Alphabet Is Merging Google Brain and DeepMind to Form a New AI Team

⚡ Today’s Highlights

• 📰 News: Alphabet is merging Google Brain and DeepMind

• 💰 Funding: CoreWeave, Robust.AI, Fletch, FiVerity, and Quanscient

• 🦾 Tools: AI makes writing and testing code effortless

• 📅 Events: The Stable Diffusion AI Hackathon and the AI in Finance Summit New York end today!

📰 Today's Top Stories

Announcing Google DeepMind

(4 min read) (Source: DeepMind)

TLDR: Alphabet Inc is merging Google Brain and DeepMind to create a new AI division, led by Demis Hassabis.

• The new team will work on "multimodal" AI to compete with OpenAI's GPT-4. Alphabet aims to ensure the "bold and responsible development of general AI" through this move.

• The teams to be combined have already delivered several high-profile projects, including the transformer, the foundation of some of OpenAI's work.

• Alphabet seeks to prevent Google from falling behind Microsoft in the rapidly evolving AI race, and its newly merged team will focus on creating sophisticated campaigns resembling those created by marketing agencies.

• Financial Times reports that Google also plans to introduce generative AI to its advertising business over the next few months, allowing it to create more sophisticated campaigns resembling those created by marketing agencies.

• Advertisers can supply "creative" content such as imagery, video, and text, which the AI will then "remix" to generate ads based on the audience it aims to reach and other goals such as sales targets. However, there are concerns that this could lead to the spread of misinformation from LLM hallucinations.

Stack Overflow Will Charge AI Giants for Training Data

(11 min read) (Source: WIRED)

TLDR: Stack Overflow, a popular online forum for programming help, plans to start charging large AI developers for access to its 50 million questions and answers. This follows Reddit's announcement to charge some AI developers for its content starting in June.

• The News/Media Alliance, a US trade group of publishers, including Condé Nast, unveiled principles calling on AI developers to negotiate the use of their data for training and other purposes and respect their right to fair compensation.

• OpenAI, Meta, and Google have developed AI systems using data sets that include content from Stack Overflow and Reddit. Feeding online banter or expert discussions into machine learning algorithms known as large language models can help AI text generators or chatbots be more fluent and knowledgeable.

The Big Picture: Proper licensing of data can accelerate the development of high-quality large language models. However, having to pay for data that was previously free could extend the timelines of many of these projects, particularly for teams with fewer resources.

Fed in discussions with banks about managing risks of AI: Waller

(2 min read) (Source: Reuters)

TLDR: The Federal Reserve regularly discusses managing AI-related risks with banks using AI for customer service applications, fraud monitoring, and underwriting.

• AI could bring new efficiencies to bank processes but involves novel risks, such as difficulties in detecting problems or biases in large datasets.

• Smart contracts on the blockchain also hold promise to modernize transaction settlements but pose risks, such as cyber vulnerabilities and bugs, according to Fed Governor Christopher Waller.

💰 Funding Alerts

• CoreWeave, a specialized cloud provider, has received $221 million in Series B funding led by Magnetar Capital, with contributions from NVIDIA, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross.

  • The company delivers GPU compute resources for compute-intensive tasks, such as VFX, rendering, machine learning, AI, batch processing, and pixel streaming, that are significantly faster and cheaper than public clouds.

  • The company plans to use the funding to meet the needs of the growing number of generative AI applications by delivering a massive scale of GPU compute resources on top of the industry's fastest and most flexible infrastructure.

• Robust.AI recently received $20 million in a Series A-1 funding round led by Prime Movers Lab, with contributions from Future Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, JAZZ Ventures, and Playground Global.

  • The robotics company uses AI to offer flexible warehouse solutions with its Carter autonomous warehouse cart and Grace software.

  • They plan to use the money to expand their product offerings and scale up their business.

• Fletch, an AI-powered cybersecurity solution, raised $12.5 million in a series A funding round led by True Ventures.

