💵 $1 Chevy Tahoe

🗞️ Your Weekly Round-Up

1️⃣ Text to Music

Microsoft recently unveiled a new AI tool integrated into the Suno app, allowing users to turn a single line of text into a song.

However, there's a catch regarding the copyright ownership of the AI-generated music within Suno:

• For those using the free version, the AI-generated song is owned by Suno.

• For Pro or Premium subscribers, the song is owned by the user.

The debate around AI-generated music and copyright has long been a point of discussion, and Suno's strategy appears to leverage this concern to encourage users to opt for paid subscriptions.

An interesting business move…

Read more: Mashable

2️⃣ AI driving assistant

TomTom and Microsoft are working together to develop a new AI driving assistant.

Utilizing Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service, the voice assistant allows drivers to:

• Interact with their vehicles.

• Navitage to specific locations.

• Control various onboard systems with just a single interaction. 

TomTom emphasizes that the development prioritizes easy integration, aiming for a swift time-to-market to promptly make this technology available to drivers.

This initiative follows a trend in the industry, with Mercedes recently introducing a beta program that integrates ChatGPT with Microsoft-powered voice control.

Read more: Mashable

3️⃣ Expedia wants to cut Google out

Expedia is strategically aiming to diminish Google's role as the intermediary in internet travel planning by launching a new service.

The objective? To establish itself as the primary hub for travel planning, offering users a comprehensive platform for discovering, booking, and organizing their journeys.

While Expedia currently utilizes AI for certain customer service functions and assisting property owners in detailing their accommodations, it plans to advance further by using LLMs to deliver personalized, AI-driven travel recommendations.

Read more: The Verge

4️⃣ $1 Chevy Tahoe

Chatbots can ruin your business - literally. 

Recently, a California car dealership's chatbot, powered by Fullpath, offered a 2024 Chevy Tahoe to a buyer for a dollar ($1) and declared it a "legally binding offer—no takesie backsies." 

While the incident emphasizes a larger issue when integrating language models into different platforms, it's essential to recognize that such glitches are inevitable.

As businesses race to incorporate AI into various online spaces, it will become crucial to thoroughly test and understand the capabilities of the AI systems before they are deployed.

Read more: Gizmodo

5️⃣ Google fights misinformation

Most US adults worry about the potential for AI-amplified fake news in the upcoming elections.

To address this, Google is implementing strict measures to counter misinformation:

• Google will limit Bard's responses to election-related queries.

• Election advertisers and YouTubers must disclose AI involvement in their content.

• The company will collaborate with independent fact-checkers to verify and label misleading content.

• Google is investing in research and partnerships to enhance the detection of manipulated media.

Read more: Semafor

6️⃣ AI’s war on drugs

AI is waging a war on drugs, with Border Patrol agents employing cutting-edge technology to disrupt fentanyl production and distribution networks.

Global supply chain start-up Altana secured a $9 million government contract to help with just that, developing an AI tool to track fentanyl production. Their AI monitors companies producing crucial ingredients, creating a comprehensive knowledge map that has proven highly effective.

Since July, Border Patrol has executed two major missions, showcasing the impact of AI technology:

• In one operation, they seized 13,000 pounds of fentanyl production ingredients, resulting in 284 arrests.

• Another mission led to the confiscation of 10,000 pounds of fentanyl.

Read more: Fox

7️⃣ AI is not an inventor

In a distinctive patent case, the UK Supreme Court ruled against AI being recognized as an inventor, asserting that only humans or companies can hold that title.

The unanimous decision follows a petition from Stephen Thaler, the founder of the AI system DABUS, who aimed to register it as the inventor of a food container and a flashing light beacon.

Judge David Kitchin highlighted the absence of a legal framework acknowledging machines as creators, raising questions about the legal status of AI-generated material and the need for legal protection.

Read more: The Verge

8️⃣ AI Memory = Human Memory?

Researchers recently found a similarity between AI memory processing and human hippocampal functions.

Why is it important? The revelation highlights a parallel in memory consolidation, a crucial process in converting short-term memories into long-term ones, shared by both AI models and the human brain.

Impact on AI development:

• The study specifically focused on the Transformer model and how its memory processes emulate the NMDA receptor mechanism in the brain.

• This research significantly advances the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) by showcasing the potential for creating more efficient, brain-like AI systems.

Quite fascinating.

Read more: Neuroscience News

9️⃣ Will AI create more jobs than it eliminates?

Tech Mahindra's outgoing CEO, CP Gurnani, isn’t convinced that AI is taking jobs away, stating that generative AI technology creates more jobs than it eliminates. 

He also remains optimistic about evolving use cases, emphasizing the “resilience of skilled workers” and predicting the emergence of new jobs, aligning with industry sentiments.

Gurnani's perspective aligns with others in the industry, including Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, who dismisses the idea of coders losing jobs to AI tools like ChatGPT.

Point to note: While estimates on job losses vary, recent research from the European Central Bank and the International Labour Organization suggests AI’s impact is minimal so far.

Read more: Yahoo Finance

🔟 TechCrunch predicts the future of AI

Over the last year, AI has announced itself on the grand stage and successfully transitioned from being niche to mainstream.

The coming year, however, holds the promise of AI changing the world even more, according to TechCrunch.

Here are some of their predictions:

• Apple will make its mark in the AI arena, potentially dominating the field.

• Developers will better understand the limitations of LLMs.

• Old laws will break, and new laws will be created to acknowledge AI.

• A chaotic 2024 election will be marked by AI messiness.

A very interesting read. 

Read more: TechCrunch

🤑 AI Fundraising News

• Vectoflow raises $4.4M/€4m in Series A funding to create tailored instrumentation for aerospace and energy.

• Totus Medicines raises $66M in Series B funding to revolutionize small molecule drug discovery and development using covalent libraries and AI tools.

• Kimia Therapeutics raises $55M in Series A funding to expand its ATLAS platform, which combines high-throughput chemistry with chemical biology, genome editing, and machine learning to accelerate the discovery of new therapeutic targets and drug leads.

• Lightmatter raises $155M in funding to develop computing products using light instead of electricity.

• ImpriMed raises $23M in Series A funding to expand its drug response prediction technology to human oncology and extend its AI-driven human healthcare approach.

• Harvey.ai raises $80 million in Series B funding to automate labor-intensive tasks like contract review and document rewrites, allowing lawyers to work more efficiently.

• Podimo raises $48M/€44M in funding to provide personalized audio experiences through human curation and AI, offering features like "Conversational Search" to help listeners discover new content.

• Anthropic, creators of the Claude chatbot, plan to raise $750M in the new year.

🛠️ AI Tools to Check Out

• BigRead.ai: Read and Learn anything with a personalized AI Tutor. Designed to make reading fun and effective. Check them out!

• TalkNotes: Turn messy thoughts into actionable notes. Fast. Check them out!

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