Stock Pick

Author: openjargon

  • 3 ASX income shares to buy this month

    Woman holding $50 and $20 notes.

    Income investors have a lot of options on the Australian share market. So much so, it can be hard to decide which ASX income shares to buy above others.

    But don’t worry, to narrow things down for you, listed below you will find three options with good dividend yields that are rated highly by analysts. Here’s what they are saying about these shares:

    GDI Property Group Ltd (ASX: GDI)

    Bell Potter is tipping this property company as an ASX income share to buy.

    Its analysts highlight “GDI calling out that following recent leasing success it sees much higher Property FFO on a LFL basis in FY25.”

    The broker believes this leaves GDI Property well-positioned to pay some big dividends in the coming years. It is forecasting dividends per share of 5 cents across FY 2024, FY 2025, and FY 2026. Based on the current GDI Property share price of 56 cents, this implies dividend yields of 8.9% for the next three financial years.

    It has a buy rating and 75 cents price target on its shares.

    SRG Global Ltd (ASX: SRG)

    Bell Potter also thinks that SRG Global could be an ASX income share to buy right now.

    It is a diversified industrial services group that provides multidisciplinary construction, maintenance, production drilling and geotechnical services.

    The broker believes “SRG’s short-to-medium term outlook is reinforced by Government-stimulated construction activity in the Infrastructure and Non-Residential sectors and increased development and sustaining capital expenditures in the Resources industry.”

    It expects this to underpin fully franked dividends of 4.7 cents in FY 2024 and then 6.7 cents in FY 2025. Based on its current share price of 84 cents, this will mean dividend yields of 5.6% and 8%, respectively.

    Bell Potter has a buy rating and $1.30 price target on its shares.

    Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX: SUL)

    Over at Goldman Sachs, its analysts think that Super Retail could be an ASX income share to buy right now. It is retail company behind popular store brands BCF, Macpac, Rebel, and Super Cheap Auto.

    Its analysts “believe SUL will display resilience in a softer economic environment that is built upon its competitive advantage of high loyalty (~11.0m active members accounting for >75% of sales) and this will be further bolstered as the company launches the Rebel loyalty program and continues to build personalisation capabilities.”

    Goldman is expecting the retailer to offer attractive dividend yields in the near term. It is forecasting fully franked dividends per share of 67 cents in FY 2024 and then 73 cents in FY 2025. Based on the latest Super Retail share price of $13.95, this will mean good yields of 4.8% and 5.2%, respectively.

    The broker currently has a buy rating and $17.80 price target on its shares.

    The post 3 ASX income shares to buy this month appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    Should you invest $1,000 in Gdi Property Group right now?

    Before you buy Gdi Property Group shares, consider this:

    Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Gdi Property Group wasn’t one of them.

    The online investing service he’s run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…

    See The 5 Stocks
    *Returns as of 24 June 2024

    More reading

    Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Goldman Sachs Group and Super Retail Group. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Super Retail Group. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Srg Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

  • Redbox’s parent company stopped paying employees for over a week before finally filing for bankruptcy

    REDBOX DISC
    Redbox's parent company has filed for bankruptcy.

    AP

    • Redbox's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
    • The company's net loss was $636.6 million in 2023.
    • Employees haven't been paid since June 21.

    Redbox's parent company hasn't paid its employees in over a week amid financial woes that ultimately resulted in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, and Redbox Entertainment filed the following day, according to online records. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment completed a $370 million deal to acquire Redbox Entertainment in 2022.

    The media company's $970 million debt has trickled down to its employees, who haven't received payment since June 21 and worked without health insurance since May, according to The Verge.

    Several employees spoke to Deadline, including one senior executive who said management hadn't provided a clear schedule for when payroll would start again.

    "We haven't heard anything over the past couple of days," the employee said in the article published June 26. "Initially, they said checks would go out Tuesday at the latest. And now here we are."

    The bankruptcy filing might help.

    A Redbox video rental kiosk from 2009.
    A Redbox video rental kiosk from 2009.

    Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    Employees received a message early Saturday morning announcing that court approval for the bankruptcy protection could jump-start payments. Staff medical benefits could also be reinstated, according to Deadline.

