Smartphone Upgrade 'Supercycle', Mistral AI Series B, Your Robot Butler becomes your Chauffer
This Week in AI: Volume CI, Issue #32
Get smarter faster with thought-provoking, curated AI content for creators, entrepreneurs, and investors.
TOP NEWS
Apple push into AI could spark smartphone upgrade ‘supercycle’
Apple’s new AI models will only run on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max because they are the only iPhones with the A17 processor. Even a brand-new iPhone 15 won’t be able to run the new AI features. Macs with an M1, 2, or 3 chip will also be able to run the new AI models, as will iPad Pros with the same chips.
Critics are viewing this as a way to force people to upgrade their iPhones, and Gadjo Sevilla, a senior analyst at Emarketer, says consumers might see this as a bad move towards forced obsolescence. But Apple may have had no choice but to limit the AI features to newer devices because of the cutting-edge chips required. Most of the functionality of Apple Intelligence will run on-device, which needs a lot of processing power. Not all chips will be able to do that.
Apple continues to emphasize its commitment to user privacy in its AI development: The company will set a "new standard for privacy in AI," employing innovative cloud computing methods that ensure user data security.
Concerns remain about the security risks associated with Apple's AI approach: Specifically, the potential for "prompt injection" attacks, where malicious actors could exploit AI systems to gain access to sensitive user information. This issue is an inherent vulnerability of large language models (LLMs).
Paris-based AI startup Mistral AI raises $640M
Despite only being founded about a year ago, Mistral AI has raised $640 million in a Series B, valuing the Paris-based AI startup at a whopping $6 billion. Mistral AI has released some of their pre-trained and fine-tuned models, to include Mistral 7B, 8x7B, and 8x22B under an open source license. Their most advanced model, Mistral Large, remains proprietary.
This significant investment highlights the confidence investors have in Mistral AI's potential to compete with major players like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta.
The strategic approach between open source and proprietary lets Mistral AI balance the benefits of open-source collaboration with the potential for revenue generation.
Additionally, Mistral AI has developed Codestral, a generative AI model for code with a restrictive license that prohibits commercial use of its outputs.
TOP RESEARCH
Toward Autonomous Driving by Musculoskeletal Humanoids: A Study of Developed Hardware and Learning-Based Software
The musculoskeletal humanoid, Musashi, is the first robot to successfully sit in a car and operate the steering wheel with both arms without using a specialized jig. This marks a significant departure from previous attempts, like those seen in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, where robots required modifications to be secured to the seat and could only operate the steering wheel with one arm.
Musashi’s success is due to its unique design, which prioritizes mimicking the human body's form and movements. The researchers designed Musashi to have:
Human-like body proportions
A flexible body structure
Redundant sensors for enhanced perception
The design choices allow Musashi to interact with the car in a more natural and intuitive way.
TOP TOOL
Recall helps users retain information consumed from online content such as YouTube videos, news articles, and podcasts. The tool combats information overload by summarizing key points from online content and saving them to a user's personal knowledge base. Content in a user's knowledge base is organized into a dynamic knowledge graph, which helps users identify connections in the information they consume. Recall also uses spaced repetition and active recall strategies to further enhance information retention.