Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) announced the availability of its next-gen Cloud TV platform designed for global broadcasters and video service providers. Cloud TV provides companies with a system for delivering a multi-platform TV experience across broadcast and OTT via the cloud. The company promises a streamlined experience that will help broadcasters, content owners and distributors “limit costs, reduce duplicative efforts, and monetize more effectively.” In addition to tools for transcoding, content processing, distribution, and managing metadata, Cloud TV also addresses areas such as advertising, subscriptions and analytics. Continue reading Comcast Announces Its Next-Generation Cloud TV Platform

DJI, a leading maker of consumer drones, is releasing Goggles N3 — first-person view (FPV) eyewear that offers improvements over its predecessor, Goggles 3, for less than half the original list price. Currently on preorder for $299 from DJI and Amazon, Goggles N3 has the same 1080p display as the earlier model with a wider field of view — 54 versus 44 degrees. The new product is also lighter than Goggles 3, with a bigger viewing cabin that can accommodate even very large eyeglasses, eliminating the need for diopter adjustments or custom lenses for prescription wearers. Continue reading DJI Intros New First-Person View Drone Goggles N3 for $299

The government of Canada has ordered social video app TikTok to shut down its business operations in the country, following a national security review under the Investment Canada Act. and potential risks posed by TikTok and parent ByteDance. “The government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content,” explains François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry. “The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice.” Canada previously banned the TikTok app from official government devices, while the U.S. passed a law that could also ban the app. Continue reading Canada Orders TikTok to Shut Down Its Business Operations

Amazon Prime Video has begun offering X-Ray Recaps, summaries of favorite TV shows that catch you up without risk of spoilers. The generative AI-powered feature can create snapshots of any requested view — episodes, pieces of episodes or full seasons of TV shows. “Whether you’re a few minutes into a new episode, halfway through a season” or took a break to get popcorn and need a quick refresher, X-Ray Recaps will catch you up “personalized down to the exact minute of where you are watching,” according to Amazon, which assures “guardrails are applied” to ensure the generation of spoiler-free summaries. Continue reading Amazon Prime Video Offers AI-Powered Recaps of TV Shows

Nvidia’s growing AI arsenal now includes video search and summarization tool AI Blueprint, which helps developers build visual AI agents that analyze video and image content. The agents can answer user questions, generate summaries and even enable alerts for specific scenarios. The new feature is part of Metropolis, Nvidia’s developer toolkit for building computer vision applications using generative AI. Globally, enterprises and public organizations increasingly rely on visual information. Cameras, IoT sensors and autonomous vehicles are ingesting visual data at high rates, and visual agents can help monitor and make sense of that workflow. Continue reading Nvidia’s AI Blueprint Develops Agents to Analyze Visual Data

New York-based AI firm Runway has added 3D video camera controls to Gen-3 Alpha Turbo, giving users the ability to manipulate granular aspects of the scene they are generating using effects whether originating from text prompts, uploaded images or self-created video. Users can zoom in and out on a subject or scene, moving around an AI-generated character or form in 3D as if on a real set or actual location. The new feature, available now, lets creators “choose both the direction and intensity of how you move through your scenes for even more intention in every shot,” Runway explains. Continue reading Runway Adds 3D Video Cam Controls to Gen-3 Alpha Turbo

As companies move forward with leveraging their proprietary data in generative AI applications, enterprises are contending with existing security solutions that may be inadequate for that task. Israeli startup Noma Security is addressing that concern. Just out of stealth mode, Noma has raised $32 million in a Series A round led by Ballistic Ventures with support from Glilot Capital Partners, Cyber Club London and a collection of angel investors. While enterprise firms that host their models at large cloud outfits have access to built-in MLOps security tools, those who are self-hosting, using smaller cloud operations, or want added protection might be interested in Noma. Continue reading Startup Noma Aims to Secure the Entire Data and AI Lifecycle

D-ID has launched two new types of AI-powered avatars: Premium+ and Express. The company’s video-to-video avatar tools aim to provide personal look-alikes that can sub for their creators in uses ranging from instructional videos to business presentations, offloading on-camera duties in areas including sales, marketing and customer support. “Premium+ Avatars can generate hyper-realistic digital humans that are indistinguishable from real people and will serve as the foundation for fully interactive digital agents revolutionizing how brands communicate,” while Express Avatars can rapidly generate serviceable avatars “from just one minute of source footage.” Continue reading D-ID’s New Business-Use Avatars Can Converse in Real Time

