Hume AI announces $50 Million fundraise and empathic interface

Pivot 5: 5 stories. 5 minutes a day. 5 days a week.

1. Hume AI announces $50 Million fundraise and empathic interface

Hume AI has raised a $50M Series B funding round to develop its Empathic Voice Interface, an emotionally intelligent AI voice that can be integrated into applications across various industries. 

The company, founded by Dr. Alan Cowen, uses semantic space theory to understand emotional experience and expression, revealing nuances of voice, face, and gesture. The EVI is built on a new form of multimodal generative AI that integrates large language models with expression measures, allowing it to adjust words and tone based on context and user emotions.

Read the full story here 

2. Biden administration unveils new rules for federal government's use of artificial intelligence

The Biden administration has announced three new rules for the federal government's use of AI, aiming to serve as a model for global action. The policies, based on an executive order signed by President Biden in October, address concerns about AI's potential risks to the US workforce, privacy, national security, and potential discrimination in decision-making.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget will require federal agencies to ensure AI does not endanger Americans' rights and safety. The White House is also directing all federal agencies to designate a chief AI officer to oversee AI technology use.

Read the full story here

3. Microsoft Launches Measures to Keep Users From Tricking AI Chatbots

Microsoft has introduced tools to prevent users from tricking AI chatbots for malicious purposes. The tech giant has introduced Azure AI system tools, including a tool to block "prompt injection" attacks. These attacks involve malicious actors manipulating AI systems to produce harmful content or exfiltrate confidential data.

Microsoft will soon release prompt shields to detect and block these attacks, as well as "groundedness" detection to spot AI "hallucinations." The company is also launching safety system messages to steer AI models towards safe, responsible outputs. The battle for generative AI involves more than just big tech companies.

Read the full story here 

4. AI21 Labs’ new AI model can handle more context than most

AI21 Labs has released a new generative AI model called Jamba, which can handle more context than most models. Jamba, a text-generating and analyzing model, can perform tasks similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.

It can write text in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese and can handle up to 140,000 tokens while running on a single GPU with at least 80GB of memory. Jamba uses a combination of transformers and state space models (SSMs), delivering three times the throughput on long contexts compared to transformer-based models.

Read the full story here

5. Google will now let you use AI to build travel itineraries for your vacations

Google is introducing AI-powered travel planning tools, including an update to its Search Generative Experience that allows users to create travel itineraries and trip ideas. The feature is currently only available in the U.S. to users enrolled in Search Labs.

It draws on ideas from websites, reviews, photos, and other user-submitted information for places around the world. Google is also making it easier to discover recommendations in Google Maps in select cities in the U.S. and Canada.

Read the full story here

Advertise with Pivot 5 to reach influential minds & elevate your brand

Get your brand in front of 50,000+ businesses and professionals who rely on Pivot 5 for daily AI updates. Book future ad spots here.