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LlamaIndex Launches New Platform with Advanced RAG and Multi-Agent Systems
LlamaIndex is ushering in the future of retrieval augmented generation (RAG) for enterprises by offering a platform that helps developers quickly and easily build advanced LLM-powered applications. Improving upon basic RAG systems: LlamaIndex aims to address the limitations of primitive RAG interfaces, which can have poor quality understanding and planning, lack function calling or tool use, and are stateless: Basic RAG systems can make it difficult to productionize LLM apps at scale due to accuracy issues, difficulties with scaling, and the requirement for deep-tech expertise to handle the many parameters. LlamaIndex's platform offers data extraction that turns unstructured and semi-structured...
read Jul 13, 2024Pinterest Launches Canvas AI: Transforms Images, Enhancing Visual Discovery and UX
Pinterest unveils Canvas AI, a powerful new foundation model that enhances visual discovery by transforming existing images based on user preferences and textual descriptions. Key Takeaways: Canvas represents a significant advancement in Pinterest's AI strategy, focusing on enhancing existing images rather than generating new ones from scratch: The model aligns with Pinterest's mission of inspiring users through visual discovery, allowing for personalized image manipulation and enhancement. Canvas opens up new possibilities for users and brands, such as showing products in various settings or exploring different styling options. Pinterest emphasizes responsible AI development, prioritizing safety and trust through their STEAM framework....
read Jul 13, 2024OpenAI Rushed AI Safety Tests, Revealing Gap Between Pledges and Practice
The article reveals troubling signs that OpenAI may be prioritizing rapid product launches over thorough safety testing of its powerful AI models, despite public commitments to the contrary. Key Takeaways: OpenAI's safety team felt pressured to rush through testing of the GPT-4 Omni model to meet a May launch date, even planning a launch party before knowing if the model was safe: Employees described the testing process as "squeezed" into a single week, with some saying "We basically failed at the process." This incident highlights a shift in OpenAI's culture from its roots as an altruistic nonprofit to a more...
read Jul 13, 2024Embracing AI: Navigating the Journey to AI Maturity in Your Organization
Debasis Dutta from Skillsoft outlines four key phases of AI maturity and emphasizes the need for change management and skilling to ensure success. The four phases of AI maturity: Dutta describes the AI journey as consisting of exploration, experimentation, innovation, and realization, stressing that it doesn't matter which stage an organization is in, as long as they are making progress: Exploration involves identifying use cases, scenarios, and real-life examples, as well as outlining the challenges AI is intended to solve. During the experimentation phase, organizations begin using AI tools and establishing guidelines and governance models to ensure proper usage. Innovation...
read Jul 13, 2024A Stanford AI Expert Says Current AI Unlikely to Cause Catastrophic Threats
James Landay, co-director of Stanford's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence institute, believes the current AI technology is unlikely to lead to catastrophic scenarios like starting a nuclear war, arguing that realizing such threats would require major scientific breakthroughs that are not yet on the horizon. Key focus areas for Stanford HAI: In the five years since its launch, the institute has refined its definition of "human-centered AI" to encompass the technology's broader impacts on communities and society, beyond just individual user interactions: The institute has grown to 35-40 staff members, funded research by 400 faculty, and led training sessions for corporate executives...
read Jul 13, 2024Goldman Sachs Questions Economic Viability and Transformative Potential of Generative AI
Goldman Sachs, one of the world's largest investment banks, has published a research paper questioning the economic viability and transformative potential of generative AI, despite the current hype and huge investments in the technology. Key takeaways from the Goldman Sachs report: The paper, titled "Gen AI: too much spend, too little benefit?" is based on interviews with Goldman Sachs economists, researchers, MIT professor Daron Acemoglu, and infrastructure experts. It questions whether the massive spending on generative AI infrastructure will ever pay off in terms of benefits and returns, noting that there is currently "little to show for" these investments. The...