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has come up what it thinks is a better way to teach robots general purpose skills. Derived from LLM techniques, the method provides robot intelligence access to an enormous amount of data at once, rather than exposing it to individual programs for specific tasks. Faster and more cost efficient, the approach has been referred to as a “brute force” approach to problem-solving, and machine learners have taken to it in lieu of individualized, task-specific “imitation learning.” Early tests show it outperforming traditional training by more than 20 percent under simulation and real-world conditions. Continue reading MIT Intros LLM-Inspired Teacher for General Purpose Robots

Amazon reported major revenue and profit increases during its third quarter, beating Wall Street’s forecasts, based largely on the company’s e-commerce sales and increasing demand for its cloud services. Capital expenditure, which reached a record amount following Amazon’s recent investments in artificial intelligence, will maintain its momentum as the company plans $75 billion capex on developing generative AI services over 2024-2025. “The faster we grow demand, the faster we have to invest capital in data centers, network gear and hardware,” explained CEO Andy Jassy. “We invest in all that upfront in advance of when we can monetize it.” Continue reading Amazon Pushes AI, Records Growth in Q3 Revenue and Profit

Revenue reached an all-time high for Apple’s most recent quarter as iPhone sales experienced an uptick due in part to consumer excitement for the arrival of Apple Intelligence, the company’s heavily advertised set of AI tools. Total sales reached $94.9 billion for the quarter, up 6 percent year-over-year and exceeding the $94.5 billion that financial analysts had predicted. The company’s iPhone business reported sales of $46.2 billion, following disappointing consecutive quarters in the first half of the year. The AI boom resulted in strong quarters for other Big Tech leaders including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft. Continue reading Jump in iPhone Business Results in Record Quarter for Apple

The AI search wars are officially on, with Google giving Gemini access to its online answer engine just hours before OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search. Google is primarily targeting developers with its new feature, “Grounding with Google Search,” though the Alphabet company used the occasion to also tout its new search return template, AI Overviews. Launched last week, ChatGPT Search offers responses in real time using a conversational format. Initially, it is available only to ChatGPT Plus and Teams subscribers as well as those on the SearchGPT waitlist as part of ChatGPT’s existing interface. Continue reading AI Search Wars Heat Up as OpenAI and Google Add Features

Alphabet’s revenue increased by 15 percent during the latest quarter, topping $88.3 billion. Powered by advertising and cloud services, profits surged 34 percent to $26.3 billion, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $22.9 billion. The company experienced continued growth in the online marketplace with popular consumer services such as Google Search and YouTube while also expanding in B2B with cloud offerings. All this as the government explores dismantling its business while competitors such as TikTok and Amazon come after its market share. Advertising growth slowed in Q3, yet still notched a healthy year-over-year increase of 10.4 percent. Continue reading Alphabet Profits Climb 34 Percent, Powered by Cloud and Ads

Meta Platforms revenue was up 19 percent to $40.6 billion in Q3 compared to the same period one year earlier. Profit rose to $15.7 billion — a 35 percent increase from 2023. The company believes that its years of investments in adtech, artificial intelligence and the metaverse are starting to pay off. In Q3, Meta reported $23.2 billion in expenses and capital expenditures of $9.2 billion. And the company isn’t taking its foot off the accelerator, having increased its annual spending forecast by $1 billion to a minimum of $38 billion. Additionally, Meta’s advertising revenue for Q3 was just a tick under its high-end spend projection of $40 billion. Continue reading Meta’s Investments in Adtech, AI, the Metaverse Yield Results

Propelled by increasing demand for artificial intelligence services, Microsoft cloud solutions, which includes the Azure platform, was the star of the quarter, bringing in $38.9 billion for 22 percent growth year-over-year. Revenue was $65.6 billion, up 16 percent, while profit increased by 11 percent, to $24.7 billion. While Microsoft financials don’t break out AI — now embedded across numerous products — Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella says AI “is on track to surpass an annual revenue run rate of $10 billion” by December 31, “making it the fastest business in our history to reach this milestone.” Continue reading AI Surges: Microsoft Quarterly Revenue Climbs to $65.6 Billion