xAI Announces $6 Billion Series B Funding, OpenAI Releases Employees from Exit Agreements and Apple to Unveil AI Tools at WWDC
Artificial Intelligence news, week 22/2024
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 🗞️📰
New Insights into Apple's AI Strategy: Practical Enhancements and AI Tools to Debut at WWDC 2024
Jan Leike, former OpenAI researcher, joins Anthropic after resigning and criticizing OpenAI's approach to AI safety earlier this month
iOS 18 Project Greymatter will use AI to summarize notifications, articles and much more.
OpenAI sends internal memo releasing former employees from controversial exit agreements
South Korea to open joint AI research lab in US: Will invite experts from Seoul and Washington to conduct global-level AI research projects
Argentina’s anarcho capitalist Milei meets with Sam Altman, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai in a bid to spur investment.
Microsoft has added an official Copilot bot within the messaging app Telegram, which lets users search, ask questions, and converse with the AI chatbot.
OpenAI has announced ChatGPT Edu. This will be a specialized version of its AI platform designed specifically for universities.
Funding 💼💸
xAI announce their Series B funding round of $6 billion with participation from key investors including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, amongst others
NcodiN secures €3.5 M for optical interposer tech to meet the needs of HPC and AI from Elaia, Earlybird Venture Capital, and OVNI Capital
Maven AGI, a generative AI platform poised to revolutionize enterprise customer support, has raised $28 million in funding led by M13, with participation from Lux Capital, E14 Fund among others.
Atropos Health, the pioneer in translating real-world clinical data into high-quality personalized real-world evidence for care, announced a $33M Series B led by Valtruis, with participation from Cencora Ventures, McKesson Ventures, and others.
EthonAI, a pioneer of AI-powered manufacturing analytics, announced its €15.3 million Series A funding led by Index Ventures with existing investors General Catalyst, Earlybird, and Founderful participating.
Exactly.ai secures $4M to help artists use AI to scale up their output led by Speedinvest, with InReach Ventures, Cornerstone VC, GuruDev Capital.
Play AI has raised $4.3 million in seed funding round to build the middleware for AI models and agents in gaming from investors including P2 Ventures, Jump Crypto, Alphawave, Zentry, MH Ventures, Tykhe Block and several other investors.
BrightClue, the French DeepTech company specialized in the analysis of technical databases using DL and ML algorithms, has raised €1M in a Seed Series from Bpifrance and The Moon Venture.
M&A 💰
BrainBox AI Acquires Turntide Technologies' Automation Division, Strengthening Its AI-Driven Building Optimization Solutions.
Humanly Acquires Teamable, Introducing an AI-First End-to-End Recruiting Powerhouse.
Interesting Reads 💡🤔
Andreessen Horowitz's Thesis on AI Voice Agents: Investment Opportunities in B2B and B2C Markets.
Here's the 22-slide pitch deck that got Atropos Health $33 million for its generative AI bot for doctors
Tech 🤖💻
Introducing Codestral: Mistral AI's 22B Open-Weight Model for Advanced Code Generation, excels in code generation across 80+ programming languages, enhancing developer productivity with high performance and accuracy.
LaVague is an open-source Large Action Model framework to develop AI Web Agents. (Github Repo).
EasyAnimate is an end-to-end solution for generating high-resolution, long videos using a Sora-like structure and DIT.
Tools 🧰🛠️
Perplexity Pages: Your new tool for easily transforming research into visually stunning, comprehensive content.
Capsule: AI-powered video editor for content and marketing teams.
Kombai: A new model trained to code email & web designs like humans. Input your design files. Get high-quality HTML, CSS or React code in a click.
Lawformer: AI-powered tool breaking complex contracts into smaller elements.
Skej: Your new AI scheduling assistant. Skej coordinates with your contacts to find the perfect time to meet.
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.
AIME 2024 (July 9-12) - Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
A unique opportunity to learn from academic AI leaders, engage in interactive workshops, and establish valuable connections. Focused on advancements in AI for medicine.
DataConnect Conference (July 11) - Columbus, Ohio, USA
Unlock the power of AI to drive large-scale business transformation with a focus on practical applications and strategic insights.
12th Computing Conference 2024 (July 11-12) - London, UK
Premier venue for researchers and industry practitioners to share new ideas, research results, and enriching experiences in various fields of computer science.
IEEE AITest 2024 (July 15-18) - China
Focuses on the synergy of AI and software testing, presenting cutting-edge research and practical applications in the field.
MOMENTUM AI San Jose 2024 (July 16-17). San Jose, California, USA
AI Summit & Global Broadcast. Unlock the power of AI to drive large-scale business transformation
AI Summit (July 17) - San Diego, California, USA
Explores the latest advancements and strategies in GeoAI and generative AI within ArcGIS, with insights into AI-driven processes and tools.
AI & Education Summit (July 24-26) - Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Explores the role of AI in transforming education, with sessions on computational thinking, data science, and AI-driven curriculum design. Hosted by MIT RAISE.
MachineCon 2024 USA (July 26) - New York, New York, USA
Exclusive gathering of analytics and AI leaders to explore the transformative potential of cutting-edge AI technologies and innovative analytics solutions.
International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Computer Science (AICS 2024) (July 26-28) - Wuhan, China
Connects academicians and industry experts in AI and computer science, facilitating research sharing and collaboration on future AI projects.
AIET 2024 (July 29-31) - Barcelona, Spain
5th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education Technology, co-sponsored by the University of Barcelona and IU International University of Applied Sciences.
Generative AI Summit 2024 (July 10) - Austin, Texas, USA
Focuses on the latest advancements in generative AI, bringing together industry leaders and researchers to discuss innovations and applications in various sectors.
AI Jobs 👩💻👨💻
Engineering Manager (DeepL) - Köln, DE - Fully remote role from the UK, Germany, Netherlands & Poland
Engineering Manager | (DeepL) - London, GB - Fully remote role from the UK, Germany, Netherlands & Poland
Conversational AI Bot Architect (Parloa) - NYC, New York, US
xAI is hiring for numerous roles and seeks talented individuals ready to join a small team focused on making a meaningful impact on the future of humanity. Those interested can apply today at x.ai/careers.