AI/News
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Opinion: Business Leaders Are Still Unprepared for AI
The AI revolution is underway, but many business leaders are not fully prepared for the transformative changes it will bring across industries, potentially leading to the rise of new AI-native titans that could unseat today's giants. The current state of AI adoption in business: Many companies are still in the early stages of integrating AI, often simply adding chatbots or natural language interfaces to existing products and services, rather than fundamentally rethinking their business models: Tech giants like Google and Amazon have developed chatbots and integrated them into their services, but they have not yet leveraged AI to radically shift...
read Jul 22, 2024ServiceNow Study: Companies Investing in AI See Returns But Face Scaling Challenges
A new ServiceNow study reveals that companies investing heavily in generative AI are starting to see positive returns, but most are still in the early stages of adoption and face challenges in scaling the technology across their organizations. Key findings from the AI Maturity Index: ServiceNow surveyed nearly 4,500 respondents from 21 countries to assess companies' progress in adopting generative AI: The average AI maturity score was 44 out of 100, with the highest score being just 71, indicating that most companies are still in the early stages of AI adoption. On average, companies are spending about 9% of revenue...
read Jul 22, 2024Nvidia Is Developing Custom AI Chip for China, Navigating US Export Restrictions
Nvidia developing custom AI chip for Chinese market: Nvidia is working on a new version of its Blackwell AI chip series specifically for China, known as the B20 for now, in order to adhere to US export rules while still profiting from China's computing market. The B20 could be a less powerful version of the B200 chip announced earlier this year, and Nvidia is partnering with Chinese firm Inspur on the launch, according to Reuters' sources. In 2022, the US barred the sale and shipment of advanced AI chips to China, but Nvidia has been redesigning its AI chips to...
read Jul 22, 2024AI-Powered Weather Model Promises Accurate, Efficient Forecasts and Climate Insights
Google researchers have developed NeuralGCM, a new weather prediction model that integrates AI with traditional physics-based methods, potentially providing accurate forecasts more efficiently and cost-effectively. Bridging the divide between AI and traditional weather modeling: NeuralGCM combines the strengths of machine learning and conventional weather prediction techniques: The model uses a conventional approach to calculate large-scale atmospheric changes and incorporates AI to correct errors that accumulate on smaller scales, such as cloud formations and regional microclimates. This selective injection of AI aims to enhance the accuracy of predictions while maintaining the reliability of traditional physics-based models. Potential for long-term climate modeling...
read Jul 22, 2024CytoReason Raises $80M to Accelerate AI-Powered Drug Discovery Platform
CytoReason, an Israeli AI drug discovery startup, has raised $80 million in a funding round backed by Nvidia, Pfizer, OurCrowd, and Thermo Fisher Scientific to accelerate the development of its AI-powered platform for disease modeling and drug discovery. Key details of CytoReason's funding and expansion plans: The startup plans to use the funds to invest in expanding the application of its computational disease models, grow its proprietary data, and open a new office in Cambridge, Massachusetts later this year. CytoReason's platform uses AI to extract insights from human disease data, helping pharma researchers make data-driven decisions and uncover potential therapeutic...
read Jul 22, 2024Condé Nast Accuses AI Startup Perplexity of Plagiarism, Demands Cease-and-Desist
Condé Nast has sent a cease-and-desist letter to artificial intelligence search engine Perplexity, accusing the startup of plagiarizing content from its publications and demanding that it stop using this content in search results. Legal challenge from major publisher: The letter from Condé Nast, which publishes The New Yorker, Vogue, and Wired, among others, represents a significant legal challenge for Perplexity: The cease-and-desist letter, sent on Monday, comes just a month after Forbes sent a similar letter to Perplexity, accusing it of copyright infringement. Condé Nast's demand adds to the growing legal scrutiny facing AI startups over their use of news...
read Jul 22, 2024DOE Launches $12B AI Initiative for Science, Energy, and Security Breakthroughs
The Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled a $12 billion, five-year road map to develop integrated scientific AI systems, aiming to advance scientific discovery, energy solutions, and national security applications. Key focus areas of the FASST initiative: The Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security and Technology (FASST) project will establish a network of AI research clusters utilizing DOE's computing infrastructure, focusing on four main pillars: Data: Developing methods, platform protocols, and tools for efficient and safe aggregation and distribution of AI training datasets. Computing Infrastructure and Platforms: Developing and deploying next-generation AI computing platforms and infrastructure such as testbeds...
read Jul 22, 2024Why Trolling LLMs to Elicit Outrageous Responses Has Legitimate Scientific Value
The hidden value of trolling large language models: Internet trolls fiddling with prompts to elicit outrageous or nonsensical responses from LLMs are actually engaged in a legitimate scientific pursuit that reveals the models' limitations and challenges the deceptive practices of LLM vendors: Contrary to vendors' stated objectives of making models helpful and accurate, they pour significant resources into responding to every viral troll-generated LLM transcript, suggesting their true priorities may differ from their public stance. Commercial LLM applications rely on the models appearing human-like as a proxy for their reliability, since customers need to understand how and when the models...
