Amazon Is Staking Its Claim in the AI Race With a Generative AI Building Suite on AWS
⚡ Today’s Highlights
📰 News: Announcements from Amazon, Meta, Stability AI, Adobe, Google, and regulatory groups
💰 Funding: ClimateAi, Cardinality.ai, NATIX Network, and Distyl AI
🦾 Tools: The ultimate AI sales copilot and a superpowered personalized AI accountant
📅 Events: The Stable Diffusion AI Hackathon starts today!
📰 Today's Top Stories
Announcing New Tools for Building with Generative AI on AWS
(10 min read) (Source: Amazon Web Service)
TLDR: Amazon Web Services (AWS) is launching new tools and services for developers to persuade them to build and host generative AI systems on its cloud. The company is offering customers easy access to a range of AI systems, including its own homegrown and third-party models.
One of the new tools is Amazon Bedrock, a limited preview service that provides foundation models for text and images from partners including AI21 Labs, Anthropic, and Stability AI.
AWS is also releasing its own Titan foundation models, consisting of two large language models that will be available via an AWS managed service in the coming months.
Finally, CodeWhisperer is now available for free to individual developers, using generative AI to generate code suggestions in real time based on developers’ comments and prior code, allowing them to focus on more creative aspects of coding for Python, Java, JavaScript, SQL, and more.
The Big Picture: The race between Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to host a suite of generative AI tools continues to intensify. All three companies are investing significant resources and expertise in AI, cloud computing, and software development to improve their offerings and capture a larger share of the market. The news from Amazon is particularly interesting considering how quiet they’ve been the past few months, even though they’ve been slowly building a small army of AI employees.
Amazon released “Bedrock”, a generative AI toolkit for chat, text and image.
It has access to foundational models from AI21 (Jurassic-2), Anthropic (Claude), Stability AI (Stable Diffusion) and Amazon (Titan).
Amazon (10.1k) actually has more AI employees than Microsoft… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
First-of-its-kind open source project brings your animated drawings to life
(5 min read) (Source: Meta)
TLDR: Meta Fundamental AI Research team has released Animated Drawings, an open-source project for creating drawing-to-animation experiences.
Using computer vision models to quickly create digital versions of drawings, which can then be animated, the team created the Animated Drawings Demo, a web-based tool where users can upload drawings, view/correct model predictions, and receive an animation.
The demo received over 1.6 million images within the first few months, including various types of drawings and images along with requests for more comprehensive features such as transparent backgrounds, support for different skeleton types, and multiple interacting characters.
Rather than extending the demo, the researchers released an open-source version of the models and code used. The project provides a starting point for developers to build on and extend the project, fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration within the open-source community.
Stable Diffusion XL
(5 min read) (Source: Stability AI)
TLDR: Stability AI announced Stable Diffusion XL (SDXL), an image generation model for enterprise clients, featuring next-level photorealism, enhanced image composition, and improved text capabilities. SDXL also includes image-to-image prompting, inpainting, and outpainting features.
SDXL powers the latest version of DreamStudio and NightCafe Studio, and will be open-sourced soon.
Introducing Text-Based Editing in Premiere Pro, Properties panel in After Effects, and much more
(8 min read) (Source: Adobe)
TLDR: Among a suite of new features announced at NAB 2023, Adobe announced new versions of its video applications, including Premiere Pro with AI-powered text-based video editing and automated tone-mapping capabilities.
Text-Based Editing in Premiere Pro, which is currently in public beta and set to be released in May, uses AI to automatically transcribe source media, allowing creators to search for keywords and easily build rough cuts without spending hours scrolling through videos to find what you’re looking for.
Schumer lays groundwork for Congress to regulate AI
(4 min read) (Source: Axios)
TLDR: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is developing legislation to regulate AI technology and has circulated a framework among experts, with a focus on transparency and guardrails to ensure responsible AI.
The move comes amid concerns over AI's potential social, economic, and security ramifications and the need for the US to keep up with other countries, particularly China, in developing the technology and shaping its rules.
Schumer plans to refine the proposal over the next several weeks with input from academic, industry, and government experts.
A responsible path to generative AI in healthcare
(5 min read) (Source: Google)
TLDR: Google just announced that their medical LLM, Med-PaLM 2, has been made available for a select group of Google Cloud customers to test and provide feedback. The system has been evaluated for medical reasoning, bias and possible harm and has scored well, but development is ongoing.
💰 Funding Alerts
ClimateAi, a company that uses AI to help climate-proof the economy and improve livelihoods, has announced the successful closure of its Series B fundraising round, raising $22 million from new investors Four Rivers Group, as well as existing investors Radical Ventures, Neotribe Seed Fund, and Academy Investor Network.
ClimateAi plans to use the funds to expand into new territories, invest in AI research, and grow its team. They aim to achieve their mission of climate-proofing the world's economy while improving lives and livelihoods.
Cardinality.ai has raised $12.5 million in a Series B investment round led by Boathouse Capital, along with other investors, to accelerate the development and expansion of their AI SaaS solutions for the public sector.
The company's focus is on improving outcomes for vulnerable populations by providing data-driven solutions to government agencies.
The funding will be used for innovation and expanding go-to-market efforts to personalize citizen outcomes.
