OpenAI releases DALL-E 3
+ More AI announcements from Microsoft, Amazon, Youtube and Google.
Today’s Highlights:
📰 Top Stories: New AI Product Announcements from OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, Youtube and Google.
👀 Content: Sequoia releases its latest breakdown of the AI industry + UN’s plans to shape the future of AI
💰 Funding: Cisco Systems is acquiring Splunk for approximately $28 billion + AI-powered navigation platform raised $280 million.
⚡️ Quick News Hits
GitHub expands availability of its AI-powered Copilot Chat tool to individual users in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code, priced at $10/month or $100/year.
AI dominated TechCrunch Disrupt w/ major CEOs taking the stage and an AI-platform taking home the top prize
Toyota, w/ MIT and Columbia, unveils a groundbreaking learning approach, allowing robots to learn tasks by observing human actions.
UPS implements AI-powered Delivery Defense to combat the escalating problem of porch piracy
Google Search's latest update is prioritizing AI-generated material over human-authored content, causing an uproar among site owners.
Chinese tech giant, Huawei, announces its new strategic focus on AI
Authors Guild, including John Grisham and George R.R. Martin, is the latest to sue OpenAI over claims of unlawfully training ChatGPT on copyrighted material.
Upcoming bipartisan bill, supported by IBM, focuses on responsible AI development, prioritizing company-led self-assessments.
Google's Bard introduces extensions, connecting to Gmail + YouTube, seeking to rival ChatGPT Plugins by enhancing user integration and reliability.
AI weather models by Google + NVIDIA accurately predicted Hurricane Lee's landfall, challenging conventional methods with faster, cheaper forecasting.
📰 Top Stories
OpenAI releases third version of DALL-E
(Source: OpenAI)
TLDR: OpenAI has unveiled DALL-E 3, an enhanced version of its generative AI visual art platform that converts text prompts into images with better contextual understanding.
A notable feature of DALL-E 3 is its integration with ChatGPT, allowing users to easily create prompts without extensive details. ChatGPT generates a paragraph as a prompt, enhancing accessibility for those less skilled in prompt creation.
OpenAI has worked on robust safety measures to prevent the generation of inappropriate or offensive images. These measures include input classifiers and restrictions on recreating images of public figures. The model continually improves, but perfection isn't guaranteed.
OpenAI will release DALL-E 3 first to ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Enterprise users in October, followed by research labs and its API service later. Safety measures and artist opt-out options are key steps to address ethical and legal concerns in AI-generated art.
Microsoft announces tons of new AI-powered features for Windows, Office, Bing, and more.
(Source: Microsoft)
TLDR: Microsoft unveiled a consolidated AI tool named Copilot for Windows 11, set to enhance user experience across Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365, scheduled to be available starting November 1.
Copilot will offer enhanced features costing $30 per user monthly, over existing subscriptions. Copilot's introduction is poised to intensify the company's competitive edge in the AI-dominated market.
Microsoft’s commitment to progressive AI, showcased through innovations like OpenAI's DALL-E 3 for Bing, emphasizes its strategy to integrate generative AI extensively across products and services.
The announcement included the launch of four new Surface devices—Surface Laptop Go 3, Surface Laptop Studio 2, Surface Go 4 For Business, and Surface Hub 3—further demonstrating Microsoft’s advancements in integrated technology solutions.
Amazon brings generative AI to Alexa
(Source: The Verge)
TLDR: Amazon is introducing an advanced generative AI model to enhance the user experience across its Echo devices, focusing on more intuitive and conversational interactions. This AI upgrade is optimized for voice and aims to provide more nuanced responses and control over smart home devices, including real-time information access and efficient home management.
The new model empowers Alexa with improved conversational abilities, allowing it to comprehend and respond to body language, eye contact, and gestures, and adapt its tone to mimic human responses like excitement and laughter.
Amazon is collaborating with several companies, including GE Cync and Philips, enabling developers to integrate their products with Alexa’s new features, such as Dynamic Controller and Action Controller.
Amazon is adopting a cautious approach in rolling out the new Alexa, initially available in the U.S., offering it through a preview program.
YouTube Shorts introduces new generative AI feature "Dream Screen"
(Source: Youtube)
TLDR: YouTube introduced "Dream Screen" for its Shorts platform, leveraging AI to allow users to create AI-generated video or image backgrounds, enhancing user creativity and content diversity.
The feature is aimed at empowering users with minimal knowledge of YouTube analytics and production, and is part of YouTube's broader initiative to democratize content creation.
"YouTube Create," a new app launched alongside Dream Screen, offers extensive video editing tools and features, facilitating user-friendly, intuitive video creation, akin to TikTok’s CapCut app. Available initially on Android in select markets, it aims to bridge the gap between short-form and full-fledged video creation.
The Big Picture: The series of AI innovations, including AI-driven topic suggestions and AI dubbing features, signal a shift in content creation, steering creators towards more personalized, AI-enhanced content. These tools, by interpreting user prompts and trending content, provide tailored suggestions and augment multilingual content creation.
Anthropic shares Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP) to manage risks in advanced AI development
(Source: Anthropic)
TLDR: Anthropic developed a Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP) to manage risks in advanced AI development, focusing on preventing catastrophic risks and striking a balance between safety and progress. It employs an AI Safety Levels (ASL) framework to ensure AI models' security, safety, and operational standards.
