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Recent Editions

Tome Co-Founder and CEO Keith Peiris. Photo by Getty.

The AI Presentation Startup Losing Its Rose-Colored Glasses; Musk’s GPU Dreams

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 9, 2024 7:00am PDT

Being a startup founder is hard enough. Add to that the unique obstacles facing the generative AI sector—disappointed buyers, slow revenue growth and the high costs of conversational AI—and many AI founders are realizing that it’s not necessarily the land of free-flowing capital and Nvidia chips.Take Tome, the Bay Area startup, which uses AI to... Being a startup founder is hard enough. Add to that the unique obstacles facing the generative AI...

Art by Shane Burke.

Science Fiction Becomes Reality With AI-Powered Mind Reading; The Consequences of the Data Gold Rush

By Jon Victor · Apr 8, 2024 7:30am PDT

As tiny chips and artificial intelligence algorithms become more powerful, a possible future where people control computers just by thinking has become more realistic, according to Brian Otis, the cofounder and former chief technology officer of Alphabet’s Verily life-sciences unit. Otis in February joined Precision Neuroscience as chief... As tiny chips and artificial intelligence algorithms become more powerful, a possible future...

Image by Shane Burke.

Hugging Face Confronts a New Security Flaw; Creators Share Their AI Skepticism

By Aaron Holmes · Apr 4, 2024 7:00am PDT

Worrying about artificial intelligence turning into Skynet—a la the Terminator—should take a back seat to basic cybersecurity concerns, as we’ve written repeatedly. Today we’ve got news to prove our argument.Cloud security firm Wiz discovered a substantial security flaw in Hugging Face, a wildly popular online repository of machine learning... Worrying about artificial intelligence turning into Skynet—a la the Terminator—should take a back...

Nvidia H100 chips. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Startups That Bought Too Many Nvidia Chips May Have to Rent Them Out

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 3, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Nvidia H100 chips. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Startups That Bought Too Many Nvidia Chips May Have to Rent Them Out

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 3, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Throughout last year, some venture capitalists raised concerns about artificial intelligence startups that used much of the capital they raised to buy or rent specialized servers powered by Nvidia chips. While spending gobs of money on those servers was all well and good for major cloud providers like Google—which also funded many of these... Throughout last year, some venture capitalists raised concerns about artificial intelligence...

Chart by Shane Burke.

AI Valuations May Be Coming Down to Earth; A Glimpse of OpenAI’s Search Engine

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 2, 2024 7:00am PDT

The valuations of artificial intelligence startups, as a multiple of their projected future revenue, may be coming down from their peaks.Three months ago, we calculated such valuation multiples for eight prominent companies that sell consumer or enterprise services tied to large language models. On average, investors valued these companies at 83... The valuations of artificial intelligence startups, as a multiple of their projected future...

Photo via Shutterstock.

OpenAI Moves to Lessen Reliance on Some Nvidia Hardware

By Anissa Gardizy · Apr 1, 2024 7:15am PDT · 2 comments

After breaking the news on Friday about how Microsoft and OpenAI are drawing up plans for an ambitious data center project costing as much as $100 billion, we were bombarded with questions from people across the artificial intelligence and cloud industries: What part of the country will it be located in? What chips would it use? How would the... After breaking the news on Friday about how Microsoft and OpenAI are drawing up plans for an...

Photo via Midjourney

Why Two Models Are Better Than One

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 28, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

You may have heard of the saying, “two heads are better than one.” The same could be said about large language models.Yes, developers have figured out that model performance can be improved by combining a couple of LLMs. The concept behind "model merging" is surprisingly intuitive. Developers combine the weights (or the “settings” that determine... You may have heard of the saying, “two heads are better than one.” The same could be said about...

Databricks headquarters in San Francisco. Photo by Tada Images/Adobe Stock.

Why the AI Hyperrealists at Databricks Spent $10 Million to Beat Meta’s LLM

By Amir Efrati · Mar 27, 2024 7:05am PDT · 1 comment

Databricks headquarters in San Francisco. Photo by Tada Images/Adobe Stock.

Why the AI Hyperrealists at Databricks Spent $10 Million to Beat Meta’s LLM

By Amir Efrati · Mar 27, 2024 7:05am PDT · 1 comment

Perhaps no executive in the artificial intelligence field has gone to greater lengths to knock down generative AI hype quite like Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi. A year ago, that looked like sour grapes as OpenAI’s quick progress made many people think that software tools like those Databricks sells to companies to manage data and utilize AI would... Perhaps no executive in the artificial intelligence field has gone to greater lengths to knock...

Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images.

Big Tech Taps Their Founders As AI Talent Battle Heats Up

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 26, 2024 7:00am PDT

In January, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a video touting the 350,000 Nvidia H100 graphics processing units he said the company would have by the end of the year. While the post signaled Meta’s advantage in computing capacity, several current and former employees interpreted it simply as a way to improve Meta’s ability to recruit in... In January, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a video touting the 350,000 Nvidia H100...

Photo via Adobe Stock

New RAG Techniques are Generative AI’s Greatest Hope

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 25, 2024 7:30am PDT

As time goes on and some buyers of generative AI grow disillusioned with the meager returns they’ve seen, many are experimenting with new ways to eke better performance out of large language models without paying up for the latest, state-of-the-art LLM.One way to do this is through a technique called retrieval augmented generation, which aims to... As time goes on and some buyers of generative AI grow disillusioned with the meager returns they’...

