GM Hires Ex-Tesla Battery Guru; Official-Google Bard AI is now Gemini; Deepfake ‘Face Swaps’ Surged 704% Last Year; FTC Accuses Microsoft of Misrepresenting Activision Blizzard Plans Post Layoffs

General Motors has picked up ex-Tesla executive and battery wiz Kurt Kelty to be the General’s new vice president of batteries…a brand new role at GM. Kelty’s role will likely affect the Ultium program, although his job is designed to be far broader. GM has had teams dedicated to different pieces of the battery process. However, there has never been one role that strings together every step, including sourcing raw materials and identifying and testing out new technologies. Kelty spent more than a decade as the head of Tesla’s battery team. He was there through the launch of Tesla’s first four cars: The Roadster, Model S, Model X and Model 3. He also used to work at Panasonic, Tesla’s partner in cell development at the Gigafactory in Nevada. Since leaving Tesla, Kelty was VP of commercialization at Silk Nanotechnologies, a firm that was working on a silicon based anode that can dramatically increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. 

Google announced officially today that it is renaming its Bard chatbot to Gemini, releasing a dedicated Gemini app for Android, and even folding all its Duet AI features in Google Workspace into the Gemini brand. It also announced that Gemini Ultra 1.0 — the largest and most capable version of Google’s large language model — is being released to the public. If you download the new app on Android, it can set Gemini as your default assistant…replacing Google Assistant when you say “Hey, Google.” So far, there isn’t dedicated Gemini app for iOS, and at any rate, you couldn’t replace Siri with it on Apple devices. Most people will use the standard version which is now called Gemini Pro. For Gemini Ultra, the more powerful version, you have to drop $20 a month for the Gemini Advanced subscription…which is part of the Google One AI Premium plan. Since that plan also includes 2TB of Google Drive Storage and other features, Google says the Gemini Advanced subscription is only really $10…except you have to pay the $20 to get it!

New research from iProov, a biometric firm from the UK finds that Deepfake “face swap” attacks skyrocketed by 704% from the first to the second half of 2023. With their ability to manipulate key traits of an image or video, face swaps made with GenAI are difficult to detect. They’re also user-friendly and affordable. To create convincing face swaps, all you need is off-the-shelf software. The manipulated or synthetic output is then fed to a virtual camera. SwapFace and DeepFaceLive are the most popular tools for bad actors, according to iProov.  By using these tools, crooks can hide the evidence of virtual cameras, which makes the face swaps harder to detect. Four years after researchers highlighted deepfakes the most worrying AI crime, their anxieties are becoming reality.

A week after Microsoft laid off nearly 2,000 employees in its gaming division, the Federal Trade Commission is accusing Microsoft of contradicting its pledge to allow Activision Blizzard to operate independently post-acquisition. Engadget.com reports that the FTC has filed a complaint in federal appeals court as of yesterday, saying that last week’s downsizing, which affected employees of Activision Blizzard, “contradicts Microsoft’s representations in this proceeding.” The FTC is asking for a temporary pause of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard as it further investigates potential antitrust issues. In Wednesday’s complaint, the FTC argued that the recent layoffs also undermine its own ability to order relief for employees who were negatively affected in the acquisition.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.