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- Zuck plans to build open-source AGI
Zuck plans to build open-source AGI
PLUS: Humanoid robots head to BMW factory
Rowan Cheung
January 19, 2024
Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
Mark Zuckerberg just announced Meta’s grand AI ambitions — revealing plans to eventually open-source AGI for the benefit of all humanity.
The race for AGI is heating up. Let’s dive deeper…
In today’s AI rundown:
Zuckerberg and Meta steer towards open AGI
Figure’s humanoid robots joining BMW manufacturing
How to create immersive 360º images with AI
AI skin cancer detection device gets FDA approval
7 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs
More AI & tech news
Read time: 4 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
META
Image source: The Verge
The Rundown: Mark Zuckerberg just revealed that Meta is actively pursuing the development of artificial general intelligence in exclusive interviews and a video on Threads — with a focus on open-sourcing it “as much as possible” to benefit humanity.
The details:
Meta is bringing together its FAIR and GenAI AI research teams with a long-term vision of building AGI, open-sourcing it responsibly, and making it widely usable to benefit society.
Zuckerberg highlighted the team is currently training Llama-3.
He also touted Meta's massive AI infrastructure, expected to include 350,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs by the end of 2024 (currently priced at ~10.5 billion).
Zuckerberg still sees future AGI assistants interacting with people primarily through AR/VR headsets like Meta's Ray-Ban Stories glasses.
The commentary and vision comes despite previous AGI skepticism from Meta’s Chief Scientist Yann LeCun, who has said he doesn’t believe the tech will be achieved any time soon.
Why it matters: This video, along with Sam Altman’s comments in Davos, continue to fuel speculation that AGI is closer than ever. But Meta’s open-source commitment is the real game-changer — with the potential to better democratize AGI advancements, unlike rivals with closed models.
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FIGURE & BMW
Image source: Figure
The Rundown: Robotics startup Figure just announced an agreement with BMW, with plans to deploy its humanoid industrial robots at the automaker’s manufacturing facility in South Carolina as soon as this year.
The details:
The partnership will start with identifying initial use cases for these robots in production, followed by a staged deployment.
Figure's robots will be integrated into BMW's Spartanburg plant, with a focus on automating difficult, unsafe, and tedious tasks.
Likely early use cases include material handling, pick and place, and pallet loading and unloading — helping automate positions with high human employee turnover.
Figure CEO Brett Adcock told TechCrunch the robots will be ‘effectively leased’ through a robotics as a service-type structure — with other clients already lined up in addition to BMW.
Why it matters: Landing a major automaker demonstrates a serious growing commercial interest in versatile humanoid robots — and hints at a (shockingly close) future where humans and AI-powered robots collaborate closely in both blue and white-collar work environments.
AI TRAINING
GIF source: @NickFloats via X
The Rundown: The addition of advanced upscaling tools in AI image generators allows for more detail than ever. Now, you can take your generation to a 360-degree immersive view with the prompt and workflow below.
Thank you to Nick St. Pierre for sharing this workflow.
Step-by-step:
Head to Midjourney, type /imagine, and use the following prompt:
“equirectangular photograph of a [insert setting] --ar 2:1 --tile --style raw --stylize 50 --v 6”
Once you land on an image you are satisfied with, upscale it in Midjourney and export.
Import the image into an AI upscaler like Magnific or Img.Upscaler to enhance the details even more.
Open the final image in a VR/panorama viewer (RenderStuff has a free browser option) and explore!
AI RESEARCH
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: Health technology company DermaSensor just received FDA approval for its handheld device that uses AI and spectroscopy to effectively detect the three most common skin cancers in real time during office visits.
The details:
In an FDA study, the device correctly identified 96% of skin cancers, with a 97% chance of correctly ruling out cancer.
The non-invasive device works by shining light on the skin and analyzing cellular patterns with an integrated AI algorithm.
DermaSensor said its device will utilize a subscription model, priced at $199/mo for five patients, or unlimited use at $399/mo.
DermaSensor envisions improving collaboration between PCPs and dermatologists — allowing point-of-care access that can lead to quicker diagnoses and referrals.
Why it matters: DermaSensor's clearance represents a milestone in AI's role in healthcare — potentially revolutionizing early skin cancer detection. While the approval took a whopping 12 years, hopefully, this opens the floodgates for a wave of AI-powered medical innovations in the coming years.
NEW TOOLS & JOBS
Superhuman for iOS- The fastest email app is now on Apple (link)
DGM- Professional diagrams for the web and AI (link)
Camp- Fix your screenshot mess with AI (link)
mentalport- Streamline daily mental wellness (link)
Tango- Streamlines proposal-to-payment process (link)
Lume- Automate data mappings with AI (link)
Modelize.ai 1.0- AI workflow automation suite (link)
QUICK HITS
RunwayML introduced a new feature called the Multi Motion Brush, allowing creators to manipulate multiple areas of a video generation with different motion.
OpenAI announced a new partnership with Arizona State University, its first higher education deal granting the institution full enterprise access to ChatGPT for coursework, tutoring, and more.
The World Health Organization released ethics guidance for health applications of AI models, outlining over 40 recommendations to address risks like inaccuracy and automation bias.
Microsoft unveiled a suite of AI innovations aimed at enhancing productivity and personalizing learning, featuring expanded Copilot access, Loop collaboration, and an updated reading coach with generative stories.
DeepLearning AI launched LLMOps, a new short course by Google Cloud's Erwin Huizenga, which introduces automation in LLM-based application development.
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas announced Perplexity’s LLM APIs will power the new Rabbit R1 along with granting the first 100,000 users to purchase a Rabbit R1 a year of Perplexity Pro.
Microsoft has rebranded its Bing Image Creator into ‘Image Creator from Designer’, coming after its Bing Search was also changed to Copilot last year.
A report from 404 Media found that Google News is increasingly featuring AI-generated articles, raising concerns about content reliability and originality.
THAT’S A WRAP
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