Today:

Gates, Altman and Bezos SHOCK the Entire Industry! Figure AI, Reddit IPO, Tyler Perry Shocked and T2

The recent advancements in robotics and AI, highlighting the surge of interest and investment from big tech players like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Kathy Wood in a small robotics company called Figure AI, is fueled by breakthroughs in creating smart, agile robots, with projections of widespread adoption of autonomous machines. Key factors driving investment include the growing demand for workers in essential roles like warehousing and transportation. Additionally, Tesla's progress in robotics, exemplified by Optimus Prime, contributes to the momentum. 

This collaboration results in significant advancements, surpassing human performance in complex tasks and generating novel solutions. Overall, the convergence of AI and robotics is revolutionizing the field, promising rapid developments in the near future.

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Apple’s wearable ideas include smart glasses and cameras in your ears

Apple is exploring new wearable tech like AI smart glasses and AirPods with cameras. These concepts, not yet products, aim to boost Apple's wearable business. The smart glasses would have more sensors and AI features but won't be like the rumored AR face computer. Instead, they're similar to Meta Ray-Bans with cameras and AI assistants. 

Apple's also considering AirPods with embedded cameras, hinting at its interest in generative AI. While the rumored Apple smart ring isn't actively in development, the focus remains on AR glasses. With Meta's success in screen-less smart glasses, Apple might follow suit.

THE VERGE

Arc browser’s new AI-powered ‘pinch-to-summarize’ feature is clever, but often misses the mark

Arc, a browser aiming for a cleaner web experience, introduced an AI-powered "pinch-to-summarize" feature in its mobile app, Arc Search. This innovative gesture-based tool provides condensed web page summaries but falls short in accuracy, missing crucial details in some cases. 

While praised for its sleek design and smooth transition effects, Arc's summaries often lack precision, especially with non-English content. Concerns arise about its impact on news publishers and the reliability of AI-driven information. Despite its potential, Arc's summary feature requires refinement to ensure accuracy and maintain trust among users and content creators alike.

TECHCRUNCH

Perplexity.ai Revamps Google SEO Model For LLM Era

Perplexity.ai transforms AI search with a blend of ingenuity and ambition. The company initially aimed to develop a Text-to-SQL tool but shifted focus to crafting an AI-driven search engine. By leveraging Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Perplexity enhances search accuracy. Their system, incorporating OpenAI's large language models and BERT, crawls the web for up-to-date information, providing users with credible responses. 

Unlike Google, Perplexity prioritizes relevance over page ranking, revolutionizing search dynamics. While challenges persist in competing with Google, Perplexity's streamlined approach and absence of ad constraints offer a promising alternative, challenging the status quo in AI-driven search technology.

IEEE SPECTRUM

Honor’s Magic 6 Pro launches internationally with AI-powered eye tracking on the way

Honor unveiled its global launch of the Magic 6 Pro and a special Porsche-themed Magic V2 foldable at MWC 2024 in Barcelona. Priced at €1,299, the Magic 6 Pro boasts AI-powered features including eye-tracking and automatic link generation for messages. 

It's equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, a 5,600mAh battery, and a 6.8-inch OLED display. The Porsche Design Magic V2 RSR, priced at €2,699, offers 1TB storage and a stylus. Both devices feature similar camera setups and IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. However, the Magic V2 RSR uses last year's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. Availability in the US remains uncertain.

THE VERGE

Amba Kak creates policy recommendations to address AI concerns

Amba Kak, Executive Director of AI Now Institute, crafts policy solutions for AI concerns, advocating for public interest over corporate profit. With a background spanning tech policy, law, and global advisement, Kak confronts AI's societal impacts. Notably, her team's 2023 AI Landscape report debunked industry hype, highlighting AI's concentration of power and societal implications. 

Kak champions diversity and urges women and marginalized groups to assert their place in shaping AI's future, emphasizing the need to challenge tech industry narratives. Her work underscores the imperative of regulation and advocacy to steer technology toward serving broader societal interests.

TECHCRUNCH

🧠RESEARCH

OmniPred: Language Models as Universal Regressors

OmniPred is a new approach that trains language models to predict outcomes from different real-world experiments just by looking at text descriptions of the data. They showed that these models can do math just by reading and can even beat the usual methods when they learn from many types of problems. 

BeTAIL: Behavior Transformer Adversarial Imitation Learning from Human Racing Gameplay

BeTAIL is a new method that blends a Behavior Transformer with adversarial imitation learning to teach robots to race like humans by watching gameplay. It improves how robots learn complex actions and adapt to new situations by combining learned behaviors with on-the-fly adjustments. This approach has shown better performance and adaptability in racing games, even on tracks not used during training. 

