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| Here’s a look at today's AI briefing: - Google to launch AI photo editing tools for free.
- Texas Education Agency will grade student exams with AI.
- Chipmaker TSMC reports revenue surge amid AI boom.
- Meta announces latest version of in-house AI chip.
- Apple could launch 'Safari browsing assistant' for iPhones.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Google will release some AI-powered photo editing tools to all Google Photos users for free. Previously, the tools were only available to Google One subscribers and Pixel owners. The tools: - Magic Editor uses AI to remove items, reposition subjects, create new imagery, and change background colors.
- Magic Eraser lets users remove unwanted items from photos as if they were never there,
- Photo Unblur sharpens out-of-focus images.
- Portrait Light softens harsh lighting on faces and rebalances a photo's lighting.
Zoom out: - The feature will gradually roll out to Google Photos users over a few weeks, starting May 15.
- Mobile users require iOS 15 or Android 8.0 or newer, while desktop users on ChromeOS need a Chromebook Plus with ChromeOS version 118+ or a minimum of 3GB RAM.
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| 2 | | The agency overseeing Texas public schools will replace some human scorers with an AI-powered essay grading system. The "auto scoring engine" will grade open-ended questions in this week's state-mandated standardized tests. More: - The engine will use natural language processing to evaluate student essays in the Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams.
- About 25% of the tests will be further reviewed by human graders.
- By hiring fewer employees from third-party contractors, the Texas Education Agency hopes to save $15M to $20M.
- The agency's website shows similar scores between the engine and human graders for most children's answers.
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| 3 | | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) reported a 34% YoY revenue increase in March, with quarterly revenue rising 16.5%. Demand for TSMC's chips has surged in part due to the rising popularity of AI. The world's largest contract chipmaker counts Nvidia and Apple as customers. 
What the numbers show: TSMC's revenue for the first three months of this year was $18.54B, up from $16.72B a year ago. In March alone, revenue reached $6.1B, marking a 34.3% year-on-year increase, its fastest growth rate since November 2022. Context: In January, the Taiwanese chipmaker projected over 20% revenue growth in 2024, driven by soaring demand for high-end chips powering AI applications. The company is racing to manufacture chips for data centers operated by Amazon, Microsoft, and others. Zoom out: The U.S. will grant TSMC up to $6.6B for three chip factories in Arizona. The second fab and third fabs will produce 2-nanometer chips, which are crucial for applications in areas like AI, according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. What's next: TSMC will report its full Q1 earnings on April 18, including its outlook for the year. | | | |
| 4 | | Meta Platforms unveiled the latest version of its in-house AI chip. The Meta Training and Inference Accelerator, or MTIA, helps power ranking and recommendation ads models on Facebook and Instagram. More: - Meta unveiled its first-generation custom chip for running AI workloads last year.
- Meta stated that the next-gen MTIA, based on TSMC's technology, offers better energy efficiency and triple the performance of its predecessor.
- The new MTIA more than doubles the compute and memory bandwidth, it said.
Zoom out: - Google announced its own custom silicon chip on Tuesday. Tech giants are developing their own internal chips to cut costs and dependence on external suppliers like Nvidia.
- In January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta expects to end this year with 350,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs.
- The graphics cards used for AI training and inference reportedly cost around $30,000 apiece, amounting to billions of dollars.
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| 5 | | Newly discovered code hints at an Apple "Safari browsing assistant" in iOS 18, the next major iPhone update. The assistant could use AI to help with tasks in Safari, similar to those found in other web browsers. More: - X user Nicolás Álvarez found a "Safari browsing assistant" feature in the backend code on Apple's servers, which was confirmed by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser.
- The assistant could launch in iOS 18, the next major update to the iPhone's operating system.
- Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during WWDC on June 10 and release it to the public in September.
Zoom out: - Other iPhone web browsers offer some AI capabilities, like Microsoft Edge with Copilot and Arc from The Browser Company.
- iOS 18 is expected to bring a bevy of new generative AI features to the iPhone, though it's not clear exactly what those will be.
- Apple may not include its own generative AI chatbot in iOS 18. The company has been in talks with Google to license the latter's Gemini AI model for upcoming iPhone features.
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| 6 | | Fresh funding: - SiMa.ai secured a $70M funding round led by Maverick Capital. The San Jose-based startup created a machine learning system-on-chip that brings AI capabilities to edge computing devices.
- No-code computer vision AI platform Robovision bagged $42M in Series A funding. Astanor Ventures and Target Global co-led the round at a post-money valuation of $180M.
- Lab automation robot builder Reshape closed its Series A funding round at $20M. Astanor Ventures led the round, joined by YC, R7, ACME, 21stBio, and Unity co-founder Nicholas Francis.
- Google Ventures led a $20M Series B round in Alethea Group, a startup using AI to monitor for online influence operations targeting clients.
Future funding: - Apple's former chief designer Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are in talks with SoftBank, Thrive Capital, Emerson Collective, and other investors to raise $1B for a new unnamed startup, which aims to develop a new AI-powered hardware device.
For the latest on AI startup funding and more in the VC community, subscribe to our Inside Venture Capital newsletter. | | | |
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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 Beth Duckett | |
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