😍 ChatGPT can’t be your girlfriend

🗞️ Your Weekly Round-Up

1️⃣ ChatGPT can’t be your girlfriend

Recently, OpenAI's GPT Store experienced an influx of romantic bots like "Korean Girlfriend" and "Virtual Sweetheart," despite the company's strict policy against them. (I mean, I get it, Valentine’s Day is creeping up, but damn…)

Although OpenAI initially took swift action, banning some, the enforcement gradually weakened, resulting in the availability of several robot lovers.

Two interesting points here:

• As the world contemplates the role of technology in addressing mental health, the AI girlfriend question introduces a layer of complexity. 

• OpenAI's attempt to navigate this nuanced issue fell short, presenting an interesting facade of corporate moralism without consistent enforcement.

Read more: Gizmodo

2️⃣ UAE 🤝 AI

In a significant development, UAE’s President HH Sheikh Mohamed announced the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council (AIATC).

The AIATC will be responsible for:

• The development and implementation of policies and strategies related to research.

• The creation of infrastructure to build and scale AI services.

• Making strategic investments in artificial intelligence and advanced technology.

Read more: CIO

3️⃣ Lumiere’s Image-to-Video model

These video-generation models seem to get crazier and crazier. 

In collaboration with the Weizmann Institute of Science and Tel Aviv University, Google researchers have introduced Lumiere, a space-time diffusion model designed for realistic video generation using generative AI. 

Here’s the TL;DR: 

• Lumiere uses text inputs, images, and prompts to generate realistic and stylized videos.

• Lumiere was trained on a dataset of 30 million videos with text captions, capable of generating 80 frames at 16 fps.

• Comparisons with other AI video models, such as Pika, Runway, Stability AI, and ImagenVideo, suggest that Lumiere produces 5-second videos with higher motion magnitude while maintaining temporal consistency and overall quality.

Read more: Google Research

4️⃣ Voice E-mail

Ever wanted to speak an e-mail into existence? Well… your time is now. 

Google is reportedly elevating its AI-assisted e-mail drafting feature in Gmail by allowing users to "draft e-mail with voice.”

This feature enables users to articulate a voice prompt, tap "create," and see an e-mail draft materialize. But beware - do not send your manager a voice e-mail without proofreading it… you’ve been warned 💀

P.S.: In case you were wondering, other noteworthy AI tools in Google’s suite include:

• Duet AI, an AI assistant tailored for writing in Google Docs and Sheets.

• The ongoing AI-powered search experiment, SGE, which is currently in the Labs phase.

Read more: Mashable

5️⃣ Don’t impersonate a presidential candidate

OpenAI recently suspended the developer behind Dean.bot, a ChatGPT-powered chatbot crafted by AI startup Delphi. 

The reason? 

• The bot, designed to impersonate Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips, aimed to support his campaign by engaging potential supporters.

• Despite a disclaimer to website visitors, the chatbot's use conflicted with OpenAI's policies, leading to the developer's suspension. 

News like this makes one thing certain: folks must exercise caution when consuming content related to specific political parties and candidates, especially with the creation of such chatbots that have the potential to produce false or misleading information.

Read more: Engadget

6️⃣ Google hosts AI software

Google has partnered with startup Hugging Face to host its AI software on Google Cloud, expanding access for open-source developers. 

According to Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue, the goal is to facilitate collaboration between Hugging Face users and Google Cloud customers, making it easier to leverage the latest open models.

This partnership:

• Strengthens Google's connections with the open-source AI community.

• Aligns with the company’s interest in maintaining its edge in AI against the growing influence of open-source developers.

Read more: Yahoo Finance

7️⃣ Teachers stan AI in education 

Contrary to popular belief, teachers love AI.

A recent study by Canva highlights this sentiment, revealing that most teachers express enthusiasm for integrating AI into education.

Here are some key findings from the study:

• 78% of teachers express interest in utilizing AI education tools, despite 93% admitting to having limited knowledge about the technology.

• Teachers recognize the benefits of AI, with 60% noting its positive impact on student productivity, 59% complementing its creativity, and 56% saying it makes their lives easier.

Read more: E-School News

8️⃣ Google breaks up with Appen

Big tech layoffs continue to persist in 2024 as Google severs ties with Appen, an Australian data company crucial for training its large language model AI tools. The termination is part of Google's ongoing effort to streamline supplier partnerships for efficiency.

Key points:

• The termination affects AI training for Bard, Search, and other Google products.

• Appen's revenue from Google in fiscal year 2023 was $82.8 million, highlighting Google’s importance to the data company.

• Major implication: Terminating the contract with Appen raises questions about the reliance on external data companies for AI training.

Read more: The Verge

9️⃣ AI Therapy

In a recent study published in Mental Health Research, the AI chatbot 'Replika' was investigated for its impact on the mental health outcomes of over 1,000 users aged 18 and above. 

Here are the results: 

• The study found that 90% of Replika users suffered from loneliness, with 43% classified as severely lonely based on the Loneliness Scale.

• Despite high loneliness rates, more than 63% of participants reported positive outcomes with Replika, including improved social support, therapeutic effects, positive life changes, and even prevention of suicidal ideation.

• Surprisingly, 81% believed Replika was intelligent, 90% perceived it as human-like, and 62% viewed it as software, showcasing diverse user beliefs about the nature of the AI companion.

Read more: Medical News

🔟 2024: The year of Google?

Google has one big goal for 2024:

To deliver the world's most advanced, safe, and responsible AI.

An internal memo written by Sundar Pichai also highlighted some other key goals, including:

• Enhancing knowledge, learning, creativity, and productivity.

• Creating useful personal computing platforms.

• Empowering businesses and developers in the Google Cloud.

The memo, unfortunately, also hinted at tough choices to be made in the name of efficiency, possibly pointing to more layoffs.

Read more: The Decoder

🤑 AI Fundraising News

• Artisse AI raises $6.7M in Seed funding to allow individuals to create personalized photos instantly, making it popular in sectors such as advertising, modeling, lifestyle, tourism, and intellectual property. Funded by The London Fund.

• ElevenLabs raises $80M in Series B for AI voice cloning projects. Funded by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross.

• Bluewhite raises $39M in Series C funding to further scale its agricultural autonomous tractor and farming solutions and expand into new markets worldwide. Funded by Insight Partners, Alumni Ventures, and LIP Ventures.

• Torq raises $42M in expanded Series B funding to develop a cybersecurity platform that provides meaningful analysis of security signals while keeping the investigation cost under control. Funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, GGV Capital, and Insight Partners.

• Prompt Security raises $5M in Seed funding to ensure LLMs don’t give up corporate secrets. Funded by Hetz Ventures.

• OpenDialog raises $8M in Series A funding to provide an enterprise-grade conversational AI platform used by regulated industries. Funded by AlbionVC.

• Doppel raises $14M in Series A funding to safeguard brands from digital threats, phishing, and cybercrime and protect their identity in the evolving digital landscape. Funded by Andreessen Horowitz.

• Spellbook raises $20M in Series A funding to develop a genAI contract drafting and review tool aimed at corporate and commercial lawyers in law firms and companies. Funded by Inovia Capital.

🛠️ AI Tools to Check Out

• Cogniflow AI: Boost your productivity. Put AI to work. Chat with your documents, automate info extraction, or analyze images. Check them out!

• Looka: An AI-powered platform that helps you generate logos, brand kits, social media templates, and business cards for your company. Check them out!

🐦 Tweet Post of the Day

A very interesting thread! 🎨