AI Disrupts Energy, Faith, Fashion
16 April 2024: AI Index 2024 progress & unease; Ukraine AI drones threaten energy; China's AI water cannon; Automation & religious decline; Nike's AI sneakers;
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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:
AI Index 2024 highlights AI's progress, costs, policy shifts, and public unease
Ukraine's AI drones threaten Russian refineries and global energy markets
AI Investment Deals:
Microchip Technology acquires Neuronix AI Labs for FPGA-based AI solutions
HumanX secures $6M to enhance AI adoption and regulatory advocacy
Dot Compliance raises $17.5M for AI-driven Quality Management System in life sciences
Lawhive raises €11M to enhance legal accessibility and efficiency with AI
Staple secures US$4M to expand its AI-powered document processing solutions
PineGap.ai raises $2.5M for its AI-enhanced equity research platform
Clientell raises $2.5M for AI-driven sales forecasting and pipeline management
Inference Labs secures $2.3M to integrate AI with Web3 for efficient verification
Others:
China's AI water cannon escalates South China Sea tensions with the Philippines.
Automation linked to global religious declines in new series of studies
Nike unveils AI-designed "A.I.R" sneakers at Paris Olympic showcase
Headlines
AI Index 2024: Breakthrough Progress and Growing Unease
The 2024 AI Index Report provides a comprehensive overview of artificial intelligence developments, focusing on advancements, costs, policy shifts, and public perception.
Why it Matters: The report highlights AI's expanding role in various sectors, including economic implications and regulatory responses, emphasising the technology's influence on global development and governance.
Numbers:
$78 million estimated training cost for OpenAI's GPT-4, $191 million for Google's Gemini Ultra
$25.2 billion invested in generative AI in 2023, nearly octupling from 2022
In the US: 25 AI-related regulations in 2023 (up from 1 in 2016), a 56.3% increase from 2022
Global survey: 66% believe AI will dramatically impact their lives in the next 3-5 years, 52% express nervousness
Big Picture: The AI Index 2024 report highlights AI's remarkable progress in surpassing human performance on specific tasks and accelerating scientific discovery. However, it also exposes the enormous computational costs, lack of standardised evaluations for responsible AI development, and mounting public unease over AI's societal impact.
AI Drones Threaten Energy Markets as Ukraine Attacks Russian Refineries
Ukraine's AI-enabled drone attacks on Russian oil refineries demonstrate the growing threat that relatively inexpensive drones pose to global energy markets, according to reports from JPMorgan and other experts.
How It Works: AI helps drones navigate, avoid jamming, and maximise impact by precisely targeting critical infrastructure like distillation towers. Cheap to produce, they asymmetrically threaten expensive energy facilities.
Big Picture: The Ukraine-Russia attacks illustrate how AI drones can disrupt energy markets by targeting infrastructure. Coupled with Middle East tensions, this drives up oil and gas prices in 2024.
What to Watch:
If Ukraine extends its drone range to 932 miles, 21 refineries with 4.4M bpd capacity are at risk
Attacks shifting from diesel to gasoline components could further impact prices
Russian production cuts could push Brent crude to $100/barrel by September
AI Investment Deals
Microchip Technology acquires Neuronix AI Labs to boost its FPGA-based AI solutions for power-efficient edge applications.
HumanX, an NYC-based AI strategy company, secures $6M funding to enhance operations and support global AI adoption and regulatory advocacy.
Dot Compliance secures $17.5M in Series B extension, raising total funding to $50M to enhance its AI-driven Quality Management System solutions for the life sciences industry.
Lawhive, a London-based AI platform for lawyers, raises over €11M in seed funding to enhance legal accessibility and efficiency.
Staple, a Singapore-based AI startup, secures US$4 million in pre-Series A funding to expand its document processing solutions globally.
PineGap.ai, an AI SaaS startup founded, raised $2.5 million to enhance its equity research platform and expand its engineering team.
Clientell, a RevOps startup, raises $2.5 million for AI-driven sales forecasting and pipeline management, led by Blume Ventures.
Inference Labs raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding to integrate AI with Web3 and use Proof of Inference to verify AI efficiently, starting with liquid staking.
Others
China AI-Powered Water Cannon Escalates South China Sea Tensions
Chinese researchers developed the world's first AI-powered water cannon with improved accuracy. China's coastguard recently used water cannons against Philippine ships, causing damage and injuries. The incident occurred near Second Thomas Shoal, where the Philippines maintains a presence on a grounded warship.
Why it Matters: The combination of China's assertive claims, advanced water cannon technology, and willingness to use force against other claimant nations increases the risk of accidents and unintended escalations in the region.
Automation Linked to Global Religious Declines
A series of studies finds that exposure to automation, including robots and AI, is linked to declining religiosity globally.
Why it Matters: The findings suggest that the rise of automation may be an overlooked factor in explaining the accelerating secularisation trend in many parts of the world.
Nike Unveils AI-Designed "A.I.R" Sneakers at Paris Olympic Showcase
Nike leveraged AI to design innovative sneakers based on data from athletes like Victor Wembanyama
The concept shoes feature sleek shapes, unique orange Air units, and "A.I.R" branding
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