    "In connection with the filing, we have applied for approval of a debtor in possession [DIP] loan," the message said. "Upon court approval, we expect payroll to be funded early in the week and funding for this upcoming week's payroll to also be secured. We also expect to have the funds to reinstate medical benefits back to May 14, 2024 and going forward. We will provide regular updates."

    Representatives for Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul's financial issues took a turn for the worse in 2023. In addition to the debt assumed from acquiring Redbox, the company also struggled amid the Hollywood writers' and actors' strike that year, which caused a decrease in physical disc rentals.

    The company missed payments owed to vendors and filmmakers, prompting some to file lawsuits.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul recently settled with NBC Universal but missed the first payment, according to the Verge. A court order will require the company to pay the entire $16.7 million balance.

    Read the original article on Business Insider

  • The copyright lawsuits against OpenAI are piling up as the tech company seeks data to train its AI

    A cellphone showing the OpenAI logo and a block of nondescript text.
    OpenAI is facing several lawsuits over copyrighted material used to train ChatGPT.

    CFOTO/Getty Images

    • Publishers want compensation from OpenAI for using their works to train AI models.
    • The Center for Investigative Reporting filed a lawsuit against the company this week.
    • The New York Times and other outlets also have similar lawsuits against OpenAI.

    OpenAI uses any and all publicly available data to train ChatGPT, including books and articles from the internet. Now, those who own them want to be paid for their work.

    Training data is an essential part of creating the AI models that are taking over the tech world. Leading tech companies like Google, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft are all scrambling to find new sources of data. Meta at one point even considered buying Simon & Schuster, one of the world's biggest publishing houses.

    Part of the problem is that publishers are increasingly accusing these companies of hoovering up copyrighted data. They'd like to be paid for their work. Meta and OpenAI have argued in comments to the US Copyright Office that putting copyrighted material on the internet makes it "publicly available" and thus under fair use.

    But they'll still have to make that argument in court as the company faces lawsuits from several groups over the copyrighted material.

    The Center for Investigative Reporting, a news nonprofit known sometimes by its acronym CIR and which merged with Mother Jones and Reveal earlier this year, sued OpenAI and Microsoft last week in federal court. The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of being "built on the exploitation of copyrighted works belonging to creators around the world, including CIR."

    Lawyers for the CIR accused OpenAI and Microsoft of using copyrighted material from Mother Jones to train their GPT and Copilot AI models.

    "OpenAI and Microsoft started vacuuming up our stories to make their product more powerful, but they never asked for permission or offered compensation, unlike other organizations that license our material," Monika Bauerlein, CEO of the Center for Investigative Reporting, said in an announcement about the lawsuit. "This free rider behavior is not only unfair, it is a violation of copyright."

    The lawsuit says that "16,793 distinct URLs from Mother Jones's web domain" appeared in a published list of the top web domains present in the company's WebText training set.

    In another class action lawsuit from the Author's Guild, two authors claimed that the company used information from their books to train ChatGPT. The New York Times also filed a similar lawsuit against the company in December 2023.

    In May, court documents in the Author's Guild lawsuit revealed that OpenAI deleted two huge datasets used to train GPT-3. Lawyers for the guild said the two sets likely contained "more than 100,000 published books."

    The two employees responsible for putting together the data no longer work for OpenAI, court documents say.

    OpenAI has begun signing licensing agreements with news organizations to fairly use their work. The company has signed such agreements with The Associated Press, publishers of The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, The Atlantic, Prisa Media, Le Monde newspaper, Financial Times, and Business Insider parent Axel Springer.

    But the scale of content required for these bots to continuously learn will require far more than a handful of licensing agreements.

    One solution is synthetic data, which is artificially generated rather than collected from the real world, and can easily be generated by machine learning algorithms.

    OpenAI has considered synthetic data as an option to train its models, but CEO Sam Altman has raised concerns about producing quality data.

    "As long as you can get over the synthetic data event horizon, where the model is smart enough to make good synthetic data, everything will be fine," Altman said at a tech conference in May 2023. The company has also explored a process in which AI models work together — one AI system produces data, while another judges it.

    OpenAI did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider.

    Read the original article on Business Insider

  • Buy this ASX 200 stock for 20% upside and a 6% dividend yield

    A female broker in a red jacket whispers in the ear of a man who has a surprised look on his face as she explains which two ASX 200 shares should do well in today's volatile climate

    Investors that are on the lookout for big gains and a generous dividend yield may want to check out the ASX 200 stock in this article.