CyberDemo: Augmenting Simulated Human Demonstration for Real-World Dexterous Manipulation

CyberDemo is a novel technique for teaching robots to perform real-world tasks by learning from simulated human demonstrations. This approach utilizes extensive data augmentation in simulation, achieving superior performance in diverse conditions compared to traditional methods. CyberDemo demonstrates remarkable success rates across various tasks and can handle objects it was never trained on, showcasing its potential for enhancing dexterous manipulation in robotics. 

GeneOH Diffusion: Towards Generalizable Hand-Object Interaction Denoising via Denoising Diffusion

"GeneOH Diffusion" explores a new method to clean up errors in hand-object interactions (HOI), turning them into realistic sequences. It introduces a contact-centric HOI representation, GeneOH, and a unique denoising strategy that together improve the accuracy of HOI sequences across different scenarios and noise patterns. The technique has been tested on multiple benchmarks, showing its potential for enhancing various applications by making interactions between hands and objects more natural and error-free. 

Copilot Evaluation Harness: Evaluating LLM-Guided Software Programming

Copilot Evaluation Harness is a toolkit for assessing the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) like OpenAI's GPT-3.5/4 in programming tasks within Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). It provides a robust set of metrics and tools to measure how well these AI models assist in coding, documenting, testing, fixing bugs, and understanding workspaces. The findings offer insights into optimizing LLMs for developer productivity across various programming scenarios and languages.

🛠️TOP TOOLS

Ropes - coding assessment platform powered by AI, designed to screen engineers more effectively. It offers unique features like scorecards, custom problems tailored to business needs, and integrations with other tools.

Artu - AI assistant designed to organize creative chaos. It processes, summarizes, and organizes ideas and information from various sources like emails, WhatsApp, and social media, making them accessible on a single board. 

KPI Builder - designed to assist startup founders in identifying the most relevant and impactful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for their businesses.

Brikly - a platform that helps businesses find the right engineers for their needs, streamlining the hiring process by matching companies with skilled professionals.

Watto AI -  a versatile document creation tool, integrating with various platforms to generate documents like PRDs and whitepapers efficiently, enhancing productivity for professionals.

📲SOCIAL MEDIA

🗞️MORE NEWS

Miranda Bogen is creating solutions to help govern AI

Miranda Bogen, AI Policy Expert at the Center for Democracy & Technology, focuses on governing AI systems to ensure fairness and accountability. Her work includes guiding responsible AI strategies at Meta and advocating for equity in tech. Bogen emphasizes the importance of humility in AI development and calls for investors to prioritize responsible practices over rushed innovation. TECHCRUNCH

Allocations, AI-powered investing platform, tops $2 billion as alternative asset demand booms

Allocations, a fintech startup leveraging AI, surpasses $2 billion in assets managed, showcasing growing demand for alternative investments. Using AI, it automates paperwork, slashes costs, and accelerates fund launches, enabling smaller investments. With plans for a mobile app, Allocations aims to democratize alternative investing, targeting $1 trillion in assets by 2030. VENTUREBEAT

AI boom sparks concern over Big Tech’s water consumption

Big technology companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta have increased their water consumption to cool down data centers, raising concerns about the environmental impact of the AI boom. Experts predict that AI demand could lead to a significant increase in water withdrawal, reaching between 4.2 billion and 6.6 billion cubic meters by 2027. Researchers are calling for more transparency from AI firms and comprehensive data on the water and energy consumption of AI models. FINANCIAL TIMES

Hydrogen power for AI: Honda expands fuel cell drive to U.S. data centers

Honda is piloting fuel cell backup power systems for data centers in California, aiming to supply tech giants in North America. This initiative not only provides clean emergency power but also supports the growth of hydrogen-powered vehicles, potentially reducing their costs. The trial, located near Los Angeles, demonstrates Honda's commitment to leveraging AI-driven advancements in the energy sector. NIKKEI

Google’s chaotic AI strategy leaves users bewildered

Google's AI strategy is a confusing mess, bombarding users with a flurry of new names and products like Bard, Gemini, and more. The rapid changes and unclear distinctions have left consumers bewildered and mocking Google internally. With competitors like OpenAI keeping it simple, Google risks losing trust and relevance unless it cleans up its act and communicates clearly. VENTUREBEAT

These major companies are using AI to snoop through employees’ messages, report reveals

Major companies like Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are reportedly using AI from "Aware" to monitor employee messages on platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams. The move, amid remote work, raises concerns about privacy and trust. Americans express discomfort with robots reading their messages, signaling unease with this technological advancement. FOX BUSINESS

Not always honest at supermarket self-checkout? AI is out to get you

Supermarkets face challenges with self-checkout losses due to dishonest shoppers. While some stores limit self-checkout hours, Diebold Nixdorf offers an AI-powered solution to combat theft. Their software, 'Vynamic Smart Vision | Shrink Reduction,' monitors and alerts staff of suspicious behavior, aiming to improve accuracy and reduce losses. ZDNET