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In spite of the frenzy around generative AI, the basic needs of the digital workplace haven't changed. People still need to communicate, collaborate and meet.
This week, Qualcomm Technologies unveiled a new video collaboration platform which allows original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to design and build video conferencing products — from small huddle room systems to digital white boards and beyond.
Qualcomm is also pulling Android and Linux into the mix to ensure greater flexibility and will use generative AI to offer advanced video, speech and text capabilities. The company also entered into a number of partnerships to align with the launch, including with Microsoft, Zoom, Logitech and more.
In a statement about the release, the company noted a key differentiator from other platforms: it will also offer the hardware needed to support on-chip AI acceleration. This will help optimize video experiences by splitting the workloads between the cloud and edge devices. Three specific groups of offerings will enable this:
1. Video Collaboration VC5
Allows for customization of AI-driven audio and video features built specifically for work environments. Using the hardware that come with the suite, organizations can build all-in-one, front of room conferencing systems.
2. Video Collaboration VC3
Supports multi ultra-HD camera, Wi-Fi 6E, and advanced AI audio and video features. This feature makes it possible to build and manage conferencing systems, huddle rooms and even USB video bars.
3. Video Collaboration VC1
Ensures top-of-range connectivity and multimedia features designed for video conferencing accessories including touch controllers, meeting room schedulers and tablets.
While the video collaboration space has many players, Qualcomm's hardware offering should give it an edge over some of the competition, as it will provide a ‘total’ video experience rather than customers having to connect hardware with different software across the enterprise.
However, Qualcomm isn't known for its enterprise collaboration apps, so it remains to be seen what inroads it will make in the market.
Interact Brings Generative AI to Intranets
While generative AI has encroached on every aspect of organizations, its ability to generate new content makes it a clear fit to aid in the development and improvement of intranets.
At the Gartner Digital Workplace Summit this week, employee experience platform provider Interact announced a native integration with ChatGPT for its intranet platform. In a statement about the upgrade, the company explained authors and content developers can use the updated tools to build content and text that is in keeping with the general sentiment of existing content on the intranet.
The company stated that generative AI will help improve internal communications and intranet content in a number of ways including:
- New content: Authors can develop prompts or bullet points in several languages, which the system will then use as a basis to draft articles or content.
- Improve: The AI can suggest more casual, straightforward and friendly edits for existing content.
- Shorten or Expand: Edit content down to its bare bones, or expand it to in-depth explanations.
- Simplify: Removes unnecessary words to make it accessible and understandable.
While intranets remain a key tool in supporting corporate culture and engagement, many organizations face challenges around creating content to populate their intranets. The integration of ChatGPT aims to aid everyone, regardless of department or rank, to become a content developer.
The new additions to Interact’s Block Editor CMS will come as standard within the product and augment existing AI functionality. Organizations will have the ability to remove the AI functions if they choose.
Microsoft’s Collaborative Meeting Notes for Teams
Organizations in the Microsoft 365 Insiders program this week received access to a new feature in Teams Meetings that allows meeting participants to collaborate on notes during the meeting.
will enable attendees at a meeting work together on notes and other content that comes up in the meeting.
According to a Microsoft Insider blog post, with Collaborative notes Loop components, people can collaborate inside chat messages and it synchronizes as contributors continue the exchange. The update will also add tasks assigned to people during a meeting to their To Do list and Planner, thus simplifying workflows. Meeting leaders can also opt to open up the agenda for others to add notes via an add button.
Collaborative notes is still in preview so there are still a number of issues, including the fact that external and guest participants cannot access meeting notes before or during the meeting. It also does not yet support mobile participants.
To use this feature, customers need to be members of the Teams Public Preview and use the Windows, macOS or webTeams client. Loop components are on by default if the organization is running Teams Public Preview builds, but administrators can disable it.
Also worth noting here is that Microsoft has removed the previous Teams meeting notes solution, although users can download existing wiki notes locally.
French AI Start-Up Mistral AI Raises $113M
Four-week-old French start-up Mistral AI has raised nearly $113 million in funding, according to reports in the UK’s Financial Times. Three former classmates who worked as AI researchers at Meta and Google's DeepMind founded the company.
This first round of funding effectively values the new company at $250 million, according to reports. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which in the past has backed companies like Snapchat, Epic Games and StabilityAI.
“There is a rising awareness of the fact that this technology is transformative and Europe needs to do something about it, both as a regulator, as a customer and an investor,” Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch told the FT.
Mensch, formerly of DeepMind, founded the start-up with Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample, both recently of Meta. Mistral has yet to develop its first product, and its first few employees started work only days ago. Its website, at the time of writing, still contained no information about the company.
It comes as the hype around generative AI continues to gather pace and as European lawmakers attempt to create a regulatory framework to control the development of advanced AI.
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This week, EU Lawmakers passed a draft law known as the AI Act, the first of its kind in the world. It massively curtails generative AI, requiring labels on content created by systems like ChatGPT, and requiring AI makers to reveal more about the data used to create their programs.
Canva Launches $50M Developers Fund
Finally this week, graphic design software solution provider Canva announced the creation of a $50 million fund to back developers interested in creating new tools and experiences for the platform.
Announced at the Canva Extend developer conference in San Francisco, the company unveiled a new SDK, new APIs and the Canva Developers Innovation fund to attract developer talent
The new APIs will provide new ways to add content, edit designs, add new users, as well as export, publish and provide data through Canva apps.
Speaking to VentureBeat, Canva’s head of ecosystem Anwar Haneef said the new Canva Apps API would also enable AI app development that will, in turn, enable the creation of apps to drive photo, video, audition and text generation.
The company has raised nearly $600 million in funding to date.