Nvidia CEO Huang Says Countries Must Build Sovereign AI Infrastructure 

NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang attend a session of the World Governments Summit, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 12, 2024. (Reuters)
NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang attend a session of the World Governments Summit, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 12, 2024. (Reuters)
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Nvidia CEO Huang Says Countries Must Build Sovereign AI Infrastructure 

NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang attend a session of the World Governments Summit, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 12, 2024. (Reuters)
NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang attend a session of the World Governments Summit, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 12, 2024. (Reuters)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Monday that every country needs to have its own artificial intelligence infrastructure in order to take advantage of the economic potential while protecting its own culture.

"You cannot allow that to be done by other people," Huang said at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

Huang, whose firm has catapulted to a $1.73 trillion stock market value due to its dominance of the market for high-end AI chips, said his company is "democratizing" access to AI due to swift efficiency gains in AI computing.

"The rest of it is really up to you to take initiative, activate your industry, build the infrastructure, as fast as you can."

He said that fears about the dangers of AI are overblown, noting that other new technologies and industries such as cars and aviation have been successfully regulated.

"There are some interests to scare people about this new technology, to mystify this technology, to encourage other people to not do anything about that technology and rely on them to do it. And I think that's a mistake."

Following a new round of US restrictions in October imposed on some of its AI chips, Nvidia said in November it was working with customers in China and the Middle East to obtain export licenses for new products that would comply with US rules.

The CEO did not address that issue on Monday.

Nvidia is due to report fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 21.



Reddit Sues AI Giant Anthropic Over Content Use

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
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Reddit Sues AI Giant Anthropic Over Content Use

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Social media outlet Reddit filed a lawsuit Wednesday against artificial intelligence company Anthropic, accusing the startup of illegally scraping millions of user comments to train its Claude chatbot without permission or compensation.

The lawsuit in a California state court represents the latest front in the growing battle between content providers and AI companies over the use of data to train increasingly sophisticated language models that power the generative AI revolution.

Anthropic, valued at $61.5 billion and heavily backed by Amazon, was founded in 2021 by former executives from OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.

The company, known for its Claude chatbot and AI models, positions itself as focused on AI safety and responsible development.

"This case is about the two faces of Anthropic: the public face that attempts to ingratiate itself into the consumer's consciousness with claims of righteousness and respect for boundaries and the law, and the private face that ignores any rules that interfere with its attempts to further line its pockets," the suit said.

According to the complaint, Anthropic has been training its models on Reddit content since at least December 2021, with CEO Dario Amodei co-authoring research papers that specifically identified high-quality content for data training.

The lawsuit alleges that despite Anthropic's public claims that it had blocked its bots from accessing Reddit, the company's automated systems continued to harvest Reddit's servers more than 100,000 times in subsequent months.

Reddit is seeking monetary damages and a court injunction to force Anthropic to comply with its user agreement terms. The company has requested a jury trial.

In an email to AFP, Anthropic said "We disagree with Reddit's claims and will defend ourselves vigorously."

Reddit has entered into licensing agreements with other AI giants including Google and OpenAI, which allow those companies to use Reddit content under terms that protect user privacy and provide compensation to the platform.

Those deals have helped lift Reddit's share price since it went public in 2024.

Reddit shares closed up more than six percent on Wednesday following news of the lawsuit.

Musicians, book authors, visual artists and news publications have sued the various AI companies that used their data without permission or payment.

AI companies generally defend their practices by claiming fair use, arguing that training AI on large datasets fundamentally changes the original content and is necessary for innovation.

Though most of these lawsuits are still in early stages, their outcomes could have a profound effect on the shape of the AI industry.