‘Engine of inequality’: delegates discuss AI’s global impact at Paris summit
The impact of artificial intelligence on the environment and inequality have featured in the opening exchanges of a global summit in Paris attended by political leaders, tech executives and experts.Emmanuel Macron’s AI envoy, Anne Bouverot, opened the two-day gathering at the Grand Palais in the heart of the French capital with a speech referring to the environmental impact of AI, which requires vast amounts of energy and resource to develop and operate.“We know that AI can help mitigate climate change, but we also know that its current trajectory is unsustainable,” Bouverot said.Sustainable development of the technology would be on the agenda, she added.The general secretary of the UNI Global Union, Christy Hoffman, warned that without worker involvement in the use of AI, the technology risked increasing inequality.
The UNI represents about 20 million workers worldwide in industries including retail, finance and entertainment.“Without worker representation, AI-driven productivity gains risk turning the technology into yet another engine of inequality, further straining our democracies,” she told attenders.On Sunday, Macron promoted the event by posting a montage of deepfake images of himself on Instagram, including a video of “him” dancing in a disco with various 1980s hairstyles, in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the technology’s capabilities.Although safety has been downplayed on the conference agenda, some in attendance were concerned about the pace of development.Max Tegmark, the scientist behind a 2023 letter calling for a pause in producing powerful AI systems, cautioned that governments and tech companies were inadvertently re-enacting the ending of the Netflix climate crisis satire Don’t Look Up.
The film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence uses a looming comet, and the refusal by the political and media establishment to acknowledge the existential threat, as a metaphor for the climate emergency – with the meteor ultimately wiping out the planet,“I feel like I have been living that movie,” Tegmark told the Guardian in an interview,“But now it feels l like we‘ve reached the part of the film where you can see the asteroid in the sky,And people are still saying that it doesn’t exist,It really feels like life imitating art.
”Tegmark said the promising work at the inaugural summit at Bletchley Park in the UK in November 2023 had been partly undone.“Basically, asteroid denial is back in full swing,” he said.The Paris gathering has been badged as the AI action summit, whereas its UK cousin was the AI safety summit.Macron is co-chairing the summit with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi.The US vice-president, JD Vance, and Chinese vice-premier, Zhang Guoqing, are among the other political attenders, although the UK prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is not attending.
Sign up to TechScapeA weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our livesafter newsletter promotionExistential concerns about AI focus on the development of artificial general intelligence, the term for systems that can match or exceed human intellectual capabilities at nearly all cognitive tasks,Estimates of when, and if, AGI will be reached vary but Tegmark said based on statements from industry figures “the asteroid is going to strike … somewhere between one and five years from now,Developments in AI have accelerated since 2023, with the emergence of so-called reasoning models pushing the capabilities of systems even further,The release of a freely available reasoning model by the Chinese company DeepSeek has also intensified the competitive rivalry between China and the US, which has led AI breakthroughs,The head of Google’s AI efforts, Demis Hassabis, said on Sunday the tech industry was “perhaps five years away” from achieving AGI and safety conversations needed to continue.
“Society needs to get ready for that and … the implications that will have.”Speaking in Paris before the summit, Hassabis added that AGI carried “inherent risk”, particularly in the field of autonomous “agents”, which carry out tasks without human intervention, but those concerns could be assuaged.“I’m a big believer in human ingenuity.I think if we put the best brains on it, and with enough time and enough care … then I think we’ll get it right.”
