Good morning, it’s Friday! OpenAI is swimming in fresh billions, NVIDIA just dropped a new open-source AI model, and Boston Dynamics' Spot is getting even more high-tech. Meanwhile, AI is being used to uncover ancient aqueducts, and cancer centers are forming an alliance to harness AI for breakthroughs. And Poolside, the AI-coding startup, just raised half a billion dollars. Let’s get into it.

Your Daily Roundup:

1. OpenAI Secures $6.6B to Boost AI Research and Global Expansion

2. NVIDIA Unveils Open-Source AI Model to Rival GPT-4

3. Pika 1.5 Launches with Mind-Bending AI Video Effects

4. Liquid AI Sets New Efficiency Standards with Cutting-Edge Models

5. Microsoft Copilot Adds Voice and Vision Features for Enhanced AI

6. OpenAI Co-Founder Durk Kingma Joins Rival AI Firm Anthropic

7. Google Ups AI Rivalry with OpenAI, Develops Human-Like Reasoning

👉️ Top AI Stories

OpenAI Raises $6.6B to Accelerate AI Research and Global Accessibility

OpenAI has secured $6.6 billion in new funding, boosting its post-money valuation to $157 billion. This investment will enhance its frontier AI research, expand compute capacity, and further develop tools to make advanced intelligence widely accessible, benefiting over 250 million ChatGPT users and businesses globally. → Continue reading here.

NVIDIA Just Dropped a Bombshell: Its New AI Model Is Open, Massive, and Ready to Rival GPT-4

NVIDIA has released NVLM 1.0, an open-source 72 billion parameter artificial intelligence model that shows exceptional performance in both visual and language tasks, even surpassing its text-only capabilities after multimodal training. The model's release challenges the AI industry's traditional proprietary approach, potentially democratizing access to advanced AI technologies and spurring innovation, while also raising questions about ethical use and future business models for AI. → Continue reading here.

Pika 1.5 Launches with Physics-Defying AI Special Effects

Pika Labs has launched Pika 1.5, an upgraded AI video generation model, introducing advanced features such as "Pikaffects" for creating dynamic, physics-defying video clips from text or images, and enhanced motion control capabilities to produce professional-level cinematic shots. Despite a competitive landscape with rivals focusing on realism, Pika 1.5 offers unique creative tools for both free and paid users, along with community challenges to encourage user engagement and feedback for continuous improvement. → Continue reading here.

Liquid AI Unveils Liquid Foundation Models, Sets New Standards in AI Efficiency

Liquid AI introduced its Liquid Foundation Models (LFMs), a new class of large-scale neural networks, including models with 1B, 3B, and 40B parameters. These models outperform previous transformer-based architectures, with the LFM-1B setting a new state-of-the-art benchmark for its size, the LFM-3B surpassing larger models up to 13B parameters, and the LFM-40B offering efficient deployment with advanced memory and long-context capabilities. → Continue reading here.

Microsoft Enhances Copilot App with OpenAI-Powered Voice and Vision Features

Microsoft has upgraded its AI-powered Copilot app with new features, including a "voice" mode allowing users to interact with the chatbot via speech and a "vision" mode that enables the bot to analyze what's on the user’s screen. These enhancements let Copilot answer visual-based questions, such as providing cooking times based on meal photos, further improving its utility as a ChatGPT competitor. → Continue reading here.

OpenAI Co-Founder Durk Kingma Joins Anthropic

Durk Kingma, a key figure in the development of generative AI models like DALL-E and ChatGPT at OpenAI, has transitioned to a role at Anthropic, an AI company supported by tech giants such as Amazon and Google. Kingma, who holds a Ph.D. in machine learning and has a background that includes founding Google Brain and serving as an angel investor and advisor, joins a growing list of high-profile hires at Anthropic, aligning with its mission to responsibly advance AI technology. → Continue reading here.

Google Deepens Rivalry with OpenAI, Develops AI with Human-Like Reasoning

Google is advancing AI software that mimics human reasoning, positioning itself against OpenAI’s similar efforts. Multiple teams at Google have been developing AI systems capable of solving complex, multistep problems in areas like math and computer programming, intensifying the competition between the two tech giants in the AI race. → Continue reading here.

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👾 Forward Future Original

Welcome to the second part of this series. In the first part, we defined the basics of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and explained why a common understanding is crucial for the development process - even if there is still no uniform agreement in the scientific community, as many researchers emphasize. ("This paper endeavors to summarize the minimal consensus of the community, consequently providing a justifiable definition of AGI. It is made clear what is known and what is controversial and remains for research, so as to minimize the ambiguous usages as much as possible in future discussions and debates.”).

