AI News

Harvey, a pioneering startup revolutionizing the legal industry with its AI-powered "copilot" for lawyers, has successfully secured $100 million in a Series C funding round led by GV, Google's corporate venture arm. This latest investment, which included participation from prominent angels and VCs such as OpenAI, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil, and SV Angel, elevates Harvey’s total funding to $206 million and values the company at $1.5 billion.

Apple is ramping up its commitment to artificial intelligence (AI) with a focus on education. On Tuesday, the company revealed that it will be training all Apple Developer Academy students and mentors on the essentials of AI. Additionally, alumni from the Apple Developer Academy will also have the opportunity to participate in this training.

Spotify has expanded its innovative AI DJ feature, a personalized audio guide that curates music selections, by launching it in Spanish—its first non-English language offering. On Tuesday, the music streaming giant confirmed the news, following earlier insights regarding its development. Similar to the original AI DJ “X,” whose voice is modeled after Spotify employee Xavier “X” Jernigan, the Spanish version draws inspiration from Olivia “Livi” Quiroz Roa, a senior music editor based in Mexico City.

When you encounter the mythical Ouroboros, it's reasonable to ponder, "This surely can't endure." As a powerful symbol, representing the cycle of self-consumption, it aptly reflects certain challenges in AI development. A recent study highlights a pressing concern: AI may be on the brink of "model collapse" after repeatedly training on its own generated data.

A recent study investigates the role of AI as a supportive tool in creative tasks, revealing mixed outcomes. While AI appeared to assist less naturally creative individuals in producing more original short stories, it diminished overall creativity within the group. This finding highlights a potential trade-off as AI tools increasingly enter creative fields.

HerculesAI, previously known as Zero Systems, has been at the forefront of automating professional services since 2017, initially focusing on the legal sector. The company has been developing large language models (LLMs) for several years, long before they became a hot topic in the tech world. This expertise positioned HerculesAI perfectly to leverage the surge in interest around LLMs following the release of ChatGPT in late 2022. As a result, the company recently secured a $26 million Series B investment to further capitalize on this momentum.

Anthropic launched its Claude Android app on Tuesday, expanding the accessibility of its AI chatbot to a broader audience. With this move, Anthropic aims to persuade users to transition from ChatGPT by offering Claude in more convenient formats.

Startups Weekly: Haje's Essential Recap

a16z-backed Character.AI has announced an exciting new feature allowing users to engage with AI characters through voice calls. This innovative functionality currently supports a range of languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.

Stability AI Secures New Funding Amidst Challenges

Cohere, a generative AI startup founded by former Google researchers, has successfully raised $500 million from prominent investors, including Cisco, AMD, and Fujitsu. This funding round, which also saw participation from PSP Investments and Export Development Canada (EDC), values the Toronto-based startup at an impressive $5.5 billion, as reported by Bloomberg. This valuation more than doubles Cohere's worth since June 2023, when it raised $270 million from Inovia Capital and others, bringing its total funding to $970 million.

Helsing Secures €450 Million in Series C Funding to Expand Defense AI Capabilities

AI startup Hugging Face has secured $235 million in a Series D funding round, as initially reported by The Information and later confirmed by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on X (formerly Twitter). This funding round, which included contributions from tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, IBM, Salesforce, and Sound Ventures, has valued Hugging Face at $4.5 billion. This marks a significant increase—doubling its valuation from May 2022—and is over 100 times Hugging Face's annualized revenue, highlighting the surging demand for AI technologies and supporting platforms.

Applied Intuition has launched an advanced technology stack to improve safety and efficiency for self-driving vehicles in complex off-road environments. Key features include SLAM, perception tracking, and sensor fusion. Their system leverages AI and real-time data for navigation and obstacle detection, adapting to various terrains and conditions.

Google's Project Guideline is an AI system designed to help blind and vision-impaired runners race independently using an app that tracks a course guideline via a camera. Runners receive audio cues through bone-conducting headphones. The app works offline and adapts to conditions.