AI Rundown by Lightscape Partners – 12/18/23

Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of the AI Rundown, brought to you by Lightscape Partners.

This week's highlights include a breakthrough by Google DeepMind's AI in solving complex mathematical challenges, the U.S. Department of Energy's strategic initiative to utilize AI in combating climate change, and the emergence of Essential AI from stealth with substantial backing to enhance enterprise productivity through AI.

Join us as we explore these pivotal developments that are shaping the future of artificial intelligence across various sectors.

Top AI Developments of the Week

Google DeepMind AI Solves "Unsolvable" Math Problem. Link.

Google DeepMind's AI, using a large language model named FunSearch, has solved a long-standing mathematical conundrum, the "cap set" problem, which was previously considered unsolvable by traditional methods.

• The AI model, named Codey, was based on Google’s PaLM 2 and was fine-tuned on computer code.

• FunSearch, the tool developed by DeepMind, iteratively generated and tested millions of Python code snippets, refining them until a solution was found.

• The "cap set" problem involves finding the largest set of numbers with specific properties in combinatorial mathematics.

• Mathematicians like Terence Tao have shown interest in AI's potential for solving such complex problems.

This achievement demonstrates the potential of AI to make significant contributions to scientific knowledge, paving the way for new methods of human-machine collaboration in research.

U.S. Department of Energy Fosters AI to Counter Climate Change. Link.

The U.S. Department of Energy has established the Office of Critical and Emerging Technology, focused on employing AI and other technologies to address climate change, pandemics, and national security.

• The office will handle AI, biotech, quantum computing, and semiconductors.

• Led by Helena Fu, the DOE aims to enhance the use of AI for climate initiatives.

• The executive order by President Joe Biden in October mandated the office's creation.

The DOE is set to utilize AI's potential in climate science, leveraging its computing resources and expertise to optimize energy efficiency, secure AI against cyber threats, and provide open data access for AI development.

This initiative represents a significant step towards integrating advanced computational resources to tackle environmental challenges, signifying a strategic shift towards technological solutions in governmental policy.

Venture

Essential AI, backed by Nvidia, AMD, and Google, emerges from stealth with $56.5m in Series A funding. Link.

Essential AI emerges with $56.5 million in Series A funding to innovate enterprise AI applications, leveraging the expertise of founders renowned for their work on the Transformer architecture.

• Founders Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar are notable for pioneering AI advancements at Google.

• The funding round is led by March Capital, with contributions from Google, Nvidia, and AMD.

• Essential AI's goal is to create AI products that boost productivity and decision-making in enterprises.

• The startup's total funding is close to $65 million.

With significant financial backing and a focus on large language model-driven products, Essential AI is set to streamline enterprise workflows and support data-driven tasks across various industries.

The company plans to use the funds to launch its enterprise-centric AI products and has begun hiring to build a comprehensive team for developing and deploying these solutions.

OpenAI Launches Second Converge Cohort. Link.

OpenAI Startup Fund has initiated Converge-2, a program supporting startups utilizing AI to innovate across various fields.

• Converge-2 will select 10-15 startups, each receiving a $1 million investment.

• Participants will benefit from tech talks, office hours, and networking opportunities.

• Startups aren't mandated to use OpenAI's APIs despite funding from the program.

With a significant investment, Converge-2 aims to foster diverse AI applications and innovations, extending support well beyond OpenAI's immediate ecosystem.

Google

Google Releases Github Copilot Competitor to the General Public. Link.

Google's Duet AI for Developers, a suite for code completion and generation, is now generally available. It provides tools integrated with Google Cloud Console and popular IDEs to enhance developer productivity.

• Duet AI will soon incorporate Google's Gemini model, offering enterprise-grade features and a 33% productivity boost as seen by Turing.

• It supports over 20 languages and, until January 2024, is free to use, after which it will be priced at $19 per user per month with an annual commitment

Google Introduced Gemini Pro to Vertex AI. Link.

Google has also introduced Gemini Pro to Vertex AI, offering developers a managed AI development platform with features like chat functionality and filtering, with support for 38 languages and regions.

The Gemini Pro API is currently free within certain usage limits and will soon be available for custom voice and chat agents, as well as search summarization and recommendation features.

Google Introduces AI Studio for App and Chatbot Development. Link.

Google has unveiled AI Studio, a web-based development tool for building apps and chatbots using its Gemini model.

