AI Agenda by Stephanie Palazzolo — The Information

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AI Agenda

By Stephanie Palazzolo

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Recent Editions

Photo via Unsplash/DeepMind.

Could State Space Models Kill Large Language Models?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 18, 2024 7:10am PST

The time it takes for a new technology to replace (or try to replace) an incumbent has consistently gotten shorter over time (just take a look at how long it took Google Docs to overthrow Microsoft Word versus the flurry of 15-minute grocery delivery startups that popped up following the success of companies like Instacart). That’s why nobody... The time it takes for a new technology to replace (or try to replace) an incumbent has...

Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

The Nonprofit Versus For-Profit OpenAI Powder Keg

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 17, 2024 8:05am PST

It’s been nearly two months since OpenAI’s pared-down board started looking for new directors, and so far, it doesn’t have much to show for it. We have yet to see any actual board appointments, though we’ve gotten plenty of news around candidates being approached. The latest one—the CEO of an OpenAI quasi rival—is an interesting example. As... It’s been nearly two months since OpenAI’s pared-down board started looking for new directors,...

Photo via Adobe Stock.

ChatGPT Coming To an Army Near You

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 16, 2024 7:00am PST

Last week, OpenAI quietly tweaked the wording in its usage policies. That seemingly simple action could have massive consequences.Most notably, OpenAI removed a previous ban on using its large language models for any military or warfare-related applications. Instead of the ban, the policies now say that OpenAI products can’t be used to “harm... Last week, OpenAI quietly tweaked the wording in its usage policies. That seemingly simple action...

OpenAI's new GPT Store. Photo via OpenAI.

OpenAI’s App Store Moment; VCs’ Love Affair with AI, By the Numbers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 11, 2024 7:10am PST

OpenAI's new GPT Store. Photo via OpenAI.

OpenAI’s App Store Moment; VCs’ Love Affair with AI, By the Numbers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 11, 2024 7:10am PST

After a two-month delay, OpenAI’s long-awaited chatbot store is finally here.As I previously reported would happen, the model developer on Wednesday opened its GPT app store, which allows software developers to distribute customized OpenAI-powered apps for everything from lesson planning for middle school teachers to researching academic papers... After a two-month delay, OpenAI’s long-awaited chatbot store is finally here.As I previously ...

The Volkswagen ID. 7 on display after a presentation by Volkswagen during CES 2024 Media Days on Monday. Photo by AP.

ChatGPT’s Latest Invasion: Cars; A Threat to OpenAI’s Nonprofit Status

By · Jan 10, 2024 7:00am PST

It won’t surprise anyone that artificial intelligence, the hottest subject in tech, is also big at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, underway in Las Vegas. Among the silly and wondrous AI-powered devices unveiled so far: A one-foot-tall robot from LG that can patrol your home for open windows or switch off the lights when you’re out; a... It won’t surprise anyone that artificial intelligence, the hottest subject in tech, is also big...

Photo via Adobe Stock.

The Twelve Startups Battling For a Slice of Nvidia’s Pie

By · Jan 9, 2024 7:10am PST

No company has been better positioned to profit from the generative AI boom than Nvidia, the maker of graphics processing units. But a host of rival startups developing similar chips or the software to run those chips are trying to capture some of the revenue currently being spent on GPUs. We wrote about eight of these companies in August, but... No company has been better positioned to profit from the generative AI boom than Nvidia, the...

Perplexity AI cofounders Johnny Ho, Aravind Srinivas and Denis Yarats. Photo courtesy of Perplexity AI.

This One-Year-Old Startup Is Hoping to be the Next Google—Can It Succeed?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 8, 2024 7:10am PST · 6 comments

It’s not often that a young startup takes on a 25-year-old, $1.8 trillion tech behemoth. But for Aravind Srinivas, cofounder and CEO at Perplexity AI, that’s just an average Tuesday. Perplexity is hoping to create the next Google Search, infused with generative AI. The one-year-old startup has raised $100 million to fund that mission, most... It’s not often that a young startup takes on a 25-year-old, $1.8 trillion tech behemoth. But for...

