It's AI Time

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 229 Google's Gemini AI Advances Google Cloud has introduced the Gemini 1.5 Pro model, which offers enhanced multimodal and long-context understanding, processing up to 1 million tokens of information. This upgrade supports innovative applications in fields like gaming and insurance. Google also announced TPU v5p, a high-performance AI accelerator for model training and inference, emphasizing its infrastructure leadership in generative AI. AI in Health and Environment MIT researchers are leveraging AI for diverse applications such as improving healthcare systems and generating realistic satellite images of potential flood scenarios. These developments aim to make AI tools more robust and practical for addressing societal challenges. Advancements in AI for Robotics and Security AI is being utilized to train robots for complex tasks, such as parkour, using generative simulations instead of real-world data. In cybersecurity, AI tools are improving ...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 228 xAI could soon have its own app: Elon Musk's xAI plans to launch a standalone app for its Grok chatbot by December, competing directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Grok is currently accessible through X for subscribers only. This move positions xAI to more directly challenge established chatbot apps from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. ThunderKittens for Apple Silicon: Hazy Research has been critical in improving hardware utilization for AI workloads. It has extended its amazing ThunderKittens Kernel writing framework to work on Apple Silicon. World's Most Flexible Sound Machine Debuts: Fugatto, a new generative AI model, allows users to control audio creation and transformation using text prompts. It can generate music, modify voices, and create unique sounds, showcasing capabilities through tasks like music production and video game development. Developed by NVIDIA researchers, Fugatto uses 2.5 billion parameters and was trained on a vast da...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 227 Qwen's first reasoning inspired model QwQ: Qwen has released a 32B parameter reasoning model that performs similarly to OpenAI's o1 series of models. The company observed scaling performance when sampling longer reasoning traces. The model is available to use and excels at mathematics and coding. OpenAI trademarking o1 reasoning models: OpenAI has filed a trademark application for its latest AI model, o1, as the firm moves to shield its IP. ElevenLabs' new feature is a NotebookLM competitor for creating GenAI podcasts: ElevenLabs has introduced GenFM, a feature in its iOS app that creates AI-generated multispeaker podcasts from uploaded content. Supporting 32 languages, the feature adds natural human elements like 'ums' and pauses to enhance authenticity in the podcast experience. ElevenLabs has planned further customization options and an expansion into new markets, including India and Poland. MIT researchers develop an effic...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 226 OpenAI's Sora video generator appears to have leaked: A group leaked access to OpenAI's unreleased video generator Sora as a protest against alleged unfair practices and "art washing". They published a frontend on Hugging Face allowing users to generate videos, which OpenAI reportedly shut down after a few hours. OpenAI maintains that Sora is in research preview. OLMo2: A continuation of the fully open source training efforts, Allen AI has released a new generation of language models that are transparent from top to bottom. They match or surpass the best available open weight models. When we become cogs: AI boosts material scientists' efficiency, leading to a 44% increase in material discoveries but a 44% drop in work satisfaction due to reduced idea generation tasks. GitHub Copilot enhances productivity for less skilled developers, shifting focus from project management to coding. AI narrows skill gaps but risks alienation b...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 225 Anthropic Announces Model Context Protocol: The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a new open standard designed to connect AI systems directly to data sources like business tools and content repositories. It simplifies the process of giving AI access to the data it needs by replacing fragmented, custom integrations with a universal protocol, making systems more scalable and effective. OpenAI Shares Insights on Red Teaming for Safer AI: OpenAI has expanded its red teaming efforts by releasing two papers: one detailing how external experts are engaged in red teaming and another that introduces a new method for automated testing. Nvidia's CEO defends his moat as AI labs change how they improve their AI models: "Test-time scaling" is becoming more important as AI models evolve. Nvidia is ready for this shift. This method, which enhances AI inference by increasing compute power, poses competitive challenges as startups develop fast AI infere...