read Jul 12, 2024UK Aims to Boost University Spinouts, Emulating US for AI Edge
The UK government is exploring ways to boost funding for university startups to capitalize on the AI revolution and strengthen the country's tech industry. Here is a summary of the key points: The UK's push to commercialize academic research: UK universities are urging the new Labor government to significantly increase funding for startups spun out of academia to £108 million ($140 million) per year: The UK has a strong tech industry and world-class universities, but the process of spinning out companies from academia remains challenging compared to the US. An independent government review found that technology transfer offices (TTOs) at...
read Jul 12, 2024University of Illinois Is Emerging as an AI Powerhouse for Responsible Innovation
The University of Illinois has emerged as a Midwestern powerhouse in artificial intelligence, driving transformative advancements across industries through groundbreaking research, strategic partnerships, and a commitment to responsible AI innovation. AI research and education at UIUC: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has established itself as a global leader in AI, with over $270 million in AI-related research projects since 2019: The Grainger College of Engineering and the new Siebel School of Computing and Data Science constitute a world-leading hub of AI innovation, spurring advancements in agriculture, biotechnology, education, and other fields. UIUC has a rich history of producing...
read Jul 12, 2024Windows 12 Rumors: AI Boost, Modular Core, and Floating UI Spark Intrigue
Microsoft's next major Windows release, colloquially referred to as Windows 12, is generating buzz despite not being officially announced yet. More AI-powered features and modular system design are just a couple of the leaks and rumors swirling around the anticipated operating system. Release timeline remains uncertain: While Microsoft has not definitively confirmed Windows 12 development, clues suggest it could arrive sometime in 2025: Microsoft recently moved to an annual feature update cadence for Windows, with the next logical release window for a major version being around September or October 2025. This timeline would coincide with the end of support for...
read Jul 12, 2024Amazon Unveils Rufus, an AI Shopping Assistant with Conversational Abilities
Amazon's AI shopping assistant Rufus is now available to all US users, offering a new way to interact with the e-commerce giant's vast product catalog, but its broader conversational abilities raise some concerns. Key Features: Rufus is designed to enhance the shopping experience on Amazon's mobile app, providing users with a convenient way to ask questions and receive personalized recommendations: Users can access Rufus via an icon in the app's navigation bar, allowing them to chat with the AI assistant about products, orders, and more. Rufus draws upon Amazon's product listings, reviews, and community Q&As, as well as some web-based...
read Jul 12, 2024Qualcomm Exec: On-Device AI Will Revolutionize PCs And Enhance Privacy
The Qualcomm executive Nitin Kumar outlined the company's vision for AI-powered PCs at VentureBeat's Transform 2024 conference, highlighting Snapdragon processors' capabilities and the potential for on-device AI to drive innovation and reshape personal computing. Qualcomm's edge in AI PCs: Kumar emphasized Snapdragon processors' ability to deliver robust performance without compromising battery life, thanks to their integrated high-performing NPU and tight integration with Windows and Microsoft's ecosystem. Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X series processors feature a 45 TOPS NPU, enabling local execution of complex AI models like Meta's 7 billion parameter Llama model without relying on the cloud. The company's AI Hub...
read Jul 12, 2024Perplexity AI to Share Ad Revenue with Publishers in Groundbreaking Move
Perplexity, an AI chatbot, is set to launch a first-of-its-kind revenue-sharing program with web publishers next month, enabling them to monetize their content when cited by the platform. Key Takeaways: The revenue-sharing initiative will be based on advertising run alongside search queries on Perplexity, with partners receiving a percentage of revenue for ads displayed against results that cite their content: The program will include both the paid Perplexity Pro offering and the free version of the platform. Partners will be entitled to a share of the revenue whenever an ad is run against a result that cites a link from...