read Jul 22, 2024Cohere Secures $500M, Valuing AI Startup at $5.5B
Cohere, a Toronto-based enterprise AI startup, has raised $500 million in a Series D funding round, valuing the company at $5.5 billion amid growing skepticism surrounding the return on investment of generative AI tools for businesses. Significant investment despite industry concerns: The substantial funding round, led by PSP Investments and joined by new and returning investors, demonstrates continued investor enthusiasm in the enterprise AI sector: New investors include Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, AMD Ventures, Magnetar, and Export Development Canada, while returning investors consist of Oracle, Salesforce Ventures, and Nvidia. The investment comes on the heels of other notable fundraising efforts in...
read Jul 22, 2024AI Companies Promised the White House Self Regulation, but Transparency is Still Lacking
The White House's voluntary AI commitments have brought better red-teaming practices and watermarks, but no meaningful transparency or accountability. One year ago, seven leading AI companies committed to a set of eight voluntary guidelines on developing AI safely and responsibly. Their progress so far shows some positive changes, but critics argue much more work is needed. Key takeaways: The commitments have led to increased testing for risks, information sharing on safety best practices, and research into mitigating societal harms from AI: Companies are conducting more red-teaming exercises to probe AI models for flaws and working with external experts to assess...
read Jul 22, 2024A New Paper from Stanford HAI Explores AI’s Impact on Black Americans
A new white paper from Stanford HAI and Black in AI explores the potential benefits and risks of AI for Black Americans, aiming to educate policymakers and advocates on the need for a more balanced discussion around AI's societal impact. Key takeaways from the white paper: The authors assert that current AI discussions in Congress focus primarily on national security, but a broader conversation is needed to address how AI affects people now, particularly in terms of civil rights and access: The paper highlights both opportunities and risks for Black Americans across AI verticals like generative AI, healthcare, and education,...
read Jul 22, 2024Claude AI Just Launched on Android — Here are 5 Things to Try with it Right Now
Anthropic brings its powerful Claude AI chatbot to Android: The AI company Anthropic has launched an Android version of Claude, which features the capabilities of the impressive Claude 3.5 Sonnet model including AI vision and shared conversations across web, iOS, and Android platforms. 5 prompts to get started with Claude on Android: Travel Translator: Upload a photo of a foreign language menu or sign and have Claude translate it, focusing on specific dietary preferences or popular local dishes. Story Generator: Ask Claude to write an engaging short story in a specific genre with certain plot elements. Language Learning Game: Have...
read Jul 22, 2024AI in Music: Balancing Innovation and Human Creativity
The rapid advancements in generative AI are sparking both excitement and concern in the music industry, as AI-powered tools promise to democratize music creation while potentially displacing human musicians and creators. AI's limitations in creating truly meaningful music: While AI can replicate musical patterns and generate convincing clips, it lacks the human elements that make music resonate with listeners on a deep level: Successful music depends on an artist's unique voice, life experiences, and the ability to break rules and subvert expectations, qualities that algorithms struggle to replicate. The shared cultural experience of people connecting with the same songs is...
read Jul 22, 2024Opinion: Ex-NSA Chief Joining OpenAI Board Will Lead to Further Weaponization of AI
The appointment of retired General Paul Nakasone to OpenAI's board marks a significant shift in the company's alignment with national security interests, raising concerns about the potential weaponization of AI. Blurring lines between Big Tech and government: OpenAI's move follows a trend of tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft increasingly aligning themselves with governmental and military agendas under the guise of security: Advanced AI systems intended for defensive purposes could evolve into tools for mass surveillance, monitoring citizens' online activities and communications. OpenAI may capitalize on its data analytics capabilities to shape public discourse, with some suggesting this is...
read Jul 22, 2024Apple’s Open-Source AI Models Are Outperforming Rivals Already
Apple challenges Meta with innovative open-source AI model, signaling a commitment to advancing the broader AI ecosystem and fostering transparency. Key details of Apple's new AI model: Apple's research division has released a new open-source AI model with 7 billion parameters, outperforming similar-sized models from competitors: The model, part of the DCLM (dataComp for Language Models) project, was trained using high-quality datasets designed by researchers from Apple and various academic institutions. Despite its smaller size and context window compared to other models, Apple's AI achieves competitive performance on benchmark tests, reaching 63.7% accuracy on 5-shot evaluation tasks. Notably, Apple has...
read Jul 22, 2024HBR: Remote Workers Stand to Gain (and Lose) the Most from Generative AI
Automation's historical impact on blue-collar vs. white-collar jobs: Automation has traditionally affected manufacturing and trade jobs first, while office workers were impacted later as technology advanced: The mechanized loom pushed self-employed weavers into factories, and Ford's assembly line required skilled mechanics and engineers to perform repetitive tasks. With the introduction of networked PCs, clerical and administrative workers transitioned from people-oriented roles to software-based tasks, often with lower pay, fewer skill-building opportunities, and reduced variety, human connection, and dignity. Remote work and the empowerment of white-collar workers: The Covid-19 pandemic-driven shift to remote work further empowered white-collar employees: Remote work provided...
