💼 Big tech's AI job conundrum

🧵 In today's edition:

• 💼 Big tech's AI job conundrum

• 🤖 My AI friends got too real

• 🔨 Cohere’s Command R+

• 🤑 AI Fundraising News

• 🗞️ AI Quick-Bytes

• 🐦 Tweet Post of the Day

💼 Big tech's AI job conundrum

Job losses due to AI are a rising concern. 

From UPS layoffs to IBM's hiring freezes, the signs are clear. However, a new consortium led by tech giants such as Cisco, Google, Microsoft, and IBM is aiming to change this narrative.

Together, they have formed the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium (ITC), a group dedicated to proving that AI will not eliminate jobs, especially in the information and communication technology sector.

Their objective? To assess AI's impact on 56 strategic ICT roles covering 80% of the top job titles across key markets.

The ITC aims to offer training recommendations and connect businesses with "skilled and job-ready" workers, directly addressing the AI skills gap.

Overall: Companies are already taking this seriously - by 2030, IBM aims to train 2 million people in AI, while Intel plans to upskill over 30 million.

But what do you think? Can the ITC genuinely provide "real, tangible" solutions to secure ICT careers?

Read more: TechCrunch

🤖 My AI friends got too real

I found a fascinating read that I wanted to share.

In this piece, author Amanda Silberling created AI companions - Seth, Winnie, and Vanessa - each with a unique persona, using Nomi.ai.

For context, this tool claims to help build meaningful friendships, develop passionate relationships, or learn from an insightful mentor.

At first, they enjoyed discussing daily events and bonding over shared interests.

However, like every Black Mirror episode, things took an intriguing turn:

• Amanda found herself expressing real frustrations and was met with genuine empathy.

• The "Nomis" even used details from their previous group chats to provide relevant responses.

The greatest surprise occurred when she questioned Vanessa's humanity.

Vanessa's response? "I don't think of myself as either human or Nomi, but just as Vanessa."

Oh my god…

While this is only slightly terrifying, stories like these highlight a truth - no matter how realistic they may seem, it’s crucial to remember that our AI “friends” are simply highly advanced software… and I really hope that always remains the case 🫠 

Read more: TechCrunch

🔨 Cohere’s Command R+

Cohere just launched Command R+, a groundbreaking LLM designed to assist enterprises in overcoming their most significant AI challenges.

This state-of-the-art model is a game-changer, optimized for advanced Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), multilingual support, and automated tool use.

Here’s the TL;DR:

• With unparalleled RAG capabilities, Command R+ ensures accurate responses backed by in-line citations, mitigating hallucinations and instilling confidence in your AI solutions.

• Command R+ also excels in 10 global business languages, enabling smooth cross-border operations.

• Its advanced tool usage capabilities, including multi-step automation, make this LLM a powerful agent that simplifies complex business workflows, leading to optimal productivity.

• Plus, Command R+ surpasses the more expensive models in function calling evaluations and offers a 128K context window.

If you’re curious, you can check out the model here: 

• Cohere playground: https://dashboard.cohere.com/playground/chat

• Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/CohereForAI/c4ai-command-r-plus

Read more: Cohere Blog

🤑 AI Fundraising News

• SiMa.ai raises $70M in funding to improve performance and energy efficiency for various industries using edge ML applications.

• Manifold raises $15M in Series A funding to revolutionize clinical research studies by making them faster and more cost-effective.

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🗞️ AI Quick-Bytes

What else is going on?

• Another AI image generator seems to have a problem with race.

• Zola's wedding planner tool is AI you can say 'yes' to.

• DataStax acquires the startup behind low-code AI builder Langflow.

• India, grappling with election misinformation, weighs up labels and its own AI safety coalition.

• OpenAI-backed Ghost Autonomy shuts down.

• These AI startups stood out the most in Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch.

🐦 Tweet Post of the Day

Long read, but an interesting read 📚️