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- AI's antibiotic breakthrough
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
Superbugs, beware — the AI revolution is coming for you too.
Researchers just used AI to uncover nearly 1M potential new antibiotics, a breakthrough that could change the future of medicine and drug discovery. Let’s explore…
In today’s AI rundown:
AI predicts nearly 1M new antibiotics
Stability AI releases open audio model
How to use Perplexity Knowledge Cards
Asana debuts AI teammates
6 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs
More AI & tech news
Read time: 4 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
AI RESEARCH
Image source: DALL-E 3
The Rundown: Researchers just published a new study detailing the use of AI to predict close to 1M new antibiotics hidden within tiny microbes all over the world, uncovering new potential treatments against bacteria and superbugs.
The details:
Researchers used AI to analyze publicly available data on over 100,000 different genomes and meta-genomes.
The AI then predicted which parts of the microbial genomes could potentially produce antibiotic compounds, generating a list of nearly one million candidates.
100 of the AI-predicted drug candidates were tested in the lab, with 79 of them being a potential antibiotic.
The paper’s author Cesar de la Fuente said the findings are “the largest antibiotic discovery ever”, accelerating the process from years to just hours.
Why it matters: As the world faces growing threats from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, AI’s ability to unlock millions of new potential treatments could be a lifeline toward staying ahead in the race to outsmart superbugs responsible for millions of deaths every year.
TOGETHER WITH HELP SCOUT
The Rundown: AI is here to stay, and it's time to make it work for you. Help Scout’s ebook, ‘Building Your AI Support Stack’, is designed to help you navigate the world of AI and enhance your customer support strategy.
The comprehensive guide:
Defines what AI can do for customer service
Weighs the pros and cons of integrating AI
Runs through the latest AI-powered support tools
Provides expert tips for a thoughtful implementation plan
STABILITY AI
Image source: Stability AI
The Rundown: Stability AI just unveiled Stable Audio Open, a new model enabling users to create short audio samples and sound effects from text prompts.
The details:
Stable Audio Open can create up to 47 seconds of high-quality audio from text prompts, focused primarily on sound effects and production elements.
The model was trained on data from FreeSound and Free Music Archives to avoid copyright issues.
Stable Audio Open can also be fine-tuned on custom audio, allowing artists to train the model on their own samples.
Why it matters: While the AI advances in text-to-image models have been the most visible (literally), both video and audio are about to take the same leap. Putting these tools in the hands of creatives will redefine traditional workflows — from musicians brainstorming new beats to directors crafting sound effects for film and TV.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: Perplexity recently introduced a new feature called Interactive Knowledge Cards — allowing users to search, compare, and share information like never before.
Step by step:
Head over to Perplexity. You don’t need an account, but it’s free to sign up.
Search for phrases like "Gamestop stock since 5/1/24" or "median sales price for a single-family home in Delaware."
Explore the interactive knowledge cards generated by Perplexity.
Hover your mouse over the visualizations to gain deeper insights.
Pro tip: Perplexity Cards allow users to compare different datasets to identify trends and patterns. For e.g. "Gamestop vs. AMC stock since 5/1/24" will show both patterns in the same card.
PRESENTED BY JURNY
The Rundown: Jurny is an AI-powered property management platform transforming the $4.1T hospitality industry by automating operations and enhancing guest experiences.
Jurny's competitive edge:
Partnerships with Airbnb, Vrbo, and Expedia
5x customer growth and $35M+ bookings in 2023
$12M raised from top VCs and 1,200+ investors
Featured by CNBC, Skift, Forbes, and Bloomberg
Click here to learn more and get started before the investment window closes in 12 days.
ASANA
Image source: Asana
The Rundown: Work management platform Asana just introduced AI Teammates, virtual bots that integrate into the platform and handle complex workflows, provide insights, and take actions while adapting to users or teams.
The details:
AI Teammates are built on Asana’s Work Graph data model, allowing them to understand context, workflows, and objectives when taking action.
Humans remain in the loop to ensure transparency and control, with the ability to customize workflows.
Asana also teased a new chatbot coming later this month to allow for more conversational collaboration.
Examples of AI teammate tasks include advising teams and surfacing insights, taking on and assigning tasks, and dynamically identifying workflow issues.
Why it matters: While the age of the true “AI agent” may not be here quite yet, it’s certainly inching closer. Asana’s new teammates are a step towards using AI as a hyper-efficient, always-present collaborator — a feature likely to become standard on all platforms as the tech becomes more widespread.
NEW TOOLS & JOBS
🚀 Second - Automated codebase maintenance for seamless migrations
🎥 Fliki B-Rolls - Add multiple media sequentially, create videos 10x faster with AI
✅ Superlist Make - Turn simple prompts into action lists
📊 Outerbase - View, edit, query, and visualize all of your data in one spot
💯 Prepair - Test your technical interview skills with AI
🎮 NVIDIA RTX Remix - Create stunning RTX remasters of classic games
💼 Twelve Labs - Head of Finance
🔒 Fiddler AI - Senior Security Engineer
🎯 Siena - Director of Customer Success
💻 Cresta - Senior Software Engineer (AI Agent)
QUICK HITS
Pika Labs secured $80M in Series B funding for its text-to-video platform, bringing the company’s valuation to $470M with backers including Spark Capital and actor and musician Jared Leto.
TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei said talks with OpenAI’s Sam Altman’s proposal to create a global network of AI chip factories was ‘too aggressive’, with the chipmaker unable to commit to the number of fabs needed.
xAI agreed to build its ‘gigafactory of compute’ supercomputer in Memphis, TN., with hopes to have the system completed by late 2025.
Actor and entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher revealed he is currently testing OpenAI’s Sora, saying some of the generations are already at a quality level capable of use in movies and TV.
OpenAI added a new ‘Background Conversations’ feature to ChatGPT’s latest mobile app update, allowing users to maintain a conversation while exiting the app.
Humane sent an email notifying users of its AI Pin to stop using the device’s charging case, warning of a fire safety risk.
THAT’S A WRAP
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