read Jul 12, 2024AI Chip Startup Groq’s Explosive Growth Hints at Looming Industry Disruption
Groq, an AI chip startup, has achieved an unprecedented developer adoption rate, attracting 280,000 users to its platform in just four months, potentially the fastest hardware adoption in history. Groq's innovative chip architecture drives rapid adoption: The startup's unique approach to AI inference chips eliminates external memory, which co-founder Jonathan Ross identifies as the primary bottleneck in traditional GPU-based systems: By removing this bottleneck, Groq aims to significantly improve the speed of AI inference, drawing a comparison to the unacceptable latency of a Google search taking 10 seconds to return results. The company's explosive growth has led to challenges in...
read Jul 12, 2024Researcher Reproduces GPT-2 Using C/CUDA, Making LLM Training More Accessible
In a GitHub post, Andrej Karpathy explains how he and a team were able to successfully reproduce the full 1558M parameter version of GPT-2 using llm.c, training it on a single 8XH100 node for 24 hours at a cost of $672. This demonstrates the dramatic improvements in compute, software, and data that have made reproducing large language models much more feasible in the 5 years since GPT-2 was originally introduced. Key Takeaways: The trained model performs qualitatively similarly to the original GPT-2 on prompts, generating coherent and relevant continuations. On the HellaSwag eval, it matches GPT-2 performance around 25K steps...
read Jul 12, 2024AI “Coach” Detects Hallucinations, Boosts Accuracy and Safety
A new AI model called Lynx, developed by Patronus AI, aims to detect and explain hallucinations produced by large language models (LLMs), offering a faster, cheaper, and more reliable way to catch AI mistakes without human intervention. Addressing the challenge of AI hallucinations: Patronus AI's founders, ex-Meta AI researchers Anand Kannappan and Rebecca Qian, recognized the need for a solution to the problem of AI models confidently making factual errors: Kannappan and Qian spoke with numerous company executives who expressed concerns about launching AI products that could make headlines for the wrong reasons due to AI hallucinations. Lynx is designed...
read Jul 12, 2024Faster, More Accurate Cancer Diagnosis Is Now a Reality Because of AI
Paige AI technology aims to improve cancer diagnostics and patient outcomes: Cofounded by Thomas Fuchs, Paige is the first company with an FDA-approved AI tool for cancer diagnosis, potentially revolutionizing the healthcare industry through enhanced precision and care. Fuchs discusses AI's role in accelerating cancer detection: AI models leverage visual pattern recognition to speed up cancer detection in imaging and pathology. Paige has demonstrated promising results in using AI for these applications. Fuchs highlights the challenges that still exist in cancer detection. Drawing from diverse experience to advance medical AI: Fuchs' background includes engineering roles at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory....
read Jul 12, 2024The Atlantic Embraces AI, and Partnership with OpenAI
The Atlantic signed a deal with OpenAI to help shape the future of AI in a way that benefits serious journalism. While the deal has sparked some criticism, The Atlantic's CEO Nicholas Thompson believes it's important for media companies to engage with AI and try to steer its development in a positive direction. Key aspects of The Atlantic's deal with OpenAI: The multi-part agreement allows OpenAI to train on The Atlantic's data for two years, provides The Atlantic with credits to use OpenAI's tools, and will include The Atlantic's content in OpenAI's forthcoming search product: The Atlantic will have some...
read Jul 12, 2024VB Transform 2024 Panel: Finance Leaders Share How GenAI Is Changing Financial Services
The panel of experts from Bank of America, Brex, Google, and Cerebrus at VB Transform 2024 provided insights into how generative AI is transforming the financial services industry, with applications in customer service, engineering support, and operational efficiency. Generative AI's potential to simplify complex financial topics: David Horn from Brex highlighted gen AI's ability to "raise the floor" by translating complex financial topics into easily understandable language, potentially enabling a digital CFO capability for smaller businesses lacking dedicated financial resources. Horn noted that finance can be particularly challenging for smaller organizations without a dedicated Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Generative AI...
