Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

Wall Street’s AI gold rush hit a snag this week after earnings reports from industry giants failed to live up to investor hype.

Is this a case of short-term greed overshadowing AI’s inevitable disruption? Or will swelling costs to compete lead to more growing pains? Let’s examine…

In today’s AI rundown:

• AI stocks plunge after earnings disappoint

• Shopify debuts AI-powered image editor

• How to convert video to any language with lip syncing

• Researchers unveil Weaver for creative writing

• 6 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs

• More AI & tech news

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

WALL STREET

📉 AI stocks plunge after earnings disappoint

Image source: Midjourney

The Rundown: Shares of major AI players including Microsoft, Google, AMD and Nvidia fell sharply this week after the latest earnings reports failed to impress investors anticipating an artificial intelligence-driven boom.

The details:

• Alphabet shares dropped 6% as ad revenue missed expectations while spending on data centers also jumped to stay competitive in AI.

• Microsoft stock fell despite strong cloud and Windows growth aided by AI, with the company also ramping up spending to meet AI demand.

• AMD plunged 6%, though its new AI chips are selling faster than expected, with forecasts still falling short of some sky-high predictions.

• Nvidia also gave up recent gains, though it has tripled in value as the market’s demand for its AI chips continues to surge.

Why it matters: With significant upfront costs to compete amongst the major players in AI, spending has been outpacing monetization in the short term — something Wall Street never likes.

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SHOPIFY

👜 Shopify debuts AI-powered image editor

Image source: Shopify

The Rundown: E-commerce platform Shopify just launched a free AI image editor to help sellers create professional product photos without studios or pro photographers, alongside additional AI upgrades like semantic search in the company.

The details:

• Media Editor lets merchants change backgrounds, styles, colors, etc. to stage item photos with prompts — with no design experience needed.

• Semantic search provides AI-powered results with a better understanding of conversational terms to provide more relevant options.

• The new tools join a host of AI integrations already on the platform, including automated product descriptions, chatbot integration, and more.

Why it matters: While businesses using AI was initially controversial, its integration will quickly become standard or unnoticeable for the average consumer — especially given the recent advances in image generation and multimodal AI.

AI TRAINING

👄 How to convert video to any language with lip syncing

The Rundown: Sync Labs combines multiple AI tools like video-to-text, text-to-speech translation, and lip-syncing to create an innovative video translation tool.

Step-by-step:

1. Head to Sync Labs and set up your account (for free).

2. Add a video file or add a YouTube URL. For best results, use a video with a single speaker — where the speaker is in the first frame and the video quality doesn’t exceed 720p.

3. Choose a target language and select Submit.

4. After a few minutes, you will have a video where the main character speaks in your chosen language with decent lip sync.

AI RESEARCH

✍️ Researchers unveil Weaver for creative writing

Image source: Midjourney

The Rundown: AIWaves just introduced Weaver, a family of LLMs focused on excelling in creative writing tasks like fiction, blogging, marketing, and more.

The details:

• Weaver is pre-trained on books/blogs/articles to absorb more creative styles, avoiding low-quality internet text often used in general LLM training.

• Evaluations show Weaver comfortably beats generalist LLMs on a new benchmark assessing creative writing skills.

• The 34B parameter ‘Weaver Ultra’ surpasses GPT-4 on both LLM and human evaluations, graded on style, relevance, creativity, and fluency.

Why it matters: While general LLMs have been seeing wild advancements as of late, their creative writing ability has lagged behind other growth areas. As AI becomes more and more integral to content creation, systems like Weaver that are fine-tuned for imaginative outputs will be indispensable.

NEW TOOLS & JOBS

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• 👥 Cohere- Senior Technical Talent Partner (link)

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QUICK HITS

Midjourney announced that V6 of Niji-Journey, a version of its text-to-image model tuned specifically for Anime outputs, is now live.

OpenAI announced an early warning system and released research on if AI models can aid in creating bioweapons, finding that they are currently ‘at most’ mildly useful for the task.

Mistral CEO, Arthur Mensch, confirmed that a mysterious model called ‘Miqu’ that neared GPT-4 performance posted on HuggingFace was a leaked version of Mistral’s — with open source models rapidly catching up to industry leaders.

School bus platform Zum raised $140M at a $1.3B valuation for its AI-powered route optimization, EV fleet management, and parent communication tools used by thousands of US school districts.

Instacart has deleted AI-generated images used on the platform following a Business Insider article highlighting bizarre photos used on the company’s recipes section, which it confirmed were also generated by AI.

Volkswagen opened an "AI lab" to create prototypes and form tech partnerships on products leveraging AI, including predictive maintenance, voice recognition, and in-vehicle personalization.

The FCC proposed ruling AI-generated cloned voices in robocalls illegal, following the tech’s use in New Hampshire to create fake calls from Joe Biden urging people not to vote.

THAT’S A WRAP

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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

TikTok Music wants to compete with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music — but just struck a major chord with the music industry.

