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Meta to deploy in-house custom chips this year to power AI drive - memo

Meta to deploy in-house custom chips this year to power AI drive - memo

Pivot 5
February 05, 2024

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

1. Meta to deploy in-house custom chips this year to power AI drive - memo

Facebook owner Meta Platforms plans to deploy a new version of a custom chip in its data centers this year to support its AI push. The chip, a second generation of an in-house silicon line announced last year, could help reduce Meta's dependence on Nvidia, a dominant player in the market.

A successful deployment of the chip could potentially save hundreds of millions of dollars in annual energy costs and billions in chip purchasing costs. Meta's in-house AI silicon project, which previously focused on buying Nvidia's GPUs, is expected to be a positive turn.

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2. As Podcastle raises $13.5M, its founder credits AI-driven growth in Armenia’s ‘Mini-Silicon Valley’

Podcastle, a podcasting platform, has raised $13.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Mosaic Ventures. The platform, which offers generative AI-driven features, claims to have around a million creators using its tools. The platform focuses on long-form content creation, covering the entire workflow from ideation to audience engagement.

It differentiates itself from competitors by offering real-time collaboration and AI functionalities. Podcastle's biggest trend is studio sound, which allows users to generate pseudo-quality audio from any input. The platform also offers video podcasting tools to cater to YouTube's growing demand for video content.

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3. ‘There is no such thing as a real picture,’ says Samsung exec

Samsung has defended itself against the notion that its phone cameras are spitting out fake AI photos of various objects. EVP Patrick Chomet stated that every photo is fake, and that there is no such thing as a real picture. He said that once sensors capture something, it reproduces what you're seeing, and it doesn't mean anything.

Chomet also pointed out that the rise of generative AI is bringing the debate to a head, with Samsung's new Galaxy S24 and S24 Ultra phones being the latest to market that feature. He said the industry needs to be regulated, and that governments are right to be concerned, and that Samsung intends to help. Samsung's strategy is to give consumers two things it wants: a way to capture "the moment" and a way to create "a new reality."

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4. The AI tools that might stop you getting hired

AI tools such as one-way video interviews, CV screeners, and digital monitoring are being used by employers to save time and money on recruitment. Hilke Schellmann, an assistant professor of journalism at New York University, found that these tools may not work and are based on pseudoscience.

She also found that they can discriminate and have low predictive value. Schellmann's book, The Algorithm, explores how AI and complex algorithms are increasingly being used to help hire employees and monitor and evaluate them, including for firing and promotion.

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5. Apps available on Apple Vision Pro launch

Apple's Vision Pro headset is now available with over 600 native apps and a million ported over from iOS and iPadOS. The headset supports over a million compatible App Store apps, Apple's first-party offerings, and over 600 apps developed specifically for the "spatial computing" device.

Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Loop are among the notable third-party apps available at launch. Microsoft's VisionOS apps include Copilot, a generative AI assistant, Disney+, and Zoom. The headset also supports 3D object sharing, Zoom Team Chat, and more.

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