The ASL system categorizes AI models based on their potential catastrophic risk, with ASL-1 posing no significant risk and models like Claude classified as ASL-2. The higher levels, ASL-3 and above, will involve stricter standards and represent substantial risks of misuse and increased autonomous capabilities, requiring advanced safety measures.
The RSP, approved by Anthropic’s board, intends not to disrupt current AI uses or product availability but seeks to set a safety standard analogous to those in the automotive or aviation industry. The policy remains subject to continuous refinements
👀 Interesting Reads and Content
Deep Dives
Generative AI’s Act Two (Sequoia Capital)
Does Using AI Make Me Lazy? (WIRED)
Confessions of a Viral AI Writer (WIRED)
GPUs Transformed AI. Now They’re Here For Quantum. (The Wall Street Journal)
Insightful Information
See How AI Generates Images from Text (Scientific American)
US Senate AI ‘Insight Forum’ Tracker (Tech Policy Press)
Musicians are eyeing a legal shortcut to fight AI voice clones (The Verge)
Analysis and Critiques
AI is evolving for its own benefit, not ours (New Scientist)
In the AI Age, The New York Times Wants Reporters to Tell Readers Who They Are (Vanity Fair)
💰 Funding News
🚨1. Cisco Systems is acquiring Splunk, a cybersecurity firm known for its data observability capabilities, for approximately $28Bn, marking Cisco's largest-ever deal. The acquisition aims to strengthen Cisco's software business and leverage the growth in artificial intelligence.
2. Mapbox, a location services platform that uses AI and data to create real-time maps and assist in navigation, raised a $280M Series E led by SoftBank Group Corp. (Vikas Parekh, Managing Partner) and its affiliate.
Funding is for bringing AI technology closer to the sensors inside vehicles, allowing for split-second decision-making based on real-time data.
The company is known for powering navigation for companies like Toyota, General Motors, and BMW.
3. Pryon, a company providing a unique knowledge management platform that uses AI to extract insights from unstructured data, raised a $100M Series B led by Thomas Tull's US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT).
Other Notable Investors: Aperture Venture Capital, BootstrapLabs, Breyer Capital, Duke Capital Partners, Good Growth Capital, Omnimed Capital, and Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.
4. Corti, a Copenhagen-based startup that specializes in AI-driven healthcare solutions, raised a $60M Series B led by Prosus Ventures (Sandeep Bakshi, Head of European Investments) and Atomico (Laura Connell, Partner).
5. HiddenLayer, a leading cybersecurity firm specializing in protecting artificial intelligence models and assets, raised a $50M Series A led by Microsoft's Venture Fund M12 (Todd Graham, Managing Partner) and Moore Strategic Ventures.
Other Notable Investors: Booz Allen Ventures (Travis Bales, Managing Director), IBM Ventures, Capital One Ventures, and Ten Eleven Ventures.
HiddenLayer's MLSec Platform is a suite of products designed to safeguard AI models from adversarial attacks, vulnerabilities, and malicious code injections. Its flagship product, Machine Learning Detection and Response (MLDR), provides real-time monitoring and defense for AI algorithms.
6. Darrow, a legal tech company leveraging AI to empower public interest law firms and lawyers, raised a $35M Series B led by Georgian.
Other Notable Investors: F2 Venture Capital, Entrée Capital, NFX, and Y Combinator.
7. Alcion, a security-first AI-driven Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, raised a $21M Series A led by Veeam, pushing their total funding to $29M.
8. Secoda, a data management platform that leverages generative AI solutions to democratize access to company data knowledge, raised a $14M Series A led by Craft Ventures.
Other Notable Investors: Abstract Ventures, YCombinator, Garage Capital, Jordan Tigani (CEO of MotherDuck), Scott Breitenother (CEO of Brooklyn Data Co.), Chad Sanderson (CEO of gable.ai), and Tristan Handy (CEO of dbt).
9. Yurts, an enterprise-ready Generative AI platform that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to transform knowledge management and enterprise workflows, raised a $16M Series A led by Nava Ventures.
10. Medeloop, a healthtech startup that offers an AI-driven platform for integrating, harmonizing, and analyzing health data to accelerate clinical research, raised a $8M Seed round led by General Catalyst.
11. Paxton AI, a legal artificial intelligence startup that offers a specialized product akin to ChatGPT, tailored for lawyers, raised a $6M Seed round led by WVV Capital.
12. Afterparty, a platform empowering creators with tech for personalized fan connections and monetization, is offering AI that enables scalable interactivity between creators and fans, with fan-generated content living as collectibles on the blockchain. They raised $5M in a strategic growth round led by Blockchange Ventures (Ken Seiff, Managing Partner).
13. Micron Agritech, an agritech startup that utilizes rapid AI-powered testing to reduce the overuse of anti-parasite treatment in animals, raised €2.7M in a new funding round co-led by ACT VC, Atlantic Bridge, and Yield Lab Europe, bringing the total funding to €5M.
14. Pliable, an AI-powered SaaS platform that simplifies data organization and utilization without the need for engineers, raised a $2.5M Seed round led by Resolute Ventures.
15. Edsoma, an AI-powered reading, education, and communication platform for children, raised a $2.5M Seed round led by individual investors, including NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal, with a post-funding valuation of $14M.