UMG just announced it’s pulling its star-studded catalog off the platform. Let’s investigate…

In today’s tech rundown:

• UMG pulls songs from TikTok over royalty dispute

• Tech leaders under fire over child safety regulations

• 8 new products

• Delaware judge axes Musk’s Tesla bonus

• Palworld climbs gaming ranks

• FTX fully repaying customers, creditors

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

TIKTOK

🎶 UMG pulls songs from TikTok over royalty dispute

Image source: Universal Music Group

The Rundown: Universal Music Group just announced it will pull all its music from TikTok starting Feb. 1st — after failing to reach an agreement with ByteDance over fair royalties.

The details:

• UMG claims TikTok pays a tiny fraction of royalties compared to other major platforms generating less revenue, currently accounting for only 1% of the company’s revenue.

• Tensions also rose over payments for AI-generated recordings and TikTok's failure to promptly remove copyright-violating content.

• UMG represents major artists like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Drake, and Justin Bieber.

• The move comes as TikTok invests heavily in TikTok Music, which the company hopes to position as a competitor to Spotify and Apple Music.

Why it matters: UMG’s departure underscores serious growing pains for TikTok’s music aspirations — and the company’s ability to strike fair deals with labels going forward will likely make or break it. Success without star power for music platforms is hard to come by.

TOGETHER WITH JASPER

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Click here to transform your content game, and let Jasper help you stop posting “AI-sounding” content today.

BIG TECH REGULATION

🏛️ Tech leaders under fire over child safety regulations

Image source: Getty Images

The Rundown: Congress just held a major hearing with CEOs from several major tech platforms including Meta, Twitter (X), TikTok, Snap, and Discord — on the topic of protecting children online and fighting child exploitation.

The details:

• The CEOs in attendance were X’s Linda Yaccarino, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Discord’s Jason Citron.

• The hearing focused on failures to curb abuse and predatory behavior targeting kids on these platforms.

• Proposed legislation discussed includes the controversial Kids Online Safety Act, which garnered mixed endorsements from the CEOs.

• Notably, Yaccarino came out in support of KOSA despite critics arguing the bill would chill free speech, seemingly in opposition to Elon Musk and X’s previous sentiment.

Why it matters: In what was a contentious day for the tech giants, CEOs were forced to reckon with the darker sides of their platforms. But it's an issue that's far from solved — even if the proposed regulation comes to fruition.

NEW PRODUCTS

🤖 Conveyor- Generate 90%+ accurate AI answers to security questionnaires in seconds (link)*

🚀 Tailwind Studio- Get more React app styling done with AI (link)

🎨 OpenArt- AI-powered marketplace for image generation apps (link)

🔒 GPTGuard- Ensures your ChatGPT interactions are safe and confidential (link)

🤝 FluxNinja Aperture- API for managing rate limits, storing data, and setting task priorities (link)

🎙️ Wondercraft AI- Turn existing content such as blog posts, into full podcasts (link)

📹 Screen Studio- Create beautiful screen recordings in minutes on your Mac (link)

⏰ Timetics AI- A smart scheduling solution for meetings and businesses (link)

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SNIPPETS

Palworld has achieved 12 million sales on Steam and 7 million players on Xbox and Game Pass, becoming the biggest third-party launch in Game Pass history.

US lawmakers have introduced a bill to combat non-consensual AI-generated explicit content in response to the increasing spread of Taylor Swift deepfakes.

FTX expects to fully repay customers and creditors who suffered losses from its 2022 collapse.

Lamborghini is set to introduce hybrid versions of the Hurácan and Urus in 2024 as part of its strategy to reduce fleet emissions.

The European Space Agency is set to test a metal 3D printer on the ISS, a development that could contribute to building structures on the Moon.

A Delaware judge voided Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla compensation plan over conflicts of interest and flawed process.

SPONSOR US

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THAT’S A WRAP

If you have anything interesting to share, please reach out to us by sending us a DM on Twitter: @rowancheung & @therundowntech

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

Neuralink just reached a new milestone, implanting its brain chip into a human patient for the first time.

If Elon Musk’s ‘Telepathy’ device is successful, it could truly change how we interact with technology forever. Let’s explore…

In today’s AI rundown:

• Neuralink places first brain chip implant in human

• Yelp launches new AI features for users, businesses

• How to summarize a YouTube video or podcast using Bard

• Tencent details multimodal LLM advances

• 6 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs

• More AI & tech news

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

NEURALINK

🧠 Neuralink places first brain chip implant in human

Image source: Neuralink

The Rundown: Elon Musk just announced that Neuralink successfully implanted its advanced brain chip in a human test subject for the first time, saying the patient is ‘recovering well’ from the surgery in a post on X.

The details:

• Musk touted "promising neuron spike detection," in the patient, suggesting the chip’s sensors are capturing individual brain cell activity.

• Musk also revealed that Neuralink’s first product will be called 'Telepathy’, which plans to enable paralyzed patients to control devices by thought.

• The company’s initial patient trials targeted quadriplegic patients aged 22+ suffering from spinal injuries or ALS.

