📺️ Amazon improves advertising

🧵 In today's edition:

• 🗞️ Your Weekly Round-Up

• 🎙️ BWAI Episode ft. Krish Ramineni of Fireflies

• 🤑 AI Fundraising News

• 🛠️ AI Tools to Check Out

• 🐦 Tweet Post of the Day

🗞️ Your Weekly Round-Up

1️⃣ Amazon improves advertising

Amazon announced a new beta feature that allows advertisers to create AI-generated backgrounds for product images.

The feature is designed to improve ad performance by providing lifestyle images that increase click-through rates.

The process is simple - advertisers can select their product in the Amazon Ad Console, click “Generate,” and choose from several image options that are customizable with text prompts.

The goal of the tool is to:

• Reduce friction,

• Maximize impact,

• And deliver a superior advertising experience.

Read more: Engadget

2️⃣ Canva’s AI 'Classroom Magic'

Canva launched a suite of powerful AI tools called Classroom Magic, offering educators and students a one-stop shop for enhancing the learning experience.

Some tools include:

• Magic Write: A tool that helps students write first drafts while aiding teachers in generating lesson plans and content summaries.

• Lesson Suite: A library of customizable lesson plans and presentations across various subjects.

Canva's AI tools also promote:

• Accessibility, with features like multilingual translation support, alt text generation for images, and a Design Accessibility Checker.

• AI safety through Canva Shield, incorporating advanced controls, review mechanisms, and safety measures to ensure that AI content is appropriate for educational use.

Read more: Mashable

3️⃣ Microsoft invests billions to develop AI in Australia

Microsoft continues to put its money into Gen AI.

This week, they announced a $3.2 billion investment into Australia over the next two years to expand its cloud computing and AI infrastructure.

Why is this important?

• The investment will help Microsoft grow its data centers across Canberra, Sydney, and Melbourne by 45%.

• The company will also establish a Microsoft Datacenter Academy in Australia while teaming up with the Australian Signals Directorate Intelligence Agency on cybersecurity initiatives.

Read more: Yahoo Finance

4️⃣ YouTube Music’s AI art

​​YouTube Music is introducing a new feature that lets you personalize your playlist cover art using generative AI.

Here's how it works:

• Tap the pen icon on your playlist's cover art.

• Choose a category like animals, food, colors, or nature, or opt for AI-generated prompts.

• Select from a choice of five AI-generated images.

YouTube Music is also launching a new "speed dial" feature that ensures your most listened-to content sits in your homepage, giving you easier access.

Read more: The Verge

5️⃣ Galaxy S24 - the pocket AI machine

Samsung is attempting to create the most intelligent AI smartphones with its upcoming Galaxy S24 series.

Here’s what we know so far:

• The phone will include features from ChatGPT and Google Bard.

• It will have Samsung's own text-to-image Generative AI.

• Users will get an improved Bixby with better speech-to-text functionality for more humanlike conversations.

• It could be faster at performing AI tasks compared to a Pixel smartphone, thanks to the more powerful Exynos and Snapdragon chips.

Read more: Sam Mobile

6️⃣ Qualcomm’s next Snapdragon chip has immense AI capabilities

Speaking of Snapdragon chips, Qualcomm is set to announce its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, with a heavy emphasis on AI capabilities.

The chip will:

• Include various AI camera tools such as the ability to remove objects from videos and expand areas of a photo.

• Be able to run various AI models and have a 30% faster CPU, a 25% faster GPU, and support for 240fps gaming.

Read more: The Verge

7️⃣ Grammarly can mimic your voice and tone

Grammarly is set to launch a new feature called “Personalized Voice Detection and Application.”

The feature automatically detects a user’s unique writing style and creates a “voice profile” that can rewrite any text in their style.

As you might have guessed, there are some serious concerns regarding how the feature could be misused, either through false impersonation or plagiarism of work without approval and compensation.

Read more: Techcrunch

8️⃣ Shutterstock AI takes on Adobe

Shutterstock is unveiling AI image editing features that allow users to transform its stock images. These include:

• Magic Brush: A tool that lets users describe what they want to add, replace, or erase with a simple brush stroke. Plus, they can generate alternate versions of stock or AI-generated images and expand image backgrounds effortlessly.

• "Smart" Resizing: A feature that automatically adapts images to the required dimensions.

The best part? Artists will be compensated if their images are licensed after editing, ensuring proper recognition and payment.

Read more: The Verge

9️⃣ Google Maps’ new AI capabilities

Two big updates are coming soon to Google Maps:

• Maps is rolling out a new AI function allowing users to search for general sights or products by using machine learning and image recognition AI on the billions of user-uploaded photos.

• Maps is also being updated to help drivers locate EV chargers more efficiently, providing more information on EV charging stations, including when they were last used and whether they're fast, medium, or slow charging.

Read more: Mashable

🔟 Can the EU AI Act pass in 2023?

Lawmakers involved with the EU's AI Act have been unable to reach a consensus regarding how to regulate foundational models.

What’s the holdup?

• Spain is pushing for more vulnerability checks and a tiered regulatory approach based on user count, facing great resistance.

• Committee members can't find common ground on their next steps:

  • Some drafts call for foundation model developers to assess risks, conduct ongoing testing, address data bias, validate information, and publish technical documents before launching.

  • Meanwhile, open-source companies are urging the EU to consider smaller developers and differentiate between for-profit models and hobbyists.

Read more: The Verge

🎙️ BWAI Episode ft. Krish Ramineni of Fireflies

Hey team! ICYMI, our latest BWAI episode featuring Krish Ramineni, the Co-founder and CEO of Fireflies, is out now!

Catch this episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts today!

🤑 AI Fundraising News

• ZenML raises $3.7M in Seed funding to develop its open-source platform that simplifies AI development by creating machine learning pipelines.

• Ternary raises $12M in Series A funding to enable finance teams to collaborate with engineering and FinOps teams to align spending with business objectives and continuously improve cost efficiencies.

• VisionAI raises €5M / $5.3M to help e-commerce merchants take on Amazon.

• Quantum Systems raises €63.6M / $67.2M in Series B funding to develop, design, and produce small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) for defense, security, and public sector clients.

• Arteria AI raises $30M in Series B funding to help banks extract data from documentation.

• Cranium raises $25M in Series A funding to enable organizations to manage their AI/ML environments safely and securely against adversarial threats.

🛠️ AI Tools to Check Out

• Genie AI: The world’s most advanced AI Legal Assistant, allowing users to understand, customize, and negotiate legal documents like a pro with AI legal assistance. Check them out!

• Storybot AI: An AI tool that crafts stories for users in their own voice and tone in real-time. Check them out!

🐦 Tweet Post of the Day

The future of AI looks… interesting 🤔