LLMs models will continue to drive real-world breakthroughs, especially in the life sciences, with meaningful steps forward in both molecular biology and drug discovery. This is one of the conclusions of The State of AI Report, a classic research study produced by AI investors Nathan Benaich and the Air Street Capital and reviewed by AI practitioners. Other key findings include: • GTP-4 is beating every other LLM, validating the power of proprietary architectures and reinforcement learning from human feedback. • Efforts are growing to try to clone or surpass proprietary performance through smaller models, better datasets, and longer context. • Compute is the new oil, with NVIDIA printing record earnings and startups wielding their GPUs as a competitive edge. As the US tightens its restrictions on trade restrictions on China and mobilizes its allies in the chip wars, NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD have started to sell export-control-proof chips at scale. • Generative AI startups raised over $18 billion from VC and corporate investors, while other tech industry valuations are on a slump. • Safety concerns are prompting action from governments and regulators around the world. . > Download the Report
The London – based startup AutogenAI built an AI assistant that helps businesses to write compelling proposals and tenders in minutes, replacing the traditional way of putting bids together and saving time and headcount. Launched less than a year ago, it has raised $22.3 million from Blossom Capital and claims to serve 28 clients, although no names are disclosed. Its founder and CEO, Sean Williams, explained at Techcrunch that he worked for years for large private firms bidding to provide services to the U.K. government. AutogenAI uses LLMs from OpenAI and others combined with clients' structured and unstructured proprietary data. It features a unique interface to help users query information and create pitches based on a company’s most successful past work. "We want to help our customers win more work and work more effectively, and our software can speed up the process of writing a strong pitch by 800%," said Sean Williams. .
Amazon.com has started requiring writers who want to sell books on its platform to disclose in advance if their work includes AI material (whether text, images, or translations.) The e-commerce giant is differentiating on its content guidelines between AI-assisted content, which authors do not need to disclose, and AI-generated work. "We define AI-generated content as text, images, or translations created by an AI-based tool," said the company. "Even if you applied substantial edits afterward." "AI-assisted is if you created the content yourself, and used AI-based tools to edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve that content (whether text or images), then it is considered "AI-assisted" and not “AI-generated." "Similarly, if you used an AI-based tool to brainstorm and generate ideas, but ultimately created the text or images yourself, this is also considered AI-assisted." The Authors Guild, which represents thousands of published authors, expressed gratitude toward "the Amazon team for taking our concerns into account and enacting this important step toward ensuring transparency and accountability for AI-generated content." In July, more than 10,000 authors signed a letter calling on AI industry leaders to protect writers. James Patterson, Margaret Atwood, and Suzanne Collins were among the writers who endorsed the letter.
Microsoft's owned LinkedIn networking platform presented this month at its Talent Connect 2023 in New York City a set of AI-powered tools to enhance its services and help employers hire qualified candidates as well as develop workers' skills faster and more effectively. Currently, conducting a search requires learning a unique search language, but with generative AI, LinkedIn Recruiter will be able to search across all of LinkedIn’s data and find candidates with the relevant skills for the job. The platform might recommend searching in new locations or suggest that a role should be hybrid to provide better access to candidates who are right for the job. "We can no longer hire and develop our people using the strategies and tools of the past," said Jennifer Shappley, LinkedIn’s Vice President of Talent said [In the picture, above]. This AI-assisted recruiting tool is being launched now to a select set of customers and will be rolled out completely in 2024. On the other hand, starting this week, LinkedIn Learning's users will be able to engage with a new AI-powered chatbot. According to the company, this virtual coach offers real-time career advice as well as content recommendations aimed at helping employees develop their skills. Initially, the tool will focus on leadership and management. The LinkedIn Learning Coach asks questions to better “understand” a learner’s specific situation or goal rather than providing one-size-fits-all answers. The chatbot then gives personalized answers and suggests courses, covering both soft skills and technical skills. Here is an example of a conversation: "My CEO asked me for feedback. How should I respond?" The chatbot, in turn, asked questions, much like a live coach. After some back and forth, the chatbot advised on how to answer and named the sources of the advice provided. The whole process took two minutes. Marketing will also be getting an AI boost, specifically with a new product called Accelerate It will be to let people run campaigns on LinkedIn more easily. Inside Sales will be an AI tool with a search function to help find those potential connections then more easily and enter conversations with those leads.
Amazon, this week at its HQ@ headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, announced upcoming improvements to Alexa around generative AI based on a new, custom-built LLM model optimized for voice interactions. The new model will power more conversational experiences. It will also take into account body language as well as a person’s eye contact and gestures, said the company. It will have a more natural-sounding voice and interact with APIs to enable new smart home capabilities. Amazon decided to give Alexa a more opinionated personality, equipping the new model with expressive responses, including laughter, excitement, empathy, natural pauses, and hesitation to deliver an ostensibly more free-flowing conversation. Customers in the U.S. will soon get access to these new capabilities through a free preview on Echo devices they already own, Amazon said. "We’re combining large language models (LLM) with real-world context to make Alexa more intuitive, intelligent, and useful. Using generative AI, speaking to Alexa will feel more natural and conversational than ever before, and Alexa’s ability to reason, infer customer intent, and understand complex requests will remarkably improve. With the latest LLM, Alexa will also be able to process multiple smart home requests at the same time, make inferences, and customers will be able to set up complex Routines, entirely by voice." .
