🚦 Google attempts to solve traffic
PLUS: What is AI's true environmental impact?
New here? Welcome to NAB, and make sure to subscribe to stay informed on the latest developments in AI!
Happy Friday, fellow humans 👋
Another big week in AI, with the release of new dubbing software, a gauntlet of new AI editing tools courtesy of Adobe, and some thoughts on the risks associated with AI advancement.
Without further adieu, let’s dive straight into it.
P.S. Our team at Autoblocks recently published these blogs:
Check them out and let us know what you think!
Have anything you’d like to share with over 40k AI enthusiasts?
🧵 In today's edition:
🗞️ Your Weekly Round-Up
🎤 BWAI: Updates
🤑 AI Fundraising News
🛠️ AI Tools to Check Out
🐦 Tweet Post of the Day
🗞️ Your Weekly Round-Up
1️⃣ Adobe launches a range of innovative AI tools
Adobe's annual Max conference unveiled numerous AI-powered prototype tools and features under their "Sneak" program.
Here are some standouts:
Project Stardust: An "object-aware editing engine" that effortlessly identifies objects in photos, enabling easy manipulation and removal.
Project Res-Up: An AI tool that uses diffusion-based upsampling technology to increase video resolution, improve sharpness, and add new details.
Project Dub Dub Dub: An AI audio feature that translates voice recordings into multiple languages while preserving the original speaker's voice.
Project See Through: An AI tool that streamlines the process of removing obstructions from window-shot photos.
Read more: The Verge
2️⃣ Google announces Gen AI search capabilities for doctors
Google Cloud launched AI-powered search capabilities that allow clinicians to look up information from different medical records in one place.
The technology will help doctors save time as they will no longer have to read through notes, faxes, and electronic health records separately.
The search features can also help apply billing codes and determine patient eligibility for clinical trials. The new features will be offered to health and life sciences organizations through Google’s Vertex AI Search platform.
Read more: CNBC
3️⃣ Klarna adds AI-driven photo feature
Klarna added an AI-driven photo feature to help users find products on its app.
The feature allows users to:
Take a photo of a product or scan its barcode.
Receive similar items within the app for a cheaper price.
However, recently, there have been some claims that Klarna's "buy now, pay later" option can encourage users to spend more money than they have, particularly those with lower credit scores, leading to long-term debt and over-extension.
The moral: Shop responsibly!
Read more: Gizmodo
4️⃣ Google’s AI makes traffic lights more efficient
In Seattle and several cities across the globe, traffic signals are getting a high-tech AI makeover to minimize congestion and reduce emissions.
Google's AI analyzed data from Google Maps users, optimizing signal timings to cut as many as 30% of stops and 10% of emissions for 30 million cars each month.
Is a solution for traffic potentially on the horizon?
Read more: Wired
5️⃣ Character.AI new AI group chats
Character.AI has introduced a new feature that allows users to chat with multiple AI companions simultaneously in a group chat, fostering a unique social connection where the lines between humans and AI blur.
For practical applications, users can start group chats centered around travel, gaming, book clubs, or role-playing and introduce an AI companion to enrich and steer the conversation.
Note: the group chat feature is currently only available to c.ai+ subscribers 😞
Read more: Techcrunch
6️⃣ Captions launches a dubbing app with 28 languages
AI startup Captions introduced Lipdub, an app that translates videos into 28 languages, including fun options like Texas slang and pirate speech.
The Captions app also features other AI editing tools that help:
Eliminate "ums" and "ahs.”
Reduce background noise.
Enhance speech.
Read more: Techcrunch
7️⃣ ElevenLabs is building a universal AI dubbing machine
Speaking of dubbing, ElevenLabs is creating a new "AI dubbing" system that can generate new spoken dialogue in more than 20 languages, including Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Ukrainian, Polish, and Arabic.
The purpose of this tool? To help media companies, educators, and internet influencers adapt their content for global audiences.
The best part? The tech can translate spoken content to another language in minutes and maintain the "emotion and intonation" of the existing dialogue.
Read more: Engadget
8️⃣ AI’s environmental impact
A paper published by Joule emphasized the importance of tracking AI’s impact on the environment due to concerns that generative AI could increase data centers' energy consumption and carbon footprint.
