OpenAI closes the largest VC round of all time

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1. OpenAI closes the largest VC round of all time

OpenAI has secured a $4 billion revolving line of credit, increasing its total liquidity to over $10 billion. The company closed its recent funding round at a valuation of $157 billion, including $6.6 billion raised from an extensive roster of investment firms and tech companies. The base credit line is $4 billion, with an option to increase it by an additional $2 billion. The loan is unsecured and can be tapped over the course of three years.

OpenAI plans to use the money to invest in research and products, expand infrastructure, and attract talent. The funding round also reaffirms OpenAI's partnership with an exceptional group of financial institutions, many of whom are also OpenAI customers.

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2. New high quality AI video generator Pyramid Flow launches — and it’s fully open source!

Pyramid Flow, an AI video generation model, has been launched by researchers from Peking University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and Kuaishou Technology. The model offers high-quality video clips up to 10 seconds in length, quickly and all open source.

Pyramid Flow uses a new technique where a single AI model generates video in stages, most of them low resolution, saving only a full-res version for the end of its generation process. The model can generate a 5-second, 384p video in just 56 seconds, faster than many full-sequence diffusion counterparts. Pyramid Flow is available for download and use, competing directly with paid proprietary offerings like Runway's Gen-3 Alpha, Luma's Dream Machine, Kling, and Haulio.

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3. Writer’s Palmyra X 004 takes the lead in AI function calling, surpassing tech giants

Writer has unveiled its latest LLM Palmyra X 004, marking a significant advancement in enterprise AI. The model excels in function calling and workflow execution, making it ideal for building practical AI agents and assistants for businesses.

Palmyra X 004 outperforms tech giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta by nearly 20% on Berkeley's Tool Calling Leaderboard. It also ranked in the top 10 on Stanford University's Holistic Evaluation of Language Models benchmark, indicating strong general language understanding and reasoning abilities.

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4. Intel Core Ultra 200S desktop processor debuts for AI PCs for enthusiasts

Intel has launched the Intel Core Ultra 200S series processor family, which will scale AI PC capabilities to desktop platforms and introduce the first enthusiast desktop AI PCs. The family includes five unlocked processors with up to 8 next-gen Performance-cores and up to 16 next-gen Efficient-cores, resulting in up to 14% more performance in multi-threaded workloads.

The new processors are the first neural processing unit (NPU)-enabled desktop processors for enthusiasts and come with a built-in Xe GPU with state-of-the-art media support. The processors deliver up to 50% faster performance in AI-enabled creator applications against competing flagship processors.

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5. Ring’s new AI search tool lets you easily scan videos

Amazon's Ring camera business has introduced a new Smart Video Search capability, rolling out to all Home Pro subscribers by November 5. The feature allows users to search for specific keywords in the app, such as "dog pooping," "gardeners," and "rollerblading."

Ring blocks searches for content it considers offensive, inappropriate, or harmful, and will now block searches for "disabled" due to the risk of misuse. The feature marks a significant upgrade for Ring's home surveillance capabilities.

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