read Jul 22, 2024xAI Powers Up Massive Memphis Supercomputer, Sparking Local Excitement and Environmental Concerns
Elon Musk's xAI startup has powered up a massive supercomputing facility in Memphis, Tennessee to train its next AI model, Grok, with over 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, sparking both excitement and concerns among locals. Key details about xAI's Memphis supercomputing cluster: The facility, dubbed the "Gigafactory of Compute," is now operational and began training models at 4:20am local time on Monday morning, according to Musk. It leverages 100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia H100 GPUs on a single RDMA fabric, which Musk touts as "the most powerful AI training cluster in the world." The H100 GPUs are designed specifically for training large AI...
read Jul 22, 2024Google Gemini Gets More Human-Like Female Voice
Google Gemini rolls out first new voice for Android users: Google has started rolling out a new, more natural-sounding female voice for its AI assistant, Google Gemini, on Android phones, though the option is not yet available on iOS or the web client. Key details of the new voice: The new voice is noticeably more natural-sounding compared to the slightly robotic original Gemini voice. Currently, there is no way to switch back to the original voice in the settings after the new voice is activated. The rollout appears to be in a testing phase, as the new voice option is...
read Jul 22, 2024OpenAI-Backed UBI Study Shows Cash Reduces Poverty, but AI Fears Remain
The UBI experiment backed by Sam Altman and OpenAI provides valuable insights into the effects of unconditional cash transfers, but should not be considered a definitive argument for basic income as a response to AI-driven unemployment. Key findings from the three-year study: The largest randomized basic income experiment in the US to date, funded by OpenAI's Sam Altman, gave 1,000 low-income recipients $1,000 per month and found mixed results: Recipients spent an average of $310 more per month, mostly on housing, food, and car expenses, but their overall incomes fell by about $125 per month due to working slightly less....
read Jul 22, 2024AI’s Potential and Pitfalls in Tackling Childhood Trauma
Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) have the potential to be a valuable tool in addressing the pervasive issue of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), but their use also raises important ethical, legal, and policy questions that need to be carefully considered. The Prevalence and Impact of ACEs: According to CDC research, approximately 61% of adults have experienced at least one ACE, and 16% have experienced four or more ACEs, highlighting the widespread nature of this issue: ACEs can lead to lifelong negative impacts on health, mental well-being, and social functioning, underlining the importance of early detection, prevention, and treatment....
read Jul 22, 2024Supreme Court Ruling Has Big Implications for AI Regulation
The Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo has significantly weakened federal agencies' authority to regulate various sectors, including AI, leading to uncertainty about the future of AI regulation in the U.S. Agency expertise vs. judicial oversight: The court's decision shifts the power to interpret ambiguous laws from federal agencies to the judiciary, potentially undermining the ability of specialized agencies to effectively regulate AI: Agencies like the FTC, EEOC, and FDA have expertise in AI regulation within their respective domains, while the judicial branch lacks such specialized knowledge. The majority opinion argues that courts, not agencies, have...
read Jul 22, 2024How to Achieve Product-Market Fit with Your AI Strategy
The AI boom appears to be faltering as organizations struggle to turn AI investments into reliable revenue streams, enterprises find generative AI harder to deploy than anticipated, AI startups are overvalued, and consumer interest wanes. Refocusing on product-market fit: Before rushing to rebuild their organizations around AI, leaders should ensure they are using the right tools to meet the actual demands they are trying to address: The rush to apply AI to every conceivable problem leads to many products that are only marginally useful or even destructive, as seen with examples like government chatbots giving incorrect advice and tax preparation...
read Jul 21, 2024How CodiumAI Is Applying RAG to Massive Code Bases
CodiumAI is tackling the challenges of applying Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to enterprise repositories with thousands of repos and millions of lines of code, focusing on scalability, context preservation, and advanced retrieval techniques. Intelligent chunking strategies: CodiumAI developed strategies to create cohesive code chunks that respect the structure of the code and maintain critical context: It uses language-specific static analysis to recursively divide nodes into smaller chunks and perform retroactive processing to re-add crucial context. It implemented specialized chunking strategies for various file types, ensuring each chunk contains all the relevant information. Enhancing embeddings with natural language descriptions: To improve...
read Jul 21, 2024AI May Enable Interstellar Communication — So What Should We Tell the Aliens?
Artificial intelligence may enable real-time communication with extraterrestrial civilizations, prompting us to consider what we should tell them about humanity. The power of large language models: Recent advancements in AI, particularly the development of transformer neural network architecture and large language models (LLMs), have the potential to revolutionize communication with extraterrestrial intelligence: LLMs, trained on vast datasets, contain a wealth of human knowledge and are already poised to significantly impact global employment, according to the IMF. By transmitting a well-curated LLM to extraterrestrial civilizations, we could enable them to indirectly converse with us and learn about humanity without being hindered...
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