Why it matters: Did you have telepathy on your 2024 bingo card? Neuralink continues to push the boundaries of brain hardware, with a chance to potentially enable game changing new abilities for paralyzed patients — and push the tech closer to consumer availability.

TOGETHER WITH AE STUDIO

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YELP

🍔 Yelp launches new AI features for users, businesses

Image source: Yelp

The Rundown: Yelp just introduced several new AI enhancements on the platform, including AI-generated business summaries and insights to help users quickly understand what to expect from local businesses.

The details:

• One-sentence AI summaries will now describe a business's most notable qualities like atmosphere, service, amenities, and popular menu items.

• Yelp is also providing business owners new AI-driven recommendations on things like optimal budgets for easier and more cost-effective advertisements.

• A new AI-powered home feed on iOS aims to help users more easily discover relevant businesses and content on the platform.

Why it matters: With mass amounts of data, Yelp’s AI-driven advancements make a lot of sense — and convenience-type integrations like these are perfect ways to get consumers more comfortable with the tech by improving user experience in subtle ways.

AI TRAINING

📝 How to summarize a podcast using Bard

The Rundown: Google has recently made big improvements to Bard with upgrades from Gemini — and the chatbot has become great at summarizing long videos or podcasts from YouTube.

Step-by-step:

1. Head to Bard (available in nearly every country except Canada).

2. Enter prompt: “Write a detailed summary of this video [insert link]. Summarize using bullet points. Include timestamps to the relevant themes/sections. Include quotes”

3. You now have a summary and the key points of the video or podcast!

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AI RESEARCH

📶 Tencent details multimodal LLM advances

Image source: Tencent

The Rundown: Tencent researchers just released a paper highlighting the rise and advancement of multimodal LLMs (MM-LLMs), including best practices and future outlooks for the powerful models.

The details:

• MM-LLMs combine powerful language models with other modalities like images, audio, and video, enhancing cognitive capabilities.

• The paper analyzed 26 MM-LLMs, comparing them across benchmarks and detailing ‘key recipes’ for enhancing the models.

• Key advancements include progression from single modality input/output towards versatile "any-to-any" functionality.

• Research also found significant improvements in alignment, instruction tuning, and conversational abilities.

Why it matters: This new research helps document emerging best practices in multimodal LLMs — while also highlighting the wild advancements we’re about to see as models become more versatile.

NEW TOOLS & JOBS

AI tools powered by Supertools

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• 📈 Stock Robo GPT- An economic analyst who assists with forecasting and analyzing US stocks and ETFs (link)

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• 🎭 Meme Magic GPT- Easily generate creative and customized memes in seconds (link)

• 📸 Shakker AI- Stylize, remix and transform your images (link)

• 👍 Huudle- Boost productivity and enhance relationships with AI-powered async video communication (link)

AI jobs powered by The Rundown Jobs

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• 🎯 Sanctuary AI- Principal Program Manager (link)

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• 🔧 Open AI- Reliability Engineer, Research Platform (link)

QUICK HITS

Scott Galloway's edtech company Section is conducting a survey to assess AI readiness across industries, roles, and companies. Take the survey and get a discount code to Section's upcoming AI Crash Course. (Sponsor)

Humanoid robotics startup Figure AI is reportedly in talks for a funding round of up to $500M led by Microsoft and OpenAI, potentially putting the company at a $1.9B pre-money valuation.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin released a paper on the intersections of crypto and AI, detailing the pros and cons of how blockchain tech and decentralization can and will be integrated with artificial intelligence.

OpenAI quietly rolled out another new ChatGPT feature to ensure coding responses generate fully, rolling out in settings under ‘General’ → ‘Always expand code output’.

The New York Times is forming an "AI initiatives" team, including engineers and editors to prototype generative AI uses for reporting and presentation — though emphasizing its journalism will still be human-written.

The Biden administration will begin requiring AI firms to disclose safety testing results to the government under the Defense Production Act before public release in an effort to manage AI risks.

Samsung is considering a subscription model for advanced AI features on Galaxy devices after 2025, though no definitive plans have been set.

THAT’S A WRAP

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FEEDBACK

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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

Apple's Vision Pro is officially under the microscope — with early reviews offering a blend of awe and caution.

With reportedly over 200,000 preorders, the hype is there. But can the reality match high expectations and a lofty price tag? Let’s dive deeper…

In today’s tech rundown:

• Early Vision Pro reviews mixed amid pre-sale hype

• Researchers harness power from sound waves

• 9 new products

• PayPal cuts thousands of jobs in ‘right-sizing’

• Swiss startup reinventing nuclear energy

• NYT assembling GenAI division

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

APPLE

🥽 Early Vision Pro reviews mixed amid pre-sale hype

Image source: Apple

The Rundown: Early reviews are beginning to roll in for Apple’s buzzy new Vision Pro, with tech outlets breaking down the pros and cons of the headset — which has reportedly already seen over 200,000 preorders in the first 10 days.

