We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
The G42 logo.
Hard Numbers: Microsoft’s big Gulf investment, Amazon’s ambitions, Mammogram-plus, Adobe pays up, Educating Don Beyer
1.5 billion: Microsoft has announced a deal to invest $1.5 billion in G42, an artificial intelligence firm based in the United Arab Emirates that recently cut ties with Chinese suppliers that had raised US security concerns. Washington and Abu Dhabi relations have been strained over the UAE’s ties to Chinese tech companies. But this deal – which grants Microsoft a minority stake in the company – could signal a new era of relations with the US.
33: Amazon is talking about artificial intelligence – like, a lot. In his recently published annual letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy mentioned AI 33 times. The company invested $4 billion in Anthropic, which makes the Claude chatbot, and will host Anthropic on Amazon Web Services. Jassy said the company wants to build AI models more so than applications (think GPT-4 instead of ChatGPT) and sell directly to enterprise clients.
40: Clinics are starting to offer an AI-assisted add-on to typical mammograms. Interested patients typically incur an out-of-pocket charge between $40 and $100 to have an AI model scan their breast screening for additional insights — even, possibly, early breast cancer detection.
3: Adobe is planning to compete with OpenAI’s Sora video model. To do so, it’s offering photographers and videographers $3 per minute to upload videos of people doing everyday activities like walking around or sitting down, or simple shots of hands, feet, or eyes to train their new generative AI model. It’s an expensive but cautious approach intended to build up a comprehensive database while staying on the right side of copyright law and avoiding potential imbroglios like the one OpenAI faces for using YouTube videos to train its models
73: Congressman Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, decided he wanted to return to school to learn more about AI. So, that’s what he did. The 73-year-old car dealership mogul-turned-politician recently enrolled in a master’s degree program in machine learning at George Mason University. He’s even learning to code, which he says is helping him better think about all kinds of problems in Washington.A man uses a chatbot in this illustration photo.
Get AI out of my health care
You fall and break an arm. Doctors set the break and send you to rehab. It’s pricy, but insurance should take care of it, so you submit your claim – only to be denied. Was it a claims examiner who rejected it? Or AI?
On Feb. 6, the US government sent a memo to certain Medicare insurers clarifying that no, they cannot use artificial intelligence to deny claims. While machine-learning algorithms can be used to assist them in making determinations, an algorithm alone cannot be the basis for denying care.
This memo, sent by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, follows lawsuits against health insurers for allegedly using AI to erroneously deny deserved care to patients. United Healthcare and Humana have each been sued by patients claiming the companies used the AI model nH Predict nefariously — a model they claim has a 90% error rate. It’s a clear and present danger of the technology at a time when many regulators and critics are focusing on far-off threats of AI.
CMS also said it’s concerned about the propensity for algorithms to “exacerbate discrimination and bias” and said the onus is on insurers to make sure these models comply with the Affordable Care Act’s anti-discrimination requirements. And it’s not just the federal government: A number of states including New York and California have issued warnings to insurance companies to ensure their own algorithms aren’t discriminatory.
Illustration of a female healthcare worker wearing scrubs and a surgical mask created with Generative AI technology.
The WHO’s AI warning
Generative AI could be game-changing for the world of medicine. It could help researchers discover new drugs and better match ailing patients with correct diagnoses.
But the World Health Organization is concerned about everything that could go wrong. The global health authority is formally warning countries to monitor and evaluate large language models for medical and health-related risks.
“The very last thing that we want to see happen as part of this leap forward with technology is the propagation or amplification of inequities and biases in the social fabric of countries around the world,” said WHO official Alain Labrique. This advice was issued as part of a larger guidance on AI in healthcare, a topic on which the WHO began advising in 2021.
Artificial intelligence systems are susceptible to bias, because the inclusion or absence of data could seriously affect its outputs. For example, if a medical AI model is trained solely on health data from people in wealthy nations, it could miss or misunderstand populations in poorer nations and do harm if used improperly.
Female doctor in hospital setting.
Slapping nutrition labels on AI for your health
At a congressional hearing last week, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) noted how AI can help detect deadly diseases early, improve medical imaging, and clear cumbersome paperwork from doctors’ desks. But she also expressed concern that it could exacerbate bias and discrimination in healthcare.
Patients need to know who, or what, is behind their healthcare determinations and treatment plans. This requires transparency, which is a key part of Biden's AI Bill of Rights, released last year.
The new rule, first proposed in April by the HHS’s health information technology office, would require developers to publish information about how AI healthcare apps were trained and how they should and shouldn’t be used. The rule, which could be finalized before January, aims to improve both transparency and accountability.
