Microsoft launches AI focused ‘Copilot Plus PCs’

Today’s Highlights:

📰 News: Microsoft launches hyper-efficient Copilot Plus PCs designed for AI computing + OpenAI disbands Superalignment team

💰 Funding: Coreweave raises $7.5 Bn in debt to expand AI computing infrastructure

⚡️ Top News Stories:

1. Microsoft introduces Copilot Plus PCs, boasting improved performance and battery efficiency with new ARM-powered Surface devices. Watch or read the highlights below:

• Microsoft is confident in its new ARM-powered Surface devices with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips, claiming significant performance improvements over Apple’s M-series MacBook’s.

• New Copilot Plus PCs outperform the MacBook Air M3 in benchmark tests and battery life, with the Surface Copilot Plus lasting up to almost 17 hours of web browsing.

• Microsoft’s improved Prism emulator offers better app compatibility and efficiency, supporting major native ARM64 apps like Photoshop, Dropbox, and Chrome.

• Copilot Plus PCs feature a neural processing unit (NPU) from Qualcomm, integrating over 40 AI models directly into Windows on ARM for new AI-driven experiences and improved efficiency.

• Major laptop manufacturers such as Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung are set to launch Copilot Plus PCs, marking a significant advancement in ARM-powered Windows laptops.

2. OpenAI disbands its long-term AI risk team, amid leadership exits, with critiques on shifting priorities from safety to product focus.

• OpenAI's superalignment team, intended to ensure future AGI safety, has been disbanded, with its responsibilities now spread thin across the remaining staff.

• OpenAI has been losing key employees focused on AI safety, including leaders Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, who recently left due to disagreements over company priorities.

• Other former employees expressed concerns about OpenAI's commitment to safety, citing insufficient resources and a shift towards rapid product development.

• Criticism also arose from OpenAI's offboarding agreements, which potentially strip ex-employees of equity if they criticize the company.

• OpenAI President Greg Brockman and CEO Sam Altman defended the company’s strategies and admitted to issues with the exit agreement clause, inviting affected employees to contact them.

3. Google DeepMind introduces the Frontier Safety Framework to identify and mitigate future risks posed by advanced AI models, focusing on severe harm potential.

4. OpenAI paused the use of Sky’s voice in ChatGPT’s voice mode, likely because of criticism it faced from its strong resemblance to Scarlett Johansson’s voice. OpenAI maintains that the voice belongs to a voice actor and provided details on how the voices for ChatGPT were selected.

5. ChatGPT enhances data analysis with direct file uploads from Google Drive and OneDrive, and interactive tables and charts.

6. Google published the full technical report on its Gemini 1.5 model family, highlighting enhancements in mathematics, coding, and multimodal benchmarks. 

7. Apple's new accessibility features leverage AI+ML, including Eye Tracking, Vocal Shortcuts, and Music Haptics for better device control and music experience.

8. Hugging Face commits $10M in free shared GPUs to support small developers, academics, and startups in creating new AI technologies, aiming to counter the dominance of major tech companies.

9. Ampere Computing partners with Qualcomm to reduce AI chip power consumption, by creating energy-efficient data center servers, with a new high-performance chip.

10. Synthesia has partnered with ElevenLabs to integrate advanced text-to-speech (TTS) and voice API technology into its generative AI video platform, allowing users to leverage high-quality, natural-sounding voices for their video projects and clone voices more efficiently.

11. Elon Musk is seeking 25% voting power over Tesla to ensure continued AI and robotics innovation.

12. Colorado enacts first-in-the-nation AI regulation law to prevent algorithmic discrimination in high-risk systems, mandating developers to use reasonable care to prevent discrimination, disclose information to regulators and the public, and complete impact assessments.

💰 Top Funding News:

1. CoreWeave secured $7.5 Bn in debt financing to expand its AI computing infrastructure by doubling its data centers by year-end,  following a recent $1.1 Bn equity funding round that valued the company at $19 Bn.

2. Snowflake Inc. is in talks to acquire Reka AI, a startup specializing in LLMs, for over $1 Bn to enhance its generative AI capabilities.

3. Recall.ai, which offers a universal API for extracting structured data from video conference conversations using AI-powered meeting bots, raised a $10M Series A led by Ridge Ventures, with participation from Industry Ventures, Y Combinator, IrregEx, Bungalow Capital, Hack VC, and other existing investors.

4. Kudos, which has developed an AI-powered smart wallet that recommends the best credit card to maximize rewards and cash back for purchases, raised a $10.2M Series A, led by QED Investors, with participation from Patron, The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly, Samsung Next, SV Angel, Precursor Ventures, The Mini Fund, Newtype Ventures, and the Four Cities Fund.

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