The details:

• The 4K OLED displays and spatial 3D video blew reviewers away, making videos and movies incredibly immersive.

• Eye and hand-tracking was mostly seamless, enabling an intuitive control system — but tracking was reportedly inconsistent at times.

• The bad: Some reviewers had to take regular breaks due to the headset's heaviness, while the battery life was just 2-3 hours.

• Some also said the software felt unfinished, with few ‘true AR’ apps that blend virtual and real — while the App Store lacked key offerings like YouTube or Netflix.

• At $3,500 plus more for accessories, reviewers questioned if the experience was significantly better than non-wearable setups.

Why it matters: The Vision Pro looks to advance the state of AR/VR with its impressive visuals and control, but compromises like weight, battery life, and isolated experience show the product still has maturing to do. At $3,500+, it may be a tough sell to anyone outside of early adopters right now.

TOGETHER WITH INCOGNI

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Help protect yourself from identity theft, spam calls, ID theft and health insurers raising your rates. Plus, just for our readers: Get 55% off Incogni using code PRIVACY.

BATERY TECH

🔋 Researchers harness power from sound waves

Image source: ETH Zurich

The Rundown: Researchers at ETH Zurich just developed a battery-free sensor that harnesses energy from sound waves to power electronic devices, with the potential to help reduce electronic waste and enable new medical applications.

The details:

• The sensor works by converting vibrations from specific sound frequencies into small electrical pulses.

• It can distinguish between certain spoken words like "three" and "four”, with only certain words triggering the device.

• Potential applications include powering medical implants like hearing aids, eliminating the need for replacement batteries.

Why it matters: This innovation shows the promise of energy sources like sound to enable battery-free electronics. If commercialized, millions of single-use batteries could be eliminated yearly — while also unlocking new medical possibilities as implants shift away from finite power sources.

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🎨 Shakker.Ai- Instantly create images from your imagination (link)

🎙️ Podnotes- Turn podcasts into transcribed, summarized, and repurposable content (link)

👨‍✈️ Omnipilot- Seamless autocomplete and AI-powered contextual generation for all macOS applications (link)

📱 Synthesia- Create professional videos without mics, cameras, or actors using an AI-generated character (link)

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🎥 Munch- Extract the most engaging and impactful clips from your long-form videos (link)

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SNIPPETS

The New York Times is assembling a team to innovate with generative AI and machine learning while maintaining a commitment to human-driven journalism.

Boeing workers are believed to have omitted reinstalling bolts on a 737 Max 9 aircraft, leading to a midair incident and subsequent grounding of planes.

AT&T and TransUnion are collaborating to offer a service where businesses can make branded calls to customers with visible names and logos to combat robocall proliferation.

Apple is deeply concerned about U.K. legislative proposals that might empower the government to secretly control global software updates and weaken user privacy and security.

Xbox President Sarah Bond criticizes Apple for implementing a Core Technology Fee for app installations that surpass one million downloads.

Transmutex, a Swiss startup, is reinventing nuclear energy with thorium and a particle accelerator to create safer, more sustainable reactors incapable of sustaining a chain reaction.

PayPal is laying off thousands of employees in an effort ‘right-size’ the business, coming on the heels of changes across the company’s leadership team.

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THAT’S A WRAP

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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

Microsoft just released its annual ‘Future of Work’ report, highlighting how the rise of AI will impact our shifting workplace roles and demands.

While we might not be handing our jobs completely over to AI — nearly all of us will be working alongside the tech VERY soon. Let’s get into it…

In today’s AI rundown:

• Microsoft maps AI's coming impact on jobs

• OpenAI courts chip giants in South Korea for AI hardware

• How to feature your logo in a video with Runway

• AI-powered robot achieves record braille reading speed

• 7 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs

• More AI & tech news

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

MICROSOFT

💼 Microsoft maps AI's coming impact on jobs

Image source: Microsoft

The Rundown: Microsoft just released its annual ‘Future of Work’ Report with a focus on AI, detailing both the transformative potential of tech in the workplace and the care needed to avoid downsides like skill displacement and job loss.

The details:

• Surveys and studies showcase significant productivity gains from AI tools, with 68% of study participants responding that Copilot improved their quality of work.

• Lower-skilled workers tended to benefit more from AI use, but performance gaps could still widen in some cases.

• The report highlighted over-reliance as a key challenge to collaborating with AI, with humans readily accepting incorrect AI outputs.

• Microsoft anticipates that smooth AI integration with workflows and norms will shape acceptance as much as the technology itself.

Why it matters: While AI will impact almost all jobs in some capacity, understanding the nuances, successes, and pain points of its early adoption can help us better prepare for how it will shape our workplaces in the near future.

Check out the full report here.

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OPENAI

🤝 OpenAI courts chip giants in South Korea

Image source: Getty Images

The Rundown: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently visited South Korea to discuss potential collaboration with Samsung and SK Group on manufacturing specialized AI chips amid broader speculation of the company’s desire to break into the chip production market.