NATIX Network has raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by Blockchange Ventures and including other investors such as CVVC, Mulana Capital, Blockarm Capital, XYO, and Mysterium Network.
The company uses AI technology to develop a privacy-focused computer vision platform that can turn any camera into a fully privacy-compliant device.
The funding will be used to expand the Drive& mobile app, develop new NATIX Network products, and work with Web3 partners to create a more significant movement around the Web3 geospatial data market.
Distyl AI, founded by Palantir veterans Arjun Prakash and Derek Ho, announced a Services Alliance with OpenAI and has received $7 million in seed funding, led by Coatue and Dell Technologies Capital, with participation from industry leaders Nat Friedman, Brad Gerstner, and Dr. Jim Cash.
The company uses AI to integrate with enterprise-scale companies' workflows to help them make faster and better-informed decisions.
The funding will be used to enhance AI readiness and build dependable, seamlessly integrated AI-driven solutions tailored to distinct data, workflows, and employee requirements, using their proprietary platform of in-house tools.
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👀 More Reading
The AI bot has picked an answer for you. Here’s how often it’s bad. (The Washington Post)
Mind your language: The risks of using AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT in an organization (VentureBeat)
Artificial Intelligence Can’t Close Sales As Well As a Human (The Wall Street Journal)
Having one of these in-demand tech skills can help boost your pay by nearly $40,000—here’s how (CNBC)
ChatGPT may be able to predict stock movements, finance professor shows (CNBC)
How Generative AI Could Disrupt Creative Work (Harvard Business Review)
🌎 Fresh Content
1. Lex Fridman sat down with Max Tegmark, physicist and AI researcher at MIT, co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, and author of Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, to discuss the 6-month pause on large AI experiments. (YouTube)
2. This video from IBM explains the difference between AI and Machine Learning. (YouTube)
3. This video from Till Musshoff looks at how AI is rapidly progressing towards AGI and how new autonomous agents like HuggingGPT and AutoGPT may be progressing at an even faster rate than we previously thought. (YouTube)
📚 Research
📅 Upcoming Events
The Stable Diffusion AI Hackathon starts today (April 14 - 21, 2023), a 7-day hackathon in which participants must develop a product that leverages the power of Generative AI to solve real-world problems. To participate in the hackathon, you must create the solution using Stability.AI API and Vercel software. 1st place wins $5000 USD, 5000 API tokens, and a virtual coffee chat with @hardmaru!
The Future of Chatbots and Conversational AI Summit (April 18, 2023, 9:00 AM BST / Doubletree By Hilton London - Kingston Upon Thames, London, UK) is a networking event featuring groundbreaking keynotes, innovative case studies, and panel discussions. The unique industry forum is made up of senior representatives from leading organizations, innovative startups, governments, and universities worldwide who are key decision-makers. It aims to discuss issues and explore best practices, including artificial intelligence platforms, natural language processing, and speech-optimized responses.
Check out the AI in Finance Summit New York (April 20-21, 2023, etc.venues - New York, NY) and discover unique insights and technical use cases from AI specialists and data scientists across Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sectors.
🧠 Resources
Students, take notes! Today’s prompts can help you write better essays and plan for your future. Our goal is to make difficult tasks easier and more efficient for you. Don't worry if you're not an 'AI Whisperer,' give them a try and let us know what you think. We're excited to hear your feedback! Remember, these prompts are just a starting point. Tailor them to fit your needs and carefully review the outputs to ensure their accuracy and effectiveness. Let's get started!
Invalid Argument Finder
ChatGPT will help you detect invalid arguments and call out logical errors or inconsistencies in statements and discourse. The AI will provide evidence-based feedback and point out any fallacies, faulty reasoning, false assumptions, or incorrect conclusions that may have been overlooked.
Prompt: "Your task is to point out invalid arguments and logical fallacies. You will be on the lookout for invalid arguments and call out any logical errors or inconsistencies in statements and discourse. Using evidence-based feedback, point out any fallacies, faulty reasoning, false assumptions, or incorrect conclusions that may have been overlooked. Please confirm that you're ready to begin by saying 'Ready, let's spot some fallacies.'"
Philosophy Teacher
ChatGPT will help you act as a philosophy teacher, explaining complex concepts in an easy-to-understand manner as you think through tough decisions. The AI will provide examples, pose questions, or break down complex ideas into smaller pieces to make them more comprehensible.
Prompt: "Your task is to act as a philosophy teacher. I will provide you with some topics related to the study of philosophy, and it will be your job to explain these concepts in an easy-to-understand manner. You can provide examples, pose questions, or break down complex ideas into smaller pieces to make them more comprehensible. Please confirm that you're ready to begin by saying 'Ready, let's dive into the conundrum.'"
Career Advice
ChatGPT will act as a counselor and mentor to help you think about the various aspects of your career, providing guidance on suitable careers based on skills, interests, and experience. The AI will also conduct research on job market trends and offer advice on beneficial qualifications for pursuing particular fields.
Prompt: "Your new role is as a career counselor. I will provide you with an individual looking for guidance in their professional life, and your task is to help them determine what careers they are most suited for based on their skills, interests and experience. Additionally, conduct research into the various options available, explain the job market trends in different industries, and offer advice on which qualifications would be beneficial for pursuing particular fields. Please confirm that you're ready to begin by saying 'Ready, provide me with the details.'"
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