China’s ByteDance is testing an AI tool called Ripple. The free app for creating music and editing audio is being made available in closed beta in the U.S. with a small group of invited testers. Aimed at creators who want to up their sound game, Ripple is designed in the manner of a portable smart digital audio workstation (DAW). Ripple incorporates what TikTok’s parent company ByteDance calls a “virtual recording studio” that allows users to record and edit audio files on a mobile device, and the company plans to release additional mobile-friendly audio tools. Continue reading ByteDance Bows Ripple AI for Music Creation, Audio Editing

A Twitter challenger called Spill, designed by two former employees, started trending this past weekend as Elon Musk announced that Twitter is putting limits on the number of posts users can read. Spill climbed in Apple’s App Store rankings over the holiday weekend, rising to the No. 3 most downloaded app and emerging as the store’s most-downloaded social media app. Spill users call themselves “Spillionaires,” a moniker the company has embraced. On Saturday, Musk said Twitter will limit post views for non-paying users, sending Spill downloads soaring. Continue reading Twitter Challenger Spill Spikes as Musk Imposes Read Limits

Smart home platform Josh.ai is rolling out JoshGPT and a handheld remote control that allows users to integrate operational functionalities with a generative assistant that answers questions across all topics. The new features are intended to make Josh.ai a contender against Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and the Apple HomeKit. With its Josh app, location-aware Josh Micro with Nano microphones and handheld Josh Remote, the company says Josh.ai is “more than a voice add-on, it is the industry’s only multifaceted control system.” Custom software also lets Josh Remote simplify installation and provide a dedicated experience for each household TV. Continue reading JoshGPT Offers Conversational AI to Control the Smart Home

Bozeman, Montana-based DaaS firm Snowflake has partnered with Nvidia to let clients customize LLMs (large language models) using proprietary data in the Snowflake Data Cloud. Nvidia’s NeMo platform and GPU-accelerated computing will power the effort to tailor models to specific business use cases, such as chatbots with category expertise as opposed to generalists, search engines attuned to context or generative text deep knowledge. Since most companies are eager to harness brand-specific AI without having to build a model from scratch, this category of service is generating a lot of interest. Continue reading Nvidia’s NeMo Delivers AI Customization to Snowflake Cloud

Based on the premise that it is impractical to deploy an all-purpose LLM for specific use cases, a group of researchers from Google, Baidu, DeepMind and Meta founded Reka AI in July 2022. A year later the company has emerged from stealth mode with news of $58 million in Series A funding led by DST Global and Radical Ventures. Strategic partner Snowflake Ventures also participated, along with angel investor Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub. The Sunnyvale, California-based startup says it is building “enterprise-grade state-of-the-art AI assistants for everyone, regardless of language and culture.” Continue reading Reka AI Raises $58 Million to Customize LLMs for Enterprise

Data management firm Databricks has agreed to purchase generative AI company MosaicML in a deal valued at $1.3 billion. The three-year-old generative AI startup has developed a platform it says makes it “fast, cost-effective, and easy” for companies to train LLMs and deploy tools to use them. MosaicML has privately raised roughly $64 million to date. Its last valuation was $222 million in January, which means it was purchased for a healthy 6x multiple in a move that appears to prime Databricks for what one brokerage calls an “inevitable” IPO. Continue reading Databricks Acquiring OpenAI Competitor MosaicML for $1.3B

AI-startup Inflection has unveiled a new foundation LLM (large language model) to power its Pi chatbot. Inflection-1 approximates OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 in terms of size and functionality, which puts it on a par with ChatGPT insofar as model training. Inflection claims its LLM exceeds some benchmarks when tested against that competing system, as well as Meta Platforms’ LLaMA, DeepMind’s Chinchilla and Google’s PaLM-540B. Pi is short for Personal Intelligence, and Inflection compiled its LLM with a goal of creating an emotive AI whose conversation provides a reasonable facsimile of empathy and human-like sensibilities. Continue reading Inflection Shares Test Results for Its First AI Language Model

