This week in AI news, OpenAI announced the opening of a new office in Japan, marking the company’s first outpost in Asia. The move is significant as Japan has more relaxed copyright laws and regulations for AI developers compared to other countries like the U.S. and U.K. OpenAI is also rolling out a custom GPT-4 model optimized for translating and summarizing text in Japanese, with former Amazon Web Services executive Tadao Nagasaki leading the operations. Japan has been dubbed a “machine learning paradise” due to its laws that allow copyrighted materials to be used for training AI models without consent.
In other news, Google unveiled a new AI chip called Axion, built on ARM’s CPUs, to reduce its dependence on external vendors for expensive compute resources. The chips offer up to 30% better performance and are 60% more energy efficient than existing options. Amazon is using an in-house AI model to reduce packaging waste, saving 500,000 tons of packaging a year. Brett Adcock, founder of humanoid robotics company Figure, envisions a future where AI-powered robots perform household chores and unsafe jobs, with a recent partnership with BMW and funding from Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI pushing the company to a $2.6 billion valuation.
Microsoft announced a $1.5 billion investment in G42, an Abu Dhabi-based holding company developing AI products across sectors like healthcare and surveillance. The move strengthens ties between the U.S. and UAE in the race to stay ahead of China in AI development. Saudi Arabia’s generative AI accelerator, Gaia, has faced criticism for delays in paying out promised government grants to startups involved in the program. The total number of new generative AI models launched in 2023 was 149, with 65.7% of them being open source.
Criticism has surrounded San Francisco-based AI company Humane’s AI Pin, with reviews calling the device “thoroughly unfinished” and “totally broken.” The device, touted as a personal assistant, has faced issues with overheating and functionality. A new $400 Oral B toothbrush claims to use AI for 3D teeth tracking and position detection, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff suggesting that the AI hype cycle may have reached its peak. Stay updated with the latest AI news by subscribing to The Prompt, a weekly rundown of AI’s top startups, breakthroughs, and business deals.
