Latest news with #CoT
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Research leaders urge tech industry to monitor AI's ‘thoughts'
AI researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, as well as a broad coalition of companies and nonprofit groups, are calling for deeper investigation into techniques for monitoring the so-called thoughts of AI reasoning models in a position paper published Tuesday. A key feature of AI reasoning models, such as OpenAI's o3 and DeepSeek's R1, are their chains-of-thought or CoTs — an externalized process in which AI models work through problems, similar to how humans use a scratch pad to work through a difficult math question. Reasoning models are a core technology for powering AI agents, and the paper's authors argue that CoT monitoring could be a core method to keep AI agents under control as they become more widespread and capable. 'CoT monitoring presents a valuable addition to safety measures for frontier AI, offering a rare glimpse into how AI agents make decisions,' said the researchers in the position paper. 'Yet, there is no guarantee that the current degree of visibility will persist. We encourage the research community and frontier AI developers to make the best use of CoT monitorability and study how it can be preserved.' The position paper asks leading AI model developers to study what makes CoTs 'monitorable' — in other words, what factors can increase or decrease transparency into how AI models really arrive at answers. The paper's authors say that CoT monitoring may be a key method for understanding AI reasoning models, but note that it could be fragile, cautioning against any interventions that could reduce their transparency or reliability. The paper's authors also call on AI model developers to track CoT monitorability and study how the method could one day be implemented as a safety measure. Notable signatories of the paper include OpenAI chief research officer Mark Chen, Safe Superintelligence CEO Ilya Sutskever, Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton, Google DeepMind cofounder Shane Legg, xAI safety adviser Dan Hendrycks, and Thinking Machines co-founder John Schulman. First authors include leaders from the UK AI Security Institute and Apollo Research, and other signatories come from METR, Amazon, Meta, and UC Berkeley. The paper marks a moment of unity among many of the AI industry's leaders in an attempt to boost research around AI safety. It comes at a time when tech companies are caught in a fierce competition — which has led Meta to poach top researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic with million-dollar offers. Some of the most highly sought-after researchers are those building AI agents and AI reasoning models. 'We're at this critical time where we have this new chain-of-thought thing. It seems pretty useful, but it could go away in a few years if people don't really concentrate on it,' said Bowen Baker, an OpenAI researcher who worked on the paper, in an interview with TechCrunch. 'Publishing a position paper like this, to me, is a mechanism to get more research and attention on this topic before that happens.' OpenAI publicly released a preview of the first AI reasoning model, o1, in September 2024. In the months since, the tech industry was quick to release competitors that exhibit similar capabilities, with some models from Google DeepMind, xAI, and Anthropic showing even more advanced performance on benchmarks. However, there's relatively little understood about how AI reasoning models work. While AI labs have excelled at improving the performance of AI in the last year, that hasn't necessarily translated into a better understanding of how they arrive at their answers. Anthropic has been one of the industry's leaders in figuring out how AI models really work — a field called interpretability. Earlier this year, CEO Dario Amodei announced a commitment to crack open the black box of AI models by 2027 and invest more in interpretability. He called on OpenAI and Google DeepMind to research the topic more, as well. Early research from Anthropic has indicated that CoTs may not be a fully reliable indication of how these models arrive at answers. At the same time, OpenAI researchers have said that CoT monitoring could one day be a reliable way to track alignment and safety in AI models. The goal of position papers like this is to signal boost and attract more attention to nascent areas of research, such as CoT monitoring. Companies like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic are already researching these topics, but it's possible that this paper will encourage more funding and research into the space. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Citizen
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Citizen
Water issues continue to anger communities of Bronkhorstspruit and Ekangala
Although the City of Tshwane (CoT) has started repairs on the raw water plant and the water treatment plant in Bronkhorstspruit, frustration over ongoing water outages is increasing. Things reached a boiling point in Ekangala this week. Concerned residents from wards 103 and 104 informed their councillors of their intent to protest on May 21 until their issues about the poor water supply are heard. A letter sent to the two ward councillors notified them that the wards' communities had had enough of the ongoing water shortages and that residents were left with no alternative but to protest. The residents indicated that an organised protest would begin early on Wednesday and continue daily until the city's mayoral committee gave the community a 'clear and actionable plan for its immediate and long-term resolution'. In their letter, the residents said public transport and local businesses might be affected by protest activities. 