OpenAI considers allowing users to create AI-generated pornography, better Siri is coming and Midjourney invites users to alpha test website-based image creation.
Artificial Intelligence news, week 19/2024
Happy Saturday everyone!
I'm Rubén Colomer, GP at Next Tier Ventures and this is AI Weekly Digest, a weekly roundup of the latest news, funding rounds, tools, interesting reads, events, and jobs related to Artificial Intelligence.
News 🗞️📰
OpenAI considers allowing users to create AI-generated pornography
Apple unveils M4: Its first chip made for AI from the ground up
40,000 AI-narrated audiobooks flood Audible, revolutionizing publishing and sparking a fierce debate between authors and professional narrators.
Microsoft is working on a new, in-house artificial intelligence (AI) model that is far larger than the other open source models it has trained. The new model, MAI-1, is expected to have about 500 billion parameters.
Visa is using generative AI to detect financial fraud in customer transactions
Better Siri is coming: Apple's AI research indicates plans for more efficient, faster models running on-device, fully offline, enhancing user experience and privacy, with anticipated major updates at WWDC.
Midjourney invites users who have created over 100 images to alpha test website-based image creation and introduces 'Rooms' for global real-time collaboration.
Amazon launches Bedrock Studio, a new tool for organizations to experiment and collaborate on generative AI models. This platform offers a rapid prototyping environment, enhancing AI app development with major industry partners.
Autodesk unveils Project Bernini, its most ambitious generative AI, offering a pioneering text-to-3D tool showcased first to Axios, transforming global design and architecture.
Funding 💼💸
Wayve announces a $1.05 billion Series C investment round led by SoftBank Group to accelerate its mission to reimagine autonomous mobility through embodied intelligence.
Mimic, the Swiss startup, raises $2.5M to challenge US robotics dominance with AI-driven humanoid hands
Mavarick AI, which supports sustainable manufacturing, has raised €1.3 million in pre-seed funding led by Act VC.
Khosla Ventures and former NBA star Pau Gasol-backed Luzia lands €17.7M for its AI assistant on WhatsApp
Futura, a Milan AI-powered education company, raised €14 million in Series A funding led by Eurazeo, with participation from existing investor United Ventures and new investor Axon Partners Group
Boston-based Opmed.ai, a company developing AI solutions for healthcare operations, has secured $15 million in Series A funding co-led by NFX and Grove Ventures.
AI chip startup DEEPX secures $80M Series C at a $529M valuation
M&A 💰
Design platform Freepik today announced its acquisition of Magnific, an AI image upscaler, enhancer and transformer tool. "La Información" reports that the sale was made for 6 million euros (5.7 million in cash and 300,000 in shares)
DocuSign announced that it’s buying Lexion, a contract workflow automation startup, for $165 million. The purchase comes as DocuSign makes increasing investments in the contract management space.
DraftKings has agreed a deal to acquire Sports IQ Analytics, a business that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide software solutions to the online sports betting market
CLA Expands AI Capabilities with Strategic Acquisition of Engine B, the UK-Based Technology Firm
Interesting Reads 💡🤔
The teens making friends with AI chatbots: Teens are opening up to AI chatbots as a way to explore friendship. But sometimes, the AI’s advice can go too far.
OpenAI's Model Spec outlines the desired behavior of its large language models, including ChatGPT. The document details objectives, rules, and default behaviors that the models should adhere to. The goal is to ensure that the models are beneficial, safe, and legal in their applications
AlphaFold 3, a new AI model developed by Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs, predicts the structure and interactions of all life's molecules, such as DNA or RNA, among others
Stack Overflow and OpenAI announce new partnership enhancing AI tools and developer experience through OverflowAPI, integrating Stack Overflow's technical knowledge directly into ChatGPT to provide accurate, vetted information and foster deeper content engagement
Meet Arati Prabhakar, the woman who showed President Biden ChatGP and helped set the course for AI.
Tech 🤖💻
New technique overcomes memory bottleneck, enables ultra-high-resolution image generation with diffusion models
DocRes model unifies five restoration tasks including dewarping, deshadowing, and deblurring for enhanced performance, using a novel visual prompt technique, DTSPrompt, to achieve superior results. (GitHub repo)
Stability AI has launched Stable Artisan, a comprehensive system that integrates all its models and operates via Discord
OpenAI introduces Media Manager, a new tool empowering creators and content owners to specify how their works are used in machine learning research and training, enhancing control over content usage.
Tools 🧰🛠️
Vimcal is the fastest calendar, uniquely designed for busy individuals and teams, enhanced with AI Scheduling for optimal efficiency.
ElevenLabs previews music-generating AI model: Now is offering an early look at a new model that turns a prompt into song lyrics.
Swing Savvy: Improve Your Swing with AI-Driven Golf Coaching.
Touch AI: Use AI to automate sales prospecting, develop a perfect customer profile, and gather weekly leads.
ScammerBlock: Protect your parents and loved ones from phone scams by automatically forwarding unknown calls to voice agents for screening.
Events 🪩🎉
AI Conference (June 2-7) - Las Vegas, Nevada, USA and Virtual.
An extensive event with sessions on generative AI, AIOps, and applied machine learning, including tutorials and a technology exhibition.
Artificial Intelligence & Intelligent Automation 2024 (June 3-5) - Frankfurt, Germany.
Explore intelligent automation and AI applications in European business environments.
AI and Big Data Expo North America (June 5-6) - Santa Clara, California, USA.
This event is key for professionals who want to explore innovations and strategies in enterprise technologies, including AI and machine learning.
Autonomous Innovation Summit 2024 (June 5-6) - Online.
Summit focused on autonomous innovation, covering advances in AI and its impact on various industries.
Generative AI Summit 2024 (June 10-11) - San Francisco, California, USA.
A focus on generative AI, with panels and workshops led by leaders in AI technology and applications.
The AI Summit London (June 12-13) - London, UK.
A highlight of London Tech Week with practical use cases of AI by global brands.
IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence (June 25-27) - Singapore.
This event brings together AI experts to discuss innovations and advances in the field, with a strong focus on AI research.
AI Engineer World’s Fair (June 25-27) - San Francisco, California, USA and Virtual.
This free event for virtual attendees focuses on AI software and hardware development, with a wide range of sessions and workshops.
AI Jobs 👩💻👨💻
Prime ECS Account Executive (Salesforce) - Virginia - McLean, US
Senior ML Engineer (GetInData) - 100% Remote - 170 - 220 PLN net + VAT/h B2B
Senior Campaign Manager (inPowered) - USA / Remote - $401K
Research Engineering Internship (SupraOracles), USA
Senior Machine Learning Engineer (Cruise) - US Remote - $161,200 - $237,000 / year