Community message board and social news aggregator Reddit, founded in 2005, has filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in an IPO observers say may be complete in a matter of weeks. It is the first social media company to go public in many years, with Snap Inc.’s 2017 offering cited as the most recent stock market splash. Reddit’s bankers are reportedly seeking a $5 billion valuation, about half the $10 billion it was valued at for a 2021 private funding round. Reddit filed with the SEC the same day it announced an “expanded partnership” with Google to use Vertex AI. Continue reading Reddit Announces IPO on Heels of Expanded Deal with Google

Google has unveiled a new policy, the AI Cyber Defense Initiative, designed to harness the power of artificial intelligence to improve global cybersecurity defenses. The proposed policy aims to counteract rapidly evolving threats by using AI to improve threat detection, automate vulnerability management and enhance incident response effectiveness. The Alphabet company introduced its new plan at the Munich Security Conference, where it also announced it has a pool of $2 million to award businesses and academic institutions for research initiatives involving large language models, code verification and other AI uses for cyber offense and defense. Continue reading Google Targets Global Security with AI Cyber Defense Initiative

Researchers at Amazon have trained what they are calling the largest text-to-speech model ever created, which they claim is exhibiting “emergent” qualities — the ability to inherently improve itself at speaking complex sentences naturally. Called BASE TTS, for Big Adaptive Streamable TTS with Emergent abilities, the new model could pave the way for more human-like interactions with AI, reports suggest. Trained on 100,000 hours of public domain speech data, BASE TTS offers “state-of-the-art naturalness” in English as well as some German, Dutch and Spanish. Text-to-speech models are used in developing voice assistants for smart devices and apps and accessibility. Continue reading Amazon Claims ’Emergent Abilities’ for Text-to-Speech Model

Apple has taken a novel approach to animation with Keyframer, using large language models to add motion to static images through natural language prompts. “The application of LLMs to animation is underexplored,” Apple researchers say in a paper that describes Keyframer as an “animation prototyping tool.” Based on input from animators and engineers, Keyframer lets users refine their work through “a combination of prompting and direct editing,” the paper explains. The LLM can generate CSS animation code. Users can also use natural language to request design variations. Continue reading Apple’s Keyframer AI Tool Uses LLMs to Prototype Animation

Slack AI is a new paid add-on for enterprise clients that want to boost productivity using artificial intelligence. Generative capabilities in the initial release include personalized responses to questions, channel recaps and thread summaries that promise to “catch you up on long conversations in one click.” Slack says pilot data indicated customers including Uber and Anthropic “could save an average of 97 minutes per user each week using Slack AI to find answers, distill knowledge and spark ideas.” Slack AI is backward compatible, generating information based on the history built over time on the platform. Continue reading Slack AI Brings Generative Features to Channels and Threads

Apple has released MGIE, an open-source AI model that edits images using natural language instructions. MGIE, short for MLLM-Guided Image Editing, can also modify and optimize images. Developed in conjunction with University of California Santa Barbara, MGIE is Apple’s first AI model. The multimodal MGIE, which understands text and image input, also crops, resizes, flips, and adds filters based on text instructions using what Apple says is an easier instruction set than other AI editing programs, and is simpler and faster than learning a traditional program, like Apple’s own Final Cut Pro. Continue reading Apple Launches Open-Source Language-Based Image Editor

Yelp is introducing more than 20 new updates to improve the experience for community members and business owners. Included are AI-powered summaries that make it easier to find businesses, an updated Yelp Elite badge for reviewers who are passionate about specific subjects, and a new visual home feed and search experience geared toward discovery. For those seeking services, the new “Request a Quote” and “Projects” features are available. Artificial intelligence will also power market and competitive insights for business owners, while AI-powered smart budgets provide recommendations to optimize ad spend, “helping local businesses grow.” Continue reading Yelp Adds 20 Features Plus AI to Help Users and Businesses

Google’s multimodal Gemini large language model will offer chat capabilities that help advertisers build and scale Search campaigns within the Google Ads platform using natural language prompts. “We’ve been actively testing Gemini to further enhance our ads solutions, and, we’re pleased to share that Gemini is now powering the conversational experience,” Google said, explaining the functionality is now available in beta to English language advertisers in the U.S., UK and will be rolling out globally to all English language advertisers over the next few weeks, with additional languages offered in the months ahead. Continue reading Conversational Chatbot Optimizes Google Ads, Search Results

