Seeing AI Now on Android

Today:

Seeing AI App Launches on Android – Including new and updated features and new languages.

Microsoft just rolled out their Seeing AI app on Android, and it's a game changer for folks with vision problems. This app is like having a set of super-smart eyes in your pocket. Just point your phone at something, and it tells you what's there. It can read text out loud right away, help you read full documents, identify products by their barcodes, describe scenes, recognize your friends, tell you what currency you're holding, name colors, read handwriting, and even measure light levels. Plus, you can use it to understand pictures in other apps.

The cool part? It's now available to the 3 billion Android users worldwide. This means a whole lot of people who couldn't see well can now get by a little easier every day. Microsoft's all about listening to users to make this app even better, sticking to their motto "nothing about us, without us." They're really excited for folks to try it out and give their two cents.

You can grab Seeing AI from the Play Store or the iOS App Store. It's got a bunch of languages, like Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, and a whole lot more. 

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OpenAI Rival Mistral Nears $2 Billion Valuation With Andreessen Horowitz Backing

Mistral AI, a new kid on the block in the AI world, is about to hit the big leagues with a valuation knocking on the door of $2 billion. They're raking in a cool $487 million from some high-flyers like Nvidia and Salesforce. This cash injection is a game changer, making them a heavyweight contender against the likes of OpenAI.

Mistral's got some serious brainpower behind it, founded by folks who used to hang their hats at big-name tech joints like Meta and Google's DeepMind. They're into open-source software and made some noise earlier with a hefty $113 million in seed funding. With this latest chunk of change, led by Andreessen Horowitz, they're poised to shake things up in the AI arena​​​​​​​​​​.

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TikTok owner ByteDance joins generative AI frenzy with service for chatbot development, memo says

ByteDance, the folks behind TikTok, are getting into the chatbot game. They're cooking up a platform where anyone can create their own chatbots, trying to keep pace in the hot AI race. They plan to roll out a beta version of this platform by the end of the month.

ByteDance isn't just stopping there. They're also tinkering with a text-to-image generator, kind of like Midjourney. But when asked for the lowdown, they kept mum.

This move isn't just for kicks; it's part of their bigger plan to dive deep into generative AI and blend it with their existing products. It's like they're trying to bring AI into everything they do.

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Google Preps Public Preview of Gemini AI After Postponing In-Person Launch Events

Google's big AI project, named Gemini, has hit a bit of a snag. They were gearing up to show this thing off, a chat AI meant to go toe-to-toe with OpenAI's tech. But now, they've pumped the brakes and pushed back Gemini's big reveal to January. The word is that Google's head, Sundar Pichai, axed a bunch of events they had planned for this launch​​​​​​.

Turns out, the delay might be even longer than just a few months. Some folks are saying that Gemini, which some are calling Google’s answer to GPT-4, might not see the light of day until 2024​​.

But it's not all bad news. Google's still hustling to get Gemini out there in some form. They scrapped their original plan for a series of in-person shindigs in big cities like California, New York, and D.C., but they're now talking about a virtual sneak peek of Gemini happening real soon​​.

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J&J Hires Thousands, Invests Millions in AI-Powered Drug Discovery

Johnson & Johnson, you know, the big health giant, is going all-in on AI to jazz up their drug discovery game. They've spent a hundreds of millions to boost their AI skills. They've hired a whopping 6,000 tech whizzes and set up a swanky new research hub in San Fran just last year.

J&J's also sitting on a goldmine of data with med. AI - we're talking three petabytes of info from things like doctor visits and clinical trials. This treasure trove is a game-changer for speeding up how they find and develop new drugs.

They've already started using this tech for some neat projects, like a heart health program that might catch strokes before they hit.

Governments and regulators are catching up too. They're looking at how to handle all the tricky bits like privacy and safety. The White House and the Senate are already cooking up plans to keep AI in pharma on the straight and narrow.

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Nvidia Seeks to Build Out AI Ecosystem in Tech-Hungry Japan

Nvidia Corp, led by CEO Jensen Huang, is gearing up to build a network of semiconductor plants in Japan. This move is part of a larger effort by Japan to regain its status as a leader in the chipmaking industry. Companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Micron are already investing heavily in this area, with strong support from the Tokyo government. 

Nvidia's initiative, in partnership with local Japanese companies, aims to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-powered graphics chips. These plants will be constructed in collaboration with these local partners to specifically address the increasing need for AI-capable graphics chips​​​​​​​​​​.

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Venture capitalists get AI tool to answer legal and tax questions

Venture capitalists, always on the lookout to save some bucks, now have a new AI chatbot called Decile Base. It's like their personal legal and tax guru, minus the hefty fees of lawyers and accountants. This tool was whipped up by VC Lab, kind of a big deal in the VC world, having boosted nearly 400 venture firms since 2021.

