Meta's New Chameleon AI Models, Chinese AI Startups Relocate to Singapore, and Apple Launches Public Demo of 4M AI Model
Artificial Intelligence news, week 27/2024
Happy Thursday everyone!
Welcome to AI Weekly Digest 📬 Your essential AI briefing, carefully curated by me, Rubén Colomer, AI Specialist and GP at Next Tier Ventures.
Stay ahead of the curve with the latest AI breakthroughs, key funding news, innovative tools, thought-provoking reads, must-attend events, and the best AI job opportunities - it's all here!
News 🗞️📰
ChatGPT App for Mac now available to all users with voice mode and seamless integration. Users can easily take and discuss screenshots, upload files, and share images directly within the app, enhancing productivity and user experience.
Meta releases Chameleon, new AI models with 7 and 34 billion parameters to rival Gemini Pro and GPT-4V. These models excel in understanding and generating both images and text together, thanks to their token-based architecture.
Google introduce the Pixel 9 series, featuring the new AI assistant 'Pixie,' powered by the Gemini Nano model, capable of performing complex tasks offline and integrating deeply with apps like Maps and Gmail.
Apple has launched a public demo of its 4M AI model, on Hugging Face, marking a significant step in generative AI. This model enables advanced on-device processing, allowing tasks to be performed directly on Apple devices like iPhones and iPads
Amazon beefs up AI development, hiring execs from startup Adept and licensing its technology.
Biden Awards $504 Million to Tech Investment Hubs Across US, Including Artificial Intelligence Initiatives.
Chinese AI startups are relocating to business-friendly Singapore to access global investors and customers, escaping the constraints of elevated geopolitical tensions
Funding 💼💸
Formation Bio, a startup focused on applying AI to drug development has raised $372 million in a Series D funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from drug maker Sanofi, Sequoia, Thrive, Emerson Collective, Lachy Groom, SV Angel Growth and FPV Ventures.
Gendo, an AI platform which transforms how architects and designers bring ideas and sketches to life, has raised an oversubscribed €1 million pre-seed round led by Concept Ventures and joined by Ascension Ventures, Carles Reina and the former Global Head of Design Studios at WeWork.
Emergence AI, a generative artificial intelligence startup that’s focused on enhancing the productivity of business employees, has closed on a $97.2 million funding round led by Learn Capital.
Neuromorphic processor company Innatera has raised $21 million in an extended Series A funding round. Investors in the original round include EIC Fund, MIG Capital, Matterwave Ventures, and Delft Enterprises.
Peter Thiel's venture capital firm Founders Fund has co-led a huge $85 million seed round investment in open-source AI development platform Sentient
Inventive, a company building embedded AI for SaaS products, announced the closing of a $6.5 million seed funding round led by Wing VC, with participation from Tokyo Black.
ZeroEyes, the creators of the only AI-based gun detection video analytics platform, has secured more than $53M in Series B funding. The oversubscribed round was led by Sorenson Capital, with participation from Intel Capital, BroadLight Capital and existing investors.
Kvantify, a leading quantum software start-up, has announced the successful closure of a €10 million seed round led by Danish VC Dreamcraft, with biotech investor Lundbeckfonden BioCapital and the private investment company 2degrees.
Axelera raises $68M to rival Nvidia with edge AI chips. The round has been led by major institutional backers, including Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, European Innovation Council Fund, Innovation Industries Strategic Partners Fund and Samsung Catalyst Fund.
AI voice tech startup Synthflow AI announced $7.4M in seed funding, led by Singular, with participation from existing investor Atlantic Labs and investors including the founders of Krisp AI.
M&A 💰
Robinhood has acquired Pluto Capital, an AI investment research platform, to strengthen its presence in the technology space.
Digital intelligence company, Similarweb has announced the acquisition of 42matters, an app intelligence provider based in Zurich, Switzerland, for an undisclosed sum.
The Spanish contextual advertising solutions company Seedtag has acquired JustEggs, an Australian creative intelligence company. According to Albert Nieto, co-CEO and co-founder of Seedtag, this acquisition will allow Seedtag to introduce its advanced contextual AI technology to the Australian market.
Squirro, a leading Swiss-headquartered global SaaS platform specializing in enterprise-ready generative AI, announces its acquisition of Synaptica, a renowned US-based SaaS provider of enterprise taxonomy management and knowledge graph systems.
Interesting Reads 💡🤔
The State of AI H1 2024 report by Retool provides insights into how businesses are adopting AI technologies.
AI in Retail: How It’s Impacting the Industry & What You Need to Know
Learn how retail companies are adopting AI tools and the major AI use cases and opportunities for retail marketing today.
How to use ChatGPT to make eye-catching PowerPoint presentations.
Nvidia stock has tripled in value over the past 12 months. Can AI boom drive them to a $4tn valuation despite investor doubt?
Counterintuitive advice for building AI products. Lessons from 20+ top product builders, including Scott Belsky, Elad Gil, Rahul Vohra, and Sarah Guo.
Goldman Sachs Research Highlights Generative AI's Transformative Potential, Predicting Significant Economic Upside
Gen AI: A cognitive industrial revolution. Silicon Valley pioneer Reid Hoffman explains why we should view generative AI as a “steam engine of the mind” that promises to profoundly alter our professional and personal lives.
How Generative AI is reducing costs and transforming business productivity. Companies and startups use AI for repetitive tasks, workflow optimization, and enhanced efficiency in specific roles. AI agents, vertical software, and horizontal tools are revolutionizing daily work, enabling businesses to become more efficient and scalable
Tech 🤖💻
EvTexture: Event-driven Texture Enhancement for Video Super-Resolution is an innovative tool designed to optimize and improve video quality. Similar to what Magnific.ai offers, this tool focuses specifically on video resolution enhancement.
Meta 3D Gen: Revolutionizing Fast and High-Quality Text-to-3D Asset Generation. Meta 3D Gen is a cutting-edge pipeline that sets a new standard for text-to-3D asset generation. 3DGen enables the creation of high-quality 3D shapes and textures with exceptional prompt fidelity in less than a minute.
Web2Code introduces a benchmark and dataset for improving multimodal language models (MLLMs) to translate webpage screenshots into HTML code. (GitHub repo)
Tools 🧰🛠️
ElevenLabs has launched a new Reader app that turns written content into audio using AI-generated voices.
PromeAI: Transform sketches into realistic photos and high-quality videos.
Polywork - Turn your LinkedIn profile into a beautiful personal website in seconds with AI.
Briefy turns all kinds of lengthy content into concise, structured summaries and saves them in your knowledge base for later review.
These free ChatGPT apps will analyze data, copyedit text, and improve productivity
Events 🪩🎉
VDS (October 23-24) - Valencia, Spain *SPONSOR*
Valencia Digital Summit is a major technology event that gathers innovators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders from around the world to discuss the latest trends and advancements in digital technology. This year, artificial intelligence will be a fundamental focus, with dedicated sessions exploring its transformative impact across various industries. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with AI experts, participate in workshops, and discover innovative AI applications that drive business growth and societal advancement.
You can get tickets here, become a sponsor or exhibitor, submit a call for speakers, or join the startup competition.
Conversational AI Innovation Summit (September 5-6) - San Francisco, CA, USA
Focused on the latest advancements in conversational AI technologies such as chatbots and virtual assistants. The summit brings together industry leaders to discuss innovations and applications in this rapidly evolving field.K1st World Symposium (September 5-6) - Stanford, CA, USA
An international symposium addressing key topics in AI research, development, and policy. This event will feature expert talks, panel discussions, and networking opportunities for AI professionals and researchers.Generative AI for Automotive USA 2024 (September 9-11) - Detroit, MI, USA
A conference dedicated to exploring the applications of generative AI in the automotive industry, focusing on innovations in vehicle design, manufacturing, and user experience enhancements.AI Hardware & Edge Summit (September 9-12) - San Jose, CA, USA
This summit will cover the latest advancements in AI hardware and edge computing technologies. Industry experts will discuss new developments, applications, and future trends in the field.AI for Defense Summit (September 11-12) - Washington, DC, USA
A specialized summit focusing on the use of AI in defense and national security. Discussions will include AI-driven defense strategies, ethical considerations, and technological advancements.Machine Learning in Quantitative Finance (September 16-18) - Amsterdam, Netherlands
A conference dedicated to the application of machine learning in quantitative finance, featuring expert talks, case studies, and panel discussions on the latest trends and challenges in the field.Responsible AI Summit (September 16-18) - London, UK
This summit will focus on the ethical, legal, and social implications of AI. Topics include AI governance, transparency, and the development of responsible AI practices.AI for Pharma and Health Care (September 24-26) - Amsterdam, Netherlands
A conference exploring the applications of AI in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, including drug discovery, diagnostics, and patient care improvements.
AI Jobs 👩💻👨💻
Research Lab Manager, Operations, Quantum AI (Google) - Goleta, Ca - USA - $120,000-$178,000 + bonus + equity + benefits
Director, Product Management, ML Frameworks and GenAI Ecosystems (Google) - Mountain View, CA - USA
Machine Learning GPU Performance Engineer (Google) - London, UK
Field Solutions Architect III, Generative AI, Public Sector (Google) - Remote - USA - $171,000-$257,000 + bonus + equity + benefits
Computer Vision Engineer (Multiverse) - Basque Country, Spain - Hybrid
Head of IT (Harvey) - San Francisco, CA, USA - $200,000 and $250,000.