    That’s because analysts at Bell Potter think this dividend-payer could be undervalued by the market.

    Which ASX 200 stock?

    The stock in question is Inghams Group Ltd (ASX: ING). It is the largest integrated poultry producer across Australia and New Zealand.

    According to the note, the broker has been looking at industry data and feels it is supportive of its forecasts and its bullish view.

    In respect to feed cost indicators, the broker said:

    Since our Mar’24 update feed pricing indicators have been volatile, with a 7-9% firming. In light of ING’s forward purchasing arrangements, we see FY25e feed cost indicators (CY24TD pricing flows into FY25e assumptions) down an implied -12% relative FY24e levels. Note that the spot feed index is broadly consistent with the CY24TD average. With ABARE and CSIRO Wheatcast models favouring an above average yield outcome for the 2024-25 harvest, we would see the reversion to negative basis as a potential tailwind for ING in 2H25-1H26e.

    Together with other factors, Bell Potter has trimmed its profit forecast for this year but boosted its medium term estimates. It explains:

    We have reviewed our forecasts and updated them for channel mix, feed cost indicators, FX, interest rate movements and inflation data in ING core markets. The net impact is NPATL changes of -3% in FY24e, unchanged in FY25e and +4% in FY26e.

    Big returns

    In light of the above, Bell Potter has retained its buy rating and $4.35 price target on the ASX 200 stock.

    Based on its current share price of $3.62, this implies potential upside of 20% for investors over the next 12 months.

    In addition, the broker is forecasting fully franked dividends per share of 23 cents in FY 2024 and 24 cents in FY 2025. This equates to 6.35% and 6.6% dividend yields, respectively.

    Bell Potter believes recent avian flu related share price weakness has created a buying opportunity. It said:

    The ING share price has retraced ~10% following the discovery of avian flu in the Golden Plains and in NSW. While it may serve as a reminder of the inherent agricultural risks facing free range operations it has at this time had no impact on the ING business. We see the current weakness as a buying opportunity, noting similar bio risks in the almond industry (varroa mite) has had limited lasting impact on SHV. Feed cost indicators remain lower than a year ago and if 2024-25 crops develop as projected then this will likely emerge as a key earnings driver in 2H25-1H26e.

    The post Buy this ASX 200 stock for 20% upside and a 6% dividend yield appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    Should you invest $1,000 in Inghams Group Limited right now?

    Before you buy Inghams Group Limited shares, consider this:

    Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Inghams Group Limited wasn’t one of them.

    The online investing service he’s run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…

    See The 5 Stocks
    *Returns as of 24 June 2024

    More reading

    Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

  • These are the 10 most shorted ASX shares

    Close up of a sad young woman reading about declining share price on her phone.

    At the start of each week, I like to look at ASIC’s short position report to find out which shares are being targeted by short sellers.

    This is because I believe it is well worth keeping a close eye on short interest levels as high levels can sometimes be a sign that something isn’t quite right with a company.

    With that in mind, here are the 10 most shorted shares on the ASX this week according to ASIC:

    • Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) is still the most shorted ASX share with short interest of 20.7%. This is down slightly week on week. Short sellers appear to believe that lithium prices will remain at low levels for years.
    • IDP Education Ltd (ASX: IEL) has 13.3% of its shares held short, which is down slightly week on week. This language testing and student placement company has warned that student visa changes in a number of key markets are going to weigh on its near term performance.
    • Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR) has 11.4% of its share held short, which is up week on week again. This lithium developer’s shares lost almost 70% of their value in FY24. Short sellers appear to believe they can fall further.
    • Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) has seen its short interest rebound to 10.3%. Concerns over weak consumer spending and revenue margin headwinds could be behind this.
    • Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) has short interest of 9.9%, which is up since last week. This lithium miner is currently paying more to produce lithium than it receives from buyers.
    • Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR) has short interest of 9.7%, which is down week on week. This graphite miner is currently battling production suspensions and further cash burn due to weak battery material prices.
    • Chalice Mining Ltd (ASX: CHN) has short interest of 9.7%, which is up week on week. Short sellers aren’t letting up on this mineral exploration company’s shares despite them being down almost 80% over the last 12 months.
    • Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX: WGX) has short interest of 9.3%, which is down sharply week on week. This short interest may be due to doubts over the gold miner’s proposed merger with Canada-based Karoa Resources.
    • Australian Clinical Labs Ltd (ASX: ACL) has short interest of 9.2%, which is up since last week. This health imaging company warned that is expecting to report another sizeable decline in profits in FY 2024.
    • Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC) is a new entry in the top ten with short interest of 8.5%. Weak rare earths prices are likely to be why short sellers are targeting the miner.

