🗞️ AI News Recap

Hey TEDchats Fam!

Happy Monday! How is AI reshaping our world this week? From rapid advancements in AI hardware to transformative applications in education and fashion, the latest AI news reveals a future that's unfolding quickly. Let's dive into the most significant developments and see how they're changing the landscape of technology.

🐇 QUICK BITES — THE PAST WEEK

ChatGPT’s Newest Version Just Got Released

OpenAI has released their new GPT-4 Turbo for paid ChatGPT users, offering enhanced capabilities in writing, math, logical reasoning, and coding. This update provides responses that are "more direct, less verbose, and use more conversational language" (see OpenAI’s announcements here and here).

Meta Invests in AI Infrastructure and Releases New AI Chip

Meta takes a significant step in AI with a major investment in AI infrastructure, focusing on proprietary AI chips for generative AI. The company plans to invest a significant portion of its $30 to $37 billion budget in 2024 into this initiative, despite being behind major players like Google, Amazon and Intel. Meta's custom AI hardware, including its new Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) chip, offers efficient architecture for deep learning models. With the MTIA chip now live in 16 data center regions, less than nine months after the first unit was made, Meta's investment in custom AI chips may offer them an edge in the ongoing AI arms race (see Meta’s announcements here and here).

Intel Outpaces Nvidia with Gaudi 3

Intel's latest AI accelerator, the Gaudi 3, is setting a new standard in AI training efficiency, boasting a 50% faster time-to-train than Nvidia's H100, all while promising significant cost savings (see Intel’s announcement).

Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro Can Now Understand Speech!

Google has announced significant expansions to Gemini 1.5 Pro, introducing audio understanding and video processing enhancements. Users across 180+ countries can now leverage speech recognition, alongside integrated reasoning across image and audio elements within videos. This update enables features like converting recorded lectures into interactive quizzes! As added extra, Google has also introduced a new File API, allowing for larger media files to be included in prompts (see Google’s announcement).

Texas Plans to Implement AI for Grading School Exams

Texas is boldly stepping into the future with its latest move to implement an AI-powered system for grading state-mandated exams, according to The Texas Tribune. Named the “automated scoring engine”, this initiative aims to efficiently tackle the growing number of open-ended questions in exams, potentially saving the Texas Education Agency up to $20 million each year. While the combination of cutting-edge technology and traditional oversight promises a significant change in educational assessments, the plan has raised concerns among educators and parents who remain cautious about the influence of machine learning, automation, and AI (see the article).

Humane's AI Pin Is Now Available, but Faces Criticism

The Humane AI Pin, a wearable device featuring an AI assistant that connects with phone apps, is now available for purchase in the US. The AI Pin Complete System starts at $699 and requires a $24/month subscription. Those outside the US can join Humane's Global Waitlist. Since its release last week, negative reviews for the AI Pin have emerged, praising the device's sleek product design but criticizing its limited battery life and tendency to overheat within minutes (see a review from The Verge).

Google Cloud's AI-driven Future Was Unveiled in Las Vegas

At Google Cloud Next ‘24 in Las Vegas, a future of AI-powered innovation was unveiled, emphasizing its role as the foundation of cloud computing. Transformative AI tools were introduced, including Google Vids for AI-driven video creation, Vertex AI Agent Builder for conversational agents, Gemini Code Assist for secure AI code completion, and new capabilities in Imagen 2 for enterprise-focused image generation and text-to-live images (see event details here).

Autoparts Manufacturer Trials Humanoid Robots

Sanctuary AI's humanoid work robot, Phoenix™, is stepping into the automotive world through a partnership with Magna, a key player in European car manufacturing. Magna believes that by incorporating general-purpose AI robots into manufacturing facilities for specific tasks, their ability to deliver high-quality products to customers will improve. This collaboration also aims to evaluate the potential of humanoid robots in optimizing production processes, marking a significant step towards the future of automation in the automotive industry (more details here).

Google Announces Plans to Release AI Tools for Photo Editing

Starting May 15, Google is transforming photo editing by making its advanced AI tools in Google Photos available to all Android and iOS users. Features like Magic Editor, which were previously exclusive to Pixel devices and Google One subscribers, will now be accessible to everyone. While Pixel owners and paid subscribers will enjoy unlimited edits, other users will be able to enhance their photos with up to 10 saved edits per month (see Google’s announcement).

Online Fashion Gets an AI Upgrade: eBay's 'Shop the Look'

In a move to redefine how we discover fashion online, eBay introduces an AI-driven 'shop the look' feature within its iOS app (with Android coming later this year). Utilizing generative AI and image recognition, this cutting-edge section presents a carousel of images and ideas tailored to each user's previous shopping activities. Complete with 'interactive hotspots' that reveal similar items and outfit inspirations, eBay is reimagining online shopping to be “more immersive, more personal, more you”, as the company puts it (see eBay’s announcement).

Meta Goes Public with Its Plans for Llama 3

Meta's President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, has publicly announced the upcoming release of Llama 3, the upcoming iteration of its large language model utilized to power generative AI applications. Scheduled for launch within the next month, Llama 3 will encompass a series of models each designed to enhance different aspects of user experience and interaction. This strategic move aims to bolster Meta's competitiveness in the generative AI landscape, with the promise of more accurate responses and a broader scope of questions handled (read more).

Bot Creators Can Boost Their Earnings with Poe

Poe, the AI chatbot platform owned by Quora, has introduced a new revenue model. Creators can now set a per-message price for their bots, allowing them to generate income each time a user interacts with them (see Poe's post).

Meta Releases New Method for Evaluating Vision AI Models

Meta has just launched OpenEQA, the Open-Vocabulary Embodied Question Answering Benchmark, to shake up the AI scene and motivate research. This tool challenges AI agents with open-ended questions like 'Where did I leave my badge?' to measure how well they understand and navigate physical environments — in other words, to test how well they 'see' (see Meta’s announcement).

AI Now Provides Local Weather Updates!

The Weather Company has introduced ReelSphere, a new AI tool designed to automate the creation of hyperlocal weather videos, complete with custom graphics, captions, and AI-generated voiceovers akin to local meteorologists (see more).

🧰 AI TOOLBOX — RECAP

👋 UNTIL NEXT TIME

As we've seen, AI is advancing rapidly, transforming industries and our daily lives in profound ways. From education to fashion and beyond, these innovations are not just shaping the future — they're happening right now. Stay tuned for more updates as AI continues to redefine the world around us and unlock possibilities we can only begin to imagine.