Superintelligence in 'a few thousand days'

PLUS: Nvidia partners with Alibaba

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

OpenAI's Sam Altman just predicted we're ‘a few thousand days’ away from superintelligence — AI that surpasses all human cognitive abilities.

If the timeline holds true, we could be on the brink of the most transformative era in human history. Let’s get into it…

In today’s AI rundown:

  • Superintelligence may be here sooner than expected

  • Nvidia and Alibaba to improve autonomous cars

  • AI video-to-video generation with Runway

  • IBM, NASA team up on new AI climate model

  • 6 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs

  • More AI & tech news

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

SAM ALTMAN

Image source: The Information

The Rundown: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman just suggested that superintelligent AI could emerge in just a few thousand days, marking a potentially transformative moment in human history that could usher in an era of unprecedented prosperity and capability.

The details:

  • Altman envisions AI giving people tools to solve complex problems and accelerate human progress in ways previously unimaginable.

  • He predicted the development of personal AI teams with virtual experts in various fields, capable of creating almost anything we can imagine.

  • Future applications could include personalized AI tutors, improved healthcare, and the ability to create any kind of software on demand.

  • Altman emphasized the need for abundant computing power and energy to make AI widely accessible, potentially leading to a new “Intelligence Age” characterized by human prosperity and scientific breakthroughs.

Why it matters: Being CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman knows more about the current capabilities of AI than almost anyone else on the planet—and he is hyperoptimistic about the future. But regardless of whether or not superintelligence is here in 5-10 years or 25-30 years, it’s coming, Altman says, and it’s going to change everything.

TOGETHER WITH 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

NVIDIA & ALIBABA

Image source: Midjourney

The Rundown: Alibaba Cloud and Nividia just announced a new collaboration to develop advanced AI solutions for autonomous driving, integrating Alibaba’s large language models with Nvidia’s automotive computing platform.

The details:

  • Alibaba's advanced Qwen AI models will be integrated into Nvidia's Drive AGX Orin platform, which is already used by major Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers.

  • The partnership aims to enhance in-car voice assistants with more dynamic conversations and intelligent recommendations based on visual and environmental data.

  • The companies are also working on adapting Alibaba’s AI models for Nvidia’s next-generation Drive Thor platform, combining advanced driver assitance, autonomous driving, and AI driver capabilities.

Why it matters: Two powerhouses in the AI space teaming up to fix issues with autonomous driving is a huge plus for advancing the car industry, but Nvidia deciding to use Alibaba’s Qwen models is an even bigger, and another unexpected win for open-source.

AI TRAINING

The Rundown: Runway now offers video-to-video, a new feature that allows you to simply upload a real-life reference video and generate a completely different AI video based on it.

Step-by-step:

  1. Sign up on Runway’s website and locate the “video-to-video” tool

  2. Choose the most advanced model (Gen-3 Alpha) and upload your reference video

  3. Write a detailed prompt describing how you want your video transformed

  4. Generate your AI video and refine by adjusting your prompt if needed

Pro tip: Try including words like "photorealistic" or "highly detailed" in your prompt for more lifelike results.

PRESENTED BY ZAPIER

The Rundown: Zapier is hosting a free-to-attend virtual AI conference to help users master the complexities of AI chatbots and automated workflows with Zapier Central.

You’ll get:

  • An interactive session with Steph Kley, Lead Product Manager at Zapier

  • Lessons on how to enhance automated workflows with the power of AI

  • Exclusive insights on the full capabilities of Zapier Central and Chatbots

Click here to register and tune in live on September 26.

IBM & NASA

Image Source: arXiv

The Rundown: NASA and IBM have joined forces to create Prithvi WxC, a groundbreaking AI foundation model for weather and climate applications — designed to address a wide range of environmental challenges.

The details:

  • Prithvi WxC is a large-scale AI model with 2.3 billion parameters, trained on 160 atmospheric variables from NASA's MERRA-2 dataset, spanning global atmospheric data from 1980 to present.

  • Unlike task-specific AI models, Prithvi WxC is a versatile foundation model that can be fine-tuned for various weather and climate applications.

  • The model uses advanced AI techniques to process both regional and global weather patterns, potentially improving the accuracy and efficiency of weather predictions.

  • NASA and IBM are embracing open science principles by making Prithvi WxC and its training workflows publicly available through Hugging Face.

Why it matters: This AI collab tackles one of humanity's most persistent challenges: accurate weather prediction. Prithvi WxC could lead to better weather predictions, disaster preparedness, and optimized agriculture schedules, potentially saving lives and making food cheaper for millions of people.

NEW TOOLS & JOBS

  • 🧠 Letta - Enhances memory capabilities for AI systems

  • 🎙️ Pdf2audio - Open-source tool that converts PDFs to podcasts, lectures, summaries, and more

  • 💡 NodeLand - Turn notes into mind maps

  • 🛒 BuyScout - An AI copilot for enhanced online shopping experiences

  • 🚀 Future AGI - Automated QA for AI models with custom metrics

  • 📸 Remade - AI-generated photoshoots for brand visuals

  • 🛡️ Shield AI - Technical Recruiter

  • 🏗️ OpenAI - Solutions Architect

  • 📊 Abridge - Marketing Operations Manager

  • ⚖️ Harvey - Product & Legal Enablement Lead

QUICK HITS

Free event: The Enterprise AI Deployment Playbook. Section’s CEO & COO give you the steps to get employee buy-in, launch pilots, and get AI ROI. RSVP.*

Researchers created an AI that can solve Google’s reCAPTCHAv2 image-based CAPTCHA tests with 100% accuracy, rendering the human verification method obsolete.

OpenAI launched Academy, providing $1 million in API credits, training, and support to AI developers and organizations in low- and middle-income countries.

Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes) teased a new project featuring AI-generated characters that transition from 2D to augmented reality.

Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to support the AI sector while protecting consumers in a pitch to donors at a New York City fundraiser.

LinkedIn suspended AI training on UK users’ data following privacy concerns raised by the Information Commissioner’s Office, halting the practice pending further engagement.

OpenAI released the Multilingual MMLU dataset, translating the AI benchmark into 14 languages to evaluate models’ knowledge across diverse cultures and improve multilingual capabilities.

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