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 224 Ai2's OpenScholar: Ai2 has unveiled OpenScholar, a retrieval-augmented language model that searches for relevant papers and generates answers grounded in those sources. It will make it easier for scientists to find and synthesize knowledge. Will Sam Altman always win the OpenAI board fight in an AI agent simulation?: Fable, a game and AI simulation company, built a simulation to explore the OpenAI board dispute involving Sam Altman using an AI decision-making framework called SIM-1. The simulation, which leveraged multi-agent competition and GPT4o, highlighted the unlikelihood of Altman's return as CEO in only 4 out of 20 scenarios. The research underscores AI's potential in simulating complex decision-making environments. A New Image-to-Video Model: Researchers have developed image-to-video diffusion models that generate realistic motion transformations from static images, addressing limitations in traditional methods like affine tran...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 223  OpenAI Updates : OpenAI's ChatGPT now offers enhanced voice and image capabilities, allowing users to engage in voice conversations and analyze images directly through the app. This functionality is rolling out to Plus users on iOS, Android, and other platforms. Microsoft AI Integration : Windows 11's latest update introduces Voice Clarity , an AI-powered feature that reduces background noise during calls or recordings, previously limited to Surface devices.  The Microsoft Copilot app for Windows is now a fully-fledged application, offering improved functionality and integration. Updates to Phone Link enhance the connection between Windows PCs and Android devices, including the use of smartphones as webcams. Google Gemini 1.5 Pro : Google Cloud has introduced Gemini 1.5 Pro, a generative AI model now in public preview. This model can process up to 1 million tokens of information, offering exceptional long-context understanding. It supports m...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 222 Amazon's $4 Billion Investment in Anthropic: Amazon has increased its investment in AI startup Anthropic by an additional $4 billion, bringing the total to $8 billion. This move positions Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the primary provider of computing power for training Anthropic's AI models, aiming to enhance AI safety and reliability. Samsung's Potential Collaboration with OpenAI: Samsung is in discussions with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its Galaxy AI platform. This collaboration aims to enhance the capabilities of Samsung devices, positioning them competitively against Apple's AI offerings. AI Chip Race Intensifies Among Tech Giants: Companies like Elon Musk's xAI and Meta are building supercomputers with thousands of Nvidia AI chips to develop larger and faster AI models. This competition underscores the escalating demand for advanced AI hardware. AI Startups' IPO Prospects Remain Uncertain: Despite significant i...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 221 BFL launches Flux Tools: FLUX.1 Tools is a suite of models designed to add control and steerability to the text-to-image model FLUX.1. It contains a number of utilities and model checkpoints that allow for editability based on the FLUX models. It enables inpainting, outpainting, and some controlnets. The tools are useful for those looking to improve their creative suite on top of some of the best models out there. Elon Musk Asked People to Upload Their Health Data. X Users Obliged: Users are submitting medical images to X's AI chatbot Grok for diagnoses, a practice encouraged by Elon Musk despite concerns over accuracy and privacy. Unlike secure medical environments, Grok's interface lacks HIPAA protection, raising ethical issues about data usage. While AI's potential in healthcare is significant, experts warn of the dangers of inaccurate results and privacy breaches. ElevenLabs now offers ability to build conversational AI agents: Ele...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 220 DeepSeek r1 reasoning model: DeepSeek has replicated o1 with its r1 Deep Think model. The model is extremely powerful and DeepSeek intends to completely open source it. It was trained with reinforcement learning with reasoning traces. Meta's Messenger gets HD video calls and AI backgrounds: Meta is introducing new features for Messenger, its messaging app, including AI-powered noise suppression. ChatGPT Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness: A study showed ChatGPT-4 outperformed doctors in diagnosing medical conditions. Doctors struggled to effectively use AI, often relying on their own judgment despite ChatGPT's insights. This highlights the need for better integration and understanding of AI tools in medical diagnosis. PanoRadar: Robots gain superhuman vision with AI and radio waves: PanoRadar is an AI-powered system developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania that converts radio waves into 3D views, providing robots wit...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 219 Meta hires Salesforce's CEO of AI, Clara Shih: Meta is creating a new product unit to develop AI tools for the 200 million businesses that use its apps. Rox's Public Beta and $50M Raise: Rox, an AI-driven sales productivity platform, enhances top enterprise sales reps' performance by over 30% by using AI analyst teams for tasks like planning and engagement. It integrates seamlessly into existing systems, bypassing traditional CRM inefficiencies, and has already been adopted by top-performing companies. Rox has announced a $50M raise, led by Sequoia and other major investors, to expand its reach. Genies launches Parties for brands and creators to launch their own ‘AI Roblox': Genies has launched Parties, a platform that uses AI avatars to enable user-generated content and personalized gameplay experiences. Its technology stack emphasizes smart avatars, interoperability, and dynamic user interaction, facilitating limitless customizat...