A New Era of AI Leadership for National Security

The U.S. government is urgently advancing AI development with a Manhattan Project-style initiative, aiming to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and maintain technological leadership amid global competition, while Microsoft Ingnite 2024 starts today to much fanfare …

All this and more in today’s newsletter

News Bytes

• The U.S. government is proposing a Manhattan Project-style initiative to fund the development of AI systems, aiming to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This initiative, led by the bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, emphasizes the importance of public-private partnerships to stay ahead of China in technological advancements.

• At Microsoft Ignite 2024, the company unveiled groundbreaking AI, security, and Teams innovations aimed at transforming enterprise technology and digital transformation. Key announcements included AI features in Teams for speech translation and voice replication, new AI agents in SharePoint and Teams, and enhanced security measures. The event highlighted Microsoft's commitment to expanding generative AI capabilities and integrating AI more deeply into its products.

• Meta has launched a new product group to develop AI tools tailored for businesses using its platforms. Led by Clara Shih, former CEO of Salesforce AI, the group aims to make cutting-edge AI accessible to businesses, helping them improve efficiency and customer experiences. The tools will leverage Meta's Llama large language models and are expected to enhance advertising and content creation on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

• Chinese AR start-up Rokid has launched new smart glasses equipped with Alibaba's AI, aiming to compete with Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses. These lightweight glasses, priced at $345, feature large language models for tasks like object recognition and real-time translation, marking Rokid's entry into the consumer market.

• Nvidia's rivals, including d-Matrix, Groq, and Corsair, are developing specialized AI inference chips designed to be more efficient and cost-effective than Nvidia's GPUs for running AI applications. These chips are tailored for the day-to-day operations of AI tools, aiming to reduce the significant computing costs associated with generative AI.

AI Video Bytes

• Veo by Google : Generate high-quality, 1080p resolution videos that can go beyond a minute, in a wide range of cinematic and visual styles.

• Vidu : Empowering Creators to Express Themselves and Create Effortlessly with Advanced AI Technology.

• Hedra : A new foundation model for controllable multimodal character video, that turns your inspiration into outputs in minutes.

• Fliki : Easy to use Text to Video editor featuring lifelike voiceovers, dynamic AI video clips, and a wide range of AI-powered features.

• Synthesia : Create studio-quality videos with AI avatars and voiceovers in 140+ languages. It’s as easy as making a slide deck.

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