News
1. US Senators Call for $32B in Emergency AI Spending
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators released a report of AI policy recommendations that calls for $32 billion in urgent spending on regulation and incentives over the next three years. The 33-page report by four senators, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., says that Congress should draft emergency spending to “harness the opportunities and address the risks” of AI. The group believes it is “imperative to find consensus with the technology taking off” and other countries, such as China, investing in AI.
2. Google Levels Up AI Portfolio at I/O 2024
Mountain View, California-based Google made over 100 announcements at Google I/O 2024, including many related to AI: it introduced updates to Gemini 1.5 Pro, its general performance model; Gemini 1.5 Flash, the latest version of its “lightweight” model; Project Astra, its vision for AI assistants; Trillium, its latest custom AI accelerator; Imagen 3, its latest image generation model; Veo, its video generation model; Music AI Sandbox, its suite of AI music tools; Gemma 2, its latest open-source model; and updates to AI Overviews for search and Gemini Nano, Android’s on-device model. The company shared a 10-minute video on the event.
3. Anthropic Introduces Claude to Europe
San Francisco-based Anthropic is releasing Claude, its AI chatbot, to consumers and companies in Europe to help them “enhance their productivity and creativity.” Claude is designed to have “strong levels” of fluency and comprehension in French, German, Spanish, Italian and other European languages. Earlier this year, Anthropic released the Claude API in Europe.
4. OpenAI Co-Founder and Chief Scientist Leaving Company
OpenAI and Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and chief scientist at OpenAI, are “going to part ways,” according to an internal message by Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. “OpenAI would not be what it is without him,” Altman says, adding that Sutskever “has something personally meaningful he is going to go work on.” Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s former director of research, is the company’s new chief scientist.
5. Anthropic Hires Instagram Co-Founder as Chief Product Officer
Anthropic named Mike Krieger its chief product officer. Krieger is a co-founder of Instagram, where he served as CTO. He’ll oversee Anthropic's product design, product management and product engineering efforts as the company works to expand its suite of enterprise applications and “bring Claude to a wider audience.” "The potential for AI to positively impact the world is immense, and I believe Anthropic has the talent, principles and technology to help realize that potential," Krieger said.
6. Goldman Sachs Exec Sees AI Causing 'Revenge of the Liberal Arts'
George Lee, co-head of applied innovation Goldman Sachs, says that AI could spur a “revenge of the liberal arts,” according to Bloomberg. He made the comments in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We are very strict about human in the loop — and nothing directly customer-facing as of yet,” Lee says. “There are a lot of limitations, a lot of concerns, a lot of risks we should be extremely mindful of.”
See more: 10 Top AI Companies Defining the Market
7. Glue Launches Work Chat App
Glue introduced its AI work chat software. The platform is designed to combine “the best of both worlds” from AI chat platforms, such as ChatGPT, and “human” chat platforms, such as Slack. Glue opened a waitlist for the software.
8. Canon Developing Deep Learning Into EOS R1 Camera
Tokyo-based Canon reports that it is developing the EOS R1, a full-frame mirrorless camera with a re-imagined focus (RF) mount. The camera is being designed for photography and video professionals and incorporates deep learning for “high-speed and high-accuracy” subject recognition. Canon aims to release the camera in 2024.
9. WEKA Raises $140M
Campbell, California-based WEKA, an AI data platform, secured $140 million in Series E financing. WEKA, founded in 2013, will use the funds to augment its “considerable” cash reserves, giving it “options” to rapidly scale to meet global demand for AI data infrastructure as well as invest in its data platform and provide liquidity to employees. The company reports it has a $1.6-billion valuation after the round.
10. Sona Secures $27M
London-based Sona, a workforce management platform for front-line employees with an AI Cloud offering, raised $27.5 million in Series A financing, according to TechCrunch. Sona, founded in 2021, will reportedly use the funds to build more advanced AI capabilities and accelerate its international plans, including in the U.S. The company names Advinia Health Care, Praxis Care and Colten Care as clients.
11. Trawa Nets $10M
Berlin-based Trawa, an electricity procurement company that uses AI analysis, secured $10.8 million in seed funding. Trawa, founded in 2022, will use the funds to further develop its electricity ecosystem platform to help customers optimize procurement and consumption. The company names Setex, SunMaxx and Amano Group as clients.
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12. LanceDB Lands $8M
San Francisco-based LanceDB, an open-source database for multi-modal AI, closed an $8-million seed round. LanceDB, founded in 2022, will use the funds to grow its team and better serve customers and the AI open-source community. To date, the company has raised $11 million in funding.
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