'We reiterate that this protest will be peaceful, but firm in its objective to draw attention to our desperate situation. The well-being of wards 103 and 104 hinges on a swift and effective resolution to this water crisis.' A local bedridden individual on life support, Nomvuyo Mashele, also expressed frustration and concern about the prolonged water supply issues. 'We had intermittent water supply for two weeks, and the recent outage left us without running water for days.' As a bedridden person on life support, struggling with multiple chronic illnesses, this situation is not just inconvenient; it is a serious health risk. 'The lack of water makes it impossible for me to maintain basic hygiene, which is crucial for my well-being. I urge you to take immediate action to restore a consistent water supply to our area. This isn't just a matter of comfort; it is a matter of urgent necessity,' said Mashele. ALSO CHECK: Plant refurbishment will alleviate water shortages in Standerton Things would worsen very soon, is the consensus among residents. 'We are being deprived of a basic right to access to water,' declared an angry resident from Rethabiseng. Two faulty pumps at the water treatment plant are said to have caused the latest water outage. A delegation from the CoT, including the MMC for Region 7, the regional head and the ward councillors, visited the plant on Tuesday and offered an explanation and apology via video to the wards 103 and 104 residents. Jabu Mabona, the regional head, asked the residents to use the supplied water tankers until the water was restored. The delegation believed this would happen before Friday. ALSO CHECK: Sewage threatens health of cancer-stricken twins from eMzinoni At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
The Citizen
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Here is how Tshwane will be spending its R54.6 billion budget
The City Of Tshwane will spend more than R125 million on government work programmes while aiming to raise an extra R17 billion through investment. The nation's capital will dedicate more than a billion rand to infrastructure maintenance for the coming financial year. The City of Tshwane (CoT) tabled a draft budget of R54.6 billion for the 2025/26 financial year in council on Thursday. Deputy Mayor and MMC for Finance Eugene Modise said it was a proud moment for the city, but the opposition benches stated the budget places the city's financial burden on the residents. Increased revenue generation The budget will be split into an operational budget of R52.2 billion and a capital expenditure budget of R2.4 billion. Additionally, grant allocations include R5.5 billion in operational grants, R2 billion in infrastructure grants and R152 million through a new urban development financing grant. Tariffs are set to increase despite Modise noting that the city has seen a 2% increase in revenue generation, amounting to R777.5 million. The higher tariffs for Tshwane residents include a 10.2% increase in electricity, a 13% increase in water costs, and a 4.6% increase in refuse removal. However, Modise has placed a 4% reduction in property rates on the table. Modise said the city had decreased its expenditure on employees by 3%—R346.5 million—and reduced its own penalty fees by R71 million—a 32% reduction compared to last year. 'It translates our vision into action, outlining how we intend to meet the urgent needs of our residents while building a stronger, more sustainable city,' stated the Deputy Mayor. Money for jobs Jobs were an expected theme of the budget, with Modise stating that R740 million would be allocated to the economic and spatial planning department for unemployment interventions. This would be to support SMMEs, youth-owned enterprises, cooperatives and their VIP business line — a service for the city's top 200 businesses. The city aims to attract R17 billion in new investment, with the hope of creating 80 000 new jobs by 2029. Further investment in government employment programmes will see R49.2 million and R76 million go toward 11 034 extended public work programme opportunities and the public employment programme, respectively. A proposed R21 billion allocation will go towards energy and electricity infrastructure, with that being a small part of the city's infrastructure drive. 'This budget seeks to develop a culture of maintenance of its assets, and in doing so, we have allocated R1.4 billion for repairs and maintenance. This is to ensure that we break the cycle of letting our infrastructure decay,' The achievement of growth targets will be aided by maximising the potential of facilities such as Wonderboom airport, events centres, economic hubs and tourist attractions. 'Revenue generated from these assets will augment our service delivery efforts and assist us in achieving our economic growth target of 3.9% by 2029,' stated Modise. New levy for waste Democratic Alliance shadow MMC for Finance Jacqui Uys said Modise's budget shifted responsibility for the city's financial stability onto the residents. 'This budget is not serving the residents of Tshwane, but becomes part of the ANC's quest to look good on paper but fail in its real mandate – delivering services,' Uys told The Citizen. The city wishes to introduce a new R194 cleaning levy for households without a waste account, which will generate an extra R400 million from waste collection. 'The same draft budget proposes a decrease in spending on waste collection and illegal dumping from R2.1 billion in the current year to R2 billion in the next budget cycle,' said the shadow MMC. 'This clearly indicates that the intention of this new levy is not to ensure a cleaner city, but rather the introduction of yet another tax to use the residents of Tshwane as a stopgap to improve the city's financial position,' concluded Uys. The debate of the speech and the vote to approve the Integrated Development Plan is scheduled for 29 May. NOW READ: Drive to repair Tshwane's 'five' potholes
