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AI Agenda

By Stephanie Palazzolo

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Recent Editions

Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of Software Engineering. Screenshot via Apple.
AI Agenda

Apple Eyes Deals with Google and Anthropic After OpenAI; Apple Grades Its LLMs While Databricks Grades AI Usage

By Amir Efrati · Jun 11, 2024 7:00am PDT
On a basic level, none of the artificial intelligence Apple announced on Monday came as a surprise. But there's a big difference between a news report describing what Apple is going to launch and seeing the finished product, and in that regard Apple delivered a cogent presentation that put Google's sprawling AI keynote from May to shame.Also, as... On a basic level, none of the artificial intelligence Apple announced on Monday came as a...
The Apple Park campus in Cupertino, Calif. Photo by Anadolu via Getty Images.
AI Agenda

‘Apple Intelligence’ is About to Test Regular People's Appetite; Meta Gets Grilled on Safety in Paris

By Amir Efrati · Jun 10, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment
Excitement this morning about Apple's planned reveal of artificial intelligence features during its WWDC event for app developers is more than warranted. While it might not be as mind-blowing as the Kling AI video teasers from China’s Kuaishou last week, Apple’s expected improvements to Siri; new tools to let people automatically generate... Excitement this morning about Apple's planned reveal of artificial intelligence features during...
Photo via Getty Images
AI Agenda

Is Plagiarism a Stain on Open-Source AI?

By Kalley Huang · Jun 6, 2024 7:15am PDT · 1 comment
The open-source artificial intelligence community has been buzzing over allegations that three U.S.-based developers—including two Stanford University undergraduates—copied parts of a multimodal large-language model developed by a Chinese lab founded by Tsinghua University and Beijing-based AI startup ModelBest.This incident might seem trivial... The open-source artificial intelligence community has been buzzing over allegations that three...
Photo by Moor Studio via Shutterstock
The, Um, Psychology of, Like, AI-Generated Voices; Effective Altruists Strike Back at OpenAI
By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 5, 2024 7:00am PDT
Photo by Moor Studio via Shutterstock
AI Agenda

The, Um, Psychology of, Like, AI-Generated Voices; Effective Altruists Strike Back at OpenAI

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 5, 2024 7:00am PDT
OpenAI’s forthcoming artificial intelligence-powered voice assistant, which allows users to speak with ChatGPT on their phone, has generated tremendous buzz in the industry, and not just because of ScarJo. That’s because developing AI models that can understand human voices and generate realistic AI voices is a lot harder than you might think.... OpenAI’s forthcoming artificial intelligence-powered voice assistant, which allows users to speak...
Chart by Shane Burke.
AI Agenda

How Long Can OpenAI’s First-Mover Advantage Last?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 4, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment
As companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta Platforms race to leapfrog each other with marginally faster, cheaper or more accurate large language models, a number of developers have told me that these LLMs are beginning to reach parity when it comes to performance.And now, new exclusive data from Kruze Consulting, a finance and HR... As companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta Platforms race to leapfrog each other with...
AI Agenda Newsletter
Stay ahead of the innovation and disruption happening in AI. Stephanie Palazzolo covers the tech, startups, companies and people making headlines.
By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy
Div Garg, co-founder and CEO of MultiOn, at the GenAI Summit in San Francisco May 29. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.
AI Agenda

Could This Startup Be Amazon’s Horse in the Agent Race?

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 3, 2024 7:10am PDT
Artificial intelligence that automates multi-step tasks on the web, such as organizing and booking a trip, is still under development. But it may be only a matter of months before big developers such as Google, Meta Platforms, OpenAI and others release such time-saving tools.We’ve been wondering where Amazon will be in this race, and how it... Artificial intelligence that automates multi-step tasks on the web, such as organizing and...
Photo via Shutterstock
AI Agenda

The Cold, Hard Numbers of AI Returns

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 30, 2024 7:00am PDT · 3 comments
Over and over again, I’ve heard the same mantra from AI founders and big tech execs: 2023 was the year that businesses experimented with AI, but 2024 will be the year they truly put it to use.So for the last five months, we’ve been on the lookout for the cold, hard numbers demonstrating what value businesses and consumers are getting from... Over and over again, I’ve heard the same mantra from AI founders and big tech execs: 2023 was the...
Photo by Getty
Why OpenAI’s Safety Reorg Might Actually Be a Good Idea; An Ex-OpenAI Board Member Speaks Out; Meta Enters the Chatbot Subscription Race
By Aaron Holmes · May 29, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment
Photo by Getty
AI Agenda