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investing $100 million to fund a global AI accelerator, aiming to link its machine learning initiatives with experts, customers and partners worldwide. Twilio, Highspot, Lonely Planet and Ryanair are among the first companies to get onboard with the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center to develop new applications. “Through free workshops, engagements and training, AWS will help customers imagine and scope the use cases that will create the greatest value for their businesses, based on best practices and industry expertise,” the company explains. Continue reading AWS Invests $100 Million in Generative AI Innovation Center

The AI Hub server on Discord has drawn attention from the Recording Industry Association of America, which sent a DMCA takedown notice and is alleging copyright infringement. The users are said to share a wide range of AI voice models, including some based on recognizable performers. Those that may sound familiar are in the style of Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, Rihanna and Bruno Mars. AI Hub reportedly has more than 142,000 members that engage in sharing topical information, such as guides. One point that is getting a lot of attention is the RIAA demand that Discord identify the accused infringers. Continue reading RIAA Alleges Popular ‘AI Hub’ on Discord Violates Copyright

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer unveiled his approach toward regulating artificial intelligence, beginning with nine listening sessions to explore topics including AI’s impact on the job market, copyright, national security and “doomsday scenarios.” Schumer’s plan — the SAFE (Security, Accountability, Foundations, Explainability) Innovation framework — isn’t proposed legislation, but a discovery roadmap. Set to begin in September, the panels will draw on members of industry, academia and civil society. “Experts aren’t even sure which questions policymakers should be asking,” said Schumer of the learning curve. “In many ways, we’re starting from scratch.” Continue reading Schumer Shares Plan for SAFE AI Senate Listening Sessions

IBM and Adobe are expanding their partnership to help enterprise clients accelerate their content supply chains using artificial intelligence including Adobe Sensei GenAI, released in March, and Adobe Firefly, now in beta, as well as Adobe’s generative AI models. IBM says it will create a portfolio of Adobe-specific consulting services. Leveraging Adobe’s AI solutions and IBM Consulting services, the companies aim to “help clients build an integrated content supply chain ecosystem that drives collaboration, optimizes creativity, increases speed, automates tasks and enhances stakeholders’ visibility across design and creative projects.” Continue reading IBM and Adobe Advance AI Content Workflow for Enterprise

Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have introduced a computer vision system that combines image recognition and image generation technology into one training model instead of two. The result, MAGE (short for MAsked Generative Encoder) holds promise for a wide variety of use cases and is expected to reduce costs through unified training, according to the team. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first model that achieves close to state-of-the-art results for both tasks using the same data and training paradigm,” the researchers said. Continue reading MAGE AI Unifies Generative and Recognition Image Training

President Biden heralded the “enormous promise” of artificial intelligence while pointing out that we must manage risks to society and our economy. These include misinformation and job loss. Meeting with experts in San Francisco, Biden said AI is already fueling “change in every part of American life, often in ways we don’t notice.” Citing social media and its potential harms, Biden called for proper AI guardrails. The Bay Area visit was part of Biden’s 2024 reelection fundraising campaign, and included an event co-hosted by venture capitalist Reid Hoffman, who was integral to the launches of LinkedIn and PayPal. Continue reading Feds Escalate Urgency Around AI, Biden Meets with Experts

Vimeo is leveraging artificial intelligence to automate video editing, and says its new AI suite of tools enables the creation of “a fully produced video in minutes by generating scripts from text prompts, recording videos in one take, and editing content as easily as a Word doc,” the company claims. Features include recording using a built-in screen teleprompter and the ability to quickly delete unwanted filler words (“ums” and “uhs”) and long pauses. The video hosting and sharing platform is rolling out the AI tools in July as part of the $20 per month standard subscription. Continue reading Vimeo Says Its AI Makes Video as Easy to Edit as Word Docs

Snorkel AI is offering new capabilities to help companies curate and prep data for generative artificial intelligence. Formed in 2015, Snorkel AI has been developing software for data-centric AI. Its best known product is Snorkel Flow, which helps enterprise clients build and deploy AI applications efficiently using programmatic labeling to automate the process of creating training data for AI models. Now Snorkel AI’s Foundation Model Data Platform is going beyond programmatic labeling with two new core solutions: Snorkel GenFlow for building generative AI applications and Snorkel Foundry for developing custom LLMs with proprietary data. Continue reading Snorkel AI Debuts Products for Model Training, Development