AI: Weekly Summary. RTZ #521
...week ending October 25, 2024
Apple Intelligence & new hardware next week: Apple has a Mac event on Monday, with new AI powered M4 Mac models, and Apple Intelligence iOS 18.1 being released for iPhones and iPads. The company is also testing iOS 18.2 with Developers with more Apple Intelligence features like ‘Visual Search’, and the long-awaited integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. That release could be released to users over the coming two to three months. Users and investors continue to eagerly await more evidence of Apple Intelligence products and services, while Apple is being careful to take its time releasing them only as they’re ready at scale. This wait and see dynamic is likely to continue in the near term. More here.
AI Content Copyright deals & litigation accelerate: AI industry continues to see ongoing copyright litigation (Perplexity/Dow Jones), deals (Meta/Reuters) and debates (Google/NYTimes), as the LLM AI companies continue to scale their models. Industry is also seeing new AI startups like Tollbit to act as technology platforms and intermediaries in these interactions. Perplexity in particular seems to be on the receiving end of more content company litigation. Even as it seems to be making progress on its products and growth metrics and completing another financing. These trends likely par for the course for the industry as a whole, in the near term. More here.
OpenAI & Anthropic step up AI Agentic/Reasoning Tools: Both OpenAI and Anthropic had separate announcements of upgraded AI Agentic tool capabilities that reflect progress by both companies on better AI Reasoning and Agentic capabilities. More here. Anthropic’s capabilities in particular focused on using LLM AI Claude to operate computers and peripherals to perform AI driven tasks on user machines. The services are mostly for Developers currently, on the road to being productized. But these developments mark the roadmap to broader AI capabilities beyond chatbot queries. More here.
Nvidia expanding relationships in India: Nvidia founder/CEO Jensen Huang expanded a range of AI relationships with key companies like Reliance, Tata and others in India this week. This continues Nvidia’s focus on a key market for both customers and AI ecosystem partnerships beyond China. These efforts reflect another big example of Nvidia’s ‘Sovereign AI’ strategy, focusing on public/private customer relationships that are focused on encouraging the development of LLM AIs for specific national markets. This category already represents a multi-billion revenue category for the company, and continues to represent a geopolitical focus for Nvidia.More here.
Google Alphabet Waymo closes new external financing: Google/Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo completed a $5.6 billion funding round, marking an acceleration of the AI robotaxi race in the US. Investors included a16z, Fidelity, Tiger Global, T. Rowe, as well as existing investor Silver Lake. The move marks Waymo’s continued ramp up of its robotaxi services in LA, San Francisco, Phoenix and beyond. Tesla of course had its ‘cybercab’ rollout a few weeks ago, with service plans in 2027 and beyond. Similar ventures are also underway by other companies in China and elsewhere. All participants have ways to go to true ‘Level 5’ self-driving vehicles without steering wheels and with regulatory approvals in various jurisdictions. More here on Tesla efforts.
Other AI Readings for weekend:
Foundation Robotics Investments ramp up. More here.
OpenAI GPT-5 ‘Orion’ December launch date speculation debated. More here on broader context.
Up next, the Sunday ‘The Bigger Picture’ tomorrow. Stay tuned.
(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)