Why OpenAI’s Safety Reorg Might Actually Be a Good Idea; An Ex-OpenAI Board Member Speaks Out; Meta Enters the Chatbot Subscription Race

By Aaron Holmes · May 29, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment
When the leaders of OpenAI’s “superalignment” team quit two weeks ago, CEO Sam Altman found himself once again facing allegations that he’s not sufficiently worried about artificial intelligence bringing about the end of the world (or other, less-apocalyptic safety concerns). After the high-profile resignations, OpenAI said it had folded... When the leaders of OpenAI’s “superalignment” team quit two weeks ago, CEO Sam Altman found...
XAI and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Photo by Sonny Tembelaka/AFP via Getty Images
AI Agenda

Sizing Up Musk's xAI Supercomputer

By Amir Efrati · May 28, 2024 4:00am PDT · 3 comments
You’re going to hear the term “supercomputer” a lot in the coming months. It’s just a cool way of saying “a large cluster of servers running Nvidia chips,” but without as many words. Anyone who’s anyone in AI is going to talk about their supercomputer, and we imagine that Elon Musk will be one of them—especially after Anissa on Friday reported... You’re going to hear the term “supercomputer” a lot in the coming months. It’s just a cool way of...
Art by Mike Sullivan/Midjourney
AI Agenda

More Startups Seek Buyers But Price is a Problem; Nvidia’s Eternal Sunshine

By Amir Efrati · May 23, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment
Conversational artificial intelligence startups are singing the acquisition blues. As Natasha and I reported on Wednesday, Adept, which raised more than $400 million from investors at a $1 billion-plus valuation to develop artificial intelligence agents, has been exploring a buyout, including from Meta Platforms. A Meta deal is unlikely, though.... Conversational artificial intelligence startups are singing the acquisition blues. As Natasha and...
AI Agenda Newsletter
Stay ahead of the innovation and disruption happening in AI. Stephanie Palazzolo covers the tech, startups, companies and people making headlines.
By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy
Google ads product leader Vidhya Srinivasan on Tuesday. Photo via Google
AI Agenda

The Unstoppable Google

By Jon Victor · May 22, 2024 7:00am PDT · 4 comments
Inside Google a year ago, conventional wisdom held that artificial intelligence chatbots from OpenAI and Microsoft would shrink its lucrative search advertising business—and fast. Not only was that wrong, but the company’s annual event for advertisers on Tuesday showed how conversational AI can take that business to new heights.Google... Inside Google a year ago, conventional wisdom held that artificial intelligence chatbots...
Suno's Mikey Shulman, Martin Camachol, Keenan Freyberg and George Kucsko. Photos via Suno/Shutterstock. Photo illustration by The Information.
Music Generator Suno Raises Capital at $500 Million Valuation; Altman Went Behind ‘Her’ Back
By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 21, 2024 7:05am PDT
Suno's Mikey Shulman, Martin Camachol, Keenan Freyberg and George Kucsko. Photos via Suno/Shutterstock. Photo illustration by The Information.
AI Agenda

Music Generator Suno Raises Capital at $500 Million Valuation; Altman Went Behind ‘Her’ Back

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 21, 2024 7:05am PDT
New York isn’t known for its roomy apartments, which is why my electric piano is currently gathering dust on top of my kitchen cabinets. So I was especially excited to use Suno, an artificial intelligence music generator. It turns simple text descriptions like “a dark disco song about when you're not around” and “a romantic garage song about... New York isn’t known for its roomy apartments, which is why my electric piano is currently...
OpenAI's Sam Altman and recently departed Jan Leike and Ilya Sutskever. Photos via Getty and YouTube/Towards Data Science.
AI Agenda

What Altman Will Do to Make OpenAI Live Up to Its Name Again; Why You Should Care About Stability’s Implosion

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 20, 2024 7:36am PDT
In classic OpenAI fashion, big drama dropped on Friday. Jan Leike, who formerly co-led OpenAI’s superalignment team with Ilya Sutskever—the co-founder and chief scientist who temporarily ousted CEO Sam Altman in November—explained on X why he left the company. Altman & Co. failed to give superalignment, which aimed to be a check on OpenAI... In classic OpenAI fashion, big drama dropped on Friday. Jan Leike, who formerly co-led OpenAI’s...
Carnegie Mellon University. Photo via Adobe Stock.
AI Agenda

Legal Problems Are Coming for AI Researchers in Academia; OpenAI Cofounder Shares His AGI Timeline

