Weekly roundup — The top AI stories you might have missed this week: - Alphabet-owned DeepMind made a breakthrough discovery, becoming able to predict the shape of almost all known proteins. The company used its trademark AlphaFold algorithm.
- Google fired a software engineer who previously claimed that the company's LaMDA AI chatbot model is sentient. Blake Lemoine was initially placed on paid administrative leave after Google said he improperly shared confidential information about the AI project with outside parties.
- The artificial intelligence system DALL-E was asked to show what it thinks would be the last selfie ever taken on Earth. The image has gone viral, sparking other users to visit the open-source software's website.
- Midjourney, a generative AI art tool in the same vein as DALL-E, opened to all users in beta mode. Like DALL-E, users feed the system with a text prompt to generate their own art.
- The MacArthur Justice Center sued the city of Chicago over its use of an AI gunfire detection system, citing human rights violations and false arrests. ShotSpotter uses AI, algorithms, and sensors to classify sounds from audio recordings as gunfire and alert police to the location.
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 A free AI model, GFP-GAN, can restore old, damaged, and low-resolution photos. Tencent researchers developed the tool, which relies on AI techniques to "guess" what details are missing in an image and fill them in automatically. More: - Specifically, the system uses a pre-trained version of Nvidia's StyleGAN-2 to inform its own generative model.
- It can preserve a person's facial features in photos, though researchers say it can result in a "slight change of identity."
- A demo is available online for free as well as the code.
- Louis Bouchard of "What's AI" also explains the model further in a YouTube video and article.
PETAPIXEL 
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 A message from PEGGY Peggy is raising a $6M USD round. Peggy is the social marketplace that allows you to discover, buy, and sell art. A place for the art-curious and the art-expert, for the art gallery and artist. A new way forward for the art world. Why Peggy? - Peggy is a marketplace that uses AI to transform the art market to buy and sell investment grade art securely
- 30 major contemporary art galleries from around the world have partnered with Peggy
- Co-founder duo’s previous venture ($1 billion GMV) was acquired by Live Nation / Ticketmaster
- "Blue chip" art market is built for UHNW and does not scale down to the rest of us. Peggy fixes this and creates a new category that enables investing in $1-50k art
- Peggy has built a sophisticated and proprietary AI, which enables the secure sale and resale of art without the need for human intermediaries
- Peggy powers Royalties for artist, who currently get cut out of resale, which is creating a social impact
- Millions of dollars of art are onboarded by leading galleries and artists who exhibit in museums such as MoMA, Tate Modern, etc.
- The lead investor secured
- Some allocation in the round remaining
- Minimum investment check size of $100k+
Direct inquiries to CEO, Craig Follett (craig@peggy.com) or click the button below! Let's Talk
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Comcast Ventures led a $10.8M funding round for Evabot, a company using AI in the corporate gifting space. The vendor said it differs from others in that it uses an AI assistant to poll gift recipients for personalized deliveries, reports TechCrunch. More: - Evabot, formerly Vizzi, says it uses "machine intelligence" to match up popular products with a recipient's own attributes and interests.
- The AI system chooses gifts based on the recipient's collected data along with things like the budget, previous gift ratings, and even weather, according to co-founder Rabi Gupta.
- It also uses the language generator GPT-3 to create personalized notes for each gift.
- The startup plans to use the funding to improve its AI and scale operations, growth, and product development, Gupta said.
- Boston startup Alyce, which also developed an AI platform for personalizing gift recommendations, raised $30M last year in a round led by General Catalyst.
TECHCRUNCH
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Pony.ai, an autonomous driving startup founded in Fremont, California, announced a partnership with Sany Heavy Truck to co-develop Level 4 autonomous trucks, which can drive themselves in controlled areas. The companies plan to deliver a small number of robotrucks this year and next before starting mass production in 2024. More: - The initial robotruck prototype, built on Sany's electric-vehicle platform, is already undergoing testing.
- The trucks will run on Pony.ai's autonomous driving controller, which uses the Nvidia Drive Orin computing platform.
- The companies hope to reach an annual production of 10,000 trucks within a few years.
- The automotive-grade trucks will be both electric and diesel-powered.
- In November, Walmart said it was operating two autonomous Gatik delivery trucks in Arkansas without backup safety drivers.
- Self-driving trucks are poised to become more common than non-commercial AVs due to their set routes.
TECHCRUNCH
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 A message from BOXABL Don’t miss out on the opportunity to invest in the future of housing alongside 20,000 investors, including America’s largest homebuilder, DR Horton. The company plans to do what Henry Ford did for the auto industry for the home construction industry by setting up the most advanced housing factory. Why Boxabl? - Setting up a 170,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in less than one year
- Raising over $100M from over 15,000 investors
- Elon Musk shouted out the Las Vegas-based company calling Boxabl a “cool product.”
- Achieving LEED certification and hurricane wind ratings on all houses
- Strategic partnership and investment from the largest home builder in the USA, D.R. Horton Inc.
- Over 50 patent filings due to considerable innovations in building technology
- Factory 2 is now under construction
- Customer waitlist of over 100,000 pre-orders, indicating potential demand worth billions of dollars
- Guided by Volkswagen Group's Porsche Consulting Inc. for the design and implementation of Boxabl’s new factory
- Shipping houses every day
Invest Today
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Ozette, a biotech and data startup offering AI-enabled immune monitoring, raised $26M to accelerate its growth. The Seattle tech company is seeking to automate the analysis of data collected from single cells, typically done manually. It provides tools for partners to quantify immune cell types from large datasets. More: - Incubated at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), Ozette spun out of Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center two years ago.
- The startup's technology is built on software developed at Fred Hutchinson. Its tool assesses and quantifies cellular samples based on their surface proteins.
- Ozette counts academic centers and biopharma companies as partners. The tools analyze datasets from trials involving cancer, infectious disease, and autoimmune disorders.
- The latest Series A was led by Madrona, with participation from Microsoft's venture fund, M12, and Cercano Management.
GEEKWIRE
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M&A roundup: - AI-enabled recruitment platform Job.com acquired talent solutions provider PrincetonOne for an undisclosed sum.
- Cell engineering firm Ginkgo Bioworks acquired synthetic biology company Zymergen, a developer of machine learning and data science tools in the genetic design space.
- Medical devices company Exo is acquiring Medo, a developer of ultrasound AI technology for automated imaging.
- San Francisco, Calif.-based proptech software solutions provider Density acquired French data science firm Prevision.io for an undisclosed amount.
- ML-powered insurance app Lemonade completed its acquisition of car insurance provider Metromile.
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- Bengaluru-based foundation ARTPARK launched a $100M venture fund to invest in AI and robotics startups in healthcare, mobility, and education.
- Zimmer Biomet will work with the Hospital for Special Surgery to develop AI-powered decision support tools for joint replacements.
- The fiscal 2023 Senate Appropriations Committee defense bill is seeking $200M for tactical AI capabilities for combatant commands.
- U.S. House lawmakers discussed the benefits of using AI to streamline committee calendars and congressional schedules.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and analyst at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily tech news. Since starting work at Inside, she has covered various topics including virtual reality, drones, and e-commerce. Prior to that she was a public policy and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, where she won a Pulitzer Prize nomination and First Amendment Award for reporting on the rising costs of pensions. 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 Ford. | |
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