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Friday, June 6, 2025

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https://nordictimes.com/tech/xai-releases-grok-2-with-image-generation-on-x/

Tech

xAI releases Grok-2 with image generation on X

The future of AI

Published 15 August 2024
– By Editorial Staff
The image is generated with Grok-2 and the following prompt: “A captivating scene featuring a rain of electric blue fire and a vortex of soft pink water, with the silhouette of a panda in the middle, shot on Olympus OM-D E-M1X, displaying a photorealistic, volumetric, and dynamic appearance”
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Elon Musk’s AI company xAI has launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini, two new models of its Grok chatbot, offering upgraded performance and new image generation capabilities. Grok’s text-based image creator is powered by Black Forest Labs’ Flux 1 AI model and allows users to create and publish images directly on the X platform, with few restrictions to prevent abuse.

xAI writes that both models are available in beta on X (where access to Grok is currently limited to Premium and Premium Plus users) and that the models will be available through the company’s API later this month.

What’s new with Grok-2?

Grok-2 integrates Black Forest Labs’ Flux.1 model, allowing users to generate high-quality, realistic images with simple text input. This has already led to users testing the limits of the system, including creating controversial images of public figures.

The updated model has been shown to outperform several competing models on leading third-party benchmarks, including in math, coding, and general knowledge.

 

For now, access is limited to Premium and Premium Plus users on X, but there are plans to make Grok-2 available via the xAI API.

What are users saying?

Users on X have already begun experimenting with Grok-2’s image generation capabilities, with reports that the results are impressively realistic and detailed. However, there are concerns about a lack of restrictions, especially in view of upcoming elections, which could lead to increased spread of disinformation.


Grok-2’s launch marks a new era for AI on social media, with powerful image generation tools that can both inspire creativity and raise concerns about misuse. xAI has sparked a discussion about whether the world is ready for such freedom in AI-generated media.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/strangnas-poised-to-become-northern-europes-ai-capital/

Sweden

Strängnäs poised to become Northern Europe’s AI capital

The future of AI

Published today 13:29
– By Editorial Staff
The cathedral in Strängnäs will soon have competition from a giant AI center.
3 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Strängnäs, a municipality in Sweden, is preparing for one of the largest investments in its history. Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) plans to build one of Europe’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the city.

The data center, which will be built on an area of approximately 350,000 square meters, will have a capacity of 750 megawatts – more than twice as large as previously planned. The project is expected to create over 1,000 permanent jobs and approximately 2,000 jobs during the construction phase.

The investment amounts to approximately SEK 95 billion (€8.7 billion) and is expected to take 10–15 years.

– Strängnäs has all the conditions to become the location of Northern Europe’s first AI center. We can offer an excellent geographical location, we have a high level of education and good cooperation with the municipalities in the Mälardalen region, says Jacob Högfeldt (M), chairman of the municipal council in Strängnäs, to Datacenter-Forum.

Brookfield‘s European CEO, Sikander Rashid, highlights the importance of investing in AI infrastructure on a large scale.

– To be competitive in AI development and realize its economic productivity, it is important to invest at scale in the infrastructure that underpins this technology. This extends beyond data centers and into data transmission, chip storage and energy production.

Strängnäs part of a broader strategy

The investment in Strängnäs is part of Brookfield’s broader strategy to invest around €20 billion in AI infrastructure in Europe, which also includes plans for large data centers in France and other countries.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has expressed his support for the investment on social media, emphasizing Sweden’s long tradition of strong companies.

Translation of above tweet: “Sweden has a long tradition of innovation and strong companies. AI is an incredible force that will enable Sweden to remain at the forefront. That is why the government is now developing a comprehensive AI strategy – and why we appointed the AI Commission. We are now seeing results.

I welcome the announcement today by the Canadian company Brookfield that it plans to invest up to SEK 95 billion in a new AI center in Strängnäs. It will be one of the largest data centers of its kind in Europe. It is also one of the largest investments in AI infrastructure to date in our country. I am particularly pleased that it is in my hometown.

We have a fantastic tech scene, and the latest investments from companies such as Brookfield, Nvidia, and Microsoft are clear proof of that.”

Sweden has competitive advantages that make the country attractive for large data center investments, including a relatively stable energy supply, high digital maturity, and proximity to academic hubs such as KTH and Uppsala University.

In addition, EU data protection regulations require sensitive data to be stored within the Union’s borders, which increases demand for local data centers.

The investment in the AI center could make Strängnäs a central node in Europe’s AI ecosystem and help strengthen Sweden’s role in the global AI race.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/ai-surveillance-in-swedish-workplaces-sparks-outrage/

Tech

AI surveillance in Swedish workplaces sparks outrage

Mass surveillance

Published 4 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
In practice, it is possible to analyze not only employees' productivity - but also their facial expressions, voices and emotions.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The rapid development of artificial intelligence has not only brought advantages – it has also created new opportunities for mass surveillance, both in society at large and in the workplace.

Even today, unscrupulous employers use AI to monitor and map every second of their employees’ working day in real time – a development that former Social Democratic politician Kari Parman warns against and calls for decisive action to combat.

In an opinion piece in the Stampen-owned newspaper GP, he argues that AI-based surveillance of employees poses a threat to staff privacy and calls on the trade union movement to take action against this development.

Parman paints a bleak picture of how AI is used to monitor employees in Swedish workplaces, where technology analyzes everything from voices and facial expressions to productivity and movement patterns – often without the employees’ knowledge or consent.

“It’s a totalitarian control system – in capitalist packaging”, he writes, continuing:

“There is something deeply disturbing about the idea that algorithms will analyze our voices, our facial expressions, our productivity – second by second – while we work”.

