Good morning, it’s Friday! From OpenAI’s leadership shake-up to Meta’s AR glasses flex, it’s clear the AI scene isn’t slowing down. We’ve got a mix of new tech, major developments from tech giants, and a cameo by James Cameron joining the AI revolution. And who could forget Meta's push for a photorealistic future with AR? Buckle up—there’s a lot to dive into today!

Your (Meta + OpenAI dominated) Daily Roundup:

1. Meta Unveils Orion: Advanced augmented reality glasses.

2. OpenAI CEO predicts “superintelligence in thousands of days.”

3. OpenAI CTO leaves, joining a wave of leadership departures.

4. Meta reaches nearly 500 million users across its AI platforms.

5. Meta showcases photorealistic 3D environments for Quest 3.

6. OpenAI rolls out humanlike voice mode for ChatGPT Plus.

7. James Cameron joins Stability AI, a push toward AI-driven filmmaking.

8. NVIDIA's Nemotron-51B doubles inference speed, enhancing accuracy and efficiency.

👉️ Top AI Stories

Meta Unveils Orion: Advanced Augmented Reality Glasses

Meta introduced Orion, their first true AR glasses, designed to merge digital and physical worlds with transparent lenses and holographic displays. The glasses offer immersive experiences like multitasking with virtual screens and real-time AI assistance. While not yet available to consumers, Orion represents a significant step forward in AR technology, aiming to create a seamless, everyday wearable. → Continue reading here.

The Intelligence Age: Transforming Humanity’s Potential with AI

Sam Altman discusses the transformative potential of AI in the coming decades, where advancements in deep learning and computational power could enable unprecedented personal and societal progress. He envisions AI systems serving as personal assistants, virtual tutors, and more, potentially leading to an era of shared prosperity and breakthroughs like climate solutions and space colonization. → Continue reading here.

OpenAI’s CTO, Mira Murati, Is Leaving the Company

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has resigned, as announced in her letter to the staff and on social media, indicating a desire for personal exploration after leading the company through substantial growth. → Continue reading here.

Meta AI Reaches Nearly 500 Million Users

Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta's AI platforms, including Llama and other AI products, have almost 500 million users globally. This growth highlights the increasing integration of AI in Meta's ecosystem, driving both user engagement and the expansion of AI capabilities across various applications. → Continue reading here.

Meta Teases Photorealistic Environments for Quest

Meta has unveiled technology that enables photorealistic scanning of real rooms using a smartphone, which can then be experienced in a walkable 3D format on Quest 3 and potentially uploaded by users in the future. The tech uses Gaussian splatting, an AI-powered rendering technique, and is still in early stages, requiring a strong internet connection. → Continue reading here.

OpenAI Finally Brings Humanlike ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode to U.S.

OpenAI is expanding the availability of "ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode" to all paying subscribers of ChatGPT Plus and Team plans, introducing new features such as the ability to store custom instructions and memory, as well as adding five new voice styles. → Continue reading here.

James Cameron Is Joining Stability AI’s Board of Directors

Director James Cameron has joined the board of directors at Stability AI, a company known for its Stable Diffusion technology, embracing the intersection of AI and CGI as a future leap for filmmaking. Amidst concerns over AI's impact on employment and ongoing legal challenges about underlying training materials, this move comes as Hollywood increasingly partners with AI firms to innovate and cut costs. → Continue reading here.

NVIDIA's Llama-3.1-Nemotron-51B Breaks New Ground in Accuracy and Efficiency

The new language model, Llama-3.1-Nemotron-51B, developed from Meta’s Llama-3.1-70B, offers unprecedented accuracy-efficiency balance, doubling inference speed while maintaining high accuracy. Using Neural Architecture Search (NAS) and knowledge distillation, it fits on a single NVIDIA H100 GPU, enabling higher workloads and lowering deployment costs. → Continue reading here.

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👾 Forward Future Original

This article is a Forward Future Original by guest author, Steve Smith.

Data Analytics Will Never Be the Same

I've been working with spreadsheets since what feels like the beginning of digital time. My journey with spreadsheets began with VisiCalc around 1981. The interface was crude by today's standards, and no one had any idea what it would evolve into. But the ability to manipulate data—quickly adding up rows and columns of numbers back then—was incredible. I dabbled with Lotus 1-2-3 for a while in the mid-80s before finally settling into Excel around 1990. 

It's been quite the adventure, and I've developed a deep appreciation for Excel over the years. While I use Google Sheets for many tasks nowadays, Excel remains my go-to tool when starting a new analysis - it's wired into my brain.   Or at least it was.