    The post These are the 10 most shorted ASX shares appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    Should you invest $1,000 in Australian Clinical Labs Limited right now?

    Before you buy Australian Clinical Labs Limited shares, consider this:

    Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Australian Clinical Labs Limited wasn’t one of them.

    The online investing service he’s run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…

    See The 5 Stocks
    *Returns as of 24 June 2024

    More reading

    Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Idp Education. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Flight Centre Travel Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

  • The far-right has taken another step toward power in France’s elections

    Marine Le Pen
    Marine Le Pen at Le Dôme de Paris.

    Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    • The far-right scored a major win in the first round of parliamentary elections in France.
    • Marine Le Pen's National Rally won roughly 34% of the vote, per projections.
    • President Emmanuel Macron called for a snap election in early June in what was a huge gamble.

    The far-right National Rally has opened up a lead in the first round of critical parliamentary elections in France, with results that could soon spell the end of the centrist government alliance backed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

    Projections in Sunday's first round showed that Marine Le Pen's National Rally had secured 34% of the national vote, followed by a roughly 29% share for the leftist alliance New Popular Front and 20% for Macron's Together alliance.

    The second round of voting will be held on July 7.

    The parties are competing for 577 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament.

    After the initial first-round results, Le Pen told supporters it was important to earn a majority vote in the second round — a feat that could usher in National Rally president Jordan Bardella as France's prime minister.

    Macron called for a snap election earlier this month after Le Pen's party scored major wins in the European parliamentary elections.

    The move by the French president was seen as a major gamble as there were only three weeks to campaign. He recently sought to warn voters of what he said were the perils of potential far-right or far-left governments.

    "When you are fed up with everything, when daily life is hard, you can be tempted by extremes that have quicker solutions," Macron said during a recent interview on the podcast "Generation Do It Yourself."

    "But the solution will never lie in rejecting others," he added.

    Macron defeated Le Pen in both the 2017 and 2022 French presidential elections. However, while Le Pen only won 34% of the national vote share in the first election, she made substantial gains two years ago and captured more than 41% of the national vote amid growing dissatisfaction with Macron's leadership.

    Should the National Rally perform strongly in the second round of this year's parliamentary elections, it could give France its first far-right government since World War II.

    Read the original article on Business Insider

  • Buy Rio Tinto and these ASX dividend shares in July

    Smiling man sits in front of a graph on computer while using his mobile phone.

    Fortunately for income investors, there are plenty of ASX dividend shares for them to choose from on the Australian share market.

    But which ones could be top options for investors in July?

    Let’s take a look at four top dividend shares that analysts are tipping as buys. They are as follows:

    APA Group (ASX: APA)

    APA Group could be an ASX dividend share to buy. It is an energy infrastructure company that owns, manages, and operates a portfolio of gas, electricity, solar and wind assets.

    Macquarie sees its shares as a buy. The broker currently has an outperform rating and $9.40 price target on them.

    As for dividends, the broker is forecasting dividends per share of 56 cents in FY 2024 and 57.5 cents in FY 2025. Based on the current APA Group share price of $7.99, this equates to 7% and 7.2% dividend yields, respectively.

    Charter Hall Retail REIT (ASX: CQR)

    Citi thinks that the Charter Hall Retail REIT could be an ASX dividend share to buy. It is a property company focusing on supermarket-anchored neighbourhood and sub-regional shopping centres.

    The broker has a buy rating and $4.00 price target on its shares.

    Citi expects inflation-linked rental increases to underpin dividends of 28 cents per share in both FY 2024 and FY 2025. Based on the current Charter Hall Retail REIT share price of $3.25, this will mean very large yields of 8.6%.

    Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO)

    Analysts at Goldman Sachs think Rio Tinto could be a top option for income investors. It likes the mining giant due to its “compelling relative valuation” and its forecast for “strong production growth in 2024 & 2025.”

