This is Beirut

Lebanese Ministries Push to Integrate AI in Public Administration

This is Beirut, 28/08 11:55 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Lebanon AI Public Administration Ministry of Technology and Artificial Intelligence Ministry of Public Works and Transport

Lebanon is stepping up efforts to modernize public administration and infrastructure through artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology. A high-level workshop held at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport brought together Minister of State for Technology and Artificial Intelligence Kamal Shehadeh, Minister of Public Works Fayez ...

AI Helps UK Woman Rediscover Lost Voice After 25 Years

This is Beirut, 22/08 15:15 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

New York United Kingdom Smartbox AI

A British woman suffering from motor neurone disease who lost her ability to speak is once again talking in her own voice thanks to artificial intelligence and a barely audible eight-second clip from an old home video. Sarah Ezekiel, an artist, was left without the use of her voice after she was diagnosed at the age of 34 with MND while pregnant ...

Meta Makes Huge Cloud Computing Deal with Google

This is Beirut, 22/08 09:35 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Meta Facebook Instagram AI

Meta has made a cloud computing deal with Google worth more than $10 billion over the course of six years, a source close to the transaction told AFP Thursday. The source confirmed a report at tech news outlet The Information about the arrangement, which will include Meta using Google datacenter servers, storage, networking and other ...

Google Unveils Latest Pixel Phones Packed with AI

This is Beirut, 21/08 09:35 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Google AI Pixel

Google on Wednesday unveiled new Pixel 10 smartphones that promise more artificial intelligence capabilities, as it seeks to elbow out competition in the emerging AI-assistant market. Comedian Jimmy Fallon hosted a launch event in Brooklyn that blended Google product pitches with stars such as The Jonas Brothers band and Stephen Curry of the ...

YouTube Turns to AI to Guess Users' Age and Protect Minors

This is Beirut, 15/08 10:50 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Internet Technology Children AI USA Culture

YouTube has started testing an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to identify the age of its users in the United States, in an effort to better protect minors from content and online habits considered inappropriate for them. "This technology will allow us to infer a user’s age and use that signal independently of the date of birth listed on the ...

OpenAI Releases ChatGPT-5 as AI Race Accelerates

This is Beirut, 07/08 20:15 - Reading : less than a minute

ChatGPT AI

OpenAI on Thursday released a keenly awaited fifth generation of its hallmark ChatGPT, touting it as smarter and faster than predecessors, as artificial intelligence edges closer to outthinking people. ChatGPT-5 is rolling out free to all users of the AI tool, which is used by nearly 700 million people weekly, OpenAI said in a briefing with ...

AI Search Pushing an Already Weakened Media Ecosystem to the Brink

This is Beirut, 04/08 09:40 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

CHATGPT AI GEO Search

Generative artificial intelligence assistants like ChatGPT are cutting into traditional online search traffic, depriving news sites of visitors and impacting the advertising revenue they desperately need, in a crushing blow to an industry already fighting for survival. "The next three or four years will be incredibly challenging for publishers ...

AI Bands Signal New Era for Music Business

This is Beirut, 29/07 11:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

AI Music Culture Art Spotify

A rising tide of artificial intelligence (AI) bands is ushering in a new era where work will be scarcer for musicians. Whether it's Velvet Sundown's 1970s-style rock or country music projects Aventhis and The Devil Inside, bands whose members are pure AI creations are seeing more than a million plays on streaming giant Spotify. No major streaming ...

Palantir, the AI Giant That Preaches US Dominance

This is Beirut, 29/07 09:10 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

USA Donald Trump New York Palantir AI

Palantir, an American data analysis and artificial intelligence company, has emerged as Silicon Valley's latest tech darling -- one that makes no secret of its macho, America-first ethos now ascendant in Trump-era tech culture. The company's reach spans the global economy, with banks, hospitals, the US government, and the Israeli military among ...

Trump Admin Unveils AI Strategy to Maintain US Dominance

This is Beirut, 23/07 19:05 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Donald Trump USA White House AI

The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled an aggressive, low-regulation strategy boosting big tech's race to stay ahead of China on artificial intelligence and cement the United States' dominance in the fast-expanding field. The 25-page "America's AI Action Plan" outlines three aims: accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and ...

UN Chief Urges AI Companies to Focus on Renewable Energy

This is Beirut, 22/07 18:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

United Nations Antonio Guterres AI

The head of the United Nations called Tuesday on the surging artificial intelligence sector to prioritize sustainable energy for running power-hungry data centers. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a typical AI data center—sites where data is processed—uses the same amount of electricity as 100,000 regular homes. With AI development ...

What If AI Could Let You Watch Your Dreams Like a Movie?

Bélinda Ibrahim, 17/07 13:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

AI Dreams Film Japan Neuroscientists

Sleep, dream… and soon, wake up and watch your dreams like a movie? While it may still sound like science fiction, this technology is taking shape in research labs. At Kyoto’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, neuroscientist Yukiyasu Kamitani and his team have created an AI system that decodes brain activity during REM sleep—the ...