Residents fix a sign reading "Nipah containment zone" on a barricade
Hard Numbers: Kerala reacts to lethal virus outbreak, Brazil insurrectionists on trial U.S. inflation stays stubborn, uranium prices spike,
2: Two people in the southern Indian state of Kerala have died from the rare but highly-lethal Nipah virus, forcing authorities to declare a containment zone over 7 villages and shut down public schools and offices. One more adult and one child are currently hospitalized with confirmed infections, while 130 more have been tested for the disease. There is no cure or treatment for Nipah virus.
4: Today the first four supporters of Jair Bolsonaro go on trial for their actions during Brazil’s January 8th insurrection. Thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters, outraged over his loss in the October election, stormed the capital city Brasília-- vandalizing the presidential palace, parliament, and the same supreme court where they stand trial today. The court condemned the rioter’s actions as an attack on Brazil’s democracy, and will hear the cases of two hundred more insurrectionists in the coming months.
3.7%: New US inflation data for August showed that U.S. households paid about 3.7% more for goods and services than they did a year ago. That’s up half a percentage point from the July reading and still well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Most of the cost bump was fueled by higher energy prices, as Saudi Arabia and Russia recently cut oil production to boost global crude prices. The good news is that consumers continue to get relief on products besides food and energy, as so-called “core inflation” continued its 6-month downward trend.
30%: The benchmark price for uranium has soared 30% so far this year, as the transition away from fossil fuels continues to spark fresh interest in nuclear power. A pound of the radioactive stuff now costs $62, more than double what it was just five years ago. And you know who is loving the price spike? Russia, home to 40% of the world’s uranium refinement capacity.
Protesters from the LGBTQ+ community demonstrate against Uganda's anti-homosexuality law in Munich.
Hard Numbers: Uganda charges gay men, EU Ukraine aid hiccup, Amhara death toll, brain food in Australia
2: Two Ugandan men could face the death penalty after being charged with “aggravated homosexuality” under the country’s new anti-gay law. The legislation calls for life imprisonment for same-sex intercourse and the death penalty for “aggravated” cases, which involve sex with people who are underage, disabled, or elderly. Read about LGBTQ rights around the globe here.
183: At least 183 people have been killed in recent clashes between Ethiopian federal troops and local militias from the Amhara region, who say the government has tried to undermine Amhara’s security and autonomy following the recent war in the neighboring region of Tigray. Read more here.
86 billion: An €86 billion EU spending package is in peril because it includes additional aid for Ukraine, which some member states are reluctant to approve amid their own economic and fiscal struggles. After a year and a half of war, with no clear end in sight, the fate of the fiscal request will be a bellwether for broader EU support for Kyiv.
8: In a world first, surgeons in Australia removed an 8cm long worm known as Ophidascaris robertsi from the brain of a woman who had complained of memory loss and depression. This specific parasite had previously been found only in pythons, large numbers of which happen to live near the woman’s home. Scientists say instances of animal-to-human transmission of diseases and parasites are increasing as human and animal habitats increasingly overlap.
A world in need of music therapy: Renée Fleming at Davos
You never know who you're going to meet wandering around in Davos, including opera legend Renée Fleming, who was honored this week by the Forum.
The four-time Grammy-winning Soprano, who has performed on six continents, was presented in Davos with the prestigious Crystal Award—not for her singing, but for the voice she's lending to help people understand how music impacts the human brain.
"What I've seen firsthand has really convinced me of the effects of art therapies on disorders relating to aging. So, Alzheimer's and dementia, as well as Parkinson's, other movement disorders, brain trauma, or anyone who's had a horrible accident."
Fleming spoke to GZERO’s Tony Maciulis on the ground at the World Economic Forum about her passion project, Music and the Mind. She also weighed in on a sticky geopolitical issue: Russian artists who have been banned from Western concert halls over their comments (or lack therof) regarding Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Watch the GZERO World episode: Russia's tragic brutality and the humbling of the West
- In Davos, Iranian protesters demand IRGC to be declared "terrorist" ›
- Europe grapples with insecurity, instability, and proxy war: Davos 2023 ›
- Opera legend Renée Fleming on how Russia's war in Ukraine has impacted classical music ›
- Graphic Truth: How Old Will the World Be in 2050? ›
- World leaders with rhythm: South Korea's President Yoon chimes in - GZERO Media ›
- GZERO 2023 political music playlist - GZERO Media ›
The remembrance, heartbreak & protest of the AIDS quilt
This Pride Month, we remember how just 35 years ago, America was in the middle of another public health crisis — one that disproportionately affected gay men, as well as communities of color.
But the tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic also produced one remarkable piece of art that first captured the world’s attention in 1987.
We're talking about a quilt made of pieces sent by people across the United States, each naming a victim of the deadly disease. It originally spanned a football field, but now covers 1.3 million square feet.
For many, the AIDS Memorial Quilt has served as the memorial service they never had. Earlier in June, a big chunk was unveiled to mark the anniversary in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
This video is part of an upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer.