News/New Launches
These AI Toothbrushes Will Clean Your Teeth — and Collect Data on Habits
Key takeaways: The emergence of AI-powered toothbrushes with companion apps has brought new privacy concerns to the bathroom: These toothbrushes use algorithms, sensors, and processors to gather data on brushing habits, which is synced to apps via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. While marketed as helping improve oral health, there is limited scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of AI in toothbrushes. Companies appear to be more interested in using these devices to source user data and drive product sales through their connected apps. Underlying factors: Personal care brands are increasingly seeking ways to monetize beyond simply selling products: Offering services and gathering...
read Jul 31, 2024Midjourney’s New v6.1 Update Makes Humans Look More Natural
The release of Midjourney v6.1 brings significant improvements to the AI image generation platform, enhancing its capabilities and user experience. The update focuses on refining the rendering of human features, text legibility, and overall image quality. Key enhancements in v6.1: Midjourney's latest update introduces notable upgrades to the rendering of human features and text: The depiction of arms, legs, hands, and bodies has been improved, resulting in more natural-looking skin on human subjects. Text rendering has been enhanced, making rendered text more legible and accurate, especially when words are placed within quotations in the prompt. Performance and efficiency gains: Version...
read Jul 31, 2024What to Expect from Salesforce’s Low-Code AI Suite Studio 1
Salesforce introduces Einstein Studio 1, a suite of low-code AI tools to empower enterprises to create personalized customer experiences at scale while addressing data privacy concerns. Key Components of Einstein Studio 1: The new offering consists of three main tools that enable customization and integration of AI into Salesforce workflows: Copilot Builder allows companies to tailor Einstein AI for specific tasks and create new actions to seamlessly incorporate AI into their existing processes. Prompt Builder provides a platform for iterating on text prompts fed into Einstein's large language model (LLM), enabling marketing teams to optimize customer messaging. Model Builder transforms...
read Jul 31, 2024AI Startup Raises $11M to Automate Sales Workflows
The AI startup Sybill raises $11M to automate sales workflows with a new breed of proactive AI assistant, promising to transform how sales teams operate. Automated sales insights and actions: Sybill's AI captures and analyzes detailed information from sales conversations to help reps better understand customers and take appropriate next steps: The AI assistant picks up on subtle non-verbal cues like smiles and head nods to gauge customer interest and behavior during sales calls. It automatically generates detailed call reports, personalized follow-up emails, and updates to CRM systems, saving reps 5-10 hours per week on administrative work. Sybill differentiates itself...
read Jul 31, 2024Writer’s Specialized AI Models for Healthcare, Finance Are Very Good and Open-Source
The launch of specialized AI models by Writer aims to revolutionize the adoption of artificial intelligence in the highly regulated healthcare and financial services industries, addressing concerns about accuracy, safety, and compliance. Breaking new ground in domain-specific AI: Writer's Palmyra-Med-70b and Palmyra-Fin-70b models are tailored specifically for healthcare and finance, respectively, and claim to outperform larger, general-purpose AI models in domain-specific tasks: The healthcare model, Palmyra-Med-70b, achieved an average accuracy of 85.9% across medical benchmarks in zero-shot attempts, surpassing competitors like Med-PaLM-2. Palmyra-Fin-70b is the first AI model to pass the challenging CFA Level III exam, demonstrating its advanced capabilities...
read Jul 31, 2024Android’s “About This Image” Feature Helps Users Quickly Combat Misinformation
The Android "Circle to Search" feature now includes an "About this image" tab to help users quickly determine the legitimacy of images, which could be particularly useful in combating misleading or out-of-context political images on social media. Key Features: Circle to Search's new "About this image" tab provides users with instant access to crucial information about an image: The tab displays an image's metadata, source, and whether a Google AI watermark is present, helping users assess its authenticity. This feature is rolling out on the latest Pixel and Samsung phones, tablets, and foldables, making it widely accessible to Android users....
read Jul 31, 2024Zyphra Launches Open-Source Small Language Model Zamba2
The recently released Zamba2-2.7B is a cutting-edge small language model that delivers superior performance and efficiency, underscoring the growing prominence and potential of SLMs in the AI landscape. Key Takeaways from Zamba2-2.7B Release: Zyphra's latest model, Zamba2-2.7B, sets a new standard for small language models, offering impressive capabilities and efficiency: Zamba2-2.7B achieves twice the speed and 27% reduced memory overhead compared to other models, matching the performance of larger 7B models. The model is trained on a substantial dataset of approximately 3 trillion tokens derived from Zyphra's proprietary datasets, ensuring high-quality and relevant training data. Advanced techniques such as interleaved...
read Jul 31, 2024Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is an AI-Powered Smartphone at a Competitive Price
The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, a new AI-powered smartphone, has launched with promising features and specs that position it as a potential competitor in the mid-range market: The (2a) Plus boasts a triple 50MP camera setup, 4K video recording, 20GB of RAM, and speeds 10% faster than its predecessor, the Nothing Phone (2a), at a price point of $399. Nothing claims impressive battery life and fast charging capabilities, with the phone able to handle nearly 18 hours of continuous social media scrolling or provide a full day's charge in just 20 minutes. AI-driven enhancements take center stage: Nothing is embracing...
read Jul 31, 2024Wix’s New AI Blogging Tools Will Write Your Entire Article for You
Wix introduces AI-powered blogging tools to generate SEO-optimized content, potentially flooding the web with low-quality posts and prioritizing search rankings over genuine information. Key features of Wix's AI blogging tools: Wix's new AI-powered blogging features aim to make it easier for users to create SEO-optimized content without writing the posts themselves: The tools can generate AI-created drafts or outlines for blog posts, which human writers can then use as a foundation to maintain the appearance of user-generated content. Users can receive suggestions for blog titles, copy, and images based on their website's information, products, events, or services. The AI can...
read Jul 31, 2024Taco Bell is the Latest Fast Food Chain to Offer Voice AI at the Drive-Thru
Taco Bell is expanding its use of AI technology to handle drive-thru orders in the US, with the goal of improving efficiency and profitability. AI-powered drive-thru ordering: Yum! Brands, Taco Bell's parent company, has been testing Voice AI technology at over 100 Taco Bell drive-thru locations in the US for around two years. The company plans to expand the technology to "hundreds" of Taco Bell stores by the end of the year. Voice AI is also being introduced to five KFC restaurants in Australia, another Yum! Brands subsidiary. Potential benefits of AI in fast food: Yum! Brands is promoting the...
read Jul 31, 2024Here are the Features Acer Just Integrated into its New AI Computers
Acer introduces a range of AI-powered features in its laptops to enhance user experience and productivity. These features leverage AI technologies to improve everyday computing tasks, video conferencing, and personalization. Smarter digital assistance with Copilot: Acer AI-powered laptops come with Microsoft Copilot, a part of the latest Microsoft Windows operating system, which offers advanced digital assistance: Copilot can answer queries, draft emails and messages, and even create images from simple text prompts. It also integrates with other apps, including Microsoft's Edge Browser to summarize entire web pages, boosting productivity. Enhanced video conferencing with Acer PurifiedView and PurifiedVoice: Acer's AI-powered features...
read Jul 31, 2024Google Photos AI Editing Tools Are Now Free
The AI editing tools in Google Photos, once reserved for paying Google One customers, are now freely accessible to all users. Google recently shared insights into effectively using these features, particularly highlighting the differences between Magic Eraser and Magic Editor's erase tool. Key Takeaways: Google's senior product manager, Selena, explains the distinct use cases for Magic Eraser and Magic Editor: Magic Eraser excels at quick, minor edits, such as removing small background objects in landscape shots. Magic Editor's generative AI capabilities make it better suited for more complex, prominent foreground object removal, as it can effectively fill the space left...
read Jul 31, 2024AI Startup Not Diamond Sends Your Chat Queries to Different LLMs
The startup Not Diamond has emerged with a novel solution for enterprises looking to deploy the best large language models (LLMs) for their applications. By using smart routing, the company aims to enable a multi-model future where queries are directed to the most suitable model based on accuracy, latency, and cost considerations. Key innovation: an LLM router for a multi-model future; Not Diamond's router uses a 'meta-model' to understand incoming queries and automatically route them to the most appropriate model, optimizing for accuracy, latency, and cost: The company believes that the future will involve many foundation models, fine-tuned variants, and...
read Jul 31, 2024OpenAI Opens Limited Access to Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT
OpenAI introduces Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT Plus users, enabling more naturalistic conversations with the AI chatbot on mobile apps. Key Details of the Alpha Rollout: OpenAI has begun the gradual release of Advanced Voice Mode to a select group of ChatGPT Plus subscribers, with plans to expand access to all Plus users by fall: The feature allows users to engage in real-time conversations with four AI-generated voices on the ChatGPT mobile app for iOS and Android. ChatGPT will respond naturalistically, handling interruptions and conveying emotions through its utterances and intonations. Users selected for the alpha phase will receive an...
read Jul 31, 2024Meta Ditches Celebrity Chatbots, Shifts Focus to AI Studio
Key takeaways: Meta has discontinued its celebrity-based AI chatbots and is now prioritizing user-generated chatbots through its new AI Studio tool: The celebrity chatbots, which were a significant part of Meta's announcements at its Connect event last September, allowed users to interact with alter-ego versions of celebrities like Charli D'Amelio, Dwyane Wade, and Paris Hilton. Meta spokesperson Liz Sweeney stated that the company learned from building the celebrity chatbots and is now focusing on enabling users, creators, and celebrities to create their own AI chatbots through AI Studio. Pivot to AI Studio: The launch of AI Studio marks a shift...
read Jul 31, 2024OpenAI’s “GPT-4o Long Output” Produces 16x Longer Responses
OpenAI announces GPT-4o Long Output, a variation of its GPT-4o model that significantly extends output capabilities, allowing for responses up to 64,000 tokens in length. Key features and improvements: The new GPT-4o Long Output model offers a substantial upgrade in output length while maintaining the same overall context window as the original GPT-4o: GPT-4o Long Output can generate outputs up to 64,000 tokens, a 16-fold increase from the original GPT-4o's 4,000-token limit, enabling the model to produce responses as long as a 200-page novel. The maximum context window, which includes both input and output tokens, remains at 128,000 tokens for...
read Jul 30, 2024AI Wearable ‘Friend’ Offers Constant Companionship
The AI-powered wearable 'Friend' aims to provide constant companionship through an always-listening pendant, without focusing on productivity enhancement. Key Details of the Friend Wearable: The Friend is an AI-powered pendant that listens to the wearer's surroundings and provides commentary and conversation through text messages and push notifications: Developed by Avi Schiffmann, the Friend uses Anthropic AI's Claude 3.5 Sonnet large language model to engage in conversation, offer encouragement, and even tease the wearer. The device has a microphone that listens to everything around the wearer by default, and can be tapped to ask questions or receive unprompted messages. The Friend...
read Jul 30, 2024Runway’s Gen-3 Alpha Transforms Still Images into Stunning Videos
Runway's Gen-3 Alpha AI video model now allows users to generate highly realistic videos from still images, opening up new possibilities for filmmaking and video creation. Key features and capabilities: The latest update to Runway's Gen-3 Alpha model introduces the ability to use still images as prompts for generating AI videos: Users can upload a still image and optionally add text prompts to guide the video generation process, with the option to create 5 or 10-second videos. The image-to-video feature is surprisingly fast, taking less than a minute to generate a video, while maintaining high quality and consistency with the...
read Jul 30, 2024The Cautious Apple Intelligence Rollout Risks Frustrating iPhone Upgraders
The iPhone 16 is set to launch without some of the most anticipated Apple Intelligence features, potentially disappointing customers who are looking to upgrade for the AI capabilities. Apple's cautious approach to AI rollout: Apple is taking a slow and measured approach to introducing its new AI features, even for developers: The first iOS 18.1 developer beta provides access to a limited set of Apple Intelligence features, such as writing tools, Siri improvements, and natural language searches in Photos. Some expected features, like the AI image generation tool Image Playground, were not included in the 18.1 beta. Apple is labeling...
read Jul 30, 2024Nvidia Announces Gen AI and NIM Microservices for OpenUSD
The next evolution of AI is being powered by Nvidia's advancements in OpenUSD, a universal 3D data interchange framework, which is expanding its adoption to robotics, industrial design, and engineering, enabling the development of highly accurate virtual worlds. Key offerings for accelerating digital twin development: Nvidia introduced new OpenUSD-based generative AI and development frameworks built on the Nvidia Omniverse platform, empowering more industries to build applications for visualizing projects and simulating environments: Nvidia NIM microservices for AI models can generate OpenUSD language to answer user queries, generate OpenUSD Python code, apply materials to 3D objects, and understand 3D space and...
read Jul 30, 2024How to Build a YouTube Summarizer with LLM and yt-dlp
The rapid development of artificial intelligence tools for analyzing and summarizing YouTube videos is transforming how we consume and understand online content, with far-reaching implications for education, research, and public discourse. In a recent blog post, Shekhar Gulati provides instructions to developers for how to summarize any YouTube video using the power of LLMs and Python's yt-dlp tool. Harnessing AI for video summarization: A new utility combines large language models (LLMs) and Python's yt-dlp tool to generate concise summaries of YouTube videos by extracting key points from subtitles: The script utilizes the llm command-line interface to interact with powerful language...
read Jul 30, 2024JPMorgan Releases In-House Chatbot for AI-Enabled Research
JPMorgan Chase unveils LLM Suite, a generative AI platform for asset and wealth management employees, underscoring AI's growing influence in the financial industry and its potential to transform traditional roles. Key details of LLM Suite: JPMorgan's new AI tool is set to revolutionize how employees work by assisting with various tasks and providing information and advice: LLM Suite is described as a "ChatGPT-like product" designed for "general purpose productivity" in an internal memo signed by key executives. The AI-enabled research platform can perform functions such as writing, generating ideas, and document summarization, essentially acting as a "research analyst." It is...
read Jul 30, 2024Perplexity Launches Ad Revenue Sharing with Publishers
AI search startup Perplexity has just announced an ad revenue sharing program with publishers amid plagiarism accusations. The AI search startup aims to compensate content creators and build long-term partnerships, but faces challenges in an increasingly competitive and costly landscape. Key Takeaways: Perplexity's new "Publishers' Program" will share a double-digit percentage of ad revenue with participating publishers when their content is featured in search results. The program follows plagiarism accusations from Forbes and Wired, who found their paywalled content being used without permission in Perplexity's AI-generated articles and podcasts. Despite the controversy, Perplexity believes its use of content falls within...
read Jul 30, 2024Meta’s AI Studio Lets Users Create AI Versions of Themselves
Key features of AI Studio: Meta's new tool offers two main functionalities for Instagram users to leverage AI: Users can create AI versions of themselves for personal use and to share with friends, allowing them to customize the AI's name, avatar, and personality based on the underlying Llama 3.1 model. Creators can set up an AI extension of themselves to automatically respond to common questions and story replies from their followers, potentially increasing their reach and response time. Customization options and transparency measures: To maintain control over the AI's behavior and ensure transparency, Meta has implemented several features: Creators can...
read