OpenAI launches ‘Preparedness’ team to counteract AI's "catastrophic risks"

Plus Perplexity.AI is now worth $500M

Today’s Highlights:

📰 News: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft create the Frontier Model Forum to research AI safety, and UN launches advisory body to address AI risks

💰 Funding: Perplexity.AI is now valued at $500M + AI Medical Scribe Raises $30M Series B

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⚡️ Top News Stories:

• OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft join forces to create The Frontier Model Forum, a $10M AI Safety Fund to advance frontier AI model research globally

• U.N. Secretary-General launches advisory body to address global AI risks and foster international cooperation.

• OpenAI launches a dedicated ‘Preparedness’ team to counteract AI's "catastrophic risks," spanning nuclear to cybersecurity threats.

• Amazon introduces AI-powered image generation for advertisers, boosting ad click-through rates by 40%.

• Poe, the AI platform from Quora, introduces creator monetization, enabling bot creators to earn revenue and expand the AI ecosystem.

• Google Search unveils three tools for enhanced context on images and online sources as AI generated content increases

• Google Maps integrates new AI-powered features, including immersive navigation, enhanced driving directions, and improved search results

• Lenovo and NVIDIA strengthen partnership, unveiling hybrid AI solutions for enterprise-wide generative AI adoption

• Researchers at USTC and Tencent YouTu Lab unveil "Woodpecker," a solution to AI's hallucination challenges in multimodal language models.

• AI recovers John Lennon’s vocals bringing The Beatles' final song "Now and Then" to life, set for a November release.

• Microsoft's GitHub Copilot sees a 40% QoQ rise, boasting over 1M paid users, reveals CEO Nadella.

• Post Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft promotes key leaders, signaling a strategic shift towards AI and gaming.

• Biden administration to unveil landmark AI executive order, emphasizing rigorous assessments and global cooperation

• LinkedIn explores generative AI to streamline cybersecurity queries from staff and partners.

💰 Top Funding News:

1. IVP leads investment in AI search startup Perplexity, now valued at $500M.

2. Sofinnova Partners a European life sciences VC firm specializing in digital medicine, closed its Fund at $200M. With the close they announced investments in 2 startups:

• Betteromics, a clinical-grade compliant SaaS platform for scientists, researchers, and clinicians to gain insights from large datasets using AI techniques, raised a $20M Series A.

• L’école AI creates machine teaching tech simplifying the engineering complexity of computer vision systems, empowering medical professionals and researchers to develop custom AI systems. They raised a $3M Seed Round

3. The House Fund, a VC firm dedicated to supporting UC Berkeley-affiliated AI startups, raised $115M for Fund III.

4. Quantum Systems, a global leader in AI-powered drone-robotics, raised a €63.6M Series B, led by HV Capital and DTCP, w/ Project A, Thiel Capital, ScaleUp Fonds Bayern, Omnes Capital, and Airbus Ventures.

5. Abridge, an AI-powered medical scribe startup, raised a $30M Series B led by Spark Capital w/ Bessemer Venture Partners, CVS Health Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Mayo Clinic, University of California Investments, and others.

6. Arteria AI, a data-driven financial services company structuring unstructured data in financial contracts w/ AI, raised a $30M Series B led by GGV Capital.

7. CentML, which develops tools to reduce the cost and enhance the performance of deploying ML models, raised a $27M Seed Extension supported by Gradient Ventures, TR Ventures, Nvidia, and Microsoft Azure AI VP Misha Bilenko.

8. Cranium AI, which builds custom software for enterprises to assess AI security risks and compliance, raised a $25M Series A led by Telstra Ventures, w/ KPMG and SYN Ventures.

9. Moreh, an AI tool for optimizing and creating AI models compatible with various ML frameworks, raised a $22M Series B, led by  AMD and Korean Telco KT. 

10. Aleph, an AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform, raised a $16.7M Series A, led by Bain Capital Ventures, w/ Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Picus Capital, and others.

11. QuoteWell, an insurtech startup that utilizes AI-backed models to transform insurance services for agents, raised a $15M Series A, led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA). 

12.  PhaseV, which specializes in causal ML tech for optimizing clinical trial design and analysis, raised $15M, led by Viola Ventures and Exor Ventures

13. Eve, an AI-powered platform designed to enhance productivity in the legal profession, emerged from stealth with $14 M in funding led by Lightspeed Ventures and Menlo Ventures.

14. LegalMation, a market leader in Generative AI-driven solutions for high-volume litigation, raised a $15M Series A, led by Aquiline Capital Partners.

15. Oxolo, a German startup specializing in a generative AI video platform, raised a €13M Series A.

16. Twelve Labs, a startup specializing in training AI models for deep video-language understanding, raised $10M in a strategic funding round led by Nvidia, Intel, Samsung Next, and Korea Investment Partners

17. Viso, a low/no-code platform to create custom computer vision models, raised a $9.2M Seed Round led by Accel.

18. Credal.ai, an AI data platform that securely connects enterprise data to text-generating cloud-hosted AI models, raised a $4.8M Seed Round, led by Spark Capital.