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OpenAI wants to move faster
PLUS: 'Godfather of AI' awarded Nobel Prize
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
OpenAI is reportedly flexing its independence and seeking to move faster in computing, and Microsoft might be feeling the strain.
As the AI giant seeks its own servers and chips, are we witnessing cracks in the power couple's already seemingly tenuous relationship? Let’s get into it…
In today’s AI rundown:
OpenAI seeks independence from Microsoft
AI pioneers awarded Nobel Prizes
Control object motion in AI videos
Adobe launches AI attribution system
5 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs
More AI & tech news
Read time: 4 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI
Image source: The Economist
The Rundown: OpenAI is reportedly looking to reduce its reliance on Microsoft for compute power and has started exploring options to set up its own data servers and secure AI chips independently, according to a new report from The Information.
The details:
CFO Sarah Friar told shareholders that Microsoft ‘hasn’t moved fast enough’ to supply computing power, causing the AI giant to look elsewhere.
OpenAI plans to lease an entire data center in Abilene, TX from Oracle, though Microsoft likely had to ‘bless’ the deal with its rival, according to the report.
OpenAI is also developing its own AI chip, which could lower costs for future computing clusters — its current supply is rented primarily from Microsoft.
Tensions have also reportedly arisen between OpenAI and Microsoft over the design and timeline of a massive joint data center project called ‘Fairwater.’
Why it matters: OpenAI and Microsoft’s relationship has felt a bit off for a while now. While both companies have leveraged each other well to ascend the AI power ladder, it certainly feels like there is trouble in paradise. There is plenty of smoke, and how this partnership shakes out could have fiery implications for the entire AI landscape.
TOGETHER WITH UNBLOCKED
The Rundown: Unblocked is the only developer tool that explains how a codebase works AND why.
Teams who use Unblocked say it saves every developer an hour or more a day by providing:
Instant and helpful answers about their codebase
Relevant context for whatever code they have open in their IDE
Automated answers to questions asked in Slack
AI & THE NOBEL PRIZE
Image source: Getty Images
The Rundown: Scientists Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield were jointly awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking work in machine learning and artificial neural networks, which significantly laid the foundation for the current AI boom.
The details:
Hinton, often called ‘The Godfather of AI,’ co-created a method for allowing neural networks to learn from mistakes, influencing modern AI model training.
The 91-year-old Hopfield, currently a professor at Princeton, developed a network model in 1982 that mimics how the brain recalls memories.
Hinton later worked at Google, leaving in 2023 and becoming a vocal critic of current AI advances and sounding the alarm over the tech’s dangers.
Hinton reiterated his concerns at his acceptance, saying his research may lead to ‘systems more intelligent than us eventually taking control.’
Why it matters: While both scientists helped pave the way for today’s AI boom, neither seems particularly comfortable with what the future may hold for the technology. Hinton, in particular, has become the face of the ‘AI doomer’ movement since leaving Google, pushing hard for increased regulation and safety alongside other AI pioneers.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: Kling AI, one of the most popular AI video generators, now lets you add strategic movement to specific elements in AI video, providing more control in your generated clips.
Step-by-step:
Choose a high-quality image with different elements to animate.
Access Kling AI's Image-to-Video tool and upload your image.
Use the Motion Brush to paint areas you want to animate and set motion paths for each area to define movement direction.
Fine-tune with prompts, adjust settings, and generate your video.
Pro tip: Keep movements subtle and natural for more realistic results, and experiment with different combinations to find what works best for your specific image.
PRESENTED BY INNOVATING WITH AI
The Rundown: Innovating with AI’s new program, AI Consultancy Project, equips AI enthusiasts with all the resources to capitalize on the rapidly growing AI consulting market – which is set to 8x to $54.7B by 2032.
The program offers:
Tools and framework to find clients and deliver top-notch services
A 6-month roadmap to build a 6-figure AI consulting business
Student landing their first AI client in as little as 3 days
AI RESEARCH
Image source: Adobe
The Rundown: Adobe just announced a new free web app called Adobe Content Authenticity, designed to help creators protect their work and receive proper attribution in the era of AI-generated content.
The details:
The web app allows creators to easily apply content credentials to images, audio, and video files, acting as a ‘nutrition label’ for digital content.
Content credentials include creator information and creation details and can signal if the creator doesn't want their work used to train AI models.
The system uses digital fingerprinting, invisible watermarking, and cryptographic metadata to make the credentials difficult to remove.
The web app, which has a waitlist, is expected to launch in Q1 of 2025, while a Chrome extension is available in beta today.
Why it matters: AI is extremely polarizing in the creator and artist community, largely due to the issues of unauthorized training and attribution that Adobe, Meta, OpenAI, and others are trying to address. While these tools are promising, they still rely heavily on widespread adoption and opt-in by creators and tech companies.
NEW TOOLS & JOBS
🗣️ HeyGen Avatar 3.0 - Create realistic AI avatars with full-body dynamic motion
🎥 Eddie AI - Prompt-to-video editing tool
📋 Cove - A visual workspace for thinking with AI
🤖 Opencord AI - An AI agent for 24/7 social engagement via replies
🧠 Kvistly - AI-powered quiz maker for better training and team building
QUICK HITS
OpenAI and Hearst announced a strategic partnership to integrate content from over 20 magazine brands and 40+ newspapers into OpenAI's AI products.
Hugging Face released OpenAI-Gradio, a new tool enabling the creation of AI-powered web apps using OpenAI’s models in just minutes with minimal code.
Uber unveiled plans to launch an OpenAI-powered AI assistant in early 2025 to help drivers with electric vehicle questions, aiming to accelerate EV adoption on the platform.
Anthropic launched Message Batches API, allowing developers to submit up to 10,000 queries for async processing in under 24 hours at a 50% discount compared to standard API calls.
Google added the ability to drag and drop any file type to upload directly into its AI Studio without importing it to Google Drive.
KoBold Metals raised $527M for its AI-powered mineral discovery tech that leverages extensive data analysis to uncover deposits with energy-critical minerals like copper, lithium, and nickel.
THAT’S A WRAP
That's it for today!Before you go we’d love to know what you thought of today's newsletter to help us improve The Rundown experience for you. |
See you soon,
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