Photo via Shutterstock

What The Court Will Actually Scrutinize in Elon Musk v. OpenAI; Clearing Up GPT-5’s Timeline

By Kalley Huang · Mar 21, 2024 7:00am PDT

Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming the ChatGPT creator breached a founding agreement to develop artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity, not commercial interests, raises legal questions without clear precedent. It might not get very far.One big question is whether private individuals or companies can sue nonprofit... Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming the ChatGPT creator breached a founding agreement to...

Mustafa Suleyman at the World Economic Forum in January. Photographer by Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

What (and Who) Mustafa Suleyman is Working With at Microsoft; What Perplexity’s Google Dependence Tells Us About the AI Race

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 20, 2024 7:15am PDT

Mustafa Suleyman at the World Economic Forum in January. Photographer by Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

What (and Who) Mustafa Suleyman is Working With at Microsoft; What Perplexity’s Google Dependence Tells Us About the AI Race

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 20, 2024 7:15am PDT

Until Microsoft lit up the artificial intelligence world yesterday by appointing Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of AI startups DeepMind and Inflection, as head of its consumer AI business, the software giant lacked an executive who had built sophisticated generative AI models and products from scratch. As we’ve written, Microsoft’s own teams... Until Microsoft lit up the artificial intelligence world yesterday by appointing Mustafa Suleyman...

Photos via Adobe Stock.

OpenAI and Apple’s Rude Wake-Up Call

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 19, 2024 7:00am PDT

St. Patrick’s Day didn’t bring OpenAI or Apple much luck. Yesterday’s Bloomberg report that the iPhone maker is in talks to license Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence models to power new features for the iPhone was likely a blow to the ego of leaders at OpenAI, not to mention Apple’s own AI teams.It’s not yet clear what kind of valuable... St. Patrick’s Day didn’t bring OpenAI or Apple much luck. Yesterday’s Bloomberg report that the ...

Superlinked cofounders Ben Gutkovich and Daniel Svonava. Photo courtesy of Superlinked.

Apple’s Subtle Pitch to AI Researchers; Index Backs Former YouTube AI Manager in Latest ‘Vector Embedding’ Deal

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Wayne Ma · Mar 18, 2024 7:00am PDT

Before we get into this morning’s main funding news, here’s an interesting look into the strategy of Apple, which has caught flack from developers and industry pundits for falling behind Microsoft, Google and Amazon in releasing conversational AI. (That’s likely why it’s in talks with Google to license its generative AI tech for the iPhone,... Before we get into this morning’s main funding news, here’s an interesting look into the strategy...

The European Union Parliament building in Brussels. Photo by Thierry Monasse via Getty Images.

Europe’s AI Act Has Landed With Fewer Teeth Than Originally Proposed

By Kalley Huang · Mar 14, 2024 7:25am PDT

European Union lawmakers on Wednesday approved the world’s most sweeping regulation so far of artificial intelligence. The AI Act, which will take effect in stages over the next several years, will ban some applications of AI that the law considers high risk, such as social scoring. It will also require the developers of AI models to adopt... European Union lawmakers on Wednesday approved the world’s most sweeping regulation so far of...

Photo via Unsplash/Deep Mind.

A Shakeout is Coming for Inference Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 13, 2024 7:00am PDT

Photo via Unsplash/Deep Mind.

A Shakeout is Coming for Inference Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 13, 2024 7:00am PDT

If you tuned into Nvidia’s and Microsoft’s recent quarterly earnings calls, you probably heard their leaders discuss how inference—a fancy word for operating an artificial intelligence model—is becoming a bigger part of the computing workloads in their data centers. In other words, chatbots like ChatGPT Enterprise are serving real customers.... If you tuned into Nvidia’s and Microsoft’s recent quarterly earnings calls, you probably heard...

Art by Clark Miller.

Where Have All The AI Returns Gone?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 12, 2024 7:30am PDT

For all the hype around generative AI, we have yet to see much evidence that this new technology is lifting the top lines of customers who are spending money on it. That’s left many buyers to wonder: When will we see those long-touted returns from AI?My colleagues and I tackled that question in this story today, which reported that customers of... For all the hype around generative AI, we have yet to see much evidence that this new technology...

Photo by Kent Nishimura via Getty Images.

What To Make of OpenAI’s New Board; The Startup Tackling Karpathy’s Vision

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 11, 2024 7:30am PDT

OpenAI’s late-Friday announcement of three new board members, as well as the reinstatement to its board of CEO Sam Altman, is a pivotal moment for the ChatGPT-creator, valued most recently at $86 billion. It’s now clear that the board has shed its origins as a quirky group of academics and techies with ties to under-the-radar movements like... OpenAI’s late-Friday announcement of three new board members, as well as the reinstatement...

Photo via Midjourney.

Here's How Big Tech Is Tackling Deepfakes

By Kalley Huang · Mar 7, 2024 7:01am PST

Here’s an increasingly familiar feeling: You see an image and you can’t tell if it was made or manipulated using artificial intelligence. It’s a big problem, given the potential of fake images to influence elections, among other things. Fortunately, many of the companies whose technology makes it easy to create and spread AI-generated content... Here’s an increasingly familiar feeling: You see an image and you can’t tell if it was made or...

Photo via Getty Images.

How Early-Stage VCs Are Getting Around the Startup Valuation Trap

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 6, 2024 8:02am PST

Photo via Getty Images.

How Early-Stage VCs Are Getting Around the Startup Valuation Trap

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 6, 2024 8:02am PST

The AI startup world is something of a paradox right now. We keep hearing talk that we're in a bubble. And there’s no doubt that venture funding for young artificial intelligence startups is (mostly) free-flowing, which is great for founders. But the market isn’t so great for investors, particularly early-stage VC firms which are often competing... The AI startup world is something of a paradox right now. We keep hearing talk that we're in a...