Apple's AI M4, CMA's Concerns, AI Deals
12 April 2024: Apple Macs with M4 AI chips; CMA urges AI alignment; AI replaces 75-85% of market research; OpenAI fires researchers; AI speeds retinal imaging 100x
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Latest in AI,
1. 1-Minute Roundup
2. Headlines
3. AI Investment Deals
4. Other AI News
1-Minute Roundup
Headlines:
Apple revamps Mac line with M4 AI chips to boost sales and compete in AI market
CMA urges AI firms to align with principles and expresses concerns about tech giants' influence
AI Investment Deals:
Udio raises $10M for AI-powered music creation platform
Mindverse secures $5M for AI-native website tool and productivity tool
Scavenger AI gets €1.1M for AI business consultant tools
Pactio lands $14M to enhance private capital workflows through AI
Aethero invests over $1.1M in AI integration for infrastructure monitoring drones
Datafy raises $6M to revolutionise cloud storage management for the AI age
VXT secures NZ$1.8M for AI-powered communications platform in legal practice
DeepCure gets $24.6M to advance AI-powered small molecule therapeutics
Sortium raises over $4M for AI-powered 3D asset generation in video game production
Others:
The study finds that AI language models can replace humans in 75-85% of market research responses.
Sanctuary AI and Magna are partners in developing AI robots for automotive manufacturing.
Vals.ai develops a review system to evaluate AI models, finds GPT-4 struggles with tax questions
OpenAI fires two key researchers amid allegations of information leaks
AI revolutionises retinal imaging, making it 100 times faster than manual
Bill demands AI firms disclose copyrighted training data.
TikTok tests AI influencers for product promotion.
Headlines
Apple to Revamp Mac Line with M4 AI Chips
Apple is preparing to update its entire Mac line with a new family of in-house M4 processors highlighting artificial intelligence capabilities to boost declining Mac sales and compete in the AI market.
Why it Matters: The move comes at a critical time for Apple, as Mac sales have needed to catch up, and the company is seen as lagging behind competitors like Microsoft and Google in AI. The M4 chips are part of a broader push to integrate AI capabilities into Apple's products.
CMA Urges AI Firms to Align with Principles
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has released an update on its review of AI foundation models (FMs), setting out revised principles and expressing concerns. The CMA focuses on developing well-functioning economic markets from a competition and consumer perspective.
Why it Matters: The CMA worries that a small number of sizeable incumbent technology firms could shape FM-related markets in ways that harm competition and consumers.
The CMA has uncovered an "interconnected web" of partnerships and investments within AI involving a handful of tech giants, including Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Nvidia, which may allow them to shape global markets in their interests.
The CMA will continue examining the impact, may use its current legal powers, and consider prioritising certain digital activities for investigation under anticipated new powers.
AI Investment Deals
Udio raised $10M in seed funding. The funding will enhance the AI-powered music creation platform, allowing users to easily create, remix, and share fully mastered tracks in less than 40 seconds.
Mindverse, an AI startup, raised $5M in a seed round led by Square Peg to develop an AI-native website tool, MindOS Studio, and a productivity tool, Mebot.
Scavenger AI raised €1.1M in pre-seed funding to develop AI business consultant tools. These tools enable companies to perform quick data analyses and make data-driven decisions.
Pactio secured $14M in Series A funding. The company aims to enhance private capital workflows through AI, address the complexity of investment strategies, and improve digital infrastructure across the investment lifecycle.
Aethero secured over $1.1M in investment to advance AI integration in Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) for infrastructure monitoring, with funding to accelerate technology development and commercialisation.
Datafy raised $6M in funding to revolutionise cloud storage management for the AI age. It offers up to 50% savings on storage costs and provides a self-optimising, developer-independent AWS solution.
VXT raised NZ$1.8M in pre-Series A funding. It is developing an AI-powered communications platform integrated with legal practice management software to save time and capture billable hours.
DeepCure secured $24.6M in Series A-1 financing, led by IAG Capital Partners. Since its inception, it has raised over $72 million to advance AI-powered small molecule therapeutics for immunology and inflammation.
Sortium secured over $4M in funding to advance its AI-powered platform for real-time generation and modification of 3D assets and textures in video game production.
Others
Study Finds AI-Language Models Can Replace Humans in Market Research
Researchers found that large language models (LLMs) can generate outputs 75-85% in agreement with human survey responses for specific product categories.
LLMs analyse broadly available internet data to replicate human perceptions and preferences, potentially increasing efficiency and reducing costs in market research.
Sanctuary AI Partners with Magna to Expand Use of General Purpose Robots in Automotive Manufacturing
Sanctuary AI and Magna have announced a strategic partnership to develop, deploy, and scale general-purpose AI robots in Magna's automotive manufacturing operations.
Vals.ai Develops Review System to Evaluate AI Models' Performance
Vals.ai, founded by Stanford dropouts, aims to create an independent, standardised testing system for evaluating the performance of AI services across various industries.
Vals.ai's initial report revealed that leading AI models struggle with tax questions, with OpenAI's GPT-4 achieving only 54.5% accuracy and Google's Gemini Pro at 31.3%. This highlights the need for domain-specific training and evaluation.
OpenAI Fires Two Key Researchers Amid Allegations of Information Leaks
OpenAI has fired researchers Leopold Aschenbrenner and Pavel Izmailov following an undisclosed internal investigation into alleged information leaks.
The dismissals come amid reports of internal strife at OpenAI. Aschenbrenner is a vocal advocate for safe AI development and has previously worked on existential threats like advanced AI.
AI Revolutionizes Retinal Imaging, Making It 100 Times Faster Than Manual Methods
Researchers at NIH have developed an AI-based method called P-GAN that significantly improves adaptive optics (AO) imaging of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, reducing acquisition and processing time by about 100-fold. This could lead to earlier detection of retinal diseases and more accessible clinical applications.
New Bill Seeks Transparency in AI Training Data
Rep. Adam Schiff's Generative AI Copyright Disclosure bill would require companies to submit reports detailing copyrighted materials used in their AI training datasets to the Copyrights Register.
The bill, supported by various entertainment industry groups, addresses concerns from artists and authors who claim AI models are trained on copyrighted material without permission.
TikTok Launches AI Influencers
TikTok is developing AI-powered virtual influencers to promote products and read ad scripts generated by advertisers or TikTok Shop sellers.
The feature, still in testing, raises questions about how TikTok will manage sponsorship deals between AI avatars and human creators, who rely on brand partnerships for income.
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