The AI Rundown by Lightscape Partners - 08/05/24

Good morning, Happy August, and welcome back to another week in AI. Last week was filled with groundbreaking model releases, venture funding, and more.

Last week in AI:

• Perplexity launched a “Publishers’ Program” to share ad revenue. As content creators and model developers have gone back and forth about creative protections, Perplexity debuts one of the first revenue shares by a major AI company.

• Friend, a necklace that aims to cure loneliness, raises $2.5 million, spending more than half the capital on a domain name.

• DeepMind retakes the lead in the LLM race with Gemini 1.5 Pro outscoring GPT-4o on the Chatbot Arena Leaderboard.

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

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Top AI Stories of the Week

Perplexity introduces a “Publishers’ Program” to share ad revenue. Link.

• Perplexity.ai has launched the Perplexity Publishers Program, which allows publishers to integrate their content with Perplexity's AI-powered search engine.

• This program aims to enhance content visibility and provide users with accurate, high-quality information from trusted sources.

• Participating publishers can benefit from increased traffic and engagement by having their content featured in AI-generated search results.

• This initiative reflects Perplexity's commitment to improving the reliability and relevance of information accessed through AI.

Friend debuts a wearable AI companion. Link.

• The founder, Avi Schiffmann, raised $2.5 million at a $50 million valuation with backing from high-net-worth individuals in the tech space.

• Schiffmann allegedly spent $1.8 million of the funding buying the “friend.com” domain name.

• This AI aims to offer personalized interaction, acting as a digital companion for users. The app leverages cutting-edge AI technology to engage in meaningful conversations and assist with daily tasks, emphasizing a user-friendly experience.

• The startup is taking pre-orders for its $99 necklace and expects to ship the first orders in 1Q 2025.

Google DeepMind’s Gemini 1.5 Pro tops the Chatbot Arena leaderboard. Link.

• Google has released its latest AI model, Gemini 1.5 Pro, which is set to compete directly with OpenAI's GPT-4o.

• The model boasts significant improvements in natural language processing, reasoning, and context understanding, positioning it as a formidable competitor in the AI landscape.

• With enhanced capabilities for complex tasks and a broader application range, Gemini 1.5 Pro is part of Google's strategy to reclaim its leadership in AI technology.

• The model claimed an impressive ELO score of 1300, topping OpenAI’s GPT-4o, which scored an ELO of 1286.

LLMs

Google’s Gemma 2 2B outperforms GPT-3.5. Link.

• Google's newly launched small AI model, Gemma 2 2B, has surpassed OpenAI's GPT-3.5 in several key performance metrics.

• Gemma 2 2B comes with just 2.6 billion parameters, whereas GPT-3.5 may have over 20 billion.

• Despite its smaller size, Gemma 2 2B offers enhanced efficiency, safety, and transparency, making it a significant advancement in AI technology.

• This model is part of Google's broader strategy to develop responsible AI that is both powerful and accessible across various platforms.

Meta announces SAM 2, an advanced AI video model. Link.

• Meta has introduced a new AI model capable of segmenting objects in videos.

• This technology allows the AI to identify and isolate individual elements within a video, enhancing video editing and content creation by making it easier to manipulate or analyze specific parts of a video.

• This model is part of Meta's ongoing efforts to advance AI in multimedia processing, offering new tools for creators and developers.

OpenAI

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Voice will begin rolling out. Link.

• OpenAI is finally debuting ChatGPT Voice to a select group of ChatGPT Plus users after demoing the product in early 2024.

• This feature is being rolled out gradually, with full availability expected by fall 2024.

• The voice functionality aims to enhance user interaction by making AI communication more engaging and lifelike, marking a significant advancement in voice-based AI technology.

Applied AI

Taco Bell plans to adopt hundreds of AI-powered drive-thrus. Link.

• The move aims to streamline the ordering process, reduce wait times, and improve accuracy in fulfilling customer requests.

• This rollout follows successful tests of the technology, which is designed to enhance the overall drive-thru experience.

• The initiative reflects a broader trend in the fast-food industry toward leveraging AI to improve service efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Apple delays its AI features. Link.

• Apple Inc.'s new AI features, known as Apple Intelligence, will be released later than expected, arriving after the initial iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 launches in September.

• The company plans to roll out these features through software updates starting in October, allowing more time to fix bugs and ensure a smooth release.

• Apple is taking the unusual step of offering early access to developers via beta versions to help test and refine the features.

• The full rollout of Apple Intelligence will continue through late 2024 and early 2025, with the technology being integrated into other Apple devices, including Macs and the Vision Pro.

Market Maps

AI Scribes from A16Z. Link.

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