“It’s about power and control”

According to Parman, there is a significant risk that people in digital capitalism will be reduced to mere data points, giving employers disproportionate power over their employees.

He sees AI surveillance as more than just a technical issue and warns that this development undermines the Swedish model, which is based on balance and respect between employers and employees.

“It’s about power. About control. About squeezing every last ounce of ‘efficiency’ out of people as if we were batteries”.

If trade unions fail to act, Parman believes, they risk becoming irrelevant in a working life where algorithms are taking over more and more of the decision-making.

To stop this trend, he lists several concrete demands. He wants to see a ban on AI-based individual surveillance in the workplace and urges unions to introduce conditions in collective agreements to review and approve new technology.

Kari Parman previously represented the Social Democrats in Gnosjö. Photo: Kari Parman/FB

“Reduced to an algorithm’s margin of error”

He also calls for training for safety representatives and members, as well as political regulations from the state.

“No algorithm should have the right to analyze our performance, movements, or feelings”, he declares.

Parman emphasizes that AI surveillance not only threatens privacy but also creates a “psychological iron cage” where employees constantly feel watched, blurring the line between work and private life.

At the end of the article, the Social Democrat calls on the trade union movement to take responsibility and lead the resistance against the misuse of AI in the workplace.

He sees it as a crucial issue for the future of working life and human dignity at work.

“If we don’t stand up now, we will be alone when it is our turn to be reduced to an algorithm’s margin of error”, he concludes.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/researchers-soon-impossible-to-detect-ai-deepfakes/

Tech

Researchers: Soon impossible to detect AI deepfakes

The future of AI

Published 2 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Already today, it can be difficult to distinguish manipulated images and videos from the real thing - and soon it may become virtually impossible.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The most advanced AI-generated deepfake movies can now fake people’s heartbeats so convincingly that even specially developed detectors are fooled, according to a new study from Humboldt-Universität in Berlin.

The researchers’ findings raise concerns that technological developments may soon make manipulated material indistinguishable from authentic images and movies.

In the past, detectors have used a special method (remote photoplethysmography, or rPPG) that analyzes tiny color changes in the skin to detect a pulse – as a relatively reliable indicator of whether a film clip is genuine or not.

But in the new study, the researchers created 32 deepfake movies that not only looked real to human eyes, but also imitated pulse beats. When these videos were tested against an rPPG-based detector, they were incorrectly classified as genuine.

“Here we show for the first time that recent high-quality deepfake videos can feature a realistic heartbeat and minute changes in the color of the face, which makes them much harder to detect”, said Professor Peter Eisert, the study’s lead author, in a statement.

Increases risk of fraud

According to the study, pulse signals from original videos can be “inherited” by deepfakes in that AI models replicate slight variations in skin tone and blood flow and heat maps in the study showed near-identical light changes in both genuine and manipulated videos.

“Small variations in skin tone of the real person get transferred to the deepfake together with facial motion, so that the original pulse is replicated in the fake video”, Eisert further explains,

These advances increase the risks of deepfake’s use in financial fraud, disinformation and non-consensual pornography, among others. In 2023, an independent researcher estimated that over 244,000 manipulated videos were uploaded to the 35 largest deepfake pornography sites in a single week.

Technical arms race

Despite the study’s worrying results, there is some hope of reversing the trend. The researchers note that today’s deepfakes still fail to replicate natural variations in blood flow over time. In addition, tech giants such as Adobe and Google are developing watermarks to mark AI-generated material.

Meanwhile, the US Congress recently passed the Take It Down Act, which criminalizes the dissemination of non-consensual sexual images – including AI-generated ones. But experts warn that the technological arms race between creators and detectors requires constant adaptation.

“This continuous evolution of deepfake technologies poses challenges for content authentication and necessitates the development of robust detection mechanisms”, the study points out, noting that as AI development accelerates, the fight against digital fraud is also becoming more urgent.

Others have raised a very different concern – that the widespread proliferation of AI-engineered material could be used as a pretext for tougher censorship and laws that restrict people’s freedom online in various ways.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/google-develops-ai-to-communicate-with-dolphins/

Tech

Google develops AI to communicate with dolphins

The future of AI

Published 26 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Google has developed a new AI model to communicate with dolphins. The AI model, named DolphinGemma, is designed to interpret and recreate dolphins’ complex sound signals.

Dolphins are known as some of the world’s most communicative animals, and their social interactions are so advanced that researchers at the Wild Dolphin Project (WDP) have spent over 40 years studying them.

In particular, a dolphin population in the Bahamas has been documented for decades through audio recordings and video footage, where researchers have been able to link specific sounds to behaviors such as mating rituals, conflicts, and even individual names.

The ability to communicate with dolphins has long fascinated researchers, but until now the technology to analyze and mimic their sounds has been lacking. However, breakthroughs in AI language models have raised new hopes, and a collaboration between Google, Georgia Institute of Technology and WDP has produced DolphinGemma.

The goal: Common vocabulary between humans and animals

The model is based on the same technology as Google’s Gemini system and works basically like a language model – similar to ChatGPT – but trained for dolphin sounds. It receives whistles, clicks and pulses, analyzes them and predicts what is likely to come next. In practice, it connects to a CHAT system installed on modified Google Pixel phones.

The aim of the project is not to translate the dolphins’ language in its entirety, but rather to establish a basic common vocabulary between humans and animals. In the coming months, the model will be tested in the field, where researchers will try to teach the dolphins synthetic whistles linked to their favorite objects, such as seagrass and seaweed. Specifically, the ambition is for the dolphins themselves to be able to “ask for” what they want to play with, reports Popular Science.

 

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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