Musk's New Venture xAI to Rival Open AI

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1. Musk's New Venture xAI to Rival Open AI

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire behind Tesla and Twitter, is developing plans for a new artificial intelligence startup named xAI. The company aims to compete with generative AI systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Musk has assembled a team of AI researchers and engineers, including veterans of DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and the University of Toronto.

xAI, incorporated in March, has secured thousands of high-powered GPU processors from Nvidia. These chips are essential for building LLMs that can ingest vast amounts of content and produce human-like writing or realistic imagery. The team has contributed to some of the most widely used methods in the field, including the Adam optimizer, Batch Normalization, Layer Normalization, and the discovery of adversarial examples.

Despite leading a call for a pause on the development of GPT-style models over safety concerns, Musk's rapid move into the generative AI market has raised eyebrows. The new company allows Musk to take on OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 but left in 2018 due to disagreements with its management. Musk has criticized OpenAI for becoming less transparent and too commercially minded. His new venture, separate from his other companies, could use Twitter content as data to train its language model and tap Tesla for computing resources.

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2. Google's Bard Expands to EU, Supports 40+ Languages

Google's AI chatbot Bard is now available in the European Union (EU) and supports more than 40 languages. The expansion comes after an initial delay due to data privacy concerns. Bard, which competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT, was first introduced in February and has since been rolled out in 180 countries, including the US, UK, Japan, Korea, and now the EU and Brazil.

The chatbot has also gained new features, including the ability to change the tone and style of its responses, vocalize its responses using a text-to-speech AI feature, and analyze images included in prompts. Users can now export Python code to Replit, a browser-based integrated development environment, and share Bard's responses through links.

Despite early challenges, Google claims that Bard is improving, particularly in areas like math and programming. However, recent reports have highlighted concerns about the working conditions of the humans who train Bard. The chatbot now literally speaks, and users have the option to either read or listen to the AI's generated responses. Bard's new multimodal eyes, gaining the capacity to interpret images dropped into the chat through the prompt field, is another significant update.

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3. Binance Labs Invests $15M in Web3 Gaming Startup Xterio

Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance, has invested $15 million in Xterio, a Web3 gaming platform. The funding will be used to further game and technology development, including AI integration and the launch of its tokens. Xterio, an operating company and strategic partner for Binance, aims to bridge free-to-play games and blockchain gaming with in-house and third-party games currently in development.

The startup now plans to expand its AI-driven interactive experience and develop an AI toolkit that can generate consistent production-quality 2D and 3D assets. Xterio's ecosystem is expanding rapidly, with a diverse suite of cross-platform games scheduled to be released. The ecosystem will also feature digital collectibles distributed via Xterio’s web platform and marketplace.

As part of the new strategic partnership, Binance Labs will support Xterio’s growth and the startup's token will become part of the BNB Chain ecosystem. This move comes despite increasing regulatory scrutiny faced by Binance. The team at Xterio, which includes veterans from tech, Web2 gaming, and entertainment companies, is set to utilize the investment to expand its AI capabilities, develop AI-driven interactive experiences, and resolve AI provenance issues in Web3.

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4. China Finalizes Rules Governing Generative AI Services

China's Cyberspace Administration (CAC) has finalized first-of-its-kind rules governing generative AI, set to come into effect on August 15. The regulations apply to AI services that generate content such as text or images, like the well-known ChatGPT developed by OpenAI. The move comes as China seeks to increase oversight of the rapidly growing technology.

Under the new rules, generative AI services will need to obtain a license to operate. If a service provider finds "illegal" content, it must take measures to stop generating that content, improve the algorithm, and report the material to the relevant authority. Providers must also conduct security assessments on their products and ensure user information is secure. Furthermore, generative AI services in China must adhere to the "core values of socialism," according to the CAC.

Despite the stringent rules, the CAC aims to encourage innovative applications of generative AI and support the development of related infrastructure like semiconductors. The regulations provide a framework for technology giants to work with when it comes to this technology.

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5. NTT's CFO Highlights Energy Consumption and Pricing Challenges for Enterprise Generative AI

NTT's CFO and Senior EVP, Takashi Hiroi, has identified energy consumption and value-based pricing as significant challenges facing enterprises as they adopt generative AI models. Speaking at the VentureBeat Transform 2023 conference, Hiroi noted that new guidelines and resilient global systems could mitigate some of these concerns.

NTT, a telecom giant with revenues nearing $100 billion, is no stranger to implementing AI across its various verticals. The company leverages OpenAI’s popular text-to-text LLM ChatGPT for IT support in Japan, an AI-based translation service Cohota, and marketing data services with behavior forecasting.

Hiroi emphasized the need for research to address the growing energy needs of edge-based computing to power local AI systems. He also highlighted the economic challenges of correctly pricing AI services, suggesting that understanding the value AI brings to an enterprise will determine pricing. Despite these challenges, Hiroi remains optimistic about the potential of AI and the ability of companies to navigate these issues.

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