On July 6th, 2023 OpenAI launched Code Interpreter to the world.  It wasn't the best name; shortly after that, it was rebranded as Advanced Data Analysis (ADA).  The moniker "ADA" probably honors Ada Lovelace, a trailblazing computer science luminary widely credited as the world's inaugural programmer.  The name, however, isn't essential – it's the capability that OpenAI unleashed on the world.  Continue reading here.

✍️ Editor Picks

Models

Llama 3.2: Revolutionizing Edge AI and Vision with Open, Customizable Models

Llama 3.2 introduces a range of new AI models, including smaller vision LLMs (11B and 90B) for image reasoning and lightweight text-only models (1B and 3B) optimized for on-device use, providing state-of-the-art performance for tasks such as summarization and instruction following with privacy-preserving features. → Continue reading here.

Politics

Meta and Apple Decline EU AI Pact Amid Concerns Over Regulatory Hurdles

Meta and Apple opted not to sign the EU's AI Pact, a voluntary initiative aimed at preemptively aligning companies with the upcoming AI Act, reflecting growing resistance among tech firms to Europe's regulatory framework. While 115 companies, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, committed to the pledge, industry pushback and the departure of its architect, Thierry Breton, have slowed the Pact’s momentum, with concerns that excessive regulation could stifle AI innovation in Europe. → Continue reading here.

Gaming

EA Unveils AI-Driven Tools to Elevate User-Created Game Content at Investor Day

EA’s Chief Strategy Officer Mihir Vaidya showcased new AI-powered tools to enhance user-created game content during a concept video titled "Imagination to Creation" at EA’s Investor Day event in New York City. The initiative aims to supercharge creativity by providing players with advanced AI-driven solutions, making the game creation process more immersive and accessible. → Continue reading here.

🚀 Launches + Funding

• Prepared Adds Real-Time 911 Translation: Prepared’s AI platform now offers two-way audio translation for Spanish-speaking 911 callers, improving response time and accuracy without third-party translators.

• London Startup Convergence Raises $12M for AI Agents: Convergence raised $12M to develop Proxy, a personal AI assistant with long-term memory for learning and task management.

• Plaud's $169 NotePin Simplifies Meeting Notes: Plaud's NotePin records conversations and uses ChatGPT for real-time transcription, offering a simple wearable solution for professionals.

• Notion Unveils All-in-One AI Tool: Notion's new AI tool integrates search, generation, analysis, and chat functions to enhance productivity in a single platform.

📽️ New Videos:

🧰 AI Toolbox

• BuyScout™ – AI-Powered Extension for Smarter Online Shopping: This is a free browser extension that enhances online shopping with AI-driven insights, personalized product recommendations, and price tracking for platforms like Amazon.

• Nodeland Reinvents Notetaking with Connection-Based Learning: Nodeland offers a dynamic mind map approach to note-taking, aligning with natural thought processes, and features an AI assistant for explanations and personalized study guides.

• Future AGI Automates AI Model Assessment for Continuous Improvement: Future AGI automates AI quality assurance, optimizing model performance across various use cases with real-time insights and configurable metrics.

• Remade Offers AI-Driven Personalized Video for Marketplaces: Remade creates hyper-personalized video content for businesses, helping them scale marketing efforts on platforms like TikTok.

📣 Tell Your Friends

🛰️ Houston, We Have More Headlines!

• OpenAI Proposes 5-Gigawatt Data Centers: OpenAI proposes massive data centers to boost AI development and competitiveness.

• Microsoft Reshuffles AI Leadership, Shifts Strategy: Microsoft reorganizes AI leadership, suggesting a shift from reliance on OpenAI.

• Alibaba, NVIDIA Partner for Autonomous Driving AI: Alibaba and NVIDIA integrate AI to enhance autonomous driving for Chinese automakers.

• Google Launches Enhanced Gemini 1.5 Models: Gemini 1.5 models improve AI performance, offering developers lower costs and higher limits.

• Math as Solution for Chatbot Accuracy: Harmonic and Google's DeepMind are using math to reduce AI hallucinations for better responses.

• Spotify Expands AI Playlist Feature Globally: Spotify's AI Playlist tool lets users create personalized playlists, now available in more markets.

• AI2 Launches Molmo Multimodal AI Model Family: These multimodal models allow for experiences with less data than proprietary systems.

• OpenAI Restructures, Altman to Receive Equity: Plans to shift to a for-profit structure, granting CEO Sam Altman equity and attracting investors.

• AlphaChip Revolutionizes Chip Design Process: AlphaChip accelerates chip design from months to hours, impacting various tech industries.

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