What happened: It's no surprise that investors are pumping more funding into generative AI startups. In a recent report, CB Insights confirmed a "massive opportunity for investors to get in early on this potentially transformative technology." What the numbers say: According to CB Insights, 2022 set a record for the amount of investment pumped into generative AI-focused startups. Equity funding reached nearly $2.6B across 110 deals, up from $71M across 23 deals in 2017. Who's involved: Last year, the largest funding rounds in the space went to AI model developer Anthropic, which raised a $580M Series B, and Inflection AI, a computing startup from co-founders of LinkedIn and DeepMind, which secured $225M. The most active VC in generative AI was Insight Partners, which has backed seven generative AI companies since 2021. Why it matters: CB Insights notes that the generative AI space is still nascent. As of 2022, one-third of the 250+ generative AI companies it identified hadn't brought in any outside equity funding, and around 50% were Series A or earlier, making the space ripe for investors.
| |
Top music streaming platforms have removed an AI-generated song featuring deepfaked voices of artists Drake and The Weeknd. The song, "Heart on My Sleeve," amassed millions of views and listens across platforms before it was pulled by most services on Tuesday. More: - The song's creator, who uses the handle Ghostwriter977 on TikTok, said they trained unidentified AI software to mimic the artists' voices using video clips.
- As of Tuesday, Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal have all pulled the song.
- The removal came after Universal Music Group, the music label for both artists, said the tune violates copyright law. It condemned "infringing content created with generative AI."
- UMG has been issuing takedown requests for other AI-generated songs that are rapidly appearing on platforms, saying it's a breach of copyright. It recently asked streaming platforms to block AI developers from scraping their song catalogs for AI training.
BBC 
| |
 A message from MONOGRAM These Robots Could Be Headed To The Operating Room Soon Monogram aims to revolutionize the $19.4B knee replacement industry by developing precision surgical robotics to install personalized, 3D printed implants. And you can invest in the company ahead of their planned Nasdaq listing. With 100,000 failed joint replacement surgeries every year, we believe that this market has been due for a realignment. Surgeons have been forced to rely on the same technology, like hand saws and generic-sized joint implants for the last 40 years. Monogram has already demonstrated how their surgical system works on cadavers in front of 5,000+ live viewers, they have 20 patents filed, and 17,000+ people have previously invested... Join Monogram ahead of their intended NASDAQ listing. Opportunity ends 5/10. Invest Now
| |
Microsoft has been testing its own chips for AI training and could make them available to the company and OpenAI as early as 2024, according to The Information. Microsoft has been quietly developing the chips, code-named Athena, since 2019. More: - A small subset of Microsoft and OpenAI employees have recently been testing the performance of the chips on GPT-4 and other large language models, The Information reported.
- The Athena chips would help train LLMs and other AI models. Microsoft has not said if it will offer the hardware to its Azure customers in the future.
- Microsoft may be accelerating the rollout of the AI chips, which could help curb its reliance on outside vendors like Nvidia.
- While not a direct replacement for Nvidia, Microsoft chips could save it time and money as it ramps up its efforts to incorporate AI into everything from Bing to Office apps.
- Nvidia is currently the chief supplier of AI server chips. Its latest H100 processors, its most advanced GPUs for AI inference and training, are selling for upwards of $45,000 on eBay.
- Google, Amazon, and Meta also all have their own AI hardware.
THE INFORMATION
| |
Social media platform Reddit plans to begin charging companies to use its API, which is required for those that want to use its data for LLM training. According to The New York Times, the change comes as tech giants have turned to Reddit's massive trove of user-generated content to help develop their AI systems. More: - Reddit's data consisting of human conversations and interactions is continuously updated, making it particularly valuable for training chatbots and LLMs.
- Companies that "crawl" Reddit for that data and "don't return any of that value" to users will soon have to pay for API access, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told The Times.
- Officially, Reddit is launching a "new premium access point for third parties," though it hasn't said how much it will charge to use the API.
