Microsoft researcher joins OpenAI

Microsoft’s Vice President of GenAI research, Sebastien Bubeck, is leaving the company to join OpenAI, according to Reuters. Bubeck will continue his work on developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) at the Microsoft-backed AI startup. His specific role at OpenAI remains unclear. Reuters also notes that most of Bubeck’s co-authors on a research paper about Microsoft’s …

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Google backs construction of new nuclear reactors

Google will back the construction of seven small nuclear reactors in the U.S. to power its growing AI operations, according to Jennifer Hiller in the Wall Street Journal. The tech giant has agreed to purchase the power generated by the reactors, which will be built by nuclear startup Kairos Power. The deal aims to add …

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INTELLECT-1 undergoes decentralized training

Decentralized training of a 10-billion-parameter model called INTELLECT-1 has begun. Anyone can contribute computing power and participate. INTELLECT-1 is based on the Llama-3 architecture and is trained on a high quality open source dataset called Fineweb-Edu by Hugging Face. The dataset contains over six trillion tokens and consists of Fineweb-edu (55%), DLCM (20%), Stack v2 …

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Y Combinator addresses criticism about PearAI

Garry Tan, President & CEO of Y Combinator, addresses recent criticisms directed at the start-up PearAI regarding its handling of open source practices, particularly in relation to the company Continue. Initially, Tan supported PearAI without fully understanding the situation, but he later recognized the validity of the criticism, he writes. He collaborated with PearAI’s founders …

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ChatGPT used as a tool for influencing elections

OpenAI’s recent report highlights the misuse of its platform by cyber actors aiming to influence global elections. The company has disrupted over 20 deceptive operations that utilized AI-generated content, including fake articles and social media posts, writes Hayden Field for CNBC. With significant elections approaching worldwide, including the U.S. presidential election, concerns about election-related misinformation …

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Walmart develops its own LLM Wallaby

Walmart is developing its own large language model called Wallaby, tailored specifically for retail applications. Trained on extensive data from Walmart, Wallaby aims to enhance customer service by responding in a natural tone, Emilia David reports for VentureBeat. Currently in heavy internal testing, Walmart plans to leverage Wallaby within a year, particularly for consumer-facing applications. …

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OpenAI aims to become public benefit corporation

OpenAI is restructuring as a public benefit corporation (PBC) to protect itself from hostile takeovers and ensure CEO Sam Altman’s autonomy. reports the Financial Times. This new model, also adopted by other AI companies like Anthropic and xAI, aims to balance shareholder interests with public benefits and stakeholder needs. The PBC structure could hinder potential …

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OpenAI and publisher Hearst enter partnership

OpenAI and publishing giant Hearst have entered into a partnership. The agreement allows OpenAI to integrate content from over 40 local newspapers and 20 magazine brands owned by Hearst into its products like ChatGPT. Well-known titles such as Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and the Houston Chronicle are part of the deal. The content will be provided with …

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Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to AI pioneers

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to AI pioneers Geoffrey E. Hinton and John J. Hopfield. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognizes their groundbreaking work in the field of artificial neural networks. The prize money of 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately 1.06 million US dollars) will be shared equally between the …

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Investors scramble to throw money at ElevenLabs

AI startup ElevenLabs may soon be valued at $3 billion as investors scramble to participate in the rapidly growing company. The firm develops AI tools for audiobooks and video dubbing. TechCrunch reports that ElevenLabs’ annual recurring revenue has surged from $25 million to $80 million in recent months. This makes the two-year-old startup one of …

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