The details:

• Altman reportedly toured a Samsung factory and met with execs from both companies, with discussions on ‘cooperation and investment’ in AI chip production.

• Samsung and SK are leaders in high bandwidth memory critical for AI chips — with the tech giant also working with Google on AI initiatives.

• Altman was recently in talks with Middle East investors and Taiwanese manufacturers on building a global network of AI chip factories.

Why it matters: As OpenAI rushes to stay ahead in AI capabilities, forming alliances with hardware titans would aid efforts to ensure compute capacity keeps pace with ambitious software goals — and avoid the predicted chip shortages that Altman spoke of at length in Davos.

AI TRAINING

🎥 How to feature your logo in a video with Runway

Image source: Johannes Plenio and Runway

The Rundown: With Runway’s new Gen-2 Magic Tools, you can feature your logo in a video in any setting.

Hat tip to Nicolas Neubert for sharing the tips and prompts below.

Step-by-step:

1. Create an image with your logo with your preferred background scape using Figma or Photoshop.

2. Head to Runway, select the image-to-image generator under the generate image menu, and upload your image.

3. Stylize your image with a prompt and adjust the settings:

   • Example prompt: Object sinking in water in the shape "r", ocean landscape, dark atmosphere, surreal sculptures muted colors, cinematic contour lighting, low contrast ProLog, award winning composition, chromatic aberration

   • Preset: Custom Color Grading Preset Prompt Weight: 6.0

   • For best results, you’ll want to upgrade to HD.

4. Save your favorite generated image to assets and select the image in the Text/Image to Video feature to create your video.

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AI RESEARCH

🫵 AI-powered robot achieves record braille reading speed

Image source: University of Cambridge

The Rundown: Researchers at the University of Cambridge just developed a robotic fingertip that uses AI to read Braille at over 300 words per minute — doubling the most accurate human speeds.

The details:

• An onboard camera captures blurred images, which are then sharpened by optimized machine learning algorithms.

• Computer vision AI then identifies the Braille letters accurately despite moving at high speeds.

• In tests, the system read at 315 words per minute and 87% accuracy — twice as fast and as accurate as human braille readers.

Why it matters: While it’s impressive to see the braille reading performance, the real breakthrough is in the robotic fingertip’s ability to ‘sense’ via touch — a feature that will be important as humanoid robots continue to take on more complex tasks.

NEW TOOLS & JOBS

AI tools powered by Supertools

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• 🎥 HeyGen GPT- Transform text into lifelike and customized videos instantly (link)

• 🤖 Coze- No-code creation and deployment of advanced AI chatbots (link)

• 🌍 Language Teacher GPT- A personal tutor for effective language learning through conversation (link)

• 🗣️ SiteSpeakAI- Automate customer support and reduce support tickets (link)

• 🔍 Potis AI- Evaluate candidates' real-world skills for fair and reliable hiring (link)

• 💼 Wized AI- Showcase your skills and experience with this AI resume generator (link)

AI jobs powered by The Rundown Jobs

• 🔒Open AI- Counsel, National Security and Cybersecurity (link)

• 🧑‍💻Cohere- Data Annotation - Safety tasks / Content Moderation (link)

• 🌍 Anthropic- Head of Sales, EMEA (link)

• 🧩 Anyscale- Solutions Architect (link)

*Sponsored listing

QUICK HITS

George Carlin’s estate is suing the makers of the "Dudesy" podcast for using AI to impersonate the late comedian in a YouTube special, alleging copyright infringement and misuse of Carlin's name and likeness.

China has approved over 40 AI models for public use over the past six months, as part of the country’s aggressive strategy to match U.S. advancements.

OpenAI is partnering with nonprofit Common Sense Media, known for rating media content for kids, to develop AI safety guidelines and curate family-friendly apps.

A California restaurant called CaliExpress is infusing AI and robotics to run the operation, including a "Flippy" frying robot, a grill robot, and facial recognition AI for ordering.

Meta released Code Llama 70B, an upgraded version of its code generation LLM, ranking as one of the ‘highest performing open models’ available.

Former Cloudera CEO Rob Bearden's new startup Sema4 AI announced a $30.5Mr raise for its AI automation tools aimed at helping enterprises.

ChatGPT is being accused of violating EU privacy laws by Italian data protection authority Garante, with OpenAI potentially facing hefty fines.

THAT’S A WRAP

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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

Zoom just revealed new upcoming Vision Pro offerings, bringing remote work and conferencing into AR/VR.

If Apple’s launch is a home run, will Zoom breathe new life into the stagnant video meeting space? Let’s dig deeper…

In today’s tech rundown:

• Zoom brings realistic avatars, 3D viewing to Vision Pro

• Amazon cancels Roomba deal on regulatory concerns

• 8 new products

• Apple hits back at proposed EU laws

• Canon moves into chipmaking

• Tesla owners angry over new software update

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

ZOOM

Zoom brings realistic avatars, 3D viewing to Vision Pro

Image source: Zoom

The Rundown: Zoom just unveiled new mixed reality features for Apple's new Vision Pro headset, including digital avatars and collaborative 3D model viewing.

