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| 1 | | U.S. President Joe Biden said he recently met with top AI scientists who expressed concerns that AI could one day surpass human thinking. During a commencement address Thursday at an Air Force Academy graduation, Biden emphasized that while AI presents an incredible opportunity, there are significant challenges and "a lot to deal with." More: - Biden acknowledged the rapid transformation of AI that has the potential to reshape future conflicts, saying that making necessary decisions won't be easy.
- His comments come after he met with CEOs from major AI companies in May to discuss the safe development and release of AI products.
- Concerns about AI were echoed this week by hundreds of scientists, tech executives, and public figures who issued a public statement comparing the risks of AI to those posed by nuclear war and pandemics.
Zoom out: - In May, the Biden administration unveiled a $140M investment from the National Science Foundation to launch seven new AI research institutes in the U.S., bringing the total to 25.
- The research centers will apply AI to areas like public health, climate change, and agriculture.
- The White House Office of Management and Budget said it would also issue draft policy guidance on how federal agencies can use AI tools, with public feedback opening this summer.
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| 2 | | The news: Salesforce executives are banking on the enthusiasm surrounding AI to boost sales after the software giant posted its slowest revenue growth in 13 years. What happened: Salesforce posted its latest quarterly results on Wednesday. While they surpassed analysts' estimates, the company's sales have generally contracted as orders slow down. CEO Marc Benioff said customers are solely focused on AI and, more specifically, generative AI, which could be a driving factor for Salesforce revenue. Why it matters: Salesforce has already been investing significantly in generative AI tools, contributing to a 36% increase in capital expenditures year-over-year. While Salesforce is in an era of "careful spending," the company is adding AI functionalities across its sales, marketing, and workplace communication software and recently debuted Einstein GPT, an enhanced version of its AI assistant for customer relationship management (CRM). What's next: Salesforce's profitability is on the rise, and its current revenue outlook does not include the potential benefits from AI, according to Mike Spencer, investor relations EVP. Benioff also envisions using data to make Salesforce's messaging app, Slack, artificially intelligent, and recently launched a $250M venture fund to invest in generative AI startups. | | |
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| 3 | | Google has invested in Runway, a New York-based startup that uses AI to create and transform images and videos from text prompts and more, sources told The Information. The investment of an undisclosed amount was reportedly part of Runway's recent $100M Funding round, which values the company at $1.5B. About the company: - Runway is one of the startups behind the popular text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion.
- It offers several products, known as "AI Magic Tools," for editing and creating images and videos:
- Runway's Gen-1 lets users input an existing video and transform its style using a text prompt, image, or present style.
- Gen-2 can synthesize original videos from a single text or image prompt, text and image prompts combined, or a source video and driving images.
- It also has a new iOS app to alter the style of videos on iPhones using text, image, and present prompts.
Financials: - Runway's $100M round, a Series D, reportedly tripled Runway's valuation from its Series C funding round, which closed in December.
- According to Business Insider, the Series D round involved an unidentified cloud service provider rather than a traditional VC firm.
- Google has been making equity investments in AI startups, offering cash and Google Cloud credits in exchange for equity.
- As part of these deals, Google is asking the startups to choose it as their preferred cloud provider.
- While Runway was previously endorsed by Amazon Web Services, it's now expected to use Google's cloud servers.
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| 4 | | Nvidia Research announced Neuralangelo, an AI model that turns 2D video clips into 3D visual reconstructions. The platform, a reference to Michelangelo, can generate detailed and textured 3D structures from basic video clips. More: - The model can render virtual 3D representations of buildings, sculptures, and other real-world objects or spaces, which can be imported into design apps for editing.
- It requires at least several 2D video frames of the object at various angles.
- Neuralangelo has applications in areas like video game development, digital twin creation, and art.
- Nvidia says the AI model was adapted from Instant NeRF, its AI tool demoed last year that creates 3D objects from 2D photos in milliseconds.
- It could be used to capture video conferences in 3D, reconstruct scenes for 3D digital maps, and rapidly create places and avatars for the metaverse.
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| 5 | | Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba launched its latest large language model, incorporating the technology into its new AI digital meeting assistant. The model will release to the public through Alibaba's Tongyi Tingwu assistant, which can analyze and churn out summaries of audio and video files. More: - The LLM, known as "Tongyi Qianwen," powers Tingwu, which is also being incorporated into Alibaba's popular business messaging app, DingTalk.
- Alibaba aims to add new features to the chatbot throughout the year, such as real-time English-to-Chinese translation for multimedia content and a Google Chrome plugin, per CNBC.
- The company is collaborating with corporate cloud customers to develop customized AI products using the LLM.
Zoom out: - After OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, Baidu, Huawei, SenseTime, and other Chinese tech giants have been introducing their own chatbots and AI systems, raising the stakes in the generative AI rush.
- Grand View Research expects the global chatbot market to grow from $5B to $42B over the next decade.
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| 6 | | 🍋 FRESH FUNDING 🍋 - GPU accelerated cloud computing solutions provider CoreWeave raised $200M in Series B extension funding from Magnetar Capital, bringing the total raised under the Series B round to $421M.
- Photonic AI hardware maker Lightmatter secured $154M through a Series C funding round. SIP Global, Fidelity Management & Research, Viking Global Investors, GV, HPE Pathfinder, and others provided the funding.
- Tools for Humanity, the crypto startup co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, raised $115M in Series C funding led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global. The startup is behind the Worldcoin project, which intends to create unique digital identities for humans by scanning their eyes.
- Canadian AI-powered pharmaceutical R&D solutions provider BenchSci secured $70M (CA$95M) in Series D funding led by Generation Investment Management. Existing backers iNovia Capital, Golden Ventures, and F-Prime Capital participated in the funding round.
- Low-code machine learning platform Predibase raised $12.2M through a Series A extension round led by Felicis Ventures Management.
For the latest on AI startup funding and more in the VC community, subscribe to our Inside Venture Capital newsletter. | | |
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- Broadcom CEO Hock Tan predicts increased demand for the company's chips due to generative AI applications. The chip maker's revenue forecast surpassed expectations for the upcoming July quarter.
- Companies such as KPMG, Coatue, and Headline are leveraging generative AI tools to assist clients in their dealmaking and provide guidance, according to FT.
- A Texas federal judge is now ordering attorneys in his cases to confirm that their filings weren't drafted solely by AI without human verification.
- Snapchat has launched a feature for subscribers to send photos to its "My AI" chatbot and receive a text response in return.
- Chinese search giant Baidu is setting up a new AI-focused fund with an initial commitment of $140M (1B yuan). The VC division will primarily back generative AI startups.
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| | Beth Duckett AI and technology writer | | 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 [email protected]. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield |
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