22nd Edition: 1/12/24

The first 1T-parameter model, a slurry of CES product launches, OpenAI's GPT Store, and Alexa 3rd party features...

PNW AI News:

• Microsoft and the Department of Energy's PNW National Laboratory (PNNL) make a better lithium ion battery, and show AI’s potential to supercharge science

  • Could reduce lithium use in new batteries by up to 70%, replacing it in part by crystalline graphite sequestering from atmospheric CO2 (so cool!)

• Amazon just unveiled several new 3rd-party experiences for its Alexa devices leveraging generative AI, including new AI chatbots, song creation, a "20 Questions" game, and new partnerships including BMW, Character AI, and more

• Valve Software reveals new rules for AI-powered game development on Steam, a popular digital gaming storefront

• Wizards of the Coast will adjust generative AI policy for ‘Magic: The Gathering’ following controversy squashing user-generated AI content

PNW AI Fundings:

• Avante (Seattle, WA) raised $10M in Seed funding from FUSE, Ascend.vc, and High Sage Ventures

  • An AI employee intelligence platform for healthcare benefits spend for enterprises - TFTD $10M

  • CEO: Rohan D'Souza

• DiaGen AI (Vancouver, BC) raised undisclosed Seed funding from Solidea Capital

  • A proprietary advanced AI engine intended to develop new biological molecules - TFTD unknown

  • CEO: Brian Keane

• Fathom That (Bainbridge, WA) raised an undisclosed Seed round from Frontier VC

  • AI Text analytics platform intended to understand people at scale - TFTD $100K+

  • CEO: Michiah Prull

• Charmed AI (Seattle, WA) raised $500K in Seed funding from Tacoma Venture Fund and MVL

  • AI-powered game design tool which allows for rapid generation of 3D character models from scratch - TFTD $1.25M

  • CEO: Jeremy Tryba

• Sipply (Vancouver, BC) raised $100K in Pre-Seed funding from LOI Ventures

  • AI-based recommendation engine to matches drink pairings to food - TFTD $100K

  • CEO: Caty Tedman

Key AI Product Updates:

• OpenAI just announced the official launch of the GPT Store, allowing users to find GPTs and builders profit off of their created AI assistants

• Apple’s ML Research team quietly introduced MLX, an open-source framework designed to streamline AI model development and deployment on Apple hardware

• The Frontier supercomputer, housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and backed by the Department of Energy, has executed a 1 trillion parameter LLM, rivaling advanced AI models like GPT-4

• NVIDIA’s NeMo toolkit introduces Parakeet, a series of open-source automatic speech recognition models, surpassing OpenAI’s Whisper v3 in performance

•  Volkswagen just revealed it’s bringing ChatGPT into new car models through its IDA voice assistant, allowing drivers to engage the AI chatbot for information and entertainment hands-free

• AI robotics company Figure just showcased its Figure 01 humanoid robot making a cup of coffee at CES, which it learned after just 10 hours of watching humans complete the task via video training

• Researchers just introduced V*, an AI-driven visual search technique to efficiently locate objects in complex images by leveraging an AI assistant's world knowledge, enhancing multimodal understanding

• Some interesting new consumer hardware unveils from CES that are AI-enabled:

  • Holoconnects had its AI-powered Holobox on display, giving a mind-blowing look into the potential future of digital communication.

  • Baracuda’s smart mirror uses AI and natural language processing to analyze expressions — adapting to a user’s mood with light therapy, guided meditations, and affirmations.

  • Samsung added AI into its smart robot vacuum, with the ability to detect stains and tell the difference between surfaces.

  • Rabbit introduced its Tamagotchi-style r1 AI companion device, which uses AI agents to simplify digital tasks.

  • Samsung also showed off Ballie, a round robot home assistant that can perform tasks around the house, and includes a projector to display videos, calls, and more.

  • Invoxia unveiled an AI-powered pet wearable called the Minitailz, which monitors vitals and alerts owners of potential health issues.

  • LG demoed Rosie, a cute new home robot AI agent, a home assistant to help with chores and integrate with LG’s smart home appliances.

Key AI Business/Investment Updates:

• Microsoft exec Dee Templeton was appointed as a non-voting board observer to OpenAI, following an overhaul after Sam Altman's brief ouster as CEO

• Midjourney is facing criticism after a database showing a training set of 16K artists was leaked online, raising new ethical concerns over the data used for its image synthesis

• China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has introduced guidelines for ethical generative AI use in scientific research