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| Welcome to Inside AI! Here are today's top stories: - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former Apple designer Jony Ive want to create the "iPhone of AI," backed by $1B from Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son.
- President Biden plans to issue an executive order supporting responsible AI innovation.
- Amazon Bedrock is now generally available for businesses to build their own AI applications.
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p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Former Apple designer Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are teaming up to potentially develop an AI-driven smartphone, backed by an over $1B investment from Softbank's CEO Masayoshi Son, according to the Financial Times. As reported by Gizmodo, an AI-focused smartphone could help with the consumer fatigue caused by new phones with only minor upgrades over the last few years. 2023 is on track to be the weakest year for worldwide smartphone shipments in a decade, according to preliminary figures from Counterpoint Research, which comes after U.S. smartphone shipments plummeted 24% YoY in Q2 2023. An OpenAI phone might help sway consumer interest and generate excitement for a new hardware offering. 
Details: Altman reportedly wants Ive's design agency, LoveFrom, to develop the "iPhone of artificial intelligence." It would be OpenAI's first consumer device, with the goal of creating "a more natural and intuitive user experience for interacting with AI," FT reported. While no deal is confirmed, the discussions are said to be "serious." Softbank's role: Sources say Son, Altman, and Ive are considering creating a joint company that would rely on the talents and technologies of their respective organizations. SoftBank is reportedly committing over $1B to the project, with Son actively participating in the talks. He also proposed a key role for Arm, the chip designer in which SoftBank holds a 90% stake. Still: The project is still in the early stages, with a wide range of ideas for the device on the table. Any resulting smartphone would likely take years to bring to market, reports noted. |     | |
| 2 | | President Joe Biden said he plans to issue an AI-related executive order this fall geared toward "responsible AI innovation." While Biden didn't reveal exact details of the order, it's expected to build on his administration's plans for an "AI Bill of Rights," according to CNN and Axios. More: - The executive order will tackle a broad spectrum of AI issues, with a central aim of maximizing benefits while minimizing risks, according to Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP).
- Speaking at a meeting of the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Biden said he held talks with AI experts and leaders, who share vastly different views on AI's potential and dangers.
- "I've convened key experts on how to harness the power of artificial intelligence for good while protecting people from the profound risk it also presents," Biden said.
- Biden also reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to work with the U.K. and other international partners on AI safeguards.
Zoom out: - A year ago, the OSTP released its Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, which includes suggestions in areas like algorithmic discrimination, AI transparency and safety, and AI-based surveillance, to name a few.
- Biden is facing pressure to make the Bill of Rights a binding policy.
Question: What would you want to see in President Biden's AI executive order? Share your ideas and join the conversation here. | | | |
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| 3 | | Amazon Bedrock, the company's suite of generative AI tools, is now generally available for businesses to build their own AI applications. The toolkit features foundation models for text and images from AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Stability AI, and other third parties, along with Amazon's own Titan large language models. More: - Bedrock offers access to pre-trained machine learning models from top AI companies through a single API.
- AWS customers can use the toolkit to build apps on the cloud-hosted models and customize them using their own data.
- Examples include AI agents for tasks like travel booking and inventory management.
- Amazon Bedrock will also add access to Meta's Llama 2, specifically the 13 billion and 70 billion parameter models, in the coming weeks.
Zoom out: - Amazon first introduced a limited Bedrock preview in April to select AWS customers, including C3.ai, Accenture, Deloitte, and Pegasystems.
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| 4 | | AI-powered market intelligence platform AlphaSense brought in $150M in a Series E funding round, boosting its valuation to $2.5B. BOND led the round, joined by existing investors like Alphabet's CapitalG, Viking Global Investors, and Goldman Sachs. More: - AlphaSense, based in New York, uses AI and natural language processing to help clients create corporate and investment strategies.
- Its AI-powered market intelligence and search platform provides access to financial data, news articles, and equity research, helping asset managers identify investment opportunities.
- The funds will go toward the expansion of AlphaSense's enterprise solution along with its AI search capabilities, market intelligence tools, and GenAI features.
- The company also plans to grow its collection of searchable business content and pursue strategic acquisitions.
Zoom out: - The fundraise follows AlphaSense's $100M funding round at a $1.8B valuation in April.
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| 5 | | Adobe has launched Photoshop on the web with AI-powered tools. These include Generative Fill and Generative Expand, which are powered by Adobe's Firefly generative AI model. More: - Generative Expand can expand images using AI by dragging the crop tool beyond the original picture size.
- The tool can add scenery, widen portraits, or add new context to real-world photos.
- Generative Fill adds or removes objects in images while preserving the original context.
- Photoshop on the web, first launched in beta in 2021, is now fully available to all plan users.
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| 6 | | M&A roundup: - Roblox acquired Finnish AI startup Speechly, which specializes in voice moderation technology. Roblox plans to use Speechly's technology to improve its voice chat service.
- Loadsmart, a freight technology and transportation service provider, has acquired NavTrac, a computer vision technology company. NavTrac uses cameras and machine learning to capture live video, auto-extract data, monitor equipment, and improve security in the freight industry.
- Cisco Systems has agreed to acquire Splunk, an analytics and cybersecurity firm, for $28B in cash. The acquisition, which would be Cisco's largest to date, is expected to make the combined Cisco-Splunk entity one of the world's largest software companies, bolstering Cisco's recurring revenue and AI.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - No-code development is here to stay, according to industry experts. Gartner predicts 80% of technology products will be built by those who are not IT professionals by 2024.*
- Google is expanding its AI-powered search experience, SGE, to people aged 13-17 in the U.S.
- Microsoft opened its fifth AI Co-Innovation Lab, this one in downtown San Francisco, offering startups and enterprises access to AI resources, including tools and infrastructure.
- A DeepMind large language model was able to compress image and audio data better than other methods. The Chinchilla 70B model achieved 43.4% lossless image compression on ImageNet patches, surpassing PNG, which compressed the same image patches to 58.5% of their size.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is an editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters, with a career spanning journalism since 2007. She has written for publications including The Arizona Republic and USA Today and authored a book on the solar industry in 2016. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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