The details:

• Zoom will leverage Vision Pro's Persona system to animate users' facial and hand expressions on calls.

• Shared 3D assets can be viewed and manipulated together in a virtual space.

• An integrated Zoom chat and the ability to pin real-world participants aims to boost virtual meeting engagement.

• The capabilities build on Vision Pro's room-scaling and background removal strengths that boost remote collaboration.

Why it matters: While other companies are shying away from building on top of the Vision Pro, Zoom is doubling down. Could a coming AR/VR revolution breathe new life into the meeting leader, bringing a whole new dimension (literally) to how we interact on meetings?

TOGETHER WITH VANTA

The ISO 27001 Compliance Checklist

Are you building a business? Achieving ISO 27001 compliance can help you win bigger deals, enter new markets, and prove security practices to customers anywhere in the world — but it can also cost you real time and money.

Download Vanta’s ISO 27001 checklist to learn how to successfully implement an Information Security Management System (ISMS) according to the standard, prepare for an independent audit of your ISMS to obtain ISO 27001 certification, and streamline the process with automation. 

AMAZON & ROOMBA

🚫 Amazon cancels Roomba deal on regulatory concerns

Image source: Bloomberg

The Rundown: Amazon just nixed its proposed $1.4B purchase of Roomba maker iRobot due to antitrust scrutiny, following increased pressure from EU and U.S. regulators around Big Tech’s dealmaking and fair competition compliance.

The details:

• Regulators had suggested the deal could restrict competition in the robotic vacuum cleaner market.

• Amazon will pay a whopping $94M fee to iRobot for terminating the deal, which was originally revealed in 2022.

• iRobot laid off 30% of its staff following the news, with its founder and CEO also stepping down.

Why it matters: In an unusual surrender, Amazon's scrapped acquisition signals the waning ability of Big Tech to gobble up competitors as governments promote more competitive markets. But regulations will likely only slow — not stop — Amazon’s far-reaching ambitions across markets.

NEW PRODUCTS

🤖 GPT Analytics- Transform your understanding of GPT with advanced analytics (link)

💬 LiveChatAI- Streamlined AI and human live chat support solution (link)

🧑 Leed- Capture lead data using GPT-driven prompts (link)

💤 Daydream- Business intelligence for effective decision-makers (link)

🖌️ AirBrush Studio- Create AI-generated headshots effortlessly (link)

🐦 TweetHunter- All-in-one Twitter growth tool to create content using AI, build an audience, and schedule posts (link)

⚡️ Notion AI- Your notes, on steroids. Access the limitless power of AI, right inside Notion (link)

🎬 HeyGen - Create videos from text in minutes with AI-generated avatars and voices (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

SNIPPETS

Arc has launched a minimalist, AI-powered search tool browser app for the iPhone, focusing on search summaries and a streamlined user interface.

Apple attacked new proposed UK laws allowing the government to secretly veto global privacy updates before release, saying it would undermine security and force companies into surveillance.

Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission resumed after the lander, which had experienced a power outage post-landing, recharged its solar panels and re-established communication with JAXA.

Flutter Entertainment is preparing for a New York Stock Exchange listing, reflecting its significant growth in the US sports betting market.

Canon is set to challenge ASML by introducing a new, low-cost nanoprint lithography technology for chip manufacturing.

Some Tesla owners have expressed frustration over a new software update that intensifies driver supervision mandates on the Autopilot feature.

DJ Novotney, an influential Apple hardware engineering architect with 25 years of service, is departing to join Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer.

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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

Ready to unleash a team of AI experts in every chat?

OpenAI’s new ‘GPT mentions’ feature just seamlessly integrated GPTs into user workflows — setting the stage for powerful multi-bot experiences ahead. Let’s explore…

In today’s AI rundown:

• OpenAI introduces GPT mentions

• X secures Georgia tax break for $700M AI data center

• How to utilize GPTs in your ChatGPT workflows

• Bard surpasses GPT-4 on chatbot leaderboard

• 8 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs

• More AI & tech news

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🆕 OpenAI introduces GPT mentions

Image source: ChatGPT screenshot

The Rundown: OpenAI just quietly shipped a new ‘GPT mentions’ feature to ChatGPT, allowing users to seamlessly integrate custom bots into a conversation by tagging them in a Slack-type style.

The details:

• The beta feature is accessed by typing ‘@’ during a ChatGPT conversation, which brings up a list of GPTs to mention and use.

• The improvement reduces GPT friction, enabling users to call on a GPT directly in-chat instead of navigating the GPT Store.

• Mentions also allows for the integration of multiple GPTs in a single chat, streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity.

• The feature was first spotted by Dan Shipper on X, with no official announcement by OpenAI yet.

• The feature appears to be rolling out to ChatGPT premium users slowly, with only a select few users getting early access.

Why it matters: Mentions may look like a small feature update, but it is a powerful one. Enabling the use of multiple GPTs in an ongoing chat gets users closer to having a team of expert AI agents working together — and now it’s just an @ away!