During this week’s Unpacked event, Samsung introduced Galaxy AI, a suite of artificial intelligence tools designed for the new Galaxy S series smartphones — the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, and Galaxy S24 Ultra. “AI amplifies nearly every experience on the Galaxy S24 series,” including real-time text and call translations, a powerful suite of creative tools in the ProVisual Engine and a new kind of “gestural search that lets users circle, highlight, scribble on or tap anything onscreen” to see related search results. The AI enhancements are largely enabled by a multiyear deal with Google and Qualcomm. Samsung also debuted a wearable accessory, the Galaxy Ring. Continue reading Unpacked: Samsung Intros Galaxy AI with Next Gen S Phones

Santa Monica-based AI startup Rabbit Inc. is offering a virtual assistant in the form of a pocket device that the company says can improve upon mobile phones by learning to use your apps and running them for you. Heavily publicized at CES 2024 in Las Vegas this week, the initial run of the company’s r-1 units had as of Tuesday sold out at $199 each. The retro-looking device with a 2.88-inch touchscreen is continuing to take preorders; shipments are scheduled to begin in late March. The company says its proprietary Rabbit OS is the first operating system built on a Large Action Model (LAM) foundation. LAMs are LLMs trained on datasets of actions and consequences. Continue reading CES: Rabbit Launches AI-Powered Pocket Controller for Apps

Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Stanford professor and co-director of Stanford HAI (Human-Centered AI), and Andrew Ng, venture capitalist and managing general partner at Palo Alto-based AI Fund discussed the current state and expected near-term developments in artificial intelligence. As a general purpose technology, AI development will both deepen, as private sector LLMs are developed for industry-specific needs, and broaden, as open source public sector LLMs emerge to address broad societal problems. Expect exciting advances in image models — what Li calls “pixel space.” When implementing AI, think about teams rather than individuals, and think about tasks rather than jobs. Continue reading CES: Session Details the Impact and Future of AI Technology

Impact and opportunity surfaced as the dominant theme of a full day of Digital Hollywood sessions devoted to artificial intelligence at CES 2024. We are in a period of disruption similar to the early 90s when the Internet went mainstream, said Forbes columnist Charlie Fink, moderating a panel of industry leaders from CAA, Paramount, HTC, Nvidia and Google. Yet despite the transformation already underway, panelists agreed that this is neither the first nor last technology to shift the status quo, more the latest example of inevitable change and adjustment. The current conversations around AI at CES are a refreshing departure after a few years of evolutionary, not revolutionary tech confabs. Continue reading CES: Digital Hollywood Session Explores AI at Inflection Point

Volkswagen’s CES press conference on Monday gave us a window into what we expect to see during this week’s CES 2024. The presentation centered entirely around artificial intelligence. VW has partnered with Cerence to speed the integration of AI tech into their vehicles’ in-cabin experience. The implementation touches on combining AI with spatial web capabilities. And VW has worked to make the in-car experience seamlessly compatible with AI-enhanced in-home and mobile device experiences that consumers are embracing. Not once during the presentation did they mention anything about car design or performance other than how it relates to AI implementation. Continue reading CES: VW Press Event Emphasizes a Future Transformed by AI

Intel has teamed with Florida-based investment firm DigitalBridge to launch Articul8, an independent company catering to the GenAI software needs of enterprise customers by offering secure, vertically-optimized full-stack solutions. Intel says the GenAI system can read text and images. It was reportedly developed by Intel to meet the security needs of Boston Consulting Group to run in its data centers, and later scaled for general enterprise use. Articul8 aims to keep customer data, training and inference “within the enterprise security perimeter,” Intel notes, adding that customers can choose between cloud, on-premise or hybrid deployment. Continue reading Intel, DigitalBridge Launch GenAI Software Firm for Enterprise

Apple recently announced advances in artificial intelligence research that could introduce more immersive visual experiences and enable sophisticated AI systems to run on the company’s popular mobile devices. Two new research papers highlight techniques for creating 3D avatars from video content and efficiently deploying large language models on devices challenged by limited memory. The real-time ability to create avatars and 3D scenes from an iPhone camera could bring a range of new possibilities for CE devices in areas such as synthetic media, telepresence, social interaction, virtual try-on and more. Continue reading Apple Unveils New Advances in Artificial Intelligence Research