This week in AI and ML news: Tech leaders issue another warning, NVIDIA joins an exclusive club, and more.
Author’s Note
Reef Awareness Day, June 1st, draws attention to the vital role coral reefs play, the range of threats they face, and the steps we can take to protect them.
To learn more about how computer vision and other emerging AI technologies support conservation efforts and Blue Economy innovation, check out our podcast conversation with MarineSitu’s Co-Founders and read our blog for details on use cases including endangered species monitoring and waterway waste management.
Google Shares Highlights from I/O 2023
Google held its latest I/O conference on May 10th, focusing primarily on its research into new AI-powered solutions, the itinerary included updates on some of the following exciting projects:
- PaLM 2, Google’s Large Language Model (LLM) is being integrated into a number of the company’s products, including its generative AI-powered assistant Bard. Developers will soon have access to Codey, a version of PaLM 2 designed to provide support in the form of insights like bug fixes and error corrections. A specialized LLM for the medical community, Med-PaLM 2, is in the works as well. Perhaps most notable is the LLM’s integration into Google’s flagship feature, Search. What Google calls the Search Generative Experience promises to transform the ubiquitous online hub.
- In the world of image generation, Google touted updates to its Imagen solution including new features for Google Slides and I/O Flip, a version of the popular card game that allows users to design personalized images. New developments to Vertex AI were of particular interest to Plainsight.
- During a pre-conference presentation, Google showed off Phenaki, its evolving text-to-video generation model.
- Google showcased a handful of its projects focused on applying AI technologies for addressing global challenges and promoting social good, including a solution called Green Light designed to reduce stop-and-go traffic in busy cities to reduce overall emissions.
- I/O brought the launch of MusicLM, Google’s new text-to-music model, capable of turning text prompts into 20-second snippets of music.
Read a more detailed overview of all the potentially game-changing work going on at Google Research over on their blog.
Generative AI Demand Powers NVIDIA to Trillion-Dollar Status
One of the business world’s most exclusive clubs briefly welcomed a new member this week as NVIDIA became the ninth company to achieve a trillion-dollar market cap. Currently, just five companies – including the Big Tech quarter of Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon – hold the rare distinction. The company, which makes the chips behind generative AI solutions, made the news last week as well when it reported huge quarterly earnings and a more-than-optimistic forecast for the future. So far in 2023, NVIDIA’s stock price is up around 180%, exceeding $400 a share.
In addition to powering solutions like Bard and Chat-GPT, NVIDIA’s technology was a crucial part of Plainsight’s work to transform real-time livestock counting for JBS USA, one of the world’s largest food companies. Learn how NVIDIA GPUs and Plainsight’s vision AI solutions combined to help JBS exceed its accuracy goals and avoid potential hundreds of millions in annual losses.
AI Experts Warn of Extinction-Level Threat
Just a few weeks after addressing lawmakers in Washington about the need for a regulatory apparatus to govern emerging technologies, OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, has joined hundreds of executives, scientists, and other experts in issuing a grave, intentionally brief warning. Hosted on the Center for AI Safety’s website, it reads:
Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.
Open letters have been a fixture of the tech newscycle since OpenAI’s solutions first made waves online. Back in March, Elon Musk joined thousands in signing a letter that called for a six-month pause on major AI projects to allow for further research into the capabilities and risks of emerging solutions. That letter came just a week after dispatch from Bill Gates in which he declared “The Age of AI Has Begun” and called generative solutions “the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface.”
Which side do you land on: optimistic or apocalyptic?
About the Author & Plainsight
Bennett Glace is a B2B technology content writer and cinephile from Philadelphia. At Plainsight, he plays a central role in planning and delivering content that supports Plainsight’s efforts to make vision AI success a repeatable, scalable reality for enterprises across a range of industries.
Plainsight provides the unique combination of AI strategy, a vision AI platform, and deep learning expertise to develop, implement, and oversee transformative computer vision solutions for enterprises. Through the widest breadth of managed services and a vision AI platform for centralized processes and standardized pipelines, Plainsight makes computer vision repeatable and accountable across all enterprise vision AI initiatives. Plainsight solves problems where others have failed and empowers businesses across industries to realize the full potential of their visual data with the lowest barriers to production, fastest value generation, and monitoring for long-term success. For more information, visit plainsight.ai.
