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- A new $100B NVIDIA competitor emerges
A new $100B NVIDIA competitor emerges
PLUS: Reddit's major AI data deal
Rowan Cheung
February 19, 2024
Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
The AI chip wars just got a new heavyweight contender.
Japanese multi-billionaire Masayoshi Son is putting $100B on the line to challenge NVIDIA — aiming not only to help develop AGI, but to lead it. Let’s investigate…
In today’s AI rundown:
SoftBank founder builds an AI chip company
Reddit inks major AI data deal
How to use ChatGPT and Zapier to prepare for meetings
Mistral stealth drops demo of ‘next’ model
6 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs
More AI & tech news
Read time: 4 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
SOFTBANK
Image source: Bloomberg
The Rundown: SoftBank founder (and multi-billionaire) Masayoshi Son is reportedly looking to raise $100B to launch ‘Project Izanagi,’ an AI chip venture to compete with NVIDIA and push towards AGI.
The details:
Izanagi would aim to compete with chipmaking leader NVIDIA and complement Son's chip design firm, Arm Holdings.
With $30B potentially from SoftBank and $70B from Middle Eastern backers, it would be one of the largest AI bets to date.
Son believes AGI will be realized within the next 10 years.
The venture is separate from Sam Altman’s chip production ambitions, though the two have reportedly spoken about potentially ‘joining forces’.
Why it matters: Global titans are racing to acquire the shovels for the AI chip gold rush, and Izanagi brings another well-funded challenger to the arena. If creating AGI is a matter of continuing to scale compute power, these new ventures may help avoid projected chip shortages that stand in the way.
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Image source: Reddit
The Rundown: Reddit has reportedly signed a $60M annual deal granting an unnamed AI firm access to its user-generated content for model training, with the deal coming prior to the company’s upcoming IPO.
The details:
Users have created Reddit's trove of content without compensation, sparking backlash over commercial use for AI training.
Reddit also reportedly considered blocking Google search crawlers if an AI data deal could not be found.
The $60M/year deal could establish a framework for future AI licensing agreements with social platforms.
Why it matters: As human data continues to fuel AI’s rise, social media platforms will increasingly find themselves with a goldmine of data ripe for training new models. While Meta and X have their own AI ambitions, others (like Reddit) may be content to reap the sudden external value of their data.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: With Zapier's AI workflows and ChatGPT integration, you can create a Chief of Staff agent to prep you before your meetings.
Hat tip to Olivia Moore for the brilliant idea!
Step-by-step:
Go to Zapier to create your automation.
Connect your calendar and have the trigger fire 15 minutes before the start of the meeting, and instruct Zapier to filter the type of meetings you need help preparing for. For example, exclude meetings where the organizer’s email does not contain your company’s domain name.
Instruct Zapier to extract the company name from the meeting organizer’s email address.
Connect and prompt ChatGPT to research the company and the attendees and to write a summary of the purpose of the meeting.
Connect your email to have ChatGPT send you the meeting summary so you are ready for your next meeting!
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AI RESEARCH
Image source: LMSYS and Discord
The Rundown: French AI startup Mistral just quietly released a new model called ‘next’ for testing.
The details:
The model was made available to try on LMSYS Direct Chat, and only announced via a single Discord comment.
Early users tested the model on coding and reasoning, finding it on par or better than GPT-4.
Mistral received a massive $415M funding round in December, valuing the company at $2B.
Why it matters: Mistral feels like an absolute powerhouse lurking in the shadows, quietly releasing models that are pushing the top chatbots on the leaderboard. If a ‘next’ release does end up surpassing GPT-4, it would mark a milestone moment for open-source.
NEW TOOLS & JOBS
🧾 TaxGPT- Experience hassle-free, accurate tax assistance for maximum refunds (link)
🛠️ Squad- Product strategy and roadmap builder (link)
🖼️ glif- Remix web images instantly with this Chrome extension (link)
🙋🏻♀️ Kraftful Surveys GPT- Create product surveys for insightful customer feedback (link)
🦔 Keepi- A personal knowledge assistant (link)
❤️ FirstPic- Assists you in selecting the optimal dating profile picture for ideal matches (link)
QUICK HITS
OpenAI secured a tender offer led by Thrive Capital, elevating its valuation to over $80B and tripling the company’s value in just the last year.
Apple is building a new AI coding tool for Xcode to rival Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, aiming to improve developer efficiency and potentially reduce costs.
ElevenLabs teased a new AI Sound Effects feature, allowing users to generate audio via text prompts and showcasing the outputs in use with demos from OpenAI’s Sora release.
OpenAI announced the company is signing the Tech Accord, joining other major players in committing to help manage AI-related risks in the 2024 elections.
The NBA teased an ‘NB-AI’ voice assistant, which will transform live games into personalized experiences — such as turning a highlight into a fan’s favorite movie scene.
Air Canada was forced to refund a customer after losing a landmark case, with the court ruling that the company was responsible for info provided by its AI tools.
THAT’S A WRAP
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