| Here's a look at today's AI briefing: - Google will invest up to $2B in AI startup Anthropic.
- Microsoft's cloud business sees uptick in sales growth, partly due to AI.
- 15 AI companies became unicorns this year.
Scroll down for today's AI Talk, which explores two technical co-founders' processes in building an AI image recognition app for sneakers. Beth
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| 1 | | Google plans to invest as much as $2B in generative AI startup Anthropic, according to a Friday report by the Wall Street Journal. Previous investor Google has now invested $500M upfront in Anthropic, known for its Claude chatbot, and pledged another $1.5B over time. More: - Google invested around $300M-$400M in the startup in February.
- Anthropic later announced that Google Cloud would be the startup's preferred cloud provider.
- In May, Anthropic secured a $450M Series C round led by Spark Capital, followed by $100M from SK Telecom in August.
Zoom out: - Google's latest funding comes a month after Amazon pledged up to $4B in Anthropic, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI staffers, siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei.
- Amazon's initial investment will be $1.25B, with the chance for an additional $2.75B.
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| 2 | | Microsoft cloud business experienced higher-than-expected sales growth in the September quarter, driven in part by corporate interest in AI products. Microsoft Azure grew by 29%, surpassing Google Cloud's 22% and doubling AWS' 12%. 
What the numbers show: Around 3% of Azure's growth was attributed to AI, exceeding management's 2% forecast. Azure grew from a 26% growth rate in the previous quarter, while Google slowed from around 28%. What it means: While AWS still leads in terms of overall market share, one reason for Microsoft's success is its hyper-focus on AI projects, according to CNBC. Microsoft's reputation as an AI leader, with partnerships like OpenAI for ChatGPT, has helped it gain new customers. Quotable: Microsoft's results suggest it "has taken the AI mantel from Google, and that Azure could become a bigger and more important hyperscale provider than AWS," Bernstein Research analysts wrote in a note this week. Still: Over half of funded generative AI startups are now Google Cloud customers, according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. And Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said its generative AI business, which is already significant, is expanding "very, very quickly." | | | |
| 3 | According to Crunchbase data, a total of 15 companies in the AI sector achieved unicorn status in 2023. So far this year, one out of every five new billion-dollar startups on The Crunchbase Unicorn Board were AI companies, largely in the area of generative AI. More: - The new unicorns are Cohere, Zhipu AI, AI21 Labs, Light Years Beyond, Imbue, Runway, Synthesia, CoreWeave, Quantexa, Replit, DeepL, Adept AI, Character.ai, Typeface, and Helsing.
- As of Q3 2023, the 15 new AI unicorns had contributed $21B in value to the board.
- The top three most valuable private companies in AI are Databricks, valued at $43B; Cruise, at $30B, and OpenAI, last valued at $29B.
- There are now a total of 200 private AI-tagged companies on the unicorn board, according to Crunchbase.
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| 4 | | GM-backed Cruise has paused all of its driverless car operations across the U.S. The move comes after California's DMV suspended the company's robotaxi permit in the state, saying that its cars "are not safe for public operation" and the company "misrepresented" safety information about its AI-equipped technology. More: - The company said it would "proactively pause" its fleet of self-driving cars "to examine our processes, systems, and tools" as it works to regain public trust.
- The decision "isn't related to any new on-road incidents," it said.
- Cruise will still operate its supervised self-driving vehicles with backup safety drivers.
Zoom out: - Cruise gained approval this summer for 24/7 robotaxi service in San Francisco.
- In an Oct. 2 incident, a pedestrian was hit by another vehicle in the city and knocked into the path of a Cruise self-driving car, causing it to stop and attempt a pullover maneuver while the pedestrian was beneath it.
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| 5 | | President Biden's AI executive order, set to be unveiled on Monday, is expected to be over 100 pages long, according to a source. The order will require advanced AI models to undergo audits and assessments before federal workers can use them. The unidentified source told VentureBeat that the executive order is the longest he can remember. More: - The Washington Post, the first to report on the order, described it as the government's "most significant attempt" to regulate AI.
- One goal of the order is to incentivize vendors who sell to the federal government to include audits as part of their offerings to non-government customers.
- Besides the audits, the order will require agencies like the Pentagon to determine how they might incorporate AI into their operations.
Zoom out: - Phil Siegel, founder of the Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation (CAPTRS), applauded this as a first step but called for a framework with more detailed future steps to "truly safeguard our freedoms."
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| 6 | | Weekly roundup — The top AI stories you might have missed this week: - China is expected to participate in the U.K.'s global AI summit next week. Beijing's invitation has sparked a backlash, with former British PM Liz Truss among those calling for China's withdrawal due to concerns about its use of AI for state control and national security.
- New U.S. export curbs on advanced AI chips took effect this week, earlier than planned. The rules, which primarily impact Nvidia, are designed to prevent China, Iran, and Russia from obtaining GPUs that could support their AI and tech advancements, primarily for military purposes.
- Apple is investing around $1B annually to advance its generative AI capabilities and products, Bloomberg reported this week. Apple is working to integrate AI into apps and improve Siri as it seeks to catch up in the AI space.
- Mark Zuckerberg says AI will be Meta's top investment focus in 2024, with plans to boost computing resources and hire more engineers. The CEO also mentioned that Meta, Facebook's parent company, plans to eventually use AI to generate personalized content for users across its apps.
- Humane's AI Pin, set to launch on Nov. 9, has received early recognition as one of Time Magazine's "Best Inventions of 2023." The wearable AI device pins to clothing and acts as a personal assistant, answering spoken questions and projecting information onto hands or nearby objects.
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- Stability AI's general counsel and chief people officer have both departed after joining the AI startup earlier this year, sources told Bloomberg.
- New Jersey-based Cranium raised $25M in Series A funding led by Telstra Ventures. The startup, incubated within KPMG, offers custom software for businesses to gauge their AI security and compliance.
- Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis compared the risks of AI to climate change, citing threats like a rogue superintelligence and the creation of bioweapons. "We must take the risks of AI as seriously as other major global challenges, like climate change," he told The Guardian.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is an editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters, with a career spanning journalism since 2007. She has written for publications including The Arizona Republic and USA Today and authored a book on the solar industry in 2016. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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