Robin AI founder and CEO Richard Robinson. Photo courtesy of Robin AI.

This Legal AI Startup’s Approach Won It Attention from Singapore

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 4, 2024 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Robin AI founder and CEO Richard Robinson. Photo courtesy of Robin AI.

This Legal AI Startup’s Approach Won It Attention from Singapore

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 4, 2024 7:00am PST · 2 comments

This is Natasha, doing a guest appearance on the ever fantastic AI Agenda! Legal tech is famously a graveyard of failed startups. But legal AI startups may have a better shot at turning things around.Take one-year old Harvey—supposedly named for a character in the popular legal sitcom “Suits”—which last month raised capital at a $700... This is Natasha, doing a guest appearance on the ever fantastic AI Agenda! Legal tech is...

Photo via Midjourney

Why Users Have to Compliment ChatGPT To Get the Most Out of It

By · Jan 3, 2024 7:39am PST · 2 comments

If you’re not getting what you want from OpenAI’s large language models these days, try paying them a compliment. One example, according to Scale AI field CTO Vijay Karunamurthy, is to say: “you’re a very smart computer that takes a lot of time and thinks step by step to answer questions.” Remarkably, that helps Scale AI’s developers get better... If you’re not getting what you want from OpenAI’s large language models these days, try paying...

Photo via Midjourney

Why the New York Times’ Case Against OpenAI is Stronger Than Sarah Silverman’s

By · Jan 2, 2024 7:00am PST

As people around the world are planning out their new year’s resolutions, OpenAI is adding an ambitious one to its list too: Reaching $5 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2024. Now, whether the model developer shares my tendency to overpromise with my new year's goals, I’m not sure. But, it’s off to a pretty good start—it recently... As people around the world are planning out their new year’s resolutions, OpenAI is adding an...

Photo via Midjourney

How Artificial Intelligence Will Change in 2024

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 28, 2023 7:00am PST

Welcome to the last AI Agenda of 2023! Since launching five months ago, we’ve written 88 issues (wow!) covering everything from the GPU chip wars to the reckoning that young AI startups are facing. (For a summary of highlights and lowlights, check out yesterday’s issue.) Thanks for sticking with us through it all.With an upcoming election,... Welcome to the last AI Agenda of 2023! Since launching five months ago, we’ve written 88 issues...

Photo via Ideogram

The Year’s Top Moments and What We’re Watching For Next Year

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 27, 2023 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Photo via Ideogram

The Year’s Top Moments and What We’re Watching For Next Year

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 27, 2023 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Looks like the holiday cheer is over for OpenAI.This morning, the New York Times Co. sued the model developer and Microsoft for copyright infringement, claiming that OpenAI used millions of their articles to train AI chatbots without permission. In filing the lawsuit, the Times Co. is ratcheting up the pressure on the two tech firms. In the... Looks like the holiday cheer is over for OpenAI.This morning, the New York Times Co. sued the...

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, on December 12. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TIME.

OpenAI Passes the Hat; Midjourney Takes the Cake

By · Dec 26, 2023 7:10am PST

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is back to doing what he does best: raising money. The ChatGPT creator has had preliminary conversations about a $100 billion-valuation fundraising, Bloomberg reported Friday, even though its tender offer at a $86 billion valuation isn’t yet complete. Given Altman’s past comment that OpenAI may need to raise $100... OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is back to doing what he does best: raising money. The ChatGPT creator has...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty

VCs Are Acting Strangely in OpenAI and Anthropic Deals

By · Dec 21, 2023 8:48am PST · 2 comments

It’s one thing for Google, Microsoft and Nvidia to buy shares of mature artificial intelligence startups at inflated prices. But when venture capitalists known for backing young startups do it, we can’t help but scratch our heads and wonder why.Take Menlo Ventures, which is leading an investment in OpenAI’s most comparable rival, Anthropic, my... It’s one thing for Google, Microsoft and Nvidia to buy shares of mature artificial intelligence...