• AI Studio allows developers to create prompts and chatbots quickly.

• It offers a generous free tier with high request limits for developers.

• The tool is part of Google’s ecosystem, potentially linking with Vertex AI for enterprise applications.

Google's AI Studio provides a user-friendly platform for developers to innovate with AI, offering substantial support even at the free tier.

Google Announces MedLM, healthcare-focused gen AI. Link.

Google has introduced MedLM, a set of healthcare-focused generative AI models, to assist in medical tasks like drafting patient notes and identifying biomarkers.

• These models, part of the Med-PaLM 2 family, are available to selected Google Cloud customers through Vertex AI.

• Early users include HCA Healthcare and BenchSci, applying MedLM to enhance medical documentation and research capabilities.

• As AI healthcare applications grow, there's caution due to mixed success in the past and potential risks outlined by WHO

Ethics in AI

Microsoft Teams Up with Labor Unions to Ensure AI Benefits Workers. Link.

Microsoft's collaboration with labor unions marks a significant step towards ensuring AI technology serves the interests of workers, potentially setting a precedent for other tech companies and influencing global AI policies.

• Microsoft partners with AFL-CIO to promote AI for worker empowerment, not job displacement.

• The collaboration focuses on AI education, joint policy proposals, and calming worker fears about AI.

• Microsoft's AI strategy emphasizes "copilots" that assist workers rather than replace them.

• This approach aligns with findings that 70% of Americans worry about AI taking their jobs.

• Microsoft also signs an updated contract with CWA, further solidifying its commitment to AI for worker benefit.

• Partnerships come amidst antitrust investigations into Microsoft's control over the AI market.

Sports Illustrated CEO Fired After AI Scandal and Internal Turmoil. Link.

• Sports Illustrated CEO Ross Levinsohn fired following a series of executive departures and internal turmoil.

• Levinsohn's termination comes after Futurism exposed the magazine's use of AI-generated articles and fake author profiles.

• The Arena Group claims the firing is unrelated to the AI scandal, but provides no explanation.

• Manoj Bharga, majority investor, takes over as temporary CEO and calls for change within the company.

• Levinsohn has a history in media leadership but faced controversy over sexual harassment allegations at previous employers.

• The shakeup raises concerns about Sports Illustrated's future and the ethical implications of using AI in journalism.

Sports Illustrated continues to grapple with the fallout from its AI scandal, with leadership changes and questions about its commitment to transparency and ethical journalism practices.

OpenAI Explores AI Supervision for Future Superintelligence. Link.

OpenAI's superalignment team has been working on a system where a less advanced AI can supervise a more sophisticated one, aiming to develop a framework for human oversight over future superhuman AI.

• Experiment involved using GPT-2 to guide GPT-4 in performing tasks.

• Results were mixed, suggesting room for improvement.

• OpenAI is funding external superalignment research with a new $10 million grant.

This research is a foundational step towards ensuring future AI systems remain safe and aligned with human intentions.

Antitrust Lawsuit Targets Google's AI Impact on News Publishing. Link.

An Arkansas-based news publisher, Helena World Chronicle, has initiated a class action lawsuit against Google, alleging antitrust violations by Google's AI technologies that harm the news industry.

• The lawsuit claims that Google's AI applications, like Search Generative Experience and Bard AI, divert ad revenue and readers from news publishers.

• It highlights how Google's Knowledge Graph and Featured Snippets reduce traffic to publishers' websites.

• A significant traffic loss is anticipated due to AI's direct response to queries, potentially decreasing click-throughs to news sites.

This lawsuit brings to light the tension between AI technology's growth and news publishers' revenue models, marking a pivotal moment for the intersection of AI, ethics, and law within the media landscape.

Other

Instagram Rolls Out AI-Powered Background Tool. Link.

Instagram introduces a generative AI tool for background editing in Stories for users in the U.S.

• The feature offers prompts like “On a red carpet” for background changes.

• Users can also input custom prompts for more personalized backgrounds.

• Shared Stories with these backgrounds include a “Try it” sticker, encouraging interactive engagement.

Instagram's update enhances user creativity and interaction in Story creation through AI, keeping pace with similar advancements by competitors like Snapchat.

Thank you for reading the AI Rundown by Lightscape Partners. Stay tuned for the latest updates in the world of Artificial Intelligence!