21st Edition: 1/5/24

MSFT adds a Copilot Key to the PC, and JP Morgan introduces DocLLM to parse complex business docs...

PNW AI News:

• The PC is now "AI native." Windows 11 devices will get new ‘Copilot’ AI key — biggest change to keyboards in nearly 30 years

PNW AI Fundings:

• Maestro (Seattle, WA) raised an undisclosed Pre-Seed round from KRH Investments

  • AI-powered team management tool designed to keep clients' teams in sync - TFTD unknown

  • CEO: William Cheng

Key AI Product Updates:

• JPMorgan’s AI research team just introduced DocLLM, an AI model extension designed to better understand complex business documents by incorporating both text content and layout structure

• OpenAI is set to launch its GPT Store next week, a platform where users can share and monetize custom AI agents created using OpenAI’s GPT-4 language model

• Cloudflare’s Workers AI, launched as an AI inference-as-a-service platform in 2023, empowers organizations to deploy generative AI at the edge with minimal coding, utilizing GPUs across their global network

• GitHub Copilot Chat, now available for all users, integrates natural language coding into Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio at no extra cost, refining coding efficiency and understanding

Key AI Business/Investment Updates:

• Intel is launching a new AI spinout Articul8 AI, independent from its core ops, co-developed with BCG and led by ex-Intel VP Arun Subramaniyan. Articul8 AI stems from Intel’s generative AI tech for processing text and images, addressing concerns around data privacy and cost efficiency in AI deployment

• OpenAI is proposing annual deals worth up to $5M with news publishers for the rights to use their copyrighted articles in AI model training, marking a significant shift in the AI industry’s approach to data acquisition following the New York Times lawsuit

  • Midjourney faces criticism for using a database of 16,000 artists across various styles, genres, and time periods for AI training, sparking legal concerns. Despite the controversy, a US Copyright Review Board ruling last September deemed Midjourney-generated images non-copyrightable due to their production method

• Perplexity AI raised $74M in Series B funding at $520M valuation from Jeff Bezos, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and several others to fuel growth for its "answer engine" that has 10M monthly active users

• Recent study indicates a significant pay gap in the AI job market, revealing that AI roles are now offering salaries 77.53% higher than other fields

• Google is reportedly exploring widespread layoffs of up to 30K employees, as it looks to integrate AI tools and processes company-wide for efficiency gains

• US Chief Justice John Roberts just released his annual report, urging the legal system to embrace AI carefully — warning of AI risks privacy violations and ‘dehumanizing’ law, pointing to real cases of lawyers submitting briefs with fake AI-generated legal citations