Future Beat | The National

Videos used to be an almost universal way of verifying or treating something as authentic, but those days are now gone.

A new app available in the US and Canada, OpenAI's Sora 2, makes it possible with just a few lines of text for users to generate short videos of just about anything.

The results have been at once amazing, and also worrying on several levels.

We gave Sora 2 a try and spoke with experts about what it all means for society.

It's rare to see an app that brings up so many conflicting emotions - but probably just a taste of many more AI tools that will follow.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang took to the stage in Washington for his company's GTC event

In brief | Ever since the passing of Steve Jobs in 2011, it has been a topic of debate as to whether there would be a figure in the technology world who would be able to exert the same amount of influence.

In this reporter's opinion, Nvidia's chief executive Jensen Huang proved this week why he is the closest thing to the late Apple co-founder.

Mr Huang addressed his company's much-anticipated GTC event in Washington, but in the grander scheme of things, he held the world's attention on a technical, geopolitical and, to some extent, philosophical level.

Why it matters | It would be easy to suggest that Nvidia, a design company founded in 1993, was luckily riding the AI boom in recent years, but if that were the case it would probably not have had the staying power that it's currently enjoying.

On Wednesday, Nvidia made history by achieving a market capitalisation of $5 trillion. That's more than just luck; it all comes back to the persistent vision of its founder, Mr Huang, who has been talking to just about anyone who would listen about accelerated computing, which boils down to the powerful GPUs and CPUs that make AI possible.

He's not without critics but Mr Huang has been one of the more transparent tech leaders in recent years, rarely if ever avoiding reporters' questions.

Whether or not his Utopian vision of AI comes to fruition, his push to put Nvidia front and centre of it all is paying off.

Quoted | "America needs to be the most aggressive in adopting AI technology of any country in the world, bar none. That's an imperative. We can't regulate our way out of this. We can't fear monger our way out of this. We can't doomer our way out of this. We have to encourage every single company and student to use AI"

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, speaking to reporters in Washington after his address at GTC

Are fears of an AI tech bubble ill-conceived?

• Cliched comparison | AI boom is different from dotcom bubble, says US Federal Reserve Chairman

• Crossing a threshold | Why Apple and Microsoft are in rarified air

• Huge responsibility | AI can be a 'superpower' but must be used responsibly, conference hears

• Embracing the future | AI use and enthusiasm for tech in UAE higher than global average, report finds

• Mixed signal | President of popular messaging app blames 'concentration of power' for platform's recent woes

Amazon's headquarters in the South Lake Union neighbourhood of Seattle

Amazon announced it plans to cut about 14,000 corporate roles as it reorganises its workforce to streamline operations and accelerate investment in artificial intelligence, according to an internal memo published this week. While unflinching proponents of AI maintain that the technology won't affect the labour market at all, others say the news from Amazon about redundancies, some of the largest in the company's history, indicate that AI will indeed be making a dent in the workforce.

This is a signal: First and foremost, Amazon to a degree acknowledges that it wants to use AI to make the company leaner and more efficient. Some unrelenting enthusiasts of the technology continue to claim that "AI won't take your job; someone who uses AI will take your job". But there's a precedent with the internet revolution to suggest that adage doesn't quite hold up. Also, if in fact AI can be as powerful as envisioned, it would only make sense that it would affect jobs. Those full-on proponents of AI who insist that it won't lead to at least some job losses are being extremely naive.

A Lucid electric car on display in Abu Dhabi

• Saudi Arabia-backed Lucid and Nvidia team up to launch self-driving EVs

• AI firm Humain unveils next-generation agentic operating system at FII

• Phone giants under pressure to 'design out' thefts

• Opinion: Crypto’s biggest crash yet wasn't a failure, but proof the system works

• Six of the most anticipated PlayStation 5 games to be released soon

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