AI research firm Generally Intelligent has exited stealth mode with a mission to "help machines learn to understand the world the way humans do." It has launched with more than $20M in initial funding and $100M in committed future funding from luminaries such as GPT-3 lead author Tom Brown, former OpenAI robotics lead Jonas Schneider, and Dropbox CEO Drew Houston. More: - The company is focused on developing safe general machine intelligence in order to solve real-world problems.
- It aims to understand the fundamentals of human intelligence so it can design and create safe AI systems that learn and understand as people do.
- The systems would be able to generalize across a variety of "economically useful tasks." However, its main focus right now is to research and engineer the core capabilities of these systems and create a framework for their governance.
- To train many different AI agent architectures, the company notes that it leverages "large-scale compute." Generally Intelligent has also open-sourced Avalon, a reinforcement learning simulator, environment, and benchmark. The 3D open-world game, where agents learn to survive in virtual worlds, will be presented at NeurIPS 2022.
- Generally Intelligent's advisory board includes Neuralink co-founder Tim Hanson and UC Berkeley professor Celeste Kidd.
- The company is also hiring for a variety of roles.
TECHCRUNCH 
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The Texas State Attorney General's office has sued Google, alleging that the company collected the biometric data of millions of residents without first gaining informed consent. The complaint, announced by the AG's office on Thursday, claims that Google violated the state's Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act when it collected facial and voice data through Google Photos, Google Assistant, Nest Hub Max, and other products. More: - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also accused Google of using that data to train its machine learning algorithms, thereby making a profit off of it.
- His office is seeking a permanent injunction in court that would bar Google from further gathering, storing, and/or using biometric identifiers of Texans.
- The complaint also seeks to bar Google from performing any facial or voice or facial recognition without an individual's informed consent.
- It has asked for the ability to fine Google $25,000 per infraction.
Google's response: - In a statement, a Google spokesperson accused Paxton of "mischaracterizing" its products in a "breathless lawsuit."
- The company said Google Photos lets users turn off a feature that uses AI to organize photos based on similar faces.
- It also doesn't use any photos or videos from that platform for advertising, he said.
- Google's Voice Match and Face Match on Nest Hub Max, which enables Google Assistant to recognize a user's face and voice, are turned off by default, he noted.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit turned down Stephen Thaler's request for a rehearing of his claims that AI systems can qualify as inventors under patent law. Thaler's attorney said they plan to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. More: - Thaler, a computer scientist, listed his AI system, DABUS, as the inventor on two patent applications he filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) three years ago.
- The USPTO later issued a final decision that a machine can't be named as an inventor. Thaler appealed to the District Court, which also found that an "inventor" must be a natural person.
- The Federal Circuit ruled similarly in August and has now rejected Thaler's requests for panel and full-court rehearing in the case.
- Both the USPTO and Federal Circuit declined to comment in reports.
- "We believe our interpretation is the most consistent with the Patent Act and that it is the interpretation that promotes innovation," Thaler's attorney Ryan Abbott said.
REUTERS
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France has fined Clearview AI €20M ($19.6M) for unlawfully processing the personal data of its citizen, breaching Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The CNIL, France's privacy watchdog, also said Clearview breached the law when it failed to cooperate with its order to delete the data last year. More: - In December, the CNIL ordered Clearview to stop processing the data and delete it from its system or be subject to fines and further regulatory action.
- Clearview failed to respond to that order. As a result, the CNIL's chair referred the matter to its restricted committee, which chose to impose the max fine of 20 million euros.
- Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That told AFP that the firm has no offices or customers in France and is not subject to the GDPR.
- He said Clearview gathers "public data from the open internet," adding that there's no current way to determine if someone has French citizenship from an internet public photo, making it impossible for the firm to delete the data of French residents.
BLOOMBERG LAW
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🍋 FRESH FUNDING 🍋 - Kodiak Robotics (California), develops autonomous long-haul trucks for clients such as Ikea: $30M credit by Horizon Technology Ventures.
- Neuchips (California), an AI software that makes data centers have lower TCO: $20M B2 led by Wistron, JAFCO Asia, Powerchip Group, and Raydium Semiconductor Corporation.
- Coolr Group (Virginia), uses camera imaging and AI to help retailers prioritize shipments and order fulfillment: $10M growth led by First Analysis with participation from Moneta Ventures and Remarkable Ventures.
- TSOLife (Florida), creates a dashboard with personalized information about senior living communities: $9M A led by Formation Capital and Generator Ventures.
- Greenzie (U.S.), a company that builds software for autonomous robotic lawnmowers: $8M led by Atlanta Ventures with participation from Bobcat Company.
- Kubiya (California), a company that offers conversational AI software for DevOps: $6M Seed led by Hyperwise Ventures.
- Continue AI (New York), provides a data-gathering system that businesses can use to make decisions: $5.7M Seed led by Grove Ventures and Maple Capital, with participation from Ride Ventures, Liquid2, and Kindergarten Ventures.
For the latest on AI startup funding and more in the VC community, check out our Inside Venture Capital newsletter.
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M&A Roundup: - AI-powered writing assistant platform Jasper is in the process of buying grammar and style checker platform Outwrite.
- Velodyne Lidar announced that it will acquire Canadian-based AI firm Bluecity. The move will help Velodyne further build out its autonomous vision solution.
- Big data and applied ML solutions company Spatialedge acquired Cape AI, a South African startup using AI technology to help businesses make decisions that support growth.
- HCM software provider Paycor HCM announced its acquisition of AI-driven recruiting platform Talenya. The financial details were not disclosed.
- Beckman Coulter Diagnostics acquired AI-based ER decision support firm StoCastic for an undisclosed sum.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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