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Stingy Banks Open Their Wallets to Microsoft’s AI; Automation Comes For Google’s Salespeople

By Aaron Holmes · Dec 20, 2023 7:30am PST

If you want to know the extent to which businesses are embracing generative artificial intelligence, look no further than Wall Street. Quants and hedge funds are head over heels for large language models and the researchers who make them, as my colleagues and I have frequently pointed out. The latest sign of the finance industry’s... If you want to know the extent to which businesses are embracing generative artificial...

OpenAI COO Mira Murati

OpenAI Plays Catch-Up with Anthropic on Calculating Catastrophic AI Risks

By Amir Efrati and Natasha Mascarenhas · Dec 19, 2023 7:30am PST

OpenAI COO Mira Murati

OpenAI Plays Catch-Up with Anthropic on Calculating Catastrophic AI Risks

By Amir Efrati and Natasha Mascarenhas · Dec 19, 2023 7:30am PST

OpenAI’s technology and revenue is ahead of Anthropic’s, but when it comes to practices aimed at making sure people don’t use generative artificial intelligence to harm society, OpenAI seems to be playing catch-up. In a 26-page document published Monday, OpenAI discussed how it evaluates AI models for “catastrophic risks” before selling them to... OpenAI’s technology and revenue is ahead of Anthropic’s, but when it comes to practices aimed at...

Photo via Midjourney.

Quant Trading Firms Take NeurIPS; AMD’s Chip Claims Irk Nvidia

By · Dec 18, 2023 7:55am PST

As the tech industry slowed down for the holidays, thousands of artificial intelligence researchers, engineers, founders and investors revved up in New Orleans at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems—NeurIPS for short.While researchers presented papers on large language models and diffusion models underlying image generators... As the tech industry slowed down for the holidays, thousands of artificial intelligence...

Tomato.ai cofounder and CEO Ofer Ronen. Photo courtesy of Tomato.ai.

A Tale of Two Startups; Xooglers Land $10 Million To Soften Your Accent

By · Dec 14, 2023 7:10am PST · 2 comments

There’s something ironic about publishing a story on early-stage AI startups struggling to raise money and, over the next two days, writing about a one-year-old legal AI startup landing a $700 million post-investment valuation and a Xoogler-founded AI startup nearing a $2 billion price, as Natasha and I did yesterday. But these stories don’t... There’s something ironic about publishing a story on early-stage AI startups struggling to raise...

Photo via Midjourney.

The Rise of ‘Small Language Models’ and Reinforcement Learning

By Aaron Holmes · Dec 13, 2023 7:00am PST

This week, several companies staked out new ground in the latest forefront of AI research: trying to prove that their models can do more with less. On Monday, the French AI startup Mistral—fresh off its $415 million funding round—published a new model called Mixtral 8x7B. The model, which is open-source, quickly racked up plaudits from AI... This week, several companies staked out new ground in the latest forefront of AI research: trying...

Chalk's cofounders Elliot Marx, Andrew Moreland and Marc Freed-Finnegan. Photo courtesy of Chalk.

What Separates the AI Winners and Losers; The General Catalyst-Backed Startup Taking On Databricks

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 12, 2023 7:05am PST

Chalk's cofounders Elliot Marx, Andrew Moreland and Marc Freed-Finnegan. Photo courtesy of Chalk.

What Separates the AI Winners and Losers; The General Catalyst-Backed Startup Taking On Databricks

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 12, 2023 7:05am PST

This past year has been a blur of nine-figure funding rounds and billion-dollar-plus valuations for artificial intelligence startups that investors hope can be the next OpenAI or Midjourney. I can’t tell you how many times investors have justified the money they’ve put into a brand new startup by saying things like: “Well, he was one of the lead... This past year has been a blur of nine-figure funding rounds and billion-dollar-plus valuations...