AI News

The Cosmos Institute, a nonprofit established by influential figures such as Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and former Defense Department technologist Brendan McCord, has unveiled a venture program alongside innovative research initiatives. Their mission is to “cultivate a new generation of technologists and entrepreneurs who possess deep philosophical insight to navigate the complexities of the AI era.”

AI video creation platform D-ID has launched an innovative tool that leverages AI technology for translating videos into multiple languages. This platform not only translates the dialogue but also replicates the speaker’s voice and syncs their lip movements to match the translated script.

Google’s Annual Made by Google Event Unveils Exciting AI Innovations

OpenAI publicly announced its opposition to California’s controversial AI bill, SB 1047, in a letter addressed to state Senator Scott Wiener and Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday. The AI leader criticized the bill, first proposed by Wiener in February, arguing it could hinder innovation and drive talent away from California. Wiener quickly dismissed OpenAI's concerns, stating their claims were unfounded.

SoundHound Accelerates Growth in AI by Acquiring Amelia AI

OpenAI and Anthropic invest billions annually in training advanced AI models such as GPT-4 and Claude, yet aggressive price competition is destabilizing the market surrounding these technologies. Aidan Gomez, CEO of AI provider Cohere, highlighted this issue during a recent podcast, declaring that selling access to AI models is rapidly evolving into a "zero margin business." Currently, the costs associated with these AI models surpass their revenue.

World Labs, a promising startup co-founded by Stanford AI professor Fei-Fei Li, has successfully secured two rounds of financing within two months, according to various reports. The latest round, led by NEA, has elevated the company's valuation to over $1 billion, as confirmed by sources familiar with the funding. This follows a reported $100 million round that caught attention in July.

ElevenLabs, an innovative startup specializing in AI-driven tools for creating and editing synthetic voices, is excited to announce that its Reader app is now available worldwide, offering support for 32 languages. Originally launched in June for users in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, the Reader app allows individuals to upload a variety of text formats—such as articles, PDF documents, and e-books—and listen to them in multiple languages and voices. The app currently supports a diverse array of languages, including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Hindi, German, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Italian, Tamil, and Swedish.

AI lobbying at the federal level in the U.S. is escalating amid a burgeoning generative AI landscape and an impactful election year that could shape future AI regulations. Recent data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit organization that monitors campaign financing and lobbying activities, reveals a rise in the number of groups lobbying the federal government on AI-related issues—from 459 in 2023 to 556 in the first half of 2024 (January to July). In tandem, leading AI startups have significantly increased their own lobbying efforts.

Google Cloud has rolled out an exciting initiative for Y Combinator startups, granting them access to a dedicated, subsidized cluster of Nvidia and Google Tensor processing units for developing AI models. This initiative is part of Google Cloud's strategy to partner with promising early-stage AI startups, with the hope that some will evolve into large, compute-intensive businesses.

Could the Absence of AI Characters Be Quibi's Downfall? One Startup Thinks So

In February, Google halted its AI chatbot Gemini's ability to generate images of people due to user complaints about historical inaccuracies. For instance, when asked to depict a “Roman legion,” Gemini portrayed an anachronistic group of racially diverse soldiers, while “Zulu warriors” were rendered in stereotypical Black imagery. In response, Google CEO Sundar Pichai issued an apology, and Demis Hassabis, co-founder of Google’s AI research division DeepMind, promised a fix would come “in very short order” — ideally within weeks. However, the resolution took significantly longer, even as some Googlers clocked 120-hour workweeks. Fortunately, Gemini will soon regain the capability to create images featuring people.

OpenAI, the innovative AI firm behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot, has recently acquired Global Illumination, a New York-based startup focused on creating advanced AI-driven tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences. This marks OpenAI's first publicly announced acquisition in its approximately seven-year journey, although the specific financial details of the deal were not unveiled.

English is a vital language in the global business landscape. However, to effectively engage a diverse international audience, organizations must embrace multilingualism. A groundbreaking advancement in this area is Aya, a powerful AI model capable of supporting 101 different languages. Developed by Cohere, a nonprofit research subsidiary of the tech company Cohere, Aya stands out as an open-source solution available for commercial use under the Apache 2.0 license. This innovative model emphasizes inclusivity by covering many languages often overlooked by advanced AI systems.

China's Lianxin Digital has launched "洞见人和" (Insight for Human Relations), the first AI solution for the psychological industry, enhancing social governance and mental health. It analyzes diverse data to improve citizen well-being and has already impacted over 20 million lives, aiding in suicide prevention and comprehensive psychological assessments.