VC Lab had this cool Slack channel where bigwigs could chat with industry hotshots. They took over a thousand of those brain-picking sessions and fed them to a language model using OpenAI's tech. Decile Base is a jack-of-all-trades, handling everything from raising funds to playing by the rules and dealing with tax headaches.

Ressi points out that Decile Base won't make stuff up. If it doesn't know something, it clams up, which happens about once in 30 questions. Bottom line: With all the dough venture capitalists are pouring into AI, it's only a matter of time before more of their decisions get automated. Just another day in the high-stakes world of venture capital.

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AssemblyAI lands $50M to build and serve AI speech models

AssemblyAI, an "applied AI" startup, just bagged $50 million in funding to beef up its AI speech models. Everyone's going nuts over generative AI, thinking it'll give them an edge in the biz world. AssemblyAI is riding this wave. They've tripled their customer base to 4,000 brands and are handling a whopping 25 million API calls daily. Over 200,000 developers are using their platform, crunching more than 10 terabytes of data every day.

The CEO, Dylan Fox, says their platform lets businesses focus on creating cool AI products without sweating the heavy lifting of developing and deploying AI models. Big investors are lining up too. Accel led the latest $50 million round, with some high-profile tech execs chipping in. AssemblyAI's total funding is now at $115 million.

Fox, who got the idea from Amazon Echo, aims to make top-notch, user-friendly AI speech models. Their API does all sorts of speech stuff, like turning speech to text and figuring out who's talking. Clients use it for everything from Zoom meetings to podcasts.

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Runway partners with Getty Images to build enterprise ready AI tools

Runway's teaming up with Getty Images to kickstart a new video model for big businesses. This thing's all about giving companies a slick way to make high-end, tailor-made videos. Runway's tech, mashed up with Getty's top-shelf, legit content, means businesses can create unique videos that really pop.

The cool part? Companies can tweak this Runway-Getty model with their own data. Whether it's Hollywood, ads, media, or broadcasting, they can pump up their video game. It's all about making vids that fit their style and speak directly to their audience.

This partnership is leveling up their goal to arm creators with next-gen AI tools. It's opening doors to new commercial video possibilities. And Getty's bigwig, Grant Farhall, is just as pumped. He's all about mixing human skills with smart tech to push the envelope in video creation.

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Getty lawsuit against Stability AI to go to trial in the UK

Getty Images, the big-shot photo company, is taking Stability AI to court in the UK. They're peeved because they say Stability AI used their photos, which are copyrighted, to train their fancy AI models. The UK court, specifically the Business and Property Courts, gave the green light for this to go to trial. They think Getty's got a point worth looking into.

Stability AI tried to dodge this UK court thing, saying none of their crew involved in the AI training were in the UK. They also mentioned using cloud power from AWS in the US for all this tech stuff. But the judge, Joanna Smith, wasn't buying it. She's seen some fishy stuff, like the CEO of Stability AI, Emad Mostaque, talking about helping some Russian and Ukrainian techies get fast-tracked UK residency. That made her think there's more to this story.

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AI laser that reads heartbeat through the throat could replace stethoscopes

Glasgow University have whipped up a laser camera that can read your heartbeat from a distance. It's like a high-tech version of a stethoscope. You could be walking through a mall, stop by a booth, and bam – it checks your heartbeat and updates your online medical records. Or, you could have this gadget at home, keeping tabs on your heart and other health stuff.

Faccio’s team built this system with high-speed cameras that catch skin movements on your throat when your heart beats – we're talking tiny movements, billionths of a meter! But since other stuff like breathing can mess up the readings, they use AI to focus only on the heartbeat.

This isn't just about measuring against average heart rates; it's personalized. It tracks your specific heart patterns, making it really sharp at noticing if something's off. They’ve even started a company, LightHearted AI, to push this further.

The real deal is how precise it is. It could pick you out of a crowd of ten just by your heartbeat! Beyond just checking heart health, it's also a whiz at biometric ID. They're aiming to roll this out next year, and it could be a big deal for health checks outside the doc’s office.

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AI transforms colonoscopy: Boosting detection rates, slashing miss rates in cancer screening

Basically, scientists in China checked out a bunch of studies on using AI to spot colorectal cancer during colonoscopies. They wanted to see if AI could do a better job at finding these cancer clues, called adenomas, and not miss them as often.

So, colorectal cancer is a big deal worldwide, right? Catching these adenomas early is key to stopping cancer in its tracks. But docs sometimes miss them - about 27% slip by. The study looked at trials where they compared AI-assisted colonoscopies to the usual way. They were picky about which studies they included, leaving out folks with certain other conditions. They wanted to know if AI could find more adenomas and miss fewer, plus they checked out other stuff like how many polyps were found and any side effects.

Turns out, AI was a game-changer. It found way more adenomas and missed way fewer compared to the old-school method. The number of adenomas and polyps found per check-up also went up. But, there was a catch – the results varied a lot between studies.

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