Nicky Henderson dealt Cheltenham blow as Sir Gino ruled out for season
Sir Gino, who had been the odds-on favourite for the Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham next month since his brilliant chasing debut at Kempton’s Christmas meeting, has been ruled out for the remainder of the National Hunt season with an infection following a minor leg injury sustained during a routine piece of exercise last week.Nicky Henderson’s five-year-old beat Ballyburn, one of the top novice hurdlers last season and a Grade One winner over fences since, with ease in December, prompting immediate comparisons with previous Arkle winners from the yard including Sprinter Sacre, Altior and Shishkin.He missed an intended prep run for Cheltenham in the Game Spirit Chase on Saturday, however, and his price for the Arkle started to drift ominously on the Betfair betting exchange on Monday morning before a statement from Henderson’s stable confirmed the news that his ante-post backers had been dreading.“Unfortunately, Sir Gino’s situation has deteriorated somewhat and he has been admitted to the equine hospital,” Henderson said in a statement on X. “As a result of initial examinations … an infection has invaded the ligaments in his near-hind leg
Ben Duckett would accept 3-0 series defeat if England beat India in Champions Trophy final
Ben Duckett does not care if England endure a series whitewash in India, so long as he and his teammates beat the same opponents in the final of the Champions Trophy.England lost their fourth consecutive one-day international series on Sunday as India went 2-0 up with a four-wicket win in Cuttack, Rohit Sharma the headliner with a 90-ball 119. One game remains in Ahmedabad on Wednesday before the focus turns to the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, with England’s campaign beginning against Australia on 22 February.“We have come here for one thing, and that is to win the Champions Trophy,” Duckett said. “We still believe we can do that
Tom Brady, TV’s No 1 jaw, oozed stagnant charisma in Fox’s Super Bowl broadcast
This was the biggest test yet in the former New England Patriots quarterback’s fledgling television career, and the results were not prettyThe weeks leading up to this Super Bowl saw a predictable swirl of questions about the on- and off-field direction of America’s big game. Could the Philadelphia Eagles neutralize the golden arm of Patrick Mahomes? Would Travis Kelce commit elder abuse against Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid again? How would the crowd react to the presence of the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl? Might half-time show headliner Kendrick Lamar use the big stage to provide further insight into the content of Drake’s character? And would Sunday night cap the successful conclusion of Tom Brady’s years-long search for a personality, or would he remain the same on-screen plank who’s shout-talked his way through his first season as Fox’s top football analyst?As ever, however, a bigger question hung over these small opportunities for speculation: would it be any good? As a game, as a spectacle, as a raw demonstration of American ingenuity and might, would Super Bowl LIX have the juice?Well, now we have the answer: it would not. A non-entity as a contest and a televisual flop, this Super Bowl will live long in the memory of no one but fans of the Eagles. This was a Super Bowl so galactically bad that even Donald Trump – whose appearance at the event took on the sheen of a victory lap after a years-long culture war with the NFL essentially ended with the league’s surrender, and who drew cheers whenever he was shown on the screens inside Caesars Superdome – left early to beat the traffic. The president, perhaps embarrassed by his pre-game selection of the Chiefs as likeliest victors, exited the building on the stroke of half-time, conveniently missing the pointedly “political” performance that Lamar dished up during the intermission
‘A lovely sweet kid’: tributes paid to John Cooney after Irish boxer’s death
John Cooney, the young Irish boxer who has died after a title fight in Belfast, has been described by the former world champion Barry McGuigan as a “lovely sweet kid” whose life was “snapped away”.As a condolence book was opened at Belfast’s Ulster Hall, his manager Mark Dunlop said the death was “a complete tragedy”.McGuigan told BBC Ulster it was “terrifying that this could happen to a 28-year-old kid who was looking in the prime of his life”.“He was just a lovely, sweet kid. Ambitious, determined and driven
Travis Kelce declines to address retirement rumours after Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss
Travis Kelce did not address rumours that he intends to retire as he contemplated his team’s heavy defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday’s Super Bowl.The Kansas City Chiefs star will turn 36 at the start of next season, an age at which most NFL players have long since retired, and he has already built a lucrative off-field career, which includes a series of endorsements and a wildly popular podcast with his brother, Jason.Kelce did not attend the postgame press conference in the Superdome after the Chiefs’ 40-22 loss to the Eagles but did briefly answer questions in the locker room. “We haven’t played that bad all year,” said Kelce. “[We] just couldn’t find that spark, couldn’t find that momentum
Patrick Mahomes was chasing Super Bowl history. He left humbled and harassed
The Chiefs may well contend for the championship again next season. But Sunday’s loss to the Eagles exposed problems that had been there all yearSome losses sting. Others echo throughout a career. The Philadelphia Eagles pummeled the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, ending any hope of a historic three-peat. It was a humbling
Asil Nadir, Polly Peck tycoon turned fugitive, dies aged 83
Asil Nadir obituary
Feeding frenzy: how army of advisers is making millions from Thames Water
UK Steel warns that Trump tariffs would be ‘devastating blow’
UK halves subsidies for Drax and says it must use 100% sustainable wood
BP shares jump after feared US hedge fund Elliott takes stake