Meta's New AI Offering to Rival Google, OpenAI

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Meta to release commercial AI tools to rival Google, OpenAI

Looks like Meta is stepping up its game in the AI playground, according to a recent Financial Times scoop. The tech giant's planning to release a new commercial version of their AI model, LLaMa. Though it was initially just for the brainy folks in research and academia, now they're aiming for the broader market.

Meta's goal? Shake up the dominance of current big boys on the block, OpenAI and Google. They're hoping to allow startups and businesses to build their own unique apps and software using their AI technology as the base.

Here's the twist: Meta's AI models are currently free and open-source. So, anyone can check out the system's workings. Unlike the hush-hush approach of OpenAI, this move's got a certain "open book" vibe to it.

This ain't gonna be a freebie forever, though. Rumor has it Meta's mulling over a paid version for big customers. But for now, the commercial model's release is right around the corner.

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Amazon Web Services Has Launched A New AI Teams As It Scrambles To Compete With Rivals Like OpenAI

Amazon's gotten wind of the AI rush and they're not playing catch-up any longer. They've hatched a new AI team called "Next Generation Developer Experience," gunning to help their customers build stuff with generative AI, right there on their cloud. Even with recent cost-cutting, they're still hiring. So if AI's your jam, you might want to give 'em a look.

The big cheese at AWS, Peter DeSantis, spilled the beans in an email. He's psyched about generative AI, reckons it's gonna shake things up big time, just like the internet did. And he's betting his bottom dollar that AWS is gonna ride that wave all the way to the bank.

Longtime Amazon guy, Deepak Singh, is gonna steer this new ship. They're already toying with AI tools like Bedrock and CodeWhisperer to give builders (that's Amazon lingo for the folks who use their cloud to create stuff) a leg up. The new boss of AWS's cloud, Adam Selipsky, hinted they're still gonna add more folks to this AI operation. He's all about zeroing in on what's important, and right now, that's generative AI.

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Viral AI Google Calendar Extension Is Just Like Having a 'Personal Assistant,' and Social Media Is Losing It

TikToker Izzy Mignone's hit video shows how the Reclaim AI extension for Google Calendar can act as your personal organizer. This snazzy tool arranges your schedule based on events you add and their timings, including regular appointments or one-off happenings. Mignone compares it to a personal assistant. This smart tech reads your input in everyday language, and then builds a draft schedule right into your Google Calendar.

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Mignone's clip, now seen over 339,600 times, has Google Calendar users stoked. Some were amazed that such a handy tool existed. Google's own TikTok account tipped their hat to Mignone's smart find.

There's a bit of a catch though. While there's a free version of Reclaim AI, it only plans three weeks ahead for one user. You gotta shell out $18 to plan 12 weeks in advance and cover over 100 users.

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AI Startup Hugging Face Is Raising Fresh VC Funds At $4 Billion Valuation

Hugging Face, an AI startup known for its work with big language models, is gearing up for a big cash boost. They're looking at getting at least $200 million in their Series D funding round, bringing their total value to a whopping $4 billion. Word on the street is Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures may lead the pack of investors, but Hugging Face's CEO Clément Delangue isn't settling just yet as more offers are rolling in.

Hugging Face has been doing pretty well, with revenue hitting between $30 and $50 million this year, more than triple what it was at the beginning of the year. It's no surprise, since they're pretty much a one-stop-shop for machine learning, with loads of models that folks can use and adapt for free. They get their dough by offering extra security and business tools on top.

Delangue has warned about the risk of AI companies shelling out big bucks to Big Tech for cloud services. But with AI, you've got to spend money to make money. Hugging Face isn't the only one in the game; other companies like Inflection AI and Anthropic have been raking in millions too. But if Hugging Face secures this funding, they'll be one of the top dogs in the AI industry, with a value on par with Inflection AI and not too far behind Anthropic.

