- The Rundown AI
- Posts
- Elon swings back at OpenAI
Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
Elon Musk and OpenAI may be locked in a bitter feud, but the Tesla CEO just proved he’s not all talk when it comes to his vision for open AI.
Grok is officially going open-source — but is the move a strategic masterstroke or a desperate attempt to catch up to ChatGPT? Let’s investigate…
In today’s AI rundown:
Elon open-sourcing Grok chatbot
South Korea deploys AI dolls for elder care
Create consistent characters with Midjourney
Covariant launches ‘ChatGPT for robots’
6 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs
More AI & tech news
Read time: 4 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
ELON MUSK
Image source: xAI
The Rundown: Elon Musk just announced that his AI startup xAI will open-source its Grok chatbot this week, marking another twist in his escalating feud with Sam Altman's OpenAI and the race to dominate the AI space.
The details:
Musk unveiled Grok in November as a ChatGPT rival with a "rebellious streak" with real-time internet access via integration with X/Twitter.
Open-sourcing Grok's code aligns xAI with companies like Meta and Mistral AI, standing in contrast to OpenAI's closed models.
Grok is expected to have a ‘live’ search engine connected to X, have a 25k context window, and eventually run natively in Teslas.
The move comes just days after Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and the release of private emails showing Musk initially supported a for-profit shift.
Why it matters: Musk open-sourcing Grok is both a philosophical and strategic counterpunch. The move positions himself as the open alternative to (Elon’s depiction of) Altman's closed, profit-hungry approach — while also helping crowdsource Grok's evolution in an attempt to trim ChatGPT's lead.
TOGETHER WITH OCTOAI
The Rundown: In the fast-paced world of AI, keeping up with the latest LLM releases is crucial for builders to deliver cutting-edge experiences and minimize costs.
With OctoAI’s new LLM Time Capsule, you can:
Witness the exponential growth of text-gen models, from 14,000 to 61,000 in just 8 months
Discover the rise of Mistral- and Mixtral-based fine-tunes as alternatives to GPT-3.5-Turbo
View the massive impact of model releases on the industry with a single toggle
Explore the LLM Time Capsule and sign up for OctoAI's GenAI Inference API to try fast and affordable versions of these models for free.
AI COMPANIONS
Image source: Hydrol AI
The Rundown: South Korean startup Hydrol AI launched a $1,800 AI-powered companion doll aimed at alleviating loneliness among the country's rapidly aging population.
The details:
Hydrol's AI doll uses LLMs to engage in full conversations and provide emotional support to seniors living alone.
Features include medication reminders, health coaching, music, as well the ability to alert caregivers of issues thanks to built-in sensors.
South Korea's local governments have embraced the dolls, deploying around 7,000 units so far.
The company claims its dolls have reduced depression levels and improved medication adherence among a test group of 9000+ users.
Why it matters: With declining birth rates and a soaring elderly population, South Korea is ground zero for the global ‘silver tsunami’. As the demographic crunch continues to leave more seniors isolated, AI companions might be the solution needed.
AI TRAINING
Image source: @ciguleva on X
The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to achieve character consistency in your Midjourney images thanks to its new feature, “Character Reference.”
Step-by-step:
Visit Midjourney’s Discord.
Type --cref URL after your prompt with a URL to an image of a character
You can use --cw to modify reference 'strength' from 100 to 0.
Strength 100 (--cw 100) is default and uses the face, hair, and clothes, while strength 0 (--cw 0) just focuses on the face (good for changing things like hair)
Example prompt: “An empty cornfield beneath an ominous stormy sky --cref https://www….”
ROBOTICS & AI
Image source: Covariant
The Rundown: Robotics startup Covariant just unveiled RFM-1, an AI platform that brings ChatGPT-like language understanding and reasoning to physical robots.
The details:
RFM-1 is built on a "robotics foundation model" trained on massive datasets of robot camera feeds, sensor data, and language.
The platform allows robots to learn new skills, adapt to unexpected situations, and interact with humans more naturally.
Covariant plans to deploy RFM-1 on its warehouse robot fleets, eventually aiming to enable use in manufacturing, agriculture, service industries, and homes.
Why it matters: As robots continue to become more prevalent across industries, developing a deeper understanding of human reasoning is crucial to successfully working alongside us. RFM might be the next big leap toward unlocking a new level of human-AI teamwork.
NEW TOOLS & JOBS
🎥 Clip Creator- Turn text into engaging videos that captivate and convert your audience. Create and download videos for free*
📈 Athina AI - Monitor LLMs, prevent hallucinations, and manage prompts in one spot
🎨 Muse Pro- Real-time AI drawing companion for Apple iPads
📷 Picurious- AI answers, insights, and identification for your photos
🎓 EverLearns- Generate course outlines in minutes
🎮 Charmed- End-to-end AI-assisted for 3D game development
🤗 Hugging Face- Python Software Engineer, ML Platform
🤝 OpenAI - Employee Relations Partner
🔍 Anthropic- Litigation Legal Specialist
👥 Synthesia- Senior Product Manager, Avatar Technology
*Sponsored listing
QUICK HITS
Curious how investors pick AI startups to invest in? Join General Catalyst VC Chris Kauffman for Picking the Winners in AI, a free 1-hour discussion on finding the next AI unicorn among 70,000 startups.*
Cohere introduced Command-R, a scalable generative model enabling enterprises to deploy AI at a production scale with strong accuracy, low latency, longer context, and support for 10 key languages.
Pinterest launched ‘body type ranges’ a new AI-powered tool allowing users to self-select visual cues for customized and more inclusive search results.
Abu Dhabi announced MGX, a new tech investment firm targeting AI and semiconductor deals, with a goal of $100B in assets under management.
Microsoft unveiled new partnerships with healthcare firms including Stanford Medicine, WellSpan Health, and Providence, to accelerate AI innovation in the industry.
Extropic AI released a new litepaper revealing its approach to building next gen AI tech, promising major increases in hardware scaling, AI speed and efficiency.
Researchers developed an AI framework to quickly identify and track new COVID-19 variants from genomic data, potentially supporting and automating traditional viral tracking methods.
*Sponsored listing
THAT’S A WRAP
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