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 16, 2024 7:30am PDT
Artificial intelligence developers have a long history of playing fast and loose with intellectual property rights when it comes to getting data to train their models. While data owners are increasingly suing OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and other major firms over such alleged violations, the heat may soon be turned on academics who operate... Artificial intelligence developers have a long history of playing fast and loose with...
Google DeepMind CEO, Demis Hassabis. Photo via Google.
AI Agenda

Why Google and OpenAI Don’t See Eye to Eye on Voice Assistants

By Amir Efrati and Jon Victor · May 15, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments
Google has spent the past year and a half chasing OpenAI’s conversational artificial intelligence. But as the technical gap narrows between their products, the companies this week revealed an important difference in how their AIs will interact with people. (To read the five main takeaways from Google’s two-hour spate of announcements, see this... Google has spent the past year and a half chasing OpenAI’s conversational artificial...
AI Agenda Newsletter
Stay ahead of the innovation and disruption happening in AI. Stephanie Palazzolo covers the tech, startups, companies and people making headlines.
By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy
OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati introducing GPT-4o. Photo via YouTube/OpenAI.
OpenAI’s Impressive Engineering Feat with GPT-4o AKA ‘Her’
By Stephanie Palazzolo and Kalley Huang · May 14, 2024 7:00am PDT
OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati introducing GPT-4o. Photo via YouTube/OpenAI.
AI Agenda

OpenAI’s Impressive Engineering Feat with GPT-4o AKA ‘Her’

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Kalley Huang · May 14, 2024 7:00am PDT
OpenAI’s Google search killer may not yet be ready for prime time, and neither is the long-awaited GPT-5 large language model. But the ChatGPT developer on Monday may have still managed to steal some thunder ahead of Google’s annual conference for software developers, I/O, which starts later this morning.In a 26-minute demonstration, OpenAI COO... OpenAI’s Google search killer may not yet be ready for prime time, and neither is the...
Sam Altman and Sundar Pichai. Photos via Getty Images.
AI Agenda

OpenAI Looks To Steal Google’s Thunder; Unicorn AI Marketing Startup Typeface Acquires Consumer Chatbot App

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 13, 2024 7:00am PDT
Later today, OpenAI is expected to unveil a bunch of new products. For a sneak peek at what could come, you can check out our story from Friday. But the timing of the event is interesting, given that tomorrow is Google’s largest annual developer conference, Google I/O, where that company is also expected to make a slew of AI-related... Later today, OpenAI is expected to unveil a bunch of new products. For a sneak peek at what could...
Art by Shane Burke.
AI Agenda

Developers Push to Build AI Models Native to Non-English Languages

By Kalley Huang · May 9, 2024 8:06am PDT
¿Habla español? Parlez-vous français? You might, but today’s large language models may not speak either Spanish or French very well. It’s a shortcoming that many developers are trying to address, especially since making LLMs available in more languages may attract more users. To give a sense of the issue, Meta Platforms said in a blog post... ¿Habla español? Parlez-vous français? You might, but today’s large language models may not speak...
DatologyAI cofounders, from left to right, Matthew Leavitt, Bogdan Gaza and Ari Morcos. Photo courtesy of DatologyAI.
AI Agenda

Ex-DeepMind and Meta AI Researcher Raises Nearly $50 Million To Help Developers With LLMs’ Secret Sauce

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 8, 2024 7:00am PDT
For all that’s leaked about the sizes and architectures of the advanced large language models developed by OpenAI and its ilk, we still don’t know what data they were trained on.A pessimist might say that’s because of the numerous lawsuits LLM developers would face if the amount of copyrighted content they were using was revealed, but a more... For all that’s leaked about the sizes and architectures of the advanced large language models...
The Rabbit r1 and Humane Ai pin.
AI Devices Get A Rude Wake-Up Call; A Mysterious OpenAI Product Event Is Likely Postponed
By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 7, 2024 7:00am PDT
The Rabbit r1 and Humane Ai pin.
AI Agenda

AI Devices Get A Rude Wake-Up Call; A Mysterious OpenAI Product Event Is Likely Postponed

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 7, 2024 7:00am PDT
It’s been hard to miss the absolute beating AI-powered devices have gotten in recent weeks.First, we saw YouTuber Marques Brownlee’s scorching review of the $699 Humane Ai Pin, which he deemed the “worst product” he’s ever reviewed. (Yikes.)Next, the rabbit r1, a kitschy, bright-orange handheld device that first went viral when it launched at... It’s been hard to miss the absolute beating AI-powered devices have gotten in recent weeks.First,...