In this section, we take a look back at the path to AGI by tracing developments to date and at the same time providing an outlook on future progress. The review helps to better understand key milestones, while the outlook shows what challenges still lie ahead.

Let's remember the definitional criteria for AGI that I have developed:

AGI differs from specialized artificial intelligence in that it is capable of solving a variety of tasks that are not explicitly pre-programmed.  

In this section, we take a historical look at the beginnings of modern AI and highlight the key breakthroughs that have brought us closer to this goal. We then analyze the current state of the technology and discuss what conditions must be met in order to realize AGI. I will draw on my personal assessment as well as empirical data and findings to illustrate current progress.

We start with a look at the origins of machine learning and the famous Turing test, which has long been considered one of the most important benchmarks for artificial intelligence. We then look at current data to evaluate technological progress and derive the need for further development. Continue reading here.

🚀 Launches + Funding

• Artisan AI Raises $7.3M Seed: Artisan AI raised $7.3M to develop autonomous AI employees for enterprises, starting with a platform that automates sales tasks.

• Qodo Raises $40M for Enterprise AI: Qodo secured $40M Series A to enhance code generation and testing for enterprises with a focus on quality.

• Poolside Raises $500M Series B: Poolside secured $500M in Series B funding to enhance AI coding software, raising its valuation to $3 billion.

• Cerebras Files IPO to Challenge NVIDIA: AI chipmaker Cerebras has filed for an IPO, aiming to compete with NVIDIA despite operating at a loss and relying on a key client.

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✍️ Editor Picks

Robotics

Boston Dynamics Enhances Spot's Capabilities with Acoustic Vibration Sensing and Reality Capture

Boston Dynamics has introduced new features for Spot, including acoustic vibration inspection, which detects early signs of bearing failures, and laser scanning for creating digital twins of industrial facilities. These updates improve predictive maintenance and support autonomous inspections over larger areas with multi-docking capabilities. → Watch it here.

Discoveries

AI and Cold War Spy Satellites Uncover Ancient Underground Aqueducts

Archaeologists are using AI to analyze Cold War-era US spy satellite images, helping them locate ancient qanats, underground aqueducts up to 3,000 years old that provided water in arid regions across North Africa and the Middle East. This AI-based method, tested in Afghanistan, Iran, and Morocco, has achieved an 88% success rate in identifying qanat locations, offering a promising tool for rediscovering these vital, ancient water systems. → Continue reading here.

Healthcare

Cancer Centers Launch Cancer AI Alliance to Unlock Discoveries, Transform Care Using Cancer Data and Applied AI

Four leading National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers have formed the Cancer AI Alliance (CAIA) with backing from tech giants, leveraging artificial intelligence to advance cancer research and care while ensuring data security. CAIA, set to operate by end of 2024, aims to foster collaboration among researchers and institutions, improve insights into rare cancers through shared data without compromising privacy, and aspires to amass $1 billion in resources to support cancer innovation. → Continue reading here.

📽️ New Video:

🧰 AI Toolbox

• AI Fashion Assistant: OutfitAnyone is an AI tool on Hugging Face that provides personalized fashion suggestions based on user preferences, offering diverse styles for different occasions.

• AI Tool for Managing Action Items: Spinach consolidates action items into one platform, integrating with product management tools to turn tasks into tickets. Provides users with the necessary context for follow-ups.

• AI Tools Empowering Artists: Playform offers a suite of AI-driven tools designed to assist artists in their creative process without requiring technical expertise, from sketching to face mixing and NFT creation.

🛰️ Houston, We Have More Headlines!

• Newsom Vetoes AI Safety Bill: Governor Newsom vetoed California's AI safety bill, citing concerns over innovation and economic impact.

• OpenAI Leadership Changes: Sam Altman announced key executive departures and leadership changes at OpenAI.

• Google Adds AI to Chromebooks: The new models with AI-powered features like a quick insert key and tools for enhanced productivity.

• Microsoft Adds AI to Bing: The new Bing generates search summaries but raises concerns about accuracy and reduced traffic to content sites.

• Microsoft Invests in Italy AI: Microsoft invests €4.3 billion in Italy's AI and cloud infrastructure.

• Continue Accuses PearAI of Violations: Accusations include violating open-source standards by misusing its code, urges corrective actions.

• Character AI Ends LLM Development: After a $2.7 billion deal with Google, Character AI has stopped LLM development to focus on its chatbot.

• Google, BioNTech Develop AI Assistants: Google and BioNTech collaborate to create AI lab assistants that accelerate scientific discovery.

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🧑‍🚀 Forward Future Team