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 218   Where's My Robot Butler?: Advancements in AI and robotics are accelerating the development of humanoid robots such as Atlas, Optimus, and Neo, robots aimed at fulfilling domestic tasks akin to Rosie from "The Jetsons." Challenges persist in creating cost-effective, safe, and efficient actuators. AI models are crucial for training robots to perform complex tasks autonomously. Despite progress, these humanoid robots are currently more suited for industrial settings. They may eventually transition into home environments if significant breakthroughs occur. Google's head of research on whether 'learn to code' is still good advice in the age of AI: Despite AI handling some coding tasks, understanding coding basics is crucial and creates new opportunities across fields, including healthcare and education. GPTs Are Maxed Out: OpenAI's next-gen model, internally known as Orion, reportedly underperforms compared to expectatio...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 217 Inside OpenAI's Early Drama: A lawsuit by Elon Musk against OpenAI has resulted in emails from the startup's early days being revealed, shedding light on internal tensions. Anthropic hires its first “AI welfare” researcher: Anthropic hired Kyle Fish as its first "AI welfare" researcher to explore ethical considerations around potential AI consciousness and moral rights. This marks a potential shift for AI companies in addressing ethical questions related to AI systems' consciousness and agency. Fish's recent paper discusses improving AI welfare understanding to avoid mishandling decisions concerning AI moral consideration. Spotify's Plans For AI Generated Music, Podcasts, and Recommendations, According To Its Co-President, CTO, and CPO Gustav Söderström: Spotify is embracing AI-powered content creation, using generative AI tools like Suno and NotebookLM for music and podcasts while leveraging LLMs to enhance user recom...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 216 Google's Gemini AI Enhancements: Google has introduced Gemini 1.5 Pro, now in public preview, featuring exceptional long-context understanding and multimodal capabilities. This allows the model to process up to 1 million tokens consistently, enabling breakthroughs in complex applications like gaming, media, and enterprise solutions. Microsoft's Industry-Specific AI Models: Microsoft has unveiled new tailored AI models designed to address specific industry challenges, furthering the utility of AI in fields such as healthcare, manufacturing, and customer service. These adapted models aim to enhance efficiency and reduce operational barriers. AI in Climate and Earth Science: NASA and Microsoft have collaborated to create the "Earth Copilot," which democratizes access to vast Earth science data. This tool aids in monitoring environmental challenges like climate change and natural disasters. Generative AI for Cybersecurity and Workspace ...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 215 Advancements in AI-Powered Search: Google has made significant updates to its AI capabilities in search, including enhanced features for Google Lens and generative AI. Users can now search using videos, explore objects in motion, and identify songs more effectively with "Circle to Search." These updates aim to create a more dynamic and interactive search experience, improving access to information across different media formats. AI in Robotics: Developments in robotics include the integration of AI models like the Gemini system, which enhances autonomous functionality and situational understanding. These technologies are advancing the fields of robotic surgery, transportation, and human-machine interaction. AI in Health and Education: AI continues to impact healthcare with tools that identify brain patterns and improve mental health diagnostics. In education, generative AI is being used to enhance personalized learning experiences, especial...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 214 Francois Chollet leaves Google: The creator of Keras and the Arc eval (among many other things) has left Google. He will continue to support the Jax and Keras community while pursuing other endeavors. ChatGPT Desktop: OpenAI has launched ChatGPT desktop integrations to rival Copilot. OpenAI to present plans for U.S. AI strategy and an alliance to compete with China: OpenAI's AI infrastructure blueprint proposes AI economic zones and partnerships with the U.S. Navy on nuclear power to boost AI-driven economic growth and innovation. The plan includes a North American AI alliance and initiatives similar to the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act to support infrastructure needs. It emphasizes investment in U.S. data centers and energy projects to maintain a competitive edge over China. Introducing Athene-V2: Advancing Beyond the Limits of Scaling with Targeted Post-training: Athene V2 is a series of models trained on top of Qwen 2.5 72B....

