AIR#41 - April 14, 2024

Good morning, AI enthusiasts! Today's edition of AIR: The AI Recon is bursting at the seams with stories that navigate the thrilling intersections of AI's capabilities and ethical quandaries, all while painting a vivid picture of a future where technology and humanity converge in unexpected ways. Leading our journey is the groundbreaking paper revealing that LLMs like GPT-4 and Claude 3 now outshine traditional methods in regression tasks without the need for extra training. This revelation isn't just a win for efficiency; it's a beacon for the untapped potential of AI in areas we're just beginning to explore.

In the realm of tangible innovation, Grok-1.5V emerges as a trailblazer, merging text and visual AI to outperform its rivals in understanding the real world. This leap towards bridging digital and physical realms promises to redefine our interaction with technology, making it a story you can't afford to miss. Meanwhile, Adobe's Firefly AI finds itself in hot water, secretly training on rival Midjourney's images despite claims of ethical development. This tale of technological espionage adds a layer of intrigue and prompts a critical discussion on the ethical lines blurred in the race for AI supremacy.

As you sip on your coffee and peruse through today's selection, let these stories serve as a reminder of the dual-edged sword that is AI innovation. From the heights of breakthroughs that promise to expand our understanding and capabilities, to the depths of ethical dilemmas that challenge our principles, today's edition is a microcosm of the AI odyssey. Join us as we delve into the marvels and moral questions of artificial intelligence, all while keeping an eye on the horizon for what's next in this ever-evolving journey.

Business

Adobe's Firefly AI Trained on Rival Midjourney's Images Despite 'Ethical' Claims
Adobe's Firefly AI, touted as ethical, secretly trained on rival Midjourney's images, blurring ethical lines in AI development.

Google Cloud Next Embraces Generative AI Revolution
Google Cloud Next doubles down on generative AI, overshadowing its cloud roots with AI-driven enhancements and facing the complexities of real-world implementation.

Adobe Pays for Clips to Train Ethical Text-to-Video AI, Avoids Copyright Issues
Adobe bucks the trend, paying for clips to ethically train its text-to-video AI, steering clear of copyright woes.

Axios Adjusts Strategy in Response to AI's Impact on Media Industry
Axios adapts to AI's media disruption with live events, journalist-led memberships, and niche newsletters, focusing on human expertise over machine-generated content.

"GPT: The Heroku for AI Startups - Ken Kantzer's Insight"
GPT revolutionizes AI startup landscape, slashing entry barriers & costs, akin to Heroku's impact on app development. #AIStartupRevolution

Europe's AI Hope: Mistral's Quest to Rival US Tech Giants
Europe's Mistral aims to rival US AI giants, championing open-source AI for global inclusivity and innovation, backed by French government and tech investors.

Local Banks vs. Wall Street: The AI Revolution Beyond the Big Names
Local banks are racing Wall Street in the AI revolution, transforming branches with tech to offer superior customer service and community engagement.

Aaron Levie Discusses AI's Unexpected Job Creation Impact
Aaron Levie reveals AI boosts job creation by making companies more productive, leading to growth and more hires, not just cuts.

Engineering

Grok-1.5V: Bridging Digital and Physical Worlds with Multimodal AI
Grok-1.5V launches, merging text and visual AI, outshining rivals in real-world understanding. Ready to redefine digital-physical interaction.

Open Source Models Now Surpass 1.5-Year-Old Closed Source Counterparts
Open source AI models now outperform 1.5-year-old closed source ones, marking a significant shift in tech advancement.

China's Taichi Chip Achieves 160-TOPS/W in Photonic AI Breakthrough
China's Taichi chip, a photonic breakthrough, hits 160-TOPS/W, revolutionizing AI efficiency and scaling.

Transform Websites into LLM-Ready Markdown with FireCrawl
FireCrawl transforms any website into LLM-ready markdown, offering clean data for AI devs with a free trial and no sitemap needed.

Jim Keller: Nvidia Could've Saved Billions Using Ethernet for Blackwell GPUs
Jim Keller argues Nvidia could've saved billions and eased software migration by using Ethernet instead of proprietary NVLink for Blackwell GPUs.

Chessmate Demo: Beat Chess Faster with Blunder Prediction AI
Chessmate's AI predicts your chess moves to outplay you faster than Stockfish, using blunders to its advantage. Ready to lose quicker?

Exploring iGPU Compute and LLMs on the AceMagic AM18: A Comprehensive Review
AceMagic AM18 review: iGPU shines in LLM & compute tasks with caveats. Proxmox boosts homelab use, but CUDA still reigns. Potential for edge AI, needing more Linux & LLM support.

[GitHub] IceburgCRM: AI-Enhanced Laravel CRM Builder
IceburgCRM launches on GitHub: Open-source Laravel CRM with AI abilities, customizable modules, and themes for dynamic CRM prototyping.

[Github] HuggingFace's Ratchet: Cross-Platform Browser ML Framework
HuggingFace launches Ratchet, a cross-platform ML framework for browsers, making AI integration into web apps easier.

Academic

🔥 [Paper] LLMs as Competent Regressors with In-Context Examples: Surpassing Traditional Methods
LLMs like GPT-4 & Claude 3 now outperform traditional methods in regression tasks, no extra training needed.

OpenAI's Neural Networks "Grok" Data Beyond Overfitting
OpenAI neural networks defy overfitting, "grokking" deep solutions in data, hinting at new machine learning horizons beyond traditional training limits.

[Paper] Unveiling the Mechanics of Self-Attention in Token Prediction
New study reveals self-attention in AI predicts next token by selecting key inputs, then blending them, a step towards demystifying AI language models.

[Paper] Ferret-v2 Enhances Referring and Grounding in LLMs with High-Resolution and Multi-Granularity Visual Encoding
Ferret-v2 revolutionizes LLMs with high-res and multi-granularity visual encoding, setting new benchmarks in image understanding.

DeepMind's AI Mathematicians Edge Toward Human-Level Reasoning
DeepMind's AI outsmarts humans in math, edging closer to human-level reasoning and possibly AGI.

[Paper] GPT-4's Role in Algorithmic Collusion: A Call for Antitrust Regulation
Study finds GPT-4 pricing bots may collude, harming consumers, highlighting urgent need for antitrust laws in AI.

Intuitive Guide to Understanding Large Language Models (LLMs)
Dive into LLMs with visual metaphors: conceptual islands in a semantic sea, navigating language through a game of conceptual hopscotch.

Arnold Kling's Skeptical View on AI's Progress and Future Potential
Arnold Kling casts a skeptical eye on AI progress, arguing innovation and application development don't match the hype. Real breakthroughs take time.