|
BBC News with Chris Barrow.
The heads of three leading AI companies have said that artificial intelligence and the industry should slow down amid mounting concerns over safety. The CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, warned the increasing rate of development could lead to rogue AI agents taking over the internet, potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. Elon Musk and the open AI boss Sam Altman both said they agreed with him. A former Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, told the BBC some of his former colleagues were concerned. "When they are planning their lives, planning what to do with their lives, they are thinking about the impacts of their work. They're maybe like considering buying land somewhere because they're so scared of the instability as a result of rapid AI progress. All I can say is the people who work at these companies are completely serious when they ask for regulation because they find themselves trapped in a race and they're scared of the outcomes of that race." The Democratic Republic of Congo says it believes the current Ebola outbreak has peaked. It says there have been more than 7,000 cases so far, with about half the patients dying. Peter Hyatt reports. A government spokesman posted on social media that cases had been falling since mid-August. He said 10 out of 61 health zones had recorded no cases for the past three weeks, though it was important to stay vigilant. The Congolese government first detected this outbreak of Ebola in May but it's thought it may have been circulating for some time previously. Fighting it is made harder by a fragile health care system, armed rebellions and some people's suspicion of health workers and opposition to health protections. But if these figures are reliable they may offer a rare ray of hope. A former close associate of Uganda's army chief has been extradited to the United States where he is to face trial for conspiring to supply weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Michael Katungi Mpeirwe, a former military intelligence officer and diplomat, was arrested in the capital Kampala in June. He and three other suspects are accused of conspiring to supply more than 50 million dollars of military-grade weapons including rocket launchers to the Jalisco New Generation cartel, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Djibouti says 1,400 people have arrived in the country from Yemen in just 24 hours because of fighting between Yemeni government forces and Houthi militias. The economy minister said refugees had crossed the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. Ian Mcwilliam reports. The rebel Houthi movement controls a large part of northern Yemen including the capital Sana'a. In recent days its fighters, allied with Iran, have seized control of Yemen's entire Red Sea coast capturing the historic coffee port of Mokha on Thursday. Djibouti says the fighting is displacing Yemeni civilians and some, including women and children, are now crossing the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait to seek safety. The economy minister, Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, said several vessels had to be rescued after running out of fuel. The Houthi's advance has tightened their grip on the vital waterway which controls shipping access to the Red Sea and Suez Canal and they say they'll now blockade Saudi shipping through it. BBC News. People in Sweden are voting on Sunday in a general election which pits the center-right government against a left-wing bloc. Opinion polls suggest the opposition could win. It's the first general election since Sweden abandoned its policy of military non-alignment and joined NATO. A film set in Denmark in the aftermath of the Second World War called "Woman Unknown" has won the top prize, the Golden Lion, at the Venice Film Festival. The film's star, Mathilde Arcel, also won the award for Best Actress. In it, she plays a woman facing the threat of vigilante justice after having a relationship with a German soldier. The director, May el-Toukhy, accepted the award. "To me personally, 'Woman Unknown' is about the female body as a battleground and a public matter and at the same time the film tells the tale of women who are invisible, unseen and voiceless. Thank you to my brilliant cast for your passionate portrayal of the complex characters that inhabit the story and arena." "NAZA," a documentary by two Israeli directors examining Israel's killing of civilians in Gaza, won the Special Jury Prize. Celine Dion has made a joyful return to the stage after six years with a sellout concert in Paris, the first of 16 performances. The Canadian singer was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition, Stiff Person Syndrome, that affected her singing voice. Meanwhile, another singing legend has been honored in London where the BBC's Last Night of the Proms featured a medley of the greatest hits of the American singer and songwriter Dolly Parton, who died last month. Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina has won the women's singles title in the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. She beat the title holder, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in three sets. It's Ms. Rybakina's third Grand Slam title. She'll replace Irina Sabalenka as the world number one in the new rankings on Monday. And that's the latest BBC News. |