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| Today's AI briefing: - Google search update will help weed out low-quality AI-generated content.
- AMD still needs license to export AI chip to China.
- Chinese cities offering "computing vouchers" to AI startups.
- AI job postings rose 42% from December 2022.
- Alibaba leads $600M round for Chinese AI startup MiniMax.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Google will soon launch an update to improve websites' rankings in search results, including efforts to address "low-quality AI-generated content," a spokesperson said. Google is updating its algorithms to improve search quality by filtering out low-quality, spammy, and/or automated content, with changes set to roll out in May. More: - Google will target mass content creation, including both human and AI-generated content, that's designed to manipulate search rankings.
- In a blog post, Google says the update aims to boost traffic to high-quality sites.
- When combined with prior updates, the company hopes it will cut "low-quality unoriginal" content in search by 40%.
- While the blog doesn't directly mention AI, Google's Search Central post notes that "automation" is increasingly being used for scaled content creation.
- Google's update will also tackle "site reputation abuse," when reputable websites also host low-quality, third-party content.
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| 2 | | U.S. chipmaker AMD will need an export license to sell its AI chip specifically made for Chinese customers, according to Bloomberg. While AMD sought approval from the U.S. Commerce Department for the chip, regulators decided it would still need an export license. More: - AMD designed a lower-performance AI chip for the Chinese market to comply with U.S. export restrictions.
- However, the Commerce Department blocked AMD's chip sale in China for still being too advanced, requiring an export license from the Bureau of Industry and Security.
- AMD shares fell 3% in premarket trading today amid concerns over its AI progress but are still up nearly 50% this year.
Zoom out: - The U.S. has intensified efforts to prevent China from acquiring advanced AI chips, saying they could drive military advancements.
- In October, the U.S. banned exports of Nvidia's modified A800 and H800 GPUs to China, a move that also impacted AMD.
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| 3 | | At least 17 Chinese cities are offering "computing vouchers" to AI startups to help them offset rising data center costs amid an AI chip shortage, according to the Financial Times. The startups can use the vouchers, valued at $140,000 to $280,000, at AI data centers to develop and run large language models. More: - U.S. export and other restrictions have worsened the AI chip shortage in China.
- As a result, internet companies have ended cloud service contracts with Chinese AI startups to keep the GPUs for themselves, according to FT.
- A source said that tech giants like Tencent and Alibaba have restricted Nvidia GPU rentals in China, keeping most stockpiled AI chips for internal use and preferred clients.
Zoom out: - The government computing vouchers could help "level the playing field" and lower cost barriers for AI startups, but according to analysts, they will not address the AI chip scarcity issue.
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| 4 | | AI job postings rose to over 10,400 this past January, a 13.5% surge from January 2023 and up 42% from December 2022, according to the latest data from the University of Maryland and LinkUp's AI job tracker. The data shows California had the highest share of AI job postings at 21.5%. 
What it means: Following the pandemic-led hiring surge, tech companies have shifted to efficiency and layoffs, but the AI-related job market remains robust and expanding, the data shows. For example, total new IT job postings dropped to over 90,000 in January, a 31% decrease from December 2022. According to the WSJ, tech giants like Meta, Amazon, Google, and Apple have all been shifting their teams and resources toward AI even while they cut back spending. | | | |
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| 5 | Alibaba is spearheading a funding round of at least $600M for Chinese AI startup MiniMax, valuing the two-year-old company at over $2.5B, Bloomberg reported. MiniMax, founded in 2021 by former SenseTime employees, specializes in creating AI companions and virtual characters for social AI experiences. More: - Alibaba and HongShan, formerly Sequoia China, have already made the funding commitments, though the fundraising is still in progress, sources said.
- MiniMax is known for its AI character role-playing apps, Xing Ye in China and Talkie overseas.
- With Talkie, for example, users can chat with virtual characters powered by an AI model.
Zoom out: - Alibaba Group Holding and HongShan also led a recent $1B+ funding round into Moonshot AI, valuing that Chinese AI startup at $2.5B.
- Moonshot developed the intelligent chatbot, Kimi Chat, powered by its proprietary Moonshot large language model (LLM).
- That round is the largest for any Chinese AI startup since ChatGPT's release in 2022.
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- Perplexity, an AI startup with a conversational search engine, is nearing a deal for new funding at a $1B valuation, doubling its value from early January.
- DeepMind alumni Yishu Miao and Ziyu Wang introduced Haiper, an AI-powered video generation tool. Haiper also secured $13.8M in seed funding led by Octopus Ventures.
- Snowflake signed a multi-year deal with Mistral to bring the Paris AI startup's LLMs into its data cloud for customers. Snowflake's venture capital arm is also investing an undisclosed amount in Mistral.
- Dozens of AI researchers, including figures from academia and government, have called on AI companies like OpenAI, Meta, and Google to give investigators access to their systems for safety testing.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for publications including USA Today, the Arizona Business Gazette, and The Arizona Republic, where she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for collaborative reporting on state pension cost increases. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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