AI News

On Tuesday, at the annual Google I/O 2024 developer conference, Google unveiled exciting new additions to its Gemma family of models, which are open (but not open-source) alternatives to Meta’s Llama and Mistral’s open models. The standout reveal is Gemma 2, the next evolution of Google’s open-weight models, set to debut in June with an impressive 27 billion parameters.

At its Cloud Next conference on Tuesday, Google introduced Gemini Code Assist, a sophisticated AI-driven code completion and assistance tool designed specifically for enterprise use. This announcement follows the earlier Duet AI service, which was phased out in late 2023. Google had hinted at a transition from the Codey model to the Gemini framework even before the discontinuation. With Code Assist, Google not only rebrands its previous offering but also delivers significant enhancements.

Instagram has launched a new generative AI-enhanced background editing tool for users in the U.S., announced on Wednesday. Ahmad Al-Dahle, Meta's lead for generative AI, shared the news on Threads, highlighting that this innovative feature enables users to transform the backgrounds of their images with exciting prompts for Stories.

Brave, a company known for its alternative web browser, is now making its AI-powered assistant, Leo, available to all desktop users. Alongside this launch, Brave is introducing a premium subscription service called Leo Premium for $15 per month, which offers users enhanced features such as access to faster and more advanced large language models (LLMs) and increased query limits.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has officially handed over control of the OpenAI Startup Fund to Ian Hathaway, as confirmed by the company.

At the Team ’24 event in Las Vegas, Atlassian unveiled an exciting integration: Jira Software and Jira Work Management will now be combined into a single product under the unified “Jira” brand. Originating as a tool for developers focused on software development and issue tracking, Jira has evolved over recent years to cater to business teams like marketing, sales, and human resources through the introduction of Jira Work Management in 2021, which replaced the previous Jira Core product.

AI-driven parking platform Metropolis has raised an impressive $1.7 billion to acquire SP Plus, a leading provider of parking facility management services, utilizing a blend of equity and debt.

Sony Music Group has issued warnings to over 700 technology firms and music streaming platforms, urging them not to utilize its music for AI training without explicit permission.

Consumer demand for cutting-edge AI technology is on the rise. The recent launch of OpenAI’s latest flagship model, GPT-4o, has triggered the company's largest revenue spike on mobile to date, even though the model is freely accessible on the web. Introduced on May 13, GPT-4o boasts capabilities in text, speech, and video, offering real-time responsiveness and an array of emotive voice options. This substantial upgrade positions it as a more powerful offering compared to previous versions. As a result of these advancements, more users are opting for OpenAI’s paid subscription, as indicated by new insights from app analytics firm Appfigures.

Just a week after unveiling its latest Gemini models, Google has introduced a new family of lightweight open-weight models called Gemma. Starting with Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B, these models are designed for both commercial and research applications and are “inspired by Gemini.”

Your smartphone’s camera relies equally on software and hardware, and Glass aims to enhance both dimensions. As the company rolls out its innovative anamorphic lens, it has also introduced an AI-driven camera upgrade, touted to significantly enhance image quality—without introducing any AI upscaling artifacts.

Elon Musk's Optimus humanoid robot from Tesla is taking on new challenges — this time, folding a t-shirt at a development facility. While the robot demonstrates a degree of competence in this task, Musk later shared some updates that significantly tempered the excitement surrounding this domestic achievement.

Meta is not the only company facing challenges due to the surge in AI-generated content. YouTube has also implemented a significant policy change, quietly introduced in June, allowing individuals to request the removal of AI-generated or synthetic content that mimics their face or voice. This development is part of YouTube’s ongoing commitment to responsible AI practices, building on its initial framework announced last November.

At the Team ’24 event in Las Vegas, Atlassian unveiled an exciting integration: Jira Software and Jira Work Management will now be combined into a single product under the unified “Jira” brand. Originating as a tool for developers focused on software development and issue tracking, Jira has evolved over recent years to cater to business teams like marketing, sales, and human resources through the introduction of Jira Work Management in 2021, which replaced the previous Jira Core product.

Can generative AI tailored for enterprises—such as tools that autocompletion for reports and spreadsheet formulas—achieve interoperability? A coalition of organizations, including Cloudera and Intel, alongside the Linux Foundation, aims to explore this question.