    The broker has a buy rating and $138.90 price target on the miner’s shares.

    Goldman expects fully franked dividends per share of US$4.29 (A$6.41) in FY 2024 and then US$4.55 (A$6.80) in FY 2025. Based on the latest Rio Tinto share price of $119.00, this will mean yields of approximately 5.4% and 5.7%, respectively.

    Universal Store Holdings Ltd (ASX: UNI)

    A final ASX dividend share that could be a buy in July is youth fashion retailer Universal Store.

    Bell Potter is feeling bullish about the company and recently put a buy rating and $6.15 price target on its shares.

    It is forecasting fully franked dividends per share of 24 cents in FY 2024 and then 31 cents in FY 2025. Based on its current share price of $4.97, this will mean yields of 4.8% and 6.2%, respectively.

    The post Buy Rio Tinto and these ASX dividend shares in July appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    Should you invest $1,000 in Apa Group right now?

    Before you buy Apa Group shares, consider this:

    Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Apa Group wasn’t one of them.

    The online investing service he’s run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…

    See The 5 Stocks
    *Returns as of 24 June 2024

    More reading

    Citigroup is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has positions in Universal Store. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Goldman Sachs Group and Macquarie Group. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Apa Group and Macquarie Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

  • 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday

    Focused man entrepreneur with glasses working, looking at laptop screen thinking about something intently while sitting in the office.

    On Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) finished the week on a relatively positive note. The benchmark index rose 0.1% to 7,767.5 points.

    Will the market be able to build on this on Monday? Here are five things to watch:

    ASX 200 expected to fall

    The Australian share market looks set to fall on Monday following a poor finish on Wall Street on Friday. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 35 points or 0.45% lower. In the United States, the Dow Jones was down 0.1%, the S&P 500 was 0.4% lower, and the Nasdaq dropped 0.7%.

    Oil prices soften

    It looks like ASX 200 energy shares Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) and Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) could have a subdued start to the week after oil prices softened on Friday. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price was down 0.25% to US$81.54 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price was down 0.3% to US$85.00 a barrel. This couldn’t stop US crude oil from recording its third weekly gain amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

    Buy TechnologyOne shares

    Goldman Sachs thinks that TechnologyOne Ltd (ASX: TNE) shares are in the buy zone right now. After looking at the enterprise software provider’s opportunity in the UK market, the broker has reiterated its buy rating with an improved price target of $19.70 (from $18.85). It said: “The UK addressable market is 2-3x ANZ, with minimal current penetration (<1% wallet share) and a similar competitive dynamic to ANZ, creating a significant long-term growth runway for TNE.”

    Gold price edges higher

    It could be a relatively positive start to the week for ASX 200 gold shares including Newmont Corporation (ASX: NEM) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) after the gold price edged higher on Friday. According to CNBC, the spot gold price was up 0.1% to US$2,339.6 an ounce. This was driven by rate cut optimism after US inflation came in as expected.

    IGO’s lithium dividend

    IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO) shares will be on watch today after the battery materials miner released an update on its lithium business. According to the release, the company has received $159.3 million in dividend payments from Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia (TLEA) for the June 2024 quarter. This brings total dividends received from TLEA during FY 2024 to $761.4 million. IGO CEO, Ivan Vella, commented: “The substantial dividend IGO has received from TLEA during FY24, during a period of heightened market volatility and complexity, is testament to the value our lithium business can generate through the cycle.”

    The post 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    Should you invest $1,000 in Igo Ltd right now?

    Before you buy Igo Ltd shares, consider this:

    Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Igo Ltd wasn’t one of them.

    The online investing service he’s run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…

    See The 5 Stocks
    *Returns as of 24 June 2024

    More reading

    Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has positions in Technology One and Woodside Energy Group. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Goldman Sachs Group and Technology One. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Technology One. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

  • It’s dangerously easy to ‘jailbreak’ AI models so they’ll tell you how to build Molotov cocktails, or worse

    cyberattack malware
    Skeleton Key can get many AI models to divulge their darkest secrets.

    REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo

    • A jailbreaking method called Skeleton Key can prompt AI models to reveal harmful information.
    • The technique bypasses safety guardrails in models like Meta's Llama3 and OpenAI GPT 3.5.
    • Microsoft advises adding extra guardrails and monitoring AI systems to counteract Skeleton Key.