  • Fletch's NLP engine scans 10,000 articles daily to detect emerging threats and analyzes an organization's technology, geography, and industry exposure to provide a risk profile for security teams.

• Quanscient, a company that offers cloud and quantum computing-powered multiphysics simulation technology, received €3.9 million in seed financing led by Maki.vc (Ilkka Kivimäki, founding partner), with additional non-equity funding from Business Finland. 

  • The funding will be used to further product development and expansion, and the company aims to make hardware development faster, more efficient, and more sustainable.

• FiVerity, a company that creates the Anti-Fraud Collaboration platform, has received $4 million in seed financing. The funding round was led by Mendon Venture Partners (John Clausen, Partner), with participation from other investors such as FinCapital, Mendoza Ventures, Service Provider Capital, and Grasshopper Bank.

  • The company aims to provide a collaborative approach to fraud detection that will accelerate the detection and prevention of both known and unknown fraud.

  • FiVerity plans to use the funds to expand its network of information providers and data while introducing advanced machine learning algorithms that will identify the methods fraudsters are using.

🦾 Trending Tools

• Ironclad’s AI-Powered Contract Repository streamlines contract management with an AI-powered repository that saves businesses time and money. Easily upload, search, and track contracts at scale, while gaining full context of your agreements. Join the global leader in digital contract management and transform the way you operate with Ironclad.

• Checksum is an AI-based testing tool that automatically generates and maintains end-to-end tests based on user sessions. It saves months in development time, provides comprehensive coverage using ML models trained on production sessions, and requires no maintenance. Integration is a breeze with automatic and privacy-centric data collection, and tests can be run using open-source frameworks like Cypress and Playwright. Stop firefighting and ship with confidence knowing your code is thoroughly tested.

• Yarnit is a witty AI-powered content marketing platform that streamlines content production, distribution, measurement, and strategy. Personalized, all-in-one app to create, design, and audit content at 10X speed and quality. It's intelligent, easy to use, and trained with your own data for optimal results.

• Refraction is a powerful code generation tool that uses AI to automatically generate code for developers. With features such as bug detection, code conversion, and unit test generation, Refraction saves developers time and increases productivity by allowing them to focus on higher-level tasks.

• Playtext is a text-to-speech app that uses AI technology to read text aloud at up to 4x faster than normal speed, enhancing reading speed and comprehension. The distraction-free environment and simultaneous reading and listening make it ideal for those with learning disabilities or dyslexia.

👀 More Reading

• Companies Turn to AI to Avoid ‘Cloud Sprawl’ (The Wall Street Journal)

• AI’s pandemonium leaves global leaders scrambling (POLITICO)

• AI in Hiring and Evaluating Workers: What Americans Think (Pew Research Centre)

• How to worry wisely about artificial intelligence (The Economist)

• How AI is restoring voices damaged by ALS using voice banking (The Washington Post)

• Americans think AI is someone else’s problem (Vox)

🌎 Fresh Content

1. Author, professor, and scholar Nita Farahany (The Battle For Your Brain) joins Dax Shepard on Armchair Expert to discuss brain wave monitoring and how AI is currently being used to predict human behavior. (Spotify)

2. OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman discusses the design principles of ChatGPT and shares unreleased plug-ins in a TED Talk. He is joined by TED head Chris Anderson to discuss the risks of releasing such a powerful tool. (YouTube)

3. This video from ColdFusion goes in-depth into how AI-generated art has rapidly evolved over the last few months and the trouble that it may spell for artists in nearly all industries. The recent wave of AI-generated music seems to be bringing the legal ramifications of AI-generated content into the mainstream and is raising awareness around the need for regulation of AI tech. (YouTube)

4. “As an AI language model, I don’t have a physical form and can’t open the pod bay doors Dave.” (Reddit)

📚 Research

• ChatGPT makes materials research much more efficient (Phys.org)