TOGETHER WITH OCTOAI

🤖 Mixtral on OctoAI: 12x lower costs, 30% faster speeds vs GPT-4-Turbo

The Rundown: Innovators who built on OpenAI are hungry for alternatives as their LLM-powered apps catch fire with users. Why?

• Inference costs on OpenAI are too high for new apps to become successful businesses.

• Low latency and scale don’t come out of the box. Not realistic for most folks.

• Closed-sourced models lack the flexibility needed to deliver excellent experiences.

Switch from GPT-4-Turbo to 12x your savings and see 30% lower latency.

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X (FORMERLY TWITTER)

💰 X secures Georgia tax break for $700M AI data center

Image source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Rundown: Elon Musk's X Corp. just secured a $10M property tax break in Atlanta covering hardware for its $700M AI data center — landing the agreement after previously claiming the company would shift the project to Portland if not approved.

The details:

• The 10-year agreement covers existing and future equipment at X's Atlanta-area data center used to train LLMs.

• X estimates the data center will add $241M in economic impact, with Fulton County also forecasting $16M in new taxes for the area.

• X also previously purchased 10,000 GPUs for an artificial intelligence project in April 2023 (which was later revealed as xAI).

Why it matters: X joins Microsoft in building out major AI infrastructure in Georgia — with a data center that will play a vital role in X’s grand ambitions. While Grok has been a bit primitive compared to ChatGPT, Musk and the team at xAI continue to chip away on the future of AI on X (formerly Twitter).

AI TRAINING

⚙️ How to utilize GPTs in your ChatGPT workflows

The Rundown: With the recent update to ChatGPT using mentions, you can now use GPTs within ChatGPT conversations to improve and streamline your experience.

Note: This feature is slowly rolling out to ChatGPT premium users, with only a select few users getting early access.

Here is a quick step-by-step:

1. Prompt ChatGPT with a question.

2. Add a GPT to the conversation by typing "@" and selecting one. In this case, we will select the Whimsical GPT called AI Diagrams.

3. Now that the GPT is part of the conversation and has context to your previous prompts and responses, we will ask the AI Diagrams GPT to represent the information visually.

4. Now you have a Whimsical mindmap of your ChatGPT conversation.

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AI RESEARCH

🏆 Bard surpasses GPT-4 on chatbot leaderboard

Image source: HuggingFace

The Rundown: Google Bard just moved into second place on HuggingFace’s Chatbot Arena Leaderboard, surpassing GPT-4 and trailing only GPT-4 Turbo in the crowdsourced LLM rankings.

The details:

• Bard’s rise follows recent improvements to the model, with the free tier rating similar to or ahead of GPT-4 in capabilities.

• Gemini Pro is only the middle tier of Google’s planned models, with the top-tier Ultra expected to be released sometime soon.

• The LMSYS ChatBot Arena Leaderboard crowdsources rankings using an Elo system, with other 200,000 votes collected across models.

Why it matters: Gemini’s rise up the leaderboard is impressive — and shines an even brighter light on the upcoming Ultra launch, setting sky-high expectations as the most likely contender to compete with OpenAI’s GPT models.

NEW TOOLS & JOBS

AI tools powered by Supertools

• 🤯 MindStudio- Learn how to build AIs with MindStudio. Join this FREE 2 hour live course on building no-code AI apps. No experience needed! (link)*

• 📥 Jellypod- Transform your inbox into a personalized daily podcast (link)

• 🎨 Logo Muse- A GPT to help you create minimalist logos effortlessly within ChatGPT (link)

• 👷‍♀️ Chipp- Build a custom ChatGPT without code and monetize it on your website (link)

• 📹 Kuasar Video- Scores tens of thousands of videos on social media and analyze them using video AI (link)

• 🤖 Gravity- An on-device AI for your Mac that remembers everything (link)

• 🧙‍♂️ Professor Synapse- A GPT to summon expert agents for goal achievement (link)

• 📩 Letterly- Record your voice and let AI turn it into well-written text (link)

AI jobs powered by The Rundown Jobs

• 🔧 Open AI- Reliability Engineering Manager at OpenAI (link)

• 🤝 C3 AI- Director, Alliances at C3 AI (link)

• 👔 Synthesia- Product Enablement Manager at Synthesia (link)

• 🎯 Cohere- Go-To-Market Talent Sourcer at Cohere (link)

*Sponsored link

QUICK HITS

Perplexity announced an integration into Arc Browser as the default search option, offering users an AI-powered search experience leveraging models like GPT-4, Claude 2.1, and Gemini Pro.

Mental health startup Sonia built an AI therapist to provide structured cognitive behavioral therapy sessions, with modules for specific stages, emergency risk monitoring, and therapeutical worksheets.

Apple Podcasts now offers AI-powered transcripts in its iOS 17.4 beta for nearly all of its shows, with the feature expected to release to the public in March.

Wondercraft announced a $3M raise for its AI-powered platform allowing users to easily crease podcasts, audiobooks, and more.

A new report from the International Energy Agency found that data centers’ electricity use is ballooning, driven by the expansion of energy-intensive tech like cryptocurrency mining and AI systems.

Midjourney released V6 updates including pan, zoom, and vary region image generation capabilities, alongside expanded alpha website access.

X temporarily blocked searches of Taylor Swift following outrage surrounding viral AI-generated explicit deepfakes of the singer, with the White House calling for regulation following the incident.

THAT’S A WRAP

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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

Tesla is bringing the Dojo supercomputer to its New York factory — hoping to crunch massive amounts of video data to advance the company’s self-driving vision.

But while Musk calls the project a long shot — Tesla continues speeding (and spending) toward an AI-dominated future. Let’s investigate…

In today’s tech rundown:

• Tesla brings Dojo supercomputer to New York

• Camera system captures animal vision perspectives

• 8 new products

• X opens new Trust & Safety office

• Google settles multi-billion patent infringement lawsuit

• Fossil pivots away from smartwatches

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

TESLA

🗽 Tesla brings Dojo supercomputer to New York

Image source: Tesla

The Rundown: Tesla just announced a $500M plan to construct one of its Dojo supercomputers at its Buffalo, NY Gigafactory, a major new investment at the troubled facility.

The details:

• The Dojo supercomputer will process video data from Tesla vehicles, training AI to power its Full Self-Driving Beta software.

• Musk has called Dojo a ‘long shot bet’ and ‘not a sure thing at all’ but also says its success would result in payoffs at the multi-hundred-billion level.

• Tesla took over operations at the state-subsidized Buffalo plant after acquiring the struggling SolarCity in 2016.

• Musk called the $500M investment small compared to what the company is spending on Nvidia hardware and AI chips.

Why it matters: Tesla is ramping up spending in AI to continue scaling its self-driving car future. And while Musk calls Dojo a long shot — few are better equipped to bring this type of vision to fruition.

TOGETHER WITH OCTOAI

🤖 Mixtral on OctoAI: 12x lower costs, 30% faster speeds vs GPT-4-Turbo

The Rundown: Innovators who built on OpenAI are hungry for alternatives as their LLM-powered apps catch fire with users. Why?

• Inference costs on OpenAI are too high for new apps to become successful businesses.

• Low latency and scale don’t come out of the box. Not realistic for most folks.

• Closed-sourced models lack the flexibility needed to deliver excellent experiences.

Switch from GPT-4-Turbo to 12x your savings and see 30% lower latency.

Try OctoAI Text Generation and get $10 in free credits when you sign up today.

CAMERA TECH

📸 Camera system captures animal vision perspectives

Image source: University of Sussex

The Rundown: Researchers just engineered a new camera setup and processing software that records footage from the visual perspective of a variety of animals based on their unique receptors.

The details:

• Hardware modifications allow the simultaneous recording of visible and non-visible wavelengths to emulate animal vision capabilities.

• Software then processes the multilayered footage to recreate a species' visual experience with up to 99% accuracy.

• The team has made both hardware specs and algorithms open source for nature filmmakers and researchers.

• Example videos showcase insect, avian, and even butterfly visions of the world, highlighting unique views.

Why it matters: This wild camera tech provides an unprecedented look at how other species perceive and interact with their surroundings — shedding light on animal behavior and potentially aiding conservation efforts.

NEW PRODUCTS

🤖 ChatGPT Teams- A personalized super assistant for each team member (link)

🗣️ Letterly- Convert your conversation into polished text with AI (link)

🎥 Kuasar Video AI- Analyzes social media videos using AI (link)

✅ Project Plan Generator- Create a detailed action plan for your project effortlessly (link)

📝 Opendraft- Craft extensive 2,000-word articles using AI (link)

✏️ Yaara- Use AI to write proven, high-converting copy (link)

🎵 Mubert- Soundtrack for your content made by AI (link)

🛠️ 60sec.site- Generates beautiful landing pages for you in under 60 seconds (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

SNIPPETS

X is set to establish a new trust and safety office in Austin with 100 full-time content moderators dedicated to combating child sexual exploitation.

X also confirms blocking searches for Taylor Swift's name to address the spread of nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes of the artist.

The National Security Agency (NSA) has admitted to buying records detailing Americans' website and app usage from data brokers.

Fossil has decided to stop producing smartwatches, focusing instead on other business areas, but will continue to support current models for now.

Google settled a multi-billion dollar patent infringement lawsuit with Singular Computing regarding AI-related technology used in its Tensor Processing Units.

The FAA is investigating an American Airlines flight that made a hard landing in Maui, resulting in six hospitalizations.

A team led by Faith Hawthorn at the University of Warwick used NASA's TESS data to identify 85 new exoplanets, potentially advancing the search for extraterrestrial life.

SPONSOR US

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THAT’S A WRAP

If you have anything interesting to share, please reach out to us by sending us a DM on Twitter: @rowancheung & @therundowntech