- The API will still be free for developers that create bots and apps to assist Reddit users, or researchers studying the platform for academic and/or non-commercial purposes.
Zoom out: - Reddit is seeking ways to monetize its vast amounts of data and create new revenue streams as it gears up for a possible IPO later this year.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
| |
 A message from DOIT Take your Google Cloud knowledge to the next level with the Google Cloud Cookbook. Master building on Google Cloud with real-world examples and code snippets. Whether you’re looking for practical ways to apply microservices, AI, analytics, security, or networking solutions, this cookbook helps you level up your cloud computing, regardless of your experience level. In this book, you will: - Gain hands-on experience using practical examples and labs
- Explore topics that include BigQuery, Cloud Run, and Kubernetes
- Build and run mobile and web applications on Google Cloud
- Examine ways to build your cloud applications for scale
- Build a minimum viable product (MVP) app to use in production
- Learn data platform and pipeline skills
This book is offered compliments of DoiT, your partner to provide technology and cloud expertise to reduce cloud costs and boost engineer productivity. Download Now
| |
Companies that design AI tools that deceive consumers could face action from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, according to FTC Chair Lina Khan. During a congressional hearing today, Khan said they have already encountered ways AI can "turbocharge fraud and scams." More: - During the hearing, Khan and two FTC commissioners — Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya — fielded questions about how the agency is protecting Americans from fraud and other unfair practices, including when it comes to AI.
- Khan said the "turbocharging of fraud and scams that could be enabled by these [AI] tools are a serious concern."
- FTC technologists are now working to identify and oversee AI issues in both competition and consumer protection, the chairwoman noted.
- Bedoya noted that companies cannot simply state that they have a "black box" algorithm that cannot be explained.
- Companies using AI are on the hook for committing unfair and deceptive acts or violating civil rights laws, he said.
- Slaughter said there is a lot of noise around AI right now, and it's important because it is in revolutionary technology in some ways."
- FTC's obligation remains "to do what we've always done" and not to shy away from this "new revolutionary technology."
Zoom out: - The remarks come after an FTC lawyer released an update warning marketers and advertisers to keep their AI product claims "in check."
- As AI hype occurs across many products, the FTC is enforcing its rules regarding "false or unsubstantiated claims about a product's efficacy," the update said.
CNN
| |
| |
QUICK HITS - Say goodbye to silos. With Miro, teams can sync, flow, and feel the connection of working side by side, even in remote and hybrid work environments.*
- Broadcom Inc. announced a new AI chip that links together AI supercomputers. Jericho3-AI connects up to 32,000 GPUs. Broadcom says it offers 10% faster completion times for AI workloads than rival InfiniBand's network systems.
- Mediwhale, a startup offering an AI-powered retinal diagnostic solution that gauges a patient's risk of cardiovascular disease, has closed a $9M Series A funding round led by SBI Investment.
- DeFi lender marginFi introduced Omni, an AI-powered chatbot that interacts with crypto wallets. The experimental bot, which is a customized version of OpenAI's ChatGPT, is confined to simple Web3 tasks and does have a tendency to hallucinate.
- Sales pros worldwide say sales ops are key to productivity. Download the new "Trends in Sales Ops" report to learn more.*
*This is a sponsored post.
| |
Upcoming Events: - April 18 - Human Resources Summit'23 (Watch Now)
- April 18 - Inside Interview with TravelBank: Why Employee Happiness Is Falling More Into The Financial Sector * (Watch On Demand)
- April 26 - The world's largest gathering that brings together all sides of the cryptocurrency, blockchain and Web3 community (Register Here) *
- April 27 - Inside.com Book Club - REWORK by 37signals (Register Here)
- May 02 - Inside Startups Coffee Break (Register Here)
*This is a sponsored event listing.
| |
 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. 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. | |
Surgery won’t look the same in 10 years – invest in Monogram, the robots pioneering more precise procedures. | |
| |
Comments
Post a Comment