• Can deep learning help us save mangrove forests? (Phys.org)

• AI offers tool to improve surgeon performance (MedicalXpress)

• Scientists look at how single-celled organisms might help build better AI (Cosmos Magazine)

 📅 Upcoming Events

1. The Stable Diffusion AI Hackathon ends today (April 14 - 21, 2023), a 7-day hackathon in which participants must develop a product that leverages the power of Generative AI to solve real-world problems. To participate in the hackathon, you must create the solution using Stability.AI API and Vercel software. 1st place wins $5000 USD, 5000 API tokens, and a virtual coffee chat with @hardmaru!

2. Check out the AI in Finance Summit New York (April 20-21, 2023, etc.venues - New York, NY) and discover unique insights and technical use cases from AI specialists and data scientists across Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sectors.

3. Semantic Layer Summit 2023 (April 26th, 2023, 10:30 AM - 05:00 PM EST / Virtual) is a free one-day virtual event featuring 50+ Enterprise Data Leaders & Top Industry Technologists. Hear advice and best practices from top data leaders, AI & BI technologists, & industry experts in Enterprise data analytics.

4. EmTech Digital (May 2-3, 2023 / In person on the MIT campus or Virtual), MIT Technology Review’s signature AI conference, provides CIOs, CPOs, and IT decision makers with the technology insight and business expertise to implement AI systems that enhance products, improve customer experiences, and ensure market success. This year’s conference focuses on the game-changing power of generative AI and how it will impact creators and clients alike. We’ll explore the models behind the technology and the legal implications of generated content. We meet leading researchers and explore hands-on case studies of amazing applications of all forms of AI.

🧠 Resources

Today’s prompts are all about taking your data analysis skills to the next level! Our goal is to make difficult tasks easier and more efficient for you. Don't worry if you're not an 'AI Whisperer,' give these prompts a try and let us know what you think. We're excited to hear your feedback! Remember, these prompts are just a starting point. Tailor them to fit your needs and carefully review the outputs to ensure their accuracy and effectiveness. Let's get started!

Excel Calculator

• Show me how to convert an Excel sheet into a text-based calculator that can perform calculations based on cell values and formulas.

• Prompt: "I would like to learn how to create a text-based Excel calculator. Please guide me through the process by providing step-by-step instructions. Assume that I have a sheet with 100 rows and 26 columns (A to Z), with the first column header being empty to reference row numbers. Please demonstrate how to enter formulas and return the result of the Excel table as text. Please provide explanations and results. Let's begin by you showing me how to enter a simple formula, and we will proceed from there."

Data Analysis

• Teach me how to analyze a large dataset and create a visually appealing report using a pivot table in Excel.

• Prompt: "I would like to learn how to analyze a large dataset containing sales information for a retail store and create a visually appealing report using a pivot table in Excel. Please guide me through the process by providing step-by-step instructions. Assume that I have the necessary dataset in an Excel sheet. Please demonstrate how to create a pivot table, summarize the sales data by salesperson and by product, and create a visually appealing report. Also, show me how to include any necessary charts or graphs to help visualize the data. Let's begin by you showing me how to create a pivot table, and we will proceed from there."

Text Extraction

• Show me how to use Excel to extract text strings from a sheet based on specific criteria.

• Prompt: "I would like to learn how to use Excel to extract text strings from a sheet based on specific criteria. Please guide me through the process by providing step-by-step instructions. Assume that I have an empty sheet containing 100 rows and 26 columns (A to Z), with the first column header being empty to reference row numbers. Please demonstrate how to extract the fourth word in a cell only when a specified cell number is greater than 100 and when the cell starts with a specific word and ends with another specific word. For example, 'Extract the fourth word in A1 only when cell B1 is greater than 100 and when C1 starts with the word “hello” and ends with the word “goodbye”'. Let's begin by you showing me how to set up the criteria and filter the data accordingly."

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