million) or 7% of the offending company's global revenue.

Apple Acquires Startup DarwinAI

Apple's acquisition of Ontario-based startup DarwinAI earlier this year is likely intended to bolster Apple's expertise in specialized AI technology for improving manufacturing processes and developing more efficient AI systems.

DarwinAI's technology visually inspects manufacturing components and optimizes AI systems for performance and smaller size—with potential applications in Apple's operating systems and on-device AI elements.

Having acquired 30+ AI startups as of 2023, Apple's strategy is, in part, to gain AI capabilities through acquisitions.

Walmart to Sell Its AI-Powered Logistics Product to Other Businesses

Walmart will be offering its AI-powered logistics technology to other businesses.

The company is making its Route Optimization available to all businesses as a software as a service (SaaS) solution through Walmart Commerce Technologies. The solution enhances the efficiency of the middle mile, allowing businesses to more consistently keep their customers' desired products in stock.

Walmart is aiming to diversify its revenue streams in response to disruptive technologies.

Adobe's Firefly Makes Same AI Image-Generation Errors as Google's Gemini

Adobe's Firefly AI image creation tool, like Google's Gemini, has made ethnic and racial depiction errors. the same ethnic and racial depiction errors as Google's Gemini. Such persistent issues with AI image generation underscore the challenge of both achieving historical accuracy and avoiding racial bias.

"Adobe Firefly is built to help people ideate, create and build upon their natural creativity," the company said in a statement. "It isn't meant for generating photorealistic depictions of real or historical events."

It explained: "Adobe's commitment to responsible innovation includes training our AI models on diverse datasets to ensure we're producing commercially safe results that don't perpetuate harmful stereotypes. This includes extensively testing outputs for risk and to ensure they match the reality of the world we live in. Given the nature of Gen AI and the amount of data it gets trained on, it isn't always going to be correct, and we recognize that these Firefly images are inadvertently off base. We build feedback mechanisms in all of our Gen AI products, so we can see any issues and fix them through retraining or adjusting filters. Our focus is always improving our models to give creators a set of options to bring their visions to life."

Devin: The Face of Human-Free Software Engineering

A notable development in human-free software engineering has taken the internet by storm: Devin is being touted as the world's inaugural autonomous AI software engineer.

Created by applied AI lab Cognition, Devin has been met with a mixture of anticipation and skepticism and ignited a heated debate within the software engineering community.

Skepticism has arisen around Devin's performance in real-world scenarios, its integration into existing codebases, and its ability to address the challenges that arise in the latter stages of software development.

Devin's emergence prompts broader discussions around job displacement, technical expertise erosion, and the ethical implications of AI-driven development.

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