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Good morning. Yesterday, Nvidia surpassed Apple and Microsoft to become the largest company (by market cap) in the world. It closed Tuesday with a market cap of nearly $3.4 trillion (at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of about 40 times).

In today’s newsletter: 

AI for Good: Machine learning and robotics in the operating room

Nearly 25 years ago, American surgeons gained a new type of colleague, a robotic surgical assistant called da Vinci. While not a true robot — the da Vinci system is technically a master-slave telemanipulator — the system allows surgeons to operate more precisely while seated, making long operations easier to get through. 

How it works: The da Vinci consists of three parts: A surgical station with four robotic arms, a console (with two arms) that is controlled directly by the surgeon and a monitor.

In March, the fifth generation of the robotic system launched; it comes complete with far more computing power and a bunch of new features. 

This latest generation is also able to deliver “objective performance insights” that surgeons can use to evaluate cases. 

Teams at Intuitive — the company behind da Vinci — are leveraging AI and machine learning technology to derive insights from two decades of usage data. 

Why it matters: These insights can help surgeons “learn not only from cases of lower complexity, but also from more complex cases that address anomalies and complications. This is all to help reduce the impact of surgical variability and deliver better, more consistent outcomes.”

AI can help the shipping industry slash its carbon footprint

A new report from autonomous shipping company Orca AI — first reported by Reuters — found that the global shipping industry could reduce its carbon emissions by 47 million tonnes per year by leveraging AI. 

Key points: The study found that the application of AI within sea navigation would enable fewer route deviations and maneuvers. 

Why it matters: In 2022, international shipping accounted for around 2% of global energy-related carbon emissions, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). 

Together with Brave

When it comes to developing an AI model, the phrase ‘garbage in, garbage out’ certainly applies. The Brave Search API exists to sift through that garbage, so you get the best training data out there.

The Brave Search API — an index of 20 billion web pages — can be used to assemble an ethical, human-representative dataset to train your AI models. And it’s affordable.

What makes it special?

Try the Brave Search API for free for up to 2,000 queries per month.

AI avatars are coming to TikTok

TikTok on Tuesday announced “TikTok Symphony,” an AI-powered “creative” suite. A part of this suite gives creators and advertisers the option to create AI-generated videos complete with custom and stock “AI avatars.” 

Details: TikTok says this is “designed to enhance and amplify human imagination, not replace it,” by handling the “heavy lifting” of making a TikTok. 

But, the FTC said … The announcement comes just days after the FTC published a list of do’s and don’ts when it comes to AI. And I quote: 

“A company offering an anthropomorphic service also shouldn’t manipulate people via the attachments formed with that service, such as by inducing people to pay for more services or steering them to affiliated businesses.”

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment. 

💰AI Jobs Board:

 📊 Funding & New Arrivals:

🌎 The Broad View:

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Department of Homeland Security: ‘The world needs to be aware of the inherent risk of deepfakes’

Deepfake technology has been around for years. And some applications of it — de-aging actors in movies, for example — have been pretty innocuous (unless, of course, you were offended by the latest Indiana Jones movie). 

But the thing that’s happened in the past 18 months is that publicly accessible AI models have lowered the bar required to make and distribute deepfakes; now, you don’t need any technical skill, and it doesn’t take longer than a few seconds. What commercial, consumer-facing AI has done is supercharge the deepfake process, enabling all sorts of actors to produce highly realistic synthetic content. 

And you don’t have to look too long or hard to see the impact this has already had. 

At the core of deepfake abuse are three things:

The first one gained a lot of attention in January when explicit, fake (and nonconsensual) images of Taylor Swift went viral online. But it’s an issue that has been impacting young women and girls for months; cases of high school (and even middle school) boys spreading deepfaked nudes of their female classmates continue to stack up. 

Issues of fraud have also been accelerated by AI. This is perhaps best represented by the rise in deepfake ransom phone calls, where bad actors demand a ransom payment to free a ‘kidnapped’ family member, whose voice has been cloned with AI technology (or where bad actors pose as family members to steal money).

In a recent report, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that “deepfakes and the misuse of synthetic content pose a clear, present and evolving threat to the public.”

Key points: Since 2018, between 90% and 95% of all deepfake videos “were primarily based on nonconsensual pornography,” according to the report. 

Mitigation measures: The Department said that the key to mitigation involves an interdisciplinary approach. 

The report added that while some states have passed legislation meant to address deepfakes, federal legislation is a better avenue since each piece of state legislation varies in strength and specifics. 

“It is time for there to be a coordinated, collaborative approach,” the report reads. 

Zoom out: Google and Runway, meanwhile, each just announced massive upgrades to their video generation technology. 

My View: As one cybersecurity researcher once put it to me: If a system can be abused, it will be. It is — unfortunately — human nature. Broadly speaking, the systems that have been released into the wild were not created with that abuse in mind, making them easy to take advantage of.

Have cool resources or tools to share? Submit a tool or reach us by replying to this email (or DM us on Twitter).

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One last thing👇

That's a wrap for now! We hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter :)

We appreciate your continued support! We'll catch you in the next edition 👋

-Ian Krietzberg, Editor-in-Chief, The Deep View