read Jul 12, 2024VentureBeat Recognizes the Top Women Shaping the Future of AI
VentureBeat announced the winners of its sixth annual Women in AI Awards, recognizing women leaders and changemakers in the field of artificial intelligence. The winners were chosen based on their commitment to the industry, work to increase inclusivity, and positive influence in the AI community. AI Entrepreneur: Jenny Dearing, co-founder and CEO of 1337, won for pioneering a transformative shift towards co-creating content and simulating the life of AI entities, inventing new ways people engage with creators, brands, and others online. Dearing's company is creating a platform to create and manage digital influencers at scale by combining AI with the...
read Jul 12, 2024Zendesk CTO: AI Will Revolutionize Customer Experience, But Human Touch Remains Crucial
Zendesk CTO Adrian McDermott believes AI will fundamentally transform customer experience (CX) within the next few years, with 100% of all customer interactions involving AI in some way for every Zendesk customer. Key findings from Zendesk's Future of AI-powered CX report: The report surveyed over 1,300 senior CX leaders, revealing strong interest and optimism about AI's impact on CX: 81% of CX leaders believe AI will change CX for the better. 86% believe CX will be utterly transformed over the next three years due to AI. 77% think traditional CX will give way to radically different industry dynamics under AI's...
read Jul 12, 2024Kaiser Permanente Is Trying to Upend Healthcare with AI Wearables and At-Home Care
Kaiser Permanente is bringing generative AI, large language models, wearables, and other advanced technologies to patients' homes, transforming the traditional healthcare model to provide more continuous, proactive, and patient-centered care. Shifting healthcare to the home: Kaiser Permanente is embracing a new paradigm where care is delivered to patients at home, rather than requiring them to visit medical facilities: Patients are increasingly demanding that their healthcare come to them, in real-time and when they want it, similar to the convenience of services like Amazon Prime and virtual meetings. Kaiser Permanente, with its 40 hospitals and 618 medical facilities, is leveraging next-gen...
read Jul 12, 2024Consumers Wary of AI Customer Service, Majority Consider Switching Companies: Gartner Survey
A recent Gartner survey finds that most consumers are wary of AI-powered customer service, with many preferring to switch companies rather than deal with AI assistants. Key survey findings: The survey, conducted in December 2023 with 5,728 respondents, reveals significant consumer concerns regarding AI in customer service: 64% of customers would prefer that companies not use AI for customer service at all. 53% indicated they would consider switching to a competitor if a company was using AI for customer service. The top concern, cited by 60% of respondents, is that AI will make it more difficult to reach a human...
read Jul 12, 2024AI Ammo Vending Machines: Convenience or Controversy?
AI-powered ammunition vending machines spark controversy in Alabama and Oklahoma: American Rounds has installed vending machines that use facial recognition AI to verify a buyer's age, allowing them to purchase ammunition alongside typical vending machine items like soda and snacks. Key details of the AI-powered ammo vending machines: The machines, called Automated Ammo Retail Machines (AARMs), are currently in six locations across Alabama and Oklahoma, with plans to expand to Texas and Colorado. To make a purchase, buyers must scan their ID and undergo a 360-degree facial scan to verify they meet the legal age requirements: 18 for rifle and...
read Jul 12, 2024Muck Rack Tackles Fake AI Journalist Profiles, Reflecting Wider Challenges Across Media
The journalist database Muck Rack is taking steps to address the issue of fake AI-generated writer profiles and content on its platform, reflecting a wider challenge across the media industry. Muck Rack unverifies fake iLounge writer profiles: After being contacted by The Verge for comment, Muck Rack removed verification from two profiles of seemingly fake writers for iLounge who appeared to be publishing AI-written content. Developing AI detection capabilities: Muck Rack spokesperson Linda Zebian said the platform is working on a model to identify signs commonly associated with fake authorship, allowing them to flag potential AI-generated writers to users. Broader...
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