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Causaly, an AI platform for drug discovery and biomedical research, raises $60M

Causaly, a London-based startup in the AI and medical research arena, just bagged $60 million in Series B funding, with aims to boost its team and R&D efforts. This AI platform aids researchers in speeding up drug development and testing. The cash infusion was led by ICONIQ Growth, bringing Causaly's total dough to $93 million.

Co-founded by Yiannis Kiachopoulos, the CEO, and CTO Artur Saudabayev, Causaly already has a tight relationship with 12 of the world's top pharmaceutical giants and big guns in medical research like the FDA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. These heavy-hitters use Causaly's platform to simplify and speed up various drug development stages, identifying interesting research and development targets, determining specific biomarkers, and helping understand diseases better to figure out possible pharmaceutical solutions.

The startup is all about offering tools for drug discovery to other organizations, rather than doing the drug discovery itself. “Our solution helps biomedical teams, but we are not developing our own therapeutics,” Kiachopoulos said. As AI continues to impact the world of science, Causaly plans to stay in the game, empowering scientists to make big strides in biomedical research.

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Alphabet shares soar after it expands AI chatbot internationally

Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc, saw its stocks jump 4.9% yesterday. Why, you ask? Well, they just announced they're expanding their AI chatbot, Bard, into Europe and Brazil. This comes after lots of back and forth about privacy concerns, but they've managed to smooth things over with the folks across the pond.

Alphabet's stock hit its highest level since mid-June, outdoing the overall market. Wall Street folks reckon this is due to Bard's launch overseas, and also because it's learning to talk in new languages. Heck, it's even giving Microsoft's AI a run for its money.

The enthusiasm around Alphabet's AI has been causing quite a stir since February, with its shares shooting up about 41% this year. Meanwhile, Microsoft's shares aren't doing too shabby either, with a 42% rise.

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ChatGPT Maker Investigated By US Regulators Over AI Risks

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, a chatbot with artificial intelligence. The FTC wants to know if this chatbot has been spreading false information about people and if OpenAI has been using unfair or sneaky ways to handle privacy and data security.

The FTC has asked OpenAI to share information about how they store user data and what steps they have taken to prevent the chatbot from spreading false or harmful information.

Lina Khan, who leads the FTC, mentioned in a hearing that they are worried about how much data AI services are consuming, with no controls over the type of data being used. The FTC is also concerned about the risk of sensitive personal information being shared inappropriately and false information being spread.

ChatGPT has been criticized for making up names, dates, facts, and even fake links to news websites. This issue, known as "hallucinations" in the AI world, is part of the FTC's investigation. They also want to know more about any complaints from users and how well users understand the accuracy and reliability of the chatbot.

Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, has admitted that ChatGPT has problems. He posted on Twitter that it's not perfect and people should not rely on it for anything important.

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Harvard Releases First Guidelines for ‘Responsible Experimentation with Generative AI Tools’

Harvard's top dogs have dropped the first-ever university-wide rules for using nifty AI tools like ChatGPT. Their email is basically a wake-up call for all the Harvard folks to keep their AI shenanigans in check. It’s a big thumbs up for exploring with AI, but they're insisting on keeping private data under wraps and being on the up and up when it comes to school rules and avoiding any fishy AI scams.

Their new 5-point rundown tells everyone to shield any private info (read: stuff not out there for all to see) and own up to any AI stuff they make. Watch out, because AI can trip on copyright rules and spew baloney. The email basically says, "Hey, give that AI stuff a once-over before you slap it online."

Now, these aren't fresh-out-of-the-oven rules. They're just pulling from existing policies. But, it's worth noting that there's no clear-cut policy on how AI mingles with the rules of the school game in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. A recent survey showed almost half the faculty folks think AI might sour the higher ed scene, and more than half said they don’t have a black-and-white rule on using AI in the classroom.

AI's already making a splash in Harvard's classrooms, though. Their flagship coding class plans to let students use AI to debug code, get feedback, and answer questions starting this fall. And the higher-ups plan to keep an eye on how things go and tweak the rules based on what they hear from the Harvard crowd.

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