AI News

This week brought exciting developments in the AI community, as Apple entered the competition alongside Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and others, in the quest to create an icon that effectively represents AI to users. Like its competitors, Apple has opted for ambiguity.

Bumble is urging its users to help maintain the integrity of its platform by combating AI-generated profiles. On Tuesday, the company rolled out a new reporting feature that allows members to flag profiles suspected of using AI-generated photos and videos.

Otis Chandler Reimagines Content Discovery with Smashing

Artificial intelligence startups are capturing headlines with massive venture capital investments, but there's a separate opportunity for companies developing tools that simplify interactions with data-centric applications like AI. This is especially crucial for organizations still navigating the complexities of legacy data systems.

Voice recognition technology is increasingly becoming a part of daily life, yet a significant gap persists: speakers of minority languages and individuals with strong accents or speech disorders, such as stuttering, often struggle to effectively utilize these tools for tasks like application control and transcription. Tobi Olatunji, founder and CEO of Intron Health, a clinical speech-recognition startup, aims to close this gap. He asserts that Intron boasts Africa's largest clinical speech database, featuring an algorithm trained on 3.5 million audio clips (16,000 hours) from over 18,000 contributors across 29 countries, capturing 288 accents primarily from healthcare workers.

With India's election process concluded and a new government in office, Meta has lifted its restrictions on election-related queries using its Meta AI chatbot. In contrast, Google continues to enforce limits on similar queries as part of its global policies.

With Samsung unveiling its exciting new devices, including the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6, at Unpacked 2024, Google has announced a series of innovative updates that enhance the user experience on these devices.

Many companies find it challenging to unlock the full potential of their data. Forrester reported several years ago that a staggering 60% to 73% of data in the average business remains untouched for analytical purposes. This is largely due to data being siloed or restricted by technical and security constraints, which complicates the application of analytical tools.

Until a year ago, Arjun Pillai held the pivotal role of Chief Data Officer at ZoomInfo, a leading B2B database company. However, the seasoned entrepreneur felt a growing restlessness. After founding and selling two startups, one of which was Insent, acquired by ZoomInfo in 2021, he realized the entrepreneurial itch never truly goes away. "Once you start a startup, you always have that bug," Pillai reflected. Following the rise of ChatGPT, he felt inspired to launch his third venture. With over a decade of experience in startup ventures and sales technology, Pillai was confident that generative AI could revolutionize technical sales processes. "I couldn't wait. I had to get out and start the company."

A promising startup named EvolutionaryScale has recently secured a significant investment to develop AI models that can generate innovative proteins for scientific research.

Supply chain management continues to pose significant challenges for mid-market companies that can't afford enterprise-level solutions like SAP or lack the IT resources needed to navigate complex systems. In response, early-stage startup Didero has developed an AI-driven tool designed specifically to simplify these processes.

Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, are joining forces to launch Thrive AI Health, an innovative initiative dedicated to developing AI-driven technology for healthier living. Supported by Huffington's mental wellness company, Thrive Global, and the OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive AI Health aims to create an "AI health coach" that provides personalized guidance on sleep, nutrition, fitness, stress management, and social connectedness, as detailed in a press release from Monday.

Elon Musk's AI venture, X.ai, has unveiled its latest generative AI model, Grok-1.5, poised to enhance the functionality of social network X's Grok chatbot in the near future. According to a recent blog post, Grok-1.5 represents a significant upgrade over its predecessor, Grok-1, as evidenced by impressive benchmark results and specifications.

In the current landscape marked by an AI chip shortage, Microsoft has announced an exciting initiative aimed at empowering select startups with free access to its Azure cloud's “supercomputing” resources for AI model development.

Amazon's Alexa is set for a major upgrade featuring a custom large language model (LLM) to enhance conversational skills, real-world tasks, personalization, and trustworthiness. Users will engage more naturally without repetitive prompts. The updated Alexa will launch with new Echo devices in 2024.