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 213 OpenAI's AI Agent May Launch in January: OpenAI is reportedly gearing up to release "Operator," an AI agent tool, as soon as January. According to Bloomberg, Operator could directly perform tasks on a user's computer. It will become available first as a research preview via OpenAI's developer API. Google's AI Initiative to Boost MENA Economy by $320 Billion: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could see a $320 billion economic boost from AI by 2030. To support this growth, Google.org has launched the AI Opportunity Initiative, its largest AI investment in the region. The initiative is focused on developing essential AI skills, funding research, and expanding AI access. AI protein-prediction tool AlphaFold3 is now open source: DeepMind has released the code for AlphaFold3, allowing academic scientists to model protein-drug interactions and enhancing drug discovery efforts. Competitors like Baidu and ByteDance have deve...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 212 Baidu announces its own pair of AI smart glasses: Baidu launched a pair of AI-powered smart glasses that uses the company's ERNIE generative AI at its World Conference. Baidu also introduced an AI image generator and a tool for creating software without coding expertise. ByteDance's Doubao is currently China's leading AI chatbot in terms of monthly active users. OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman returns after three months of leave: OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman has returned to OpenAI as president, following a sabbatical, amid significant executive departures and controversy over its shift to a for-profit model. OpenAI recently secured a $157 billion valuation in its latest funding round. The company is facing internal challenges as leaders like Mira Murati, Bob McGrew, and Lilian Weng have left. European Google rivals partner on search engine infrastructure to counter Big Tech: Ecosia and Qwant are partnering to build a European search...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 211 Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B Instruct is here!: The Qwen 2.5 Coder family is a series of language models trained specifically for code. The newest 32B parameter model is better than GPT-4o while being small enough to run locally for many folks. It is on par with Claude Sonnet 3.5 in many benchmarks as well. X Prepares to Open AI Chatbot 'Grok' to Free Users: X's AI chatbot Grok, initially available only to paying subscribers, may soon be accessible to everyone. Google's Flood Forecasting AI to Reach 700 Million People: Google's AI-based flood forecasting is expanding to over 100 countries, covering 700 million people. AlphaFold 3: DeepMind has open sourced the code and weights of AlphaFold 3 for research use. It is a substantial improvement over previous state-of-the-art and could accelerate AI for science applications. The case for targeted regulation: AI advancements are rapidly improving capabilities in fields like mathematics, codi...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 210 OpenAI Faces AI Improvement Slowdown: OpenAI's next major model, code-named "Orion," reportedly shows less improvement over previous models, suggesting a slowdown in AI advancement. To tackle this, OpenAI has formed a foundations team focused on enhancing models with alternative methods, such as synthetic data training and post-training adjustments, as the availability of new data has decreased. World's Largest Open-Source Model: Near Protocol has announced plans to create a massive 1.4 trillion parameter open-source AI model. It aims to surpass existing models like Meta's Llama. Frontier Math Benchmark: Epoch AI has released a new challenging mathematics benchmark. Most frontier models are unable to solve more than 2% of the problems. LlamaPReview: LlamaPReview is an AI assistant for GitHub that offers one-click installation and auto-reviews of pull requests with context-aware analysis. It supports multiple programming langu...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 209  Google’s Algorithm Changes Boost AI Search: Google’s recent search algorithm updates have spurred more users to explore alternatives like ChatGPT and Bing for a more responsive AI-driven search experience. This shift highlights an evolving landscape where conversational AI is becoming increasingly integral to search. AI Integration in Hollywood: The recent AI Creative Summit showcased how the film industry is both leveraging AI for efficiency and facing ethical questions around automation. The technology promises streamlined workflows but brings potential job impacts for creative roles into focus. Apple's AI-Powered "Apple Intelligence" Release: Apple recently rolled out “Apple Intelligence” with iOS 18.1, enhancing Siri’s capabilities and introducing tools like Writing Assistance, Genmoji, and call recording features. This update is seen as Apple’s move to bolster its AI offerings and compete with other tech giants. Microsoft's A...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 208 Microsoft's latest Windows 11 update focuses on their new “Copilot+” features, integrating AI assistance more deeply into the OS. With the “Click to Do” feature, users can perform context-based tasks like object removal in photos or document summarization directly from the screen, making it more user-friendly. The update also brings tools for image upscaling and file search using natural language, aiming to make AI more accessible for everyday tasks. Google has also made strides, particularly in Google Maps, which now uses AI to provide more tailored recommendations for users, such as suggesting activities based on location and context. The recently released NotebookLM enables users to analyze large volumes of information across multiple formats, enhancing the learning and research experience. AI has also been integrated into Google Shopping, offering personalized briefs and recommendations to streamline product research and comparison.

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 207 ChatGPT Can Now Control a Robot Arm Researchers at UC Berkeley and ETH Zurich used GPT-4 to train affordable robot arms to clean spills. They achieved this by integrating a multimodal agent called LangChain to convert LLM inputs into robot actions. The research showcases a novel proof-of-concept for human-robot interaction and democratizes robotics with open-source technology. Palantir and Anthropic partnership  Palantir and Anthropic have partnered to bring the Claude suite of models to AWS for US intelligence agencies and defense operations. The Rise of the Agentic Web  The Agentic Web is advancing AI agents with onchain functionalities, facilitating the creation, ownership, and transaction capabilities for these agents. Platforms like Replit, VIRTUALS.io, and Wayfinder enable AI integration with blockchain for activities like asset management, data retrieval, and decentralized applications. This shift supports AI-driven automation in payme...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 206 Anthropic hikes the price of its Haiku model  Anthropic's new AI model, Claude 3.5 Haiku, outperforms Claude 3 Opus but costs significantly more. The model lacks image analysis capabilities but excels in coding, data extraction, and content moderation. The price increase raises questions about Anthropic's future pricing strategy. OpenAI acquired Chat.com  OpenAI acquired the domain Chat.com, which now redirects to ChatGPT. The domain was previously purchased for $15.5 million by HubSpot's co-founder. OpenAI's acquisition likely involved shares, but financial details remain undisclosed. A Scalable Communication Protocol for Networks of Large Language Models  Agora is a cross-platform, dead-simple protocol for efficient communication between LLM agents. It enables very different agents to communicate with each other at a fraction of the cost. Agora can be easily integrated with existing multiagent frameworks, such as Camel AI, LangCha...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 205 OpenAI's o1 model leaked on Friday and it is wild OpenAI's o1 model shows significant improvements in reasoning and accuracy over GPT-4, with capabilities in image analysis and web tools. The full version is expected to bring substantial advancements in AI and multimedia processing. An official release is anticipated soon after the U.S. Presidential election. AI for Startups  Microsoft and a16z advocate for collaboration between Big Tech and Little Tech to foster AI innovation and competition. They support open-source AI and have proposed policy ideas to support startups and equalize opportunities in the AI economy. Their joint focus is on creating a robust, competitive ecosystem that leverages AI to drive economic growth and innovation. Meta's former hardware lead for Orion is joining OpenAI  Caitlin Kalinowski is joining OpenAI to lead its robotics and consumer hardware efforts. OpenAI is reviving its robotics team to integrate AI in...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 204 Claude 3.5 Haiku now available Claude 3.5 Haiku is slightly worse than GPT-4o and doesn't have vision capabilities, but it is still very intelligent and cheap relative to other models of its quality. 