The AI Rundown by Lightscape Partners - 07/28/24

Good morning, and welcome back to another week of The AI Rundown by Lightscape Partners.

Last week in AI:

• Cohere, a startup focused on building enterprise generative AI, is seeking to raise $500 million at a $5 billion valuation.

• The Olympics takes advantage of AI in more ways than one.

• OpenAI launches SearchGPT to challenge Google and Perplexity. The AI company enters another competitive market in the AI space.

Keep reading to catch up on the last week in AI.

If you haven’t yet, please support the newsletter by subscribing!

Top AI Stories of the Week

Cohere AI targets a $5 billion valuation in a new fundraising round. Link.

• Cohere, an AI startup, is in advanced discussions to raise $500 million, aiming for a $5 billion valuation

• With its new Command-R model, the company has seen significant revenue growth, reaching a $22 million annualized run rate, up from $13 million in December.

• Founded by former Google researchers, Cohere focuses on enterprise AI models and has partnerships with major cloud providers like Oracle.

• This funding round reflects strong investor interest in AI startups despite their high development costs​.

AI and innovations at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Link.

• The Paris 2024 Olympics are incorporating advanced AI and technological innovations to enhance various aspects of the games.

• Key innovations include AI-driven performance analytics, real-time data tracking for athletes, and enhanced spectator experiences through immersive technologies.

• Omega, the official timekeeper, is implementing AI for precise timing and scoring.

• Legendary broadcaster Al Michael’s AI-generated voice will be calling the Olympics for NBC.

• These advancements aim to provide a more engaging, efficient, and fair experience for athletes, officials, and audiences worldwide.

OpenAI launches SearchGPT to challenge Google and Perplexity. Link.

• OpenAI is set to launch its new AI-powered search engine, SearchGPT, which aims to compete with Google and the AI search startup Perplexity.

• Scheduled for announcement just before Google’s annual I/O conference, SearchGPT will leverage OpenAI's advanced language models to provide real-time web search results, complete with citations and relevant images.

• This move is seen as a significant challenge to Google’s dominance in the search market, highlighting the increasing competition in AI-driven search technologies.

• SearchGPT is designed to enhance the functionality of ChatGPT by integrating direct web information, aiming to offer more accurate and comprehensive search capabilities​.

Venture

OpenAI-backed LegalTech startup Harvey raises $100M. Link.

• Harvey, a legal technology startup backed by OpenAI, has secured $100 million in its latest funding round, reaching a valuation of $1 billion.

• The company aims to revolutionize the legal industry by leveraging advanced AI to streamline legal workflows and improve efficiency.

• Investors include notable names like Coatue and Sequoia, highlighting strong confidence in Harvey's potential to innovate within the legal sector.

• This funding will support the expansion of Harvey's product offerings and market reach.

Enterprise Tech

Morgan Stanley advances its homegrown AI initiatives. Link.

• Morgan Stanley is making significant strides in developing its own AI technologies, aimed at enhancing its operational efficiencies and competitive edge.

• The financial giant is focusing on creating AI systems tailored to its unique needs rather than relying solely on external solutions.

• This approach allows for more customized and integrated AI applications within their existing infrastructure, supporting various functions from client services to risk management.

• This initiative is part of a broader trend among financial institutions to leverage AI for improved decision-making processes and operational efficiencies.

Foundation Models

Mistral AI introduces Mistral Large 2. Link.

• Mistral AI has launched Mistral Large 2, its latest large language model featuring 123 billion parameters and significant advancements in code generation, mathematics, and multilingual support.

• The model boasts a 128k context window, enabling the processing of extensive data inputs, and supports over 80 coding languages.

• Designed for high throughput on a single node, Mistral Large 2 aims to minimize AI hallucinations and improve accuracy, making it a strong competitor against models like GPT-4 and Llama 3.1.

Meta releases Llama 3.1, Meta’s most advanced open-source AI models. Link.

• Meta's latest release, Llama 3.1, introduces their most advanced open-source AI models, including the flagship 405B model.

• These models support extended context lengths, multilingual capabilities, and enhanced performance in general knowledge and reasoning tasks, rivaling leading closed-source models.

• Meta emphasizes accessibility and innovation, providing tools for developers to create custom AI solutions and integrate with major cloud providers.

• The release underscores Meta's commitment to open-source development, aiming to democratize AI technology and drive broad adoption across industries​.

Other

Sam Altman and OpenAI released their study on Universal Basic Income. Link.

• A study backed by OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman provided $1,000 monthly payments to 1,000 participants over three years to assess the impacts of Universal Basic Income (UBI).

• The findings showed that recipients used the additional income primarily for essential needs such as food, housing, and healthcare, with overall monthly expenditures increasing by about $310 compared to a control group receiving only $50.

• While the findings found that people had increased satisfaction in their day-to-day lives, it was not found that UBI was a replacement for an actual job.

Market Map of the Week

Team8’s Emerging AI Infrastructure Stack. Link.

Thank you for reading the AI Rundown by Lightscape Partners. Please send any questions, comments, or suggestions to [email protected].