Dropbox plans to lay off 16% of its global workforce as it seeks to develop new AI projects. The cloud storage company will hire new talent, with an emphasis on AI and product development in the early stages, as it seeks to grow its AI division. More: - Dropbox's CEO, Drew Houston, said the workforce reduction comes amid a slowdown in its cloud growth and the arrival of "the AI era of computing."
- Despite being profitable, Houston said Dropbox is moving pre-emptively to reduce its workforce and invest in new areas for growth, such as AI.
- "I'm determined to ensure that Dropbox is at the forefront of the AI era, just as we were at the forefront of the shift to mobile and the cloud," Houston said. "We'll need all hands on deck as machine intelligence gives us the tools to reimagine our existing businesses and invent new ones."
Job cuts: - The announcement marks the company's first mass job reductions since January 2021, when it laid off 315 workers.
- Dropbox is expected to incur charges of $37M to $42M related to the job cuts.
- At the end of 2022, Dropbox had 3,118 full-time employees worldwide, including 2,583 in the U.S.
THE VERGE | |
What happened: People living in the U.S. West and Northeast show the most interest in AI, according to a YACSS analysis of Google Keywords data. Details: YACSS, an AI-powered website builder, examined the data of search terms frequently used by people interested in AI over a year-long period. It then averaged each state's average monthly search volume for these AI-related terms per 100,000 people. ![](https://imgur.com/g3C4IPh.jpg) What the numbers say: Utah was found to be the state most likely to use AI, with around 203 searches per 100,000 people. Oregon was the runner-up at 192 searches per 100,000. Rounding out the top five were Washington, Vermont, and Colorado. On the opposite side, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama were the states least likely to use AI. When it comes to search terms, the most used were AI and AI-related tools, voice generation, art, music, animation, and resume writing. Where to see the impact: A YACSS spokesperson said Americans are embracing using AI more in daily tasks as the technology experiences a boom driven byChatGPT. It appears some areas may be more likely to embrace it than others, which could affect if and how quickly their citizens understand and adopt AI. ![](https://imgur.com/FDPKezt.jpg) | |
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EU lawmakers have agreed upon an early draft of its AI Act, which includes a requirement for generative AI companies to disclose any copyrighted material used to train their systems. European Parliament members have now given the go-ahead to advance the draft law to the next stage, the "trilogue," which involves negotiating the bill's final details. More: - Once passed, the AI Act would be the world's first comprehensive legislation governing a wide range of AI uses.
- Under the draft, AI tools will be classified based on their risk, which ranges from minimal to limited, high, and "unacceptable."
- While not banned outright, high-risk AI, such as autonomous vehicles and AI medical devices, will fall under more scrutiny.
- AI foundation models will reportedly face stricter rules. It includes the transparency requirement for copyrighted materials used to build generative AI, which also will be required to be created in accordance with EU laws and fundamental rights, which includes freedom of expression, it said.
REUTERS | |
A report by the Information describes how Apple's Siri efforts have been impacted by "organizational dysfunction and a lack of ambition," causing Apple to fall behind Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. The findings were based on interviews with more than three dozen former Apple employees in AI and machine learning. More: - According to the interviews, Apple's Siri team has been derided by employees who are concerned about Apple's ability to build new AI products based on generative AI.
- They specifically cited issues in improving Siri and its backend technology. Retention has been a problem, with some Siri engineers leaving for Google to work on large language models.
- Additionally, the report describes how an Apple team developing its Reality Pro headset was disappointed in demos showing the AI assistant controlling the mixed-reality device.
- Because of Siri's limitations, that team once weighed alternative methods for controlling the headset but ultimately rejected that idea.
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Spotlight: AI startups making waves in the tech industry What happened: Bolstered by the generative AI boom, Israeli AI infrastructure provider Pinecone Systems announced a $100M funding round valuing the startup at $750M. The company offers vector data storage for large language models, meaning its infrastructure can serve as a long-term memory for chatbots and other AI tools. What it does: Using Pinecone, businesses can develop AI-powered applications that are capable of communicating about proprietary data. Engineers can use Pinecone's searchable vector database to work with data generated from AI language models and other applications. Who its clients are: Its customer list so far includes Shopify, HubSpot, Gong, and Zapier. In Q1 2023, Pinecone welcomed 1,400 paying clients, said CEO Edo Liberty, a former AWS research head. Who are the investors: Pinecone's valuation has risen more than four-fold since its $28M Series A last March. Andreessen Horowitz led the recent Series B round, with participation from new investor ICONIQ Growth and existing investors Menlo Ventures and Wing Ventures Capital. Where it's based: Pinecone has operations in New York, San Francisco, and Tel Aviv, Israel, where it has a large R&D center. VENTUREBEAT | |
Tinder is rolling out an AI-powered video selfie verification system for users. While not mandatory, users who want Tinder's official blue checkmark will have to record videos of themselves to verify their identities using AI. More: - Tinder said the video selfies can help verify the identities of real people to prevent AI catfishing from fake accounts and bots.
- It's working with an unidentified third-party vendor to manage the video selfie verification.
- First, a user will have to use their smartphone's front camera to record several video selfies in certain poses based on prompts.
- The vendor's AI system then matches the person's facial geometry to their still photos on Tinder.
- The feature will also grant users membership into Tinder's "Photo Verified Cuties" club, where they can choose to only see other photo-verified members in their recommendations.
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- NFX, a venture firm for pre-seed and seed-stage startups, released its list of the 75 "hottest up-and-comers in generative AI." The AI Hot 75 includes big names like Character.ai and Jasper, along with lesser-funded startups such as Explosion AI and Dashworks.
- Music artist John Legend says AI needs to have "some regulation," adding, "I believe that our voices are our voices, and we should have control on how our voices are used out in the world."
- Walmart is now using a Pactum AI chatbot to help the retailer negotiate with equipment vendors. Walmart, Pactum's first customer, told Bloomberg that every three out of four suppliers preferred interacting with the bot more than a human negotiator.
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| | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can 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 and 1972 Fords. | |
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