7 AI news that Google announced in October Covering Google Maps' biggest AI update, tips for getting started with NotebookLM, and more ways people can ask questions, search for information, and get an AI Overview. Meta's AI Abundance Meta is uniquely positioned to capitalize on generative AI, especially in digital advertising. The company's investments in AI, including its Llama models, will support innovative advertising strategies like generative ads and AI-driven chat agents, potentially increasing demand and revenue by leveraging machine learning to enhance ad targeting and efficiency. Meta's focus on integrating AI across its platforms underscores its commitment to maintaining a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving AI l...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 203 Oasis by Etched & Decart Etched and Decart's Oasis is an AI model that generates open-world games frame-by-frame from user inputs, showcasing advanced physical understanding and real-time interaction. Oasis uses a Diffusion Transformer architecture optimized for the upcoming Sohu chip, enabling large-scale, low-latency 4K video models. The model, which integrates custom hardware for improved performance at scale, represents a shift towards interactive AI-generated content. OpenAI will start using AMD chips and could make its own AI hardware in 2026 OpenAI is collaborating with Broadcom and TSMC to develop custom AI chips which are expected to begin production by 2026. Meanwhile, OpenAI is integrating AMD's MI300 chips into its Microsoft Azure infrastructure. Despite aligning with other tech giants on custom chip strategies, OpenAI remains behind Google, Microsoft, and Amazon in hardware development. We're forking Flutter. This is wh...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 202 OpenAI’s New Language Model Release: OpenAI has rolled out an update to its flagship language model, with improved context understanding and multi-turn conversation memory. This aims to make interactions more seamless and accurate for users in both professional and casual settings. AI-Powered Smart Assistants Gain Popularity:  The use of AI-powered smart home assistants has surged, with updates enhancing real-time data collection for home automation, better integration with IoT devices, and customized voice command sets. AI in Creative Writing and Film: Hollywood has increasingly been adopting AI to assist with scriptwriting, special effects, and pre-visualization processes. This allows creators to generate rough drafts of stories or scenes, which can later be refined by human writers and directors. AI-Driven Climate Solutions: Several startups are using AI to analyze climate data for actionable insights on carbon reduction and climate change mitigat...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 201 Generative AI Tools for Enterprises: Companies are increasingly integrating generative AI tools to enhance productivity and creativity. The latest trend is the release of more enterprise-focused AI solutions that prioritize data security and customization. Major players like Microsoft and Google continue to expand their offerings with tools that seamlessly integrate with existing business software. AI Regulation: Governments around the world are ramping up efforts to regulate the use and development of AI. The European Union is making headway with its AI Act, which imposes new requirements on AI developers and companies to ensure transparency, accountability, and safety in AI applications. AI-Powered Robotics: There has been a surge in advancements within AI-powered robotics, especially in sectors like logistics and healthcare. Robotics companies are leveraging generative AI to create more adaptive, autonomous robots that can better navigate compl...

AI Edition - It's AI Time - 200 ChatGPT Search ChatGPT can now search the web in a much better way than before. You can get fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources, which you would have previously needed to go to a search engine for. This blends the benefits of a natural language interface with the value of up-to-date sports scores, news, stock quotes, and more. Meta FAIR Robotics Improvements This work includes several artifacts such as vision based tactical sensing, new hardware based touch sensors, and some interesting strategic partnerships in robotics. Elon Musk's xAI adds image understanding capabilities to Grok xAI has enhanced its Grok AI model with image-understanding capabilities for paid users on X. The update allows users to upload images and query the AI about them. Future updates may include document understanding capabilities. Text-to-Image Model to Generate Memes Researchers have developed a novel adapter method for text-to-image models, allow...