Top News in the Age of Autonomy (Through August 7th)
Alibaba Launches Their Open-Sourced LLM, Microsoft and Apple File For Exciting New Patents, and the Future of AI Can Hinder On A San Francisco Dilemma
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ArtificiaI Intelligence
Chinese Tech Giant Alibaba Challenges Meta with Open-Sourced A.I. Model Launch
CNBC | Arjun Kharpal
“Alibaba will be open-sourcing the seven-billion-parameter model called Qwen-7B, along with a version designed for conversational apps, called Qwen-7B-Chat. This means that researchers, academics and companies globally can use the model to create their own generative AI apps without needing to train their own systems, saving time and expense. Companies with more than 100 million monthly active users will require a royalty-free license from Alibaba to do so.”
MatX: Faster Chips for LLMs
A new company is being designed to build chips specifically for LLM’s. Below are a few members from their team.
“Team:
Reiner Pope, CEO: helped build Google PaLM. Wrote Google's fastest inference software.
Mike Gunter, CTO: helped build Google TPUs. Designed or architected 11 chips across six industries.
Our team has deep experience in ASIC design, compilers, and high-performance software.”
Robotics
Quantum leap: How Quantum Sensors Are Revolutionizing Robotics
VentureBeat | Jeff Wong, Kristin Gilkes
“Beyond agricultural uses for robot-mounted PAR sensors like Spot’s, robots with quantum gravity sensors could transform our ability to map underground structures. By measuring differences in gravitational fields more precisely, these sensors could help reduce construction risks through more accurate mapping of tunnels, caves or sinkholes, as well as helping environmental scientists to model and predict patterns of magma flow or groundwater levels to manage eruption and flood risks.”
How a California Vote on Self-Driving Taxis Could Alter the Future of AI
CNBC | David Ingram
“Cruise and Waymo have courted locals with goodwill measures like sponsorships of the San Francisco Giants and the San Francisco Marathon, while the city’s transportation office is strongly opposed to the expansion, citing congestion and other issues. Some opponents have even employed a guerrilla street tactic: they have planted traffic cones on the vehicles’ hoods to confuse the software and disable them.
The clash is in many ways a microcosm of all the thorny questions that AI is raising across the economy, including, How quickly will change occur? And what will happen to workers whose jobs are lost to robots?”
VR/AR
Vision Pro Displays Use Tech Designed to Reduce Eyestrain and Motion Sickness
9to5Mac | Ben Lovejoy
“A newly published Apple patent describes how Vision Pro displays use technology designed to reduce both motion sickness and eyestrain.
While motion sickness is a known concern with head-mounted displays, an eyestrain issue caused by the illusions they create is something I hadn’t encountered before …”
Microsoft Patent Reveals Modular HoloLens 3 Design That Could Make Mixed Reality Headsets More Affordable
Gizmochina | Ouz
“Microsoft has a new patent. This patent, which is based on mixed reality technology that combines AR and VR, contains clues about what the much-anticipated HoloLens 3 will be like.
The most exciting detail about Microsoft’s HoloLens 3 patent is that it will have a modular and affordable structure. This means that as the number of users increases, modules can be added as needed, allowing users to exchange different modules depending on their usage. Considering the company even has a deal with the U.S. army and it’s used in many areas in the business world, this is quite a functional development.”
Blockchain
PayPal Launches a Stablecoin in Latest Crypto Payments Push
Bloomberg | Anna Irrera
“PayPal Holdings Inc. is rolling out a stablecoin, the first by a large financial company and a potentially significant boost to the sluggish adoption of digital tokens for payments.
PayPal USD (PYUSD) is issued by Paxos Trust Co. and fully backed by US dollar deposits, short-term Treasuries and similar cash equivalents, the San Jose, California-based payments company said on Monday. It’s pegged to the dollar and will be gradually available to PayPal’s customers in the US.”
Hyundai, KIA Unveil Blockchain, AI Solution to Track Carbon Emissions
Ledger Insights
“Last week Korean automotive firms Hyundai and KIA announced a new blockchain and AI-powered Supplier CO2 Emission Monitoring System (SCEMS). The public Hedera DLT will be used to record the carbon emissions data from suppliers and artificial intelligence (AI) will predict future emissions.
The carbon footprint will be tracked throughout the lifecycle including the materials used, the manufacturing process and the transport of finished products.”