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Hot Summer continued with product launches taking center stage. However, governments are taking things too far.
The rules regulating AI might stifle innovation, though that is unclear for now.
Here are the headlines:
Open AI launched ChatGPT's lightweight model;
Meta's issues with EU regulators turned into an entire spat ;
Nvidia was everywhere, doing everything;
The Chinese want their AI LLMs to be more socialist;
Plus, Team USA has Google Gemini as an AI partner at the Paris Olympics;
Also, a member of Congress found her voice after a devastating diagnosis thanks to AI;
And much more!
Of course, it's your Daily AI™!
The DWN AI Index™ Update
On 7/18/24, the index remained marginal with a +2.15-point change, at +0.07%, to close at 30116.53.
DWN/AI Index™ Individual Stock Closing Prices:
Amazon (AMZN) at $183.75,
Arista Networks (ANET) at $332.63,
C3.ai (AI) at $28.24,
CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) at $343.05,
Duolingo (DUOL) at $178.57,
iRhythm Technologies (IRTC) at $98.51,
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) at $440.37,
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) at $121.09,
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) at $28.64,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) at $171.87,
Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) closed at $475.85, while Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) closed at $179.22.
Under the AI Hood
Open AI
Interestingly, Open AI launched GPT-4o mini, the light version of its popular LLM. According to the firm, GPT-4o mini leads similar industry variants in texts and vision tasks.
Additionally, audio and video task processing capabilities will be available (soon). Open AI also introduced enterprise tools for highly (regulated) industries. The solutions enable logging and audit for transparency and integrity purposes.
According to a July 18 The Information report, Open AI is (allegedly) in talks with several hardware makers (including Broadcom) to develop new AI server chips.
Meta
The (ongoing) drama between European regulators and Meta continued. The social media giant revealed that it would not release the multimodal version of Llama across Europe, its AI version, because of inconsistent privacy policies.
The move follows Meta's plans to introduce the new version across its ecosystem.
Google/NBCUniversal/The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee
The Paris Olympics will come with a bang and with Google Gemini. July 18 reporting from Reuters revealed integrations with Gemini in broadcast activities, enabling insights for commentators.
Subsequently, Google will (soon) be the official AI search partner of Team USA. The effort is part of AI deployment attempts by NBCUniversal.
Furthermore, in a July 18 blog post, Google revealed the launch of the Coalition for Secure AI (CoSAI).
The working group aims to establish a common framework that advances AI safety. CoSai has several tech giants: Amazon, Anthropic, Chainguard, Cisco, Cohere, GenLab, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, PayPal, and Wiz.
Open-source standards ecosystem OASIS Open houses the platform.
Mistral AI/NVIDIA
NVIDIA continued with collaborative efforts by launching a new LLM (NeMo 12B) in partnership with Mistral AI. The new enterprise-focused model combines Mistral's data with NVIDIA's cutting-edge hardware.
Additionally, Mistral trained NeMo 12B on the Nvidia DGX Cloud AI platform.
Industry Dive
SAP/Wiz
Despite the exciting advantages AI solutions offer, risks remain. On July 17, researchers at cloud security firm Wiz revealed several vulnerabilities in the SAP AI Core ecosystem.
The weaknesses allowed users to execute code, bypassing guard rails. SAP (reportedly) patched the loopholes in May. Furthermore, the team (previously) identified similar vulnerabilities in Hugging Face's and Replicate AI's ecosystems.
The California Civil Rights Department
The Golden State's business community pushed back at proposed rules by the California Civil Rights Department to add worker employment discrimination rules to the hiring process. Businesses responded to the proposals, indicating that the rules should be narrower.
Talent advocates said that including AI tools in the hiring process could cause discrimination.
The People's Republic of China
Alarmingly, the Chinese Communist Party extended its tentacles to the AI industry with new rules for training LLMs. Reports from the Financial Times suggest that the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has implemented security filtering rules for tech firms.
Allegedly, censored prompts include the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and terms that are (reportedly) insulting to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Additionally, tech firms have been encouraged to train their models with Socialist values.
They also require special licenses to operate GenAI solutions.
Everything Else
Tinder/Bumble
Things are getting hot in the dating scene, with the ongoing AI conversation taking contrasting positions. Tinder introduced an AI-powered tool that enables the optimal selection of smartphone profile photos.
On the other end, Bumble launched a new solution that allows users to report AI-generated pictures.
Dark Horse Comics
All-American comic maker Dark Horse Comics iterated its support for human-generated content with a ban on AI-generated art. Additionally, the comic maker indicated in an X/Twitter post that its contracts support the initiative.
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA)
Interestingly, an AI solution helped Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) regain her voice. According to a July 18 Politico report, Wexton (and her team) developed an AI voice for her presentations on the Congressional floor using past clips of her public speeches.
Doctors diagnosed Wexton with progressive supranuclear palsy last year.
Following the Money
Anthropic/Menlo Ventures
Anthropic and Menlo Ventures teamed up to launch the Anthology Fund. The $100 million fund targets early-stage startups required to deploy Anthropic's tech. Founders will get credits worth $25,000 from Anthropic for LLM use and cash from Menlo.
Other resources include mentorship, networking, and other opportunities.
CytoReason
AI-focused disease model developer CytoReason successfully raised $80 million in a private funding round that included Thermo Fisher, Pfizer, Nvidia, and OurCrowd.
Xapien
Across the pond in the United Kingdom, due diligence-focused Xapien raised £8 million (approximately $10.35 million) in a Series A funding round. YFM Equity Partners led the round. The move brings Xapien's fundraising efforts to £14 million (approximately $18.11 million).
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