Top 10 AI News #weekly
On December 11, Google introduced an upgraded version of its flagship AI model, Gemini. The latest iteration, Gemini 2.0, is designed to drive advancements in virtual agents, marking a step forward as competition intensifies among tech giants aiming for leadership in the AI space, mentioned in a blog post by Google.
The biggest highlight is that Gemini2.0 is the first model to achieve native multimodal input and output.
Based on the powerful new model, Google has also launched three AI agent products - the general large model assistant Project Astra, the browser assistant Project Mariner, and the programming assistant Jules. This "combination punch" marks the preliminary transition of Google's AI towards the "Agent" era.
OpenAI launched a new tool and feature in ChatGPT. The feature is named as ‘PROJECTS’ in celebration of its ‘Shipmas’ celebration. The feature is basically designed for users so that they can organize and maintain their tasks seamlessly. The ‘PROJECTS’ tool will allow users to initiate group chats and maintain data. Users will be able to tailor ChatGPT as per their needs.
ChatGPT Projects is now available globally but if you are not able to find the feature then wait for some days, it will be slowly rolled out for your device.
Why is this feature important? Because it can centralize various functions of ChatGPT in one place, for creating and organizing different projects. This includes Canvas support and connecting to the web through ChatGPT Search.
The key reasons why this feature is important are:
- Centralized management: Centralizing the various functions of ChatGPT in one place makes it more convenient for users to create and manage projects, improving work efficiency.
- Multimodal input and output: Supporting text, images, and other input/output modes enhances the user interaction experience.
- Web connectivity: Through ChatGPT Search, the ability to connect to the web provides access to richer information resources, offering more comprehensive support for projects.
- Visual editing: The Canvas support provides visual project editing capabilities, making project creation and organization more intuitive.
In summary, this combination of centralized management, multimodal interaction, and web connectivity greatly enhances ChatGPT's capabilities as an all-in-one project assistant, which is important for improving user productivity and creativity.
Microsoft launched Phi-4, their 14B parameter state-of-the-art small language model (SLM) that excels at complex reasoning in areas such as math, in addition to conventional language processing. Phi-4 is the latest member of their Phi family of small language models and demonstrates what’s possible as they continue to probe the boundaries of SLMs. Phi-4 is currently available on Azure AI Foundry under a Microsoft Research License Agreement
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, xAI, said on Saturday that its new version of the Grok-2 chatbot will be available for free to all users of the social media platform X.
"As always, Premium and Premium+ users get higher usage limits and will be the first to access any new capabilities in the future," the artificial intelligence startup said in a blog.
xAI has been quietly testing a new version of the Grok-2 model over the past few weeks, it said.
Speak Secures $78M Series C Funding at $1B Valuation to Transform AI-Powered Language Learning
Speak, a global leader in AI-powered language learning, has raised $78 million in Series C funding, achieving a $1 billion valuation. This funding milestone underscores the company’s mission to transform language education by prioritizing spoken fluency through innovative AI technology. Founded in 2016 by Connor Zwick and Andrew Hsu, Speak has become a trailblazer in the language learning space, combining advanced AI with expert-designed content to empower learners worldwide.
LambdaTest—a leading intelligent, cloud-based QA platform—has secured $38 million in new funding. Led by Avataar Ventures, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures, this latest round brings LambdaTest’s total capital raised to $108 million. With more than 15,000 customers, including Fortune 500 and G2000 enterprises, and over 2.3 million developers and testers worldwide, LambdaTest is poised to redefine the future of software testing.
Gentrace Secures $8M Series A to Revolutionize Generative AI Testing
Gentrace, a cutting-edge platform for testing and monitoring generative AI applications, has announced the successful completion of an $8 million Series A funding round led by Matrix Partners, with contributions from Headline and K9 Ventures. This funding milestone, which brings the company’s total funding to $14 million, coincides with the launch of its flagship tool, Experiments—an industry-first solution designed to make large language model (LLM) testing more accessible, collaborative, and efficient across organizations.
At Lenovo’s Tech World 2024, both Lenovo and Motorola presented groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) innovations, aiming to push the boundaries of hyper-personalization in consumer technology. Lenovo debuted “AI Now,” a generative artificial intelligence (genAI) system built on Meta’s Llama 3.1 AI model, which promises to make PCs smarter by turning them into personalized digital assistants. The standout feature? Hyper-personalization without compromising user privacy.
Decart and Etched have developed “Oasis,” an AI-generated, real-time playable version of Minecraft. Unlike traditional games, Oasis doesn’t rely on pre-written code; instead, it uses AI to generate gameplay dynamically. This approach allows for real-time world generation based on user inputs, though it currently exhibits some inconsistencies, such as environmental changes when a player turns around.
The AI model behind Oasis was trained on millions of hours of Minecraft gameplay and corresponding user actions. This extensive training enables the AI to understand and replicate the game’s physics, environments, and controls. While the current version has limitations, including low resolution and brief playtime, the developers are optimistic about future improvements. They envision scenarios where players can modify the game world through simple commands, such as adding specific elements or changing themes.
New research collaboration: “Best-of-N Jailbreaking”. We found a simple, general-purpose method that jailbreaks (bypasses the safety features of) frontier AI models, and that works across text, vision, and audio.
What do people use AI models for? Despite the rapidly-growing popularity of large language models, until now we’ve had little insight into exactly how they’re being used.
Throw a stone and you’ll likely hit a deepfake. The commoditization of generative AI has led to an absolute explosion of fake content online: According to ID verification platform Sumsub, there’s been a 4x increase in deepfakes worldwide from 2023 to 2024. In 2024, deepfakes accounted for 7% of all fraud, per Sumsub, ranging from impersonations and account takeovers to sophisticated social engineering campaigns.
Best Article(s) #weekly
The AI revolution is running out of data. What can researchers do?
AI developers are rapidly picking the Internet clean to train large language models such as those behind ChatGPT. Here’s how they are trying to get around the problem.
Reconciling technology with humanism: the future of education in the age of generative AI
In the age of generative AI, we face a major challenge: the growing gap between technological advancements and a humanistic understanding of education. This divide threatens our ability to use AI tools wisely and our capacity to foresee their societal impact. Generative AI is profoundly shaping our everyday educational experiences in classrooms and in decision-making institutions. It is transforming, with remarkable speed, how we learn and create.
Latest AI Tools In CogList #weekly
Sprout Social is a social media management software that helps me handle my numerous social media accounts in a single window.
SpyFu is a competitor analysis and SEO tool for website owners and marketers, which includes SpyGPT,keyword research, competitor analysis and backlink tracking.
WhoisMaking.Money offers insights into payment traffic from Stripe and PayPal and revenue trends.
This Week's Summary
This week Google's Gemini 2.0 introduces native multimodal capabilities, while OpenAI's ChatGPT Projects enhances task management to keep things centralized, multimodal, and web-connected. Microsoft's Phi-4 excels at complex reasoning, and xAI's Grok-2 chatbot is now freely available. Major funding rounds are happening in AI companies focusing on language learning, and software testing. Meanwhile, Lenovo and Motorola are pushing the boundaries of personalization with their hyper-personalized AI assistants, while Oasis does it with AI-generated real-time video games. Keep yourself updated with the top 10 AI news and understand the future of AI technology.
