Google and Microsoft revamp their AI offerings w/ Gemini and Copilot

Today’s Highlights:

📰 News: Google and Microsoft revamp their AI offerings

💰 Funding: Ambience Healthcare raises $70M for its AI Healthcare OS from OpenAI, a16z, and Kleiner Perkins

⚡️ Top News Stories:

1. Google rebrands Bard to Gemini, launching a comprehensive AI app for Android and integrating AI across its products.

• Gemini Ultra 1.0, Google's largest and most capable language model, is released to the public.

• The Gemini app can replace Google Assistant as the default AI on Android devices, signaling a shift in Google's AI strategy.

• Gemini aims to be a comprehensive AI assistant, offering conversational, multimodal, and helpful interactions.

• There's no dedicated Gemini app for iOS, but AI features are accessible in the Google app with a toggle to switch from Search to Gemini.

• Google rebrands Duet AI features in Workspace apps like Gmail and Docs to Gemini, enhancing productivity tools with AI.

• Gemini Pro is the standard model for most users, with Gemini Ultra available through a $20/month Google One AI Premium plan.

• Gemini Ultra is designed for more complex tasks like coding and logical reasoning, offering longer conversations and more context.

2. Microsoft shifts AI focus from Bing to Copilot, unveiling a Super Bowl ad to highlight AI's creative potential across its ecosystem

• Microsoft introduces new Copilot features, including advanced image creation tools, to enhance user experience.

• The company aims to unify its AI offerings under the Copilot brand, streamlining its approach to AI across products.

• Microsoft's broader AI strategy includes a significant Windows refresh focused on AI, leveraging local advanced AI models and NPU hardware.

3. YouTube CEO outlines four major priorities for 2024, focusing on AI, creators, living room innovations, and community protection.

• AI is positioned to empower human creativity, with YouTube introducing tools like Dream Screen for AI-generated backgrounds and a Music AI Incubator for creative exploration.

• Recognizing creators as next-generation studios, YouTube emphasizes their role in redefining entertainment and expanding monetization avenues.

• YouTube's AI initiatives aim to democratize creative tools, making advanced technology accessible to all users.

• The platform's approach to elections and synthetic content includes promoting authoritative sources and introducing labels for AI-generated content.

4. Meta is implementing "Imagined with AI" labels for photorealistic images created using its Meta AI feature across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

5. OpenAI has established a new Child Safety team to explore ways to prevent misuse of its AI tools by children, addressing concerns from activists and parents.

6. Satya Nadella visits India and focuses on AI's economic impact, with Microsoft aiming to train 2M Indians in AI by next year.

7. OpenAI, after the success of ChatGPT, is shifting its focus towards developing software capable of operating devices and automating complex tasks.

8. Apple, in collaboration w/ UC Santa Barbara, has developed a new AI model called MGIE (MLLM-Guided Image Editing) that allows users to edit images through text prompts

9. The Biden administration appoints Elizabeth Kelly, a top White House aide, as the director of the newly established AI Safety Institute at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST)

10. Major tech companies including Google, Apple, and Meta have joined the US AI Safety Institute Consortium, a collective effort to promote responsible AI development and use.

11. The FCC has officially declared AI-generated voice robocalls illegal, classifying them as "artificial" and in violation of the law when used in automated calling scams.

12. The EU has initiated a consultation on draft election security guidelines targeting large online platforms like Facebook, Google, TikTok, and X (Twitter) to mitigate democratic risks posed by generative AI and deepfakes.

💰 Top Funding News:

1. Ambience Healthcare, which offers a comprehensive AI operating system for healthcare organizations, raised $70M from Kleiner Perkins, OpenAI Startup Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Optum Ventures, Human Capital, Martin Ventures, AIX Ventures, and AirTree Ventures.

2. Colossyan, a GenAI startup that automates the creation of corporate training videos, raised $22M in a funding round, led by Lakestar, w/ Launchub, Day One Capital, and Emerge Education. 

3. Mechanical Orchard, a company specializing in transitioning global 2000 companies from mainframe-based IT systems to cloud-based applications using AI, raised a $24M Series A led by Emergence Capital w/ Industry Ventures, Spider Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Cendana Capital, and Webb Investment Network.

4. Ezra, which has developed the world's first 30-minute full body MRI, powered by its FDA-cleared Ezra Flash AI, raised a $21M funding round led by Healthier Capital. 

5. Unlearn, an AI company that creates digital twins of clinical trial participants, enabling smaller, faster studies, raised a $50M Series C led by Altimeter Capital, w/ Radical Ventures, Wittington Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Epic Ventures, and Necessary Venture Capital. 

6. Daedalus, a manufacturing company w/ AI-powered factories focused on creating bespoke precision parts for industries such as medical devices, aerospace, defense, and semiconductors, raised a $21M Series A led by Nokia-funded NGP Capital, w/ Khosla Ventures and Addition. 

7. Elemind, a neurotech health company that has developed a wearable neurotechnology platform using proprietary algorithms and AI to improve health through noninvasive, proactive brainwave stimulation emerged from stealth w/ a $12M Seed round. 

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