One of the most compelling stories on the site this week (whether to me privately as a hardware and AI enthusiast or according to our team “how many more people are reading this story”) is Brian’s encounter with the Humane AI pin. The product is a matchbox-sized marvel packed with technology, adding 32GB of storage and a 12-megapixel multifunction camera. However, its key piece is a laser projection formula capable of displaying data on any surface, even in the palm of the hand. The device is a voice-first device that offers a seamless AI-based experience with proprietary integrations and OpenAI, adding GPT-4. It’s not just a gimmick; it’s a glimpse into a future where AI will be as portable as a pin and as private as your routine.
The other facet of AI I’ve been thinking about is why we’re all happy to let AI take on some responsibilities but get angry about others. A lot of that comes to mind when I think about activities that are fundamentally human nature: creating art. , worrying about things we shouldn’t worry about and other activities. By the way, what does it mean to be human?
Eventually, Airbnb acquired artificial intelligence startup GamePlanner. AI, co-founded by Adam Cheyer and Siamak Hodjat, in a secret deal rumored to be worth around $200 million. The co-founders are guilty of Samsung’s Siri and Bixthrough assistants. GamePlanner is shrouded in mystery, but its acquisition suggests that Airbnb might simply be running on a concierge service. GamePlanner is Airbnb’s first acquisition since 2019 and first as a public company.
Let’s see what else is on this week. . .
Image Credits: Civitai
We are getting closer and closer to having AI-based robots that can be informed to interact with the physical world, taking on better repetitive responsibilities across industries. The challenge for robots is to create high-quality knowledge sets for physical interactions, which requires a fleet of robots for varied knowledge gathering. Deep reinforcement and information are very important for success, says Peter Chen, co-founder of Covariant. He says allowing robots to adapt and refine their methods has laid the groundwork for this transformation, predicting a backlog of viable robot programs through 2024.
Meanwhile, in France, Romain observes that much of the startup ecosystem (adding French AI startups such as Dust, Finegrain, Gladia, Mistral AI, and Scenario) indicates that France is becoming a primary AI hub. According to him, this is due to a strong skill pool and, of course, notable venture capital activity, with corporations like Index Ventures actively investing in AI startups.
Moar AI Nuggets:
The startup shrugged: Atlas, a 3D generative AI platform, was introduced with an initial investment of $6 million after two years of stealth development. Its purpose is to design the world for game development.
Like Flickr, but for Gen AI: Civitai, a generative AI content marketplace, provides a platform for users to share and discover AI-generated image models based on Stable Diffusion. The startup has experienced significant growth, leading to a $5.1 million funding round from a16z, at a $20 million valuation.
ChatGPT, take the weel: Ghost Autonomy, a company developing autonomous driving software, has partnered with OpenAI and landed a $5 million investment to explore the use of multimodal large language models (LLMs) in self-driving cars. Talk about making the hallucinations high stakes, y’all.
The robot will see it now: Forward Health has unveiled CarePod, an autonomous, self-sustaining AI-powered medical station designed to carry out clinical responsibilities discovered in the number one care practices, such as blood tests and blood pressure measurements, without needing to. for a doctor or nurse on site.
Image Credits: BuildCasa
Against the backdrop of an investment winter in which investment activity is at its lowest level in three years, founders, especially those coming from Series A investments, are facing tough times. I enjoyed Katie Konyn and Daniela Restrepo’s guest post on TC, which explains how to leverage LinkedIn for fundraising. They proposed creating a network, interacting with investors without launching it immediately, maintaining visibility through normal updates and achievements, and building reciprocal relationships. It’s a long game,” they concluded.
Investment Art aims to be the Y-combinator for artists, I wrote about TC this week. The company offers an accelerator program to help artists succeed. Co-founders Joey Flores and Jonathan Neil artists in the form of acquisition commitments, sales participation and hands. -in facilities for five years. This technique includes a three-month semester program in Los Angeles for selected artists, culminating in an exhibition. His style combines direct monetary investment with comprehensive installations of administrative control, aimed at artists and potentially extending to others. artistic professionals. It’s a clever concept: God knows if it’ll ever be applicable to the entire company, but I like the technique of empowering artists to define and succeed on their own terms.
More startup stories:
Well, it’s a way to create a market: Samara, an Airbnb spin-off company, recently secured new funding, positioning itself as a possible solution to the housing crisis in the United States. Airbnb itself would possibly bear some responsibility for the housing crisis.
Revolving doors: Zeus Living, a proptech tech startup that was allegedly subsidized through Airbnb, is shutting down its operations. Founded in 2015, the company first focused on redecorating owners’ homes and renting them out to offshored employees for extended stays, before expanding to offer more flexible living features to a wider audience. It didn’t go as planned.
Here’s a browser, my AI friend: When OpenAI connected ChatGPT to the internet, it supercharged the AI chatbot’s capabilities. Now, the You. com search engine must do the same for all the major language models available.
Image Credits: Amazon
Troubled waters for GM right now, as the mothership stepped up its surveillance on Cruise, its self-driving car subsidiary, following incidents that led to the suspension of Cruise’s advertising operating licenses in California. GM executive Craig Glidden, who is also a member of Cruise’s board of directors, has been named lead administrative officer to lead the company’s legal, policy, communications and finance teams. Cruise has suspended all operations of manual and supervised autonomous vehicles in the U. S. This is about 70 vehicles. A survey found that some of Cruise’s workers surveyed have little buy-in to the company’s culture of protection.
Exxon, best known for extracting fossil fuels from the ground, plans to tap into America’s vast lithium reserves to power electric cars. The U. S. has gigantic amounts of recoverable lithium, which is essential for electric vehicle batteries. The scale is quite impressive: the amount of lithium the company wants to drill would make it possible to obtain more than a million vehicles a year.
More shipping news:
Okay, You Can Drive: Uber is implementing new measures to deal with the factor of unfair driver deactivations, a significant fear for delivery drivers and delivery drivers. Measures include increased testing, registration functions and voluntary drug testing.
A plane?: Joby Aviation and Volocopter made brief demonstration flights of their electric airplane over New York City, offering a glimpse into the future of aviation.
Let’s see, folks: Rivian’s electric vans are no longer exclusive to Amazon, as the automaker has announced that it will now sell its advertising electric vans to businesses. This resolution puts an end to the exclusivity agreement reached with Amazon in 2019.
Who needs music anyway?: A recent software update intended to fix bugs and improve proximity locking in Rivian’s vehicles inadvertently bricked some of their infotainment systems. It isn’t clear whether this can be resolved with an OTA update. Luckily, Rivian says only about 3% of vehicles were affected — but they may need to be serviced by a technician. Whoops.
Alpha and Omegle: Omegle, an online chat service known for connecting strangers for conversation, has been shut down after more than 14 years due to the increasing misuse of the platform, which included engaging in “heinous crimes,” totaling 600,000 alleged crimes. abuse.
Ahh, finally some peace and Dimmu Borgir: The Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones deliver exceptional comfort, sound quality, and top-notch noise cancellation, Brian reviews. The headphones justify their $429 price tag as one of the best noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones available.
We have trust issue: Epic and Google clashed in a court, with a trial focusing on Google’s alleged anticompetitive practices in its Play Store. The core challenge is Google’s commission on in-app purchases and special deals with developers. Here’s 5 things we learned this week
Dawn price lists: Lyft’s competitively priced strategy to compete with Uber has led to the company’s slow expansion, even as the festival in the rideshare market remains intense.