Here’s the math:
Nvidia's projection for delivering 100,000 AI servers this year translates to an annual energy consumption of 5.7 to 8.9 TWh. This is relatively insignificant compared to the historical electricity usage of data centers, which currently stands at 205 TWh.
However, if Nvidia hits its projection of delivering 1.5 million AI servers by 2027, the energy demand could rival the current energy consumption of Bitcoin, ranging from ~ 85.4 to 134.0 TWh. That’s a problem.
The message is clear: AI's growth must be balanced with energy efficiency and sustainability.
Read more: The Verge
9️⃣ eBay's Chief AI Officer predicts AI-centric' paradigm shift’ in online shopping
eBay's Chief AI Officer, Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov, believes AI will transform e-commerce in three phases.
Phase 1: NL search capabilities and shopping assistants will become more common.
Phase 2: LLM agents will rise to power and help distributed commerce companies reduce operating costs.
Phase 3: AI agents will be able to plan and complete a series of tasks to achieve a specific outcome.
What do you think of this sequence of events?
Read more: Yahoo Finance
🔟 Godfather of AI fears the technology could take over humanity
Geoffrey Hinton, the "Godfather of AI," expressed his concerns about the risks of AI in a recent interview with 60 Minutes.
While Hinton acknowledged the benefits of AI in healthcare, he also highlighted the growing uncertainty associated with AI's advancement, including the potential for:
Autonomous battlefield robots.
Fake news.
Economic upheaval as machines replace human jobs.
Overall, Hinton's message is clear: as we navigate the AI frontier, we must tread cautiously, prioritize understanding, and consider the ethical and societal implications of AI's growth.
Read more: Yahoo Entertainment
⛰️ Summit - AI Life Coach
Introducing Summit: Your AI life coach that helps you accomplish your personal and professional goals.
Summit allows you to:
☑️ Organize, track, and break down the most important goals in your life.
🧾 Keep yourself accountable via your coach and social groups.
🙆 Access a 24/7 coach personalized to you with context on your goals.
Summit helps you reach your peak. Try it for free today.
🎙️ Our inaugural episodes are out now!
Hey Team! ICYMI, our inaugural BWAI episodes featuring Champ Bennett and Dan Siroker are out now!
Catch these episodes on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts today!
🤑 AI Fundraising News
Delv.ai raises $450,000 in Seed funding to build AI-powered text analytics for research and enterprise analysis.
Investree raises $231M in Series D funding to create tailored peer-to-peer lending solutions, connecting lenders to borrowers with a core service suite that includes an AI-based credit scoring service.
Gutsy raises $51M in Seed funding to bring process mining to security.
Cleanlab raises $25M in Series A funding to help solve AI models’ data mess.
Conveyor raises $12.5M in Series A funding to automate security reviews using LLMs.
Orbem raises €30M ($31.8M) in Series A funding to develop an AI-based platform to enable hatcheries to determine the sex of an egg in a contactless and non-invasive manner.
Prophecy raises $35M in Series B funding to build a low-code development platform for companies to transform their data.
Carefull raises $16.5M in Series A funding to help banks and wealth advisors protect senior customers from financial fraud.
🛠️ AI Tools to Check Out
Retool Workflows: Allow developers to explore, join, and transform data with real-time feedback and AI-powered actions while deploying and managing automation with developer-first control. Check them out!
Mentor.ai: A 24/7 AI-powered mentorship platform that helps users get specialized, tailored advice anytime, anywhere. Check them out!
🐦 Tweet Post of the Day
📜 —> 💬
Introducing Unreal Voices
Our text to speech just got a whole lot better.
🔊 Listen here: twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— Matter (@matter)
3:56 PM • Oct 12, 2023
What did you think of today's newsletter? |
And that does it for today's issue.
As always, thanks for reading. Have a great day, and see you next time! ✌️
— Haroon: (definitely) Not A Bot and @haroonchoudery on Twitter
P.S.: Check us out on our socials - snacks on us if you also hit follow. :)
Autoblocks | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube