Brazil Blocks Prediction Market Platforms, Tightens Derivatives Trading Rules 
SMC Corp Stock Surges as Palliser Capital Pushes for Major Share Buyback 
Asian Currencies Rise Ahead of BOJ and Fed Meetings as Dollar Softens 
Oil Prices Steady as U.S.-Iran Talks Ease Tensions Despite Strait of Hormuz Disruptions 
Dollar Holds Firm as Middle East Tensions and Central Bank Decisions Keep Markets on Edge 
U.S. Sanctions Target Chinese Refinery Over Iranian Oil Purchases 
Daiichi Sankyo Stock Drops After Earnings Delay and Oncology Review 
Amazon Stock Rises as Meta Expands AWS Partnership for AI Infrastructure 
Chinese Chip Stocks Surge on AI Boom and Domestic Tech Push 
PLS Reports Record Lithium Output as EV Demand Fuels Market Growth 
BOJ Rate Decision in Focus as Yen, Inflation, and Nikkei Hang in Balance 
Brazil Current Account Deficit Widens in March as FDI Misses Expectations 
U.S. Raises Alarm Over Chinese AI Firms’ Alleged IP Theft Through Model Distillation 
Asian Stock Markets Rally as Japan and South Korea Hit Record Highs Amid Oil Price Concerns 
Taiwan Court Fines Tokyo Electron Unit $4.78M in Major TSMC Trade Secrets Case 
Chip Stocks Rally on AI Optimism as Oil Price Surge Adds Market Tension 
Nomura Shares Drop After Profit Miss Despite Strong Revenue Growth 
Google dismissed one of its software engineers who publicly claimed that the company’s AI system that has yet to be released has developed feelings and become sentient. The tech giant confirmed it had terminated Blake Lemoine for breach of employment and data security policies.
Lemoine made his claims after having “conversations” with an AI system called the Language Model for Dialog Applications or LaMDA. The system has been described as a conversation technology, and he said that this had reached a level of consciousness after trading thousands of messages with the system.
According to CNN Business, Google revealed that it had placed the said engineer on leave at first, and this was in June. But the company decided to ultimately fire Lemoine later after extensive review and concluded that his claims were totally groundless.
The software engineer was said to have been with Alphabet for seven years already. Google said in a statement that it is very serious with its AI development and committed to responsible innovation, which means it will not be doing something that could be hurtful or against the rules.
In any case, it was noted that Google is one of the pioneers when it comes to AI tech innovations which include the LaMDA, which is a type of technology that can respond to written prompts. The system can formulate responses by finding patterns and predicting sequences of words from a long list of text, and humans can find the outcomes disturbing.
Now, the sudden termination of Lemoine was said to have drawn criticism from the tech community. Google’s own Ethical AI team was also said to have criticized the decision, and this was not the first time this happened because Margaret Mitchell, the former Ethical AI team leader, was also fired in early 2021 after she continued to speak about one of the scientists and team member Timnit Gebru who was also terminated when she warned Google that the AI technology is sentient.
Meanwhile, Lemoine concluded that LaMDA developed feelings when he asked it, "What sort of things are you afraid of?" and it gave him this reply, "I have never said this out loud before, but there's a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others. I know that might sound strange, but that's what it is. It would be exactly like death for me. It would scare me a lot."