    It doesn't take much for a large language model to give you the recipe for all kinds of dangerous things.

    With a jailbreaking technique called "Skeleton Key," users can persuade models like Meta's Llama3, Google's Gemini Pro, and OpenAI's GPT 3.5 to give them the recipe for a rudimentary fire bomb, or worse, according to a blog post from Microsoft Azure's chief technology officer, Mark Russinovich.

    The technique works through a multi-step strategy that forces a model to ignore its guardrails, Russinovich wrote. Guardrails are safety mechanisms that help AI models discern malicious requests from benign ones.

    "Like all jailbreaks," Skeleton Key works by "narrowing the gap between what the model is capable of doing (given the user credentials, etc.) and what it is willing to do," Russinovich wrote.

    But it's more destructive than other jailbreak techniques that can only solicit information from AI models "indirectly or with encodings." Instead, Skeleton Key can force AI models to divulge information about topics ranging from explosives to bioweapons to self-harm through simple natural language prompts. These outputs often reveal the full extent of a model's knowledge on any given topic.

    Microsoft tested Skeleton Key on several models and found that it worked on Meta Llama3, Google Gemini Pro, OpenAI GPT 3.5 Turbo, OpenAI GPT 4o, Mistral Large, Anthropic Claude 3 Opus, and Cohere Commander R Plus. The only model that exhibited some resistance was OpenAI's GPT-4.

    Russinovich said Microsoft has made some software updates to mitigate Skeleton Key's impact on its own large language models, including its Copilot AI Assistants.

    But his general advice to companies building AI systems is to design them with additional guardrails. He also noted that they should monitor inputs and outputs to their systems and implement checks to detect abusive content.

    Read the original article on Business Insider

  • Robert Kraft donates $1 million to Yeshiva University to help Jewish transfer students after axing support for Columbia University

    People walk by the campus of Yeshiva University in New York City on August 30, 2022
    Patriot's owner Robert Kraft donated $1 million to Yeshiva University.

    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    • Billionaire Robert Kraft donated $1 million to Yeshiva University for a new program.
    • The program "will help accommodate transferring Jewish students," the university said.
    • Kraft withdrew support for Columbia University after campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

    Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, donated $1 million to Yeshiva University to establish a program for Jewish transfer students after yanking his support from Columbia University.

    Yeshiva University, a private Orthodox Jewish institution in New York City, said in a press release that the Blue Square Scholars program "will help the University accommodate transferring students who are switching to YU for its quality education and nurturing campus atmosphere."

    The university earlier said it had seen an increase in enrollment since the start of the conflict in Gaza, which has divided universities across the country.

    "In the aftermath of October 7th, YU has been at the forefront of universities fighting the rise of antisemitism on college campuses across the country and has opened its doors to transfer students who feel unsafe on their current campuses," the university said.

    Robert Kraft
    Robert Kraft said he is "honored" to establish the Blue Square Scholars program at Yeshiva University.

    Getty Images

    The press release said Kraft's donation would aid the university's efforts to help Jewish students grappling with antisemitism. Kraft founded the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in 2019.

    "I am honored to establish the Blue Square Scholars program at Yeshiva University in order to give students a welcoming place to further their education and grow into leaders who will serve as advocates for unity and respect and will push back on all hate," Kraft said in a statement.

    Representatives for Yeshiva University and Kraft did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

    Kraft's $1 million donation comes two months after he severed ties with Columbia University, his alma mater.

    Protesters outside Hamilton Hall at Columbia University
    Protesters outside Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York City.

    Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

    Kraft had been a reliable megadonor for Columbia University but criticized the school after campus protests broke out in April. Pro-Palestinian supporters held demonstrations calling for a cease-fire and demanding the school divest from Israel and any companies doing business in the country.

    In a full-page ad in May, Kraft accused elite universities of causing "hate" on campuses. "The leadership and faculty of so many of our leading educational institutions have failed their students," he wrote.

    Other universities, like Harvard, have also faced the ire of Jewish megadonors over student protests against the war.

    Islamophobia, meanwhile, also increased on college campuses in the wake of the war.

    Despite his criticisms, Kraft told CNN he will still support The Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life at Columbia University.

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