| |
| Here's a look at today's AI briefing: - Apple launches AI-powered journal app for iPhones.
- French startup Mistral AI raises $415M for open-source AI efforts.
- U.S. and Nvidia in talks about sales of AI chips to China.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Apple iOS 17.2, the latest update for iPhones, introduces Apple's new Journal app with AI capabilities. The diary/journaling app uses on-device machine learning to offer personalized suggestions and prompts to users based on their location, podcasts, music, workouts, and more. More: - Apple says Journal, a core iPhone app, allows users to "reflect and practice gratitude through journaling."
- Users can create their journal entries using text, voice notes, photos, or videos.
- The Journal app taps into an iPhone's data, including locations, photos, and workouts, to create personalized writing suggestions using AI.
- For example, the app could suggest journaling about a recent trip based on photos from the iPhone's camera roll.
- The Journal app is end-to-end encrypted, and data can be stored locally or synced to iCloud.
Zoom out: - Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is "investing quite a bit" in AI technology, and customers can expect to see ongoing products and features driven by AI.
- Apple doesn't explicitly label the features as AI. Instead, it's focused on the consumer benefits, even though the underlying technology is still AI and machine learning, Cook said.
- Last week, Apple released MLX, a machine learning framework developers can use to create AI models that run on MacBooks and other Apple devices.
- Apple's advanced large language model, internally named Ajax GPT, is also reported to surpass OpenAI's GPT-3.5 in power.
- An Apple analyst says the company could bring generative AI to the iPhone and iPad as early as 2024.
|     | |
| 2 | | European AI startup Mistral AI confirmed it has raised €385M ($415M) in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures. While Mistral didn't publicly share its valuation, Bloomberg has reported that the round values the company at roughly $2B, making it one of the highest-valued AI startups. More: - Mistral AI, founded by former Meta and DeepMind AI researchers, develops open-source software for powering generative AI applications.
- Other investors in the round include Salesforce, BNP Paribas, CMA-CGM, General Catalyst, Elad Gil, and Conviction.
- In addition to the funding, Mistral AI is launching its beta developer platform, allowing other companies to access and use Mistral AI's models through APIs for a fee.
Zoom out: - In September, Paris-based Mistra launched its initial model, Mistral 7B, offering it as a free download for developers to use on their devices and servers.
- Developers can access the Mistral 8x7B model ("Mistral-small") and a third model, Mistral-medium, on Mistral's platform.
| | | |
| |
|
| 3 | | The U.S. government is in talks with Nvidia about its sales of AI GPUs to China, which could allow Nvidia to create new chip products for the Chinese market that comply with U.S. export curbs. The discussions come after the U.S. Commerce Department further restricted exports of Nvidia's highly advanced A800 and H800 chips to China, a key market for Nvidia, in October. More: - U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters that Nvidia's "most sophisticated, highest processing power AI chips" cannot be shipped to China.
- However, Nvidia "can, will, and should" have AI chip sales in China because most of the processors are for commercial applications, she said.
- Last week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company was closely collaborating with the U.S. government to ensure that the firm's new chips for the Chinese market would comply with the export restrictions.
- The rules are part of U.S. efforts to prevent Beijing from acquiring advanced semiconductors and developing cutting-edge technology, particularly for its military.
- "Our plan now is to continue to work with the government to come up with a new set of products that comply with the new regulations that have certain limits," he said.
| | | |
| 4 | The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking information from investment advisers about how they use AI in the financial industry. The SEC's examinations division is conducting a sweep, asking for AI-related information from several advisers as the technology gains in popularity. Details: The SEC is requesting information on various topics, including AI marketing materials, portfolio management algorithms, third-party providers, and compliance training, according to the WSJ. The information was mentioned in a letter obtained by Vigilant Compliance, a regulatory consulting firm, but not confirmed by the SEC. What the numbers say: According to professional association Million Dollar Roundtable, over 80% of U.S. financial advisers use generative AI for at least one professional purpose. Over 94% of advisers said they are familiar with generative AI, and 64% claim to understand how it works. Over half of advisers actively using AI have done so for less than three months. Among those not using it, half expressed some likelihood of learning how to use AI. Advisers also said they use AI for tasks like employee onboarding, processing employee or client data, and client communications. 
 | | | |
| |
|
| 5 | | 2024 AI Events and Conferences: - Generative AI for Marketing Summit: Feb. 27-28, London, U.K.
- AAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence: Feb. 20-27, Vancouver, British Columbia.
- Nvidia GTC AI Conference & Expo: March 18-21, San Jose, California, and virtual.
- World Summit AI Americas: April 24-25, Montreal, Canada.
- Data Innovation Summit: April 24-25, Stockholm, Sweden, and online.
- Enterprise Generative AI Summit West Coast: May 21-22, Silicon Valley, California.
- AI Expo Tokyo: May 22-24, Tokyo, Japan.
- Data Cloud Summit 2024: June 3-6, San Francisco.
- SuperAI: Jun. 5-6, Singapore.
- 2024 IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence: June 25-27, Singapore.
- The AI Conference: Sept 18-19, San Francisco.
| | | |
| 6 | | QUICK HITS - Want to master Kubernetes? The Kubernetes Cookbook is a must-have guide to discover guidance on cloud architecture analytics, optimization, governance, and more.*
- A University of Warwick study claims that AI can diagnose medical issues from X-rays as accurately as doctors. The AI software, called X-Raydar, was trained on over 1.5 million chest X-rays. It was accurate or more accurate than doctors in analyzing 35 out of 37 conditions.
- Samsung's upcoming Android update will introduce AI features, including Google AI wallpapers adapted from the Pixel 8 series for Samsung Galaxy phones.
- A committee of MIT leaders and scholars has released several policy briefs offering an AI governance framework to U.S. policymakers. The main paper, "A Framework for U.S. AI Governance," proposes regulating AI tools through existing U.S. government entities.
- Bestselling book on alternative investing offers the first chapter free for a limited time. "Money Shackles" innovates the way you think about money.*
*This is a sponsored post. | | | |
 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for notable publications like USA Today and the Arizona Business Gazette. During her time as a public policy reporter at The Arizona Republic, she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for her collaborative reporting on pension cost increases. Beth also authored a book on the solar photovoltaic industry in 2016. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
Comments
Post a Comment