Your weekly briefing on all things AI

Humanoid robotics and AI co-pilots are quickly moving from experimental to essential, marking a pivotal shift in operational dynamics across industries and at home. For business operators, the integration of these technologies presents crucial opportunities for maintaining a competitive edge as the landscape changes, and should be watched closely.

Let’s dive in:

📰 Cars of Tomorrow? Industry Giants Predict Humanoid Robot Takeover

📈 Poolside.ai Secures $400M to Enhance Its Developer Co-Pilot Tools

💡 Beating Cancer Faster: Medical Co-Pilots Speed Up Diagnosis and Treatment

 🛠️ No SQL Required: Use Natural Language to Unlock & Exchange Business Insights

📰 AI in the News

Humanoid Helpers Coming Sooner Than You Think…

Imagine a future where your personal assistant walks your dog, cooks dinner, plays the piano, and even manages childcare! Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, envisions this reality with Optimus, their humanoid robot. He claims that these versatile robots could become so commonplace they outnumber humans someday.

This prediction aligns with recent statements by Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who suggests significant breakthroughs in robotics are imminent, with humanoid robots potentially becoming as common as cars within the next 2-3 years. 

(Watch Jensen Huang’s full interview here)

While Optimus can handle domestic tasks, its early deployment in factories hints at broader industrial use. Production is expected to ramp up next year, suggesting Optimus has the potential to transform everything from home life to factory floors. 

Researchers at Stanford have crafted a system that trains humanoid robots using human activity data. This innovative approach starts by training robots in simulated environments with human motion datasets. Robots then transfer these learned motions to the real world, mimicking human movements in real time via a simple RGB camera. This method, called "shadowing," enables robots to collect data while performing various tasks, which is then used to teach them to complete tasks autonomously through a technique known as behavior cloning. Demonstrated on video here, this system has successfully enabled robots to perform complex tasks like unloading items and typing with up to 100% success rate, showcasing potential applications in diverse fields such as industrial automation and personal assistance. (Link)

More Stories

Company Achievements and Developments

• Nvidia beats Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company. (Link)

• Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms OpenAI and Google in the enterprise AI race. (Link)

• Microsoft drops Florence-2, a unified model to handle a variety of vision tasks. (Link)

• Amazon extends generative AI-powered product listings to Europe. (Link)

AI and Technology Innovations

• DeepMind’s new AI generates soundtracks and dialogue for videos. (Link)

• Runway unveils new hyper realistic AI video model Gen-3 Alpha, capable of 10-second-long clips. (Link)

• Perplexity now displays results for temperature, currency conversion and simple math, so you don’t have to use Google. (Link)

• TikTok introduces Symphony Digital Avatars, letting companies ‘breathe life’ into their branded content. (Link)

• Dell, Nvidia and SMCI collaborate to power Musk's Grok AI factory. (Link)

AI Startups and New Initiatives

• Former OpenAI Chief Scientist Launches Startup to Make 'Superintelligence'. (Link)

• New social network "Butterflies", where AIs and humans coexist. (Link)

• Genspark is the latest attempt at an AI-powered search engine. (Link)

• Decagon claims its customer service bots are smarter than average. (Link)

• OmniAI transforms business data for AI. (Link)

Future Predictions and Claims

• Elon Musk claims Optimus robots could make Tesla a $25 trillion company. (Link)

• OpenAI’s CTO says that GPT-3 was toddler-level, GPT-4 was a smart high schooler and the next gen, to be released in a year and a half, will be PhD-level”. (Link)

📈 Venture Deals 

Poolside.ai Raises $400M to Boost Developer Productivity

Poolside.ai, a generative AI company based in Paris, is in the midst of securing over $400 million in funding at a $2 billion post-money valuation, to enhance its coding co-pilot tools for developers. This move signifies Paris's rising significance as a center for AI innovation, attracting heavyweights like Bain Capital Ventures and DST for funding, with Bain re-investing. The company is developing focused solutions for software development speed enhancement, driven by founders with robust backgrounds in developer tools and DevOps. (Link)

More Venture Deals

• Finbourne taps $70M for tech that makes unstructured financial data usable for AI models. (Link)

• GrayMatter scores $45M for robots that speed-up manufacturing with ‘physics-informed AI’. (Link)

• PQShield secures $37M more for ‘quantum resistant’ cryptography. (Link)

• CuspAI raises $30M from Tiferes Ventures & others to create a GenAI-driven search engine for new materials. (Link)

💡 Industry Impacts

🏩 Healthcare

AI Sees Clearly for Cancer Diagnosis: New Model Aces Tests

Existing AI struggles with diagnosing medical images. Meet PathChat, a game-changer that analyzes images and text, acting as a virtual consultant for pathologists.

PathChat excels at:

• Accurate diagnoses (e.g., identifies cancer spread in liver)

• Handles complex tasks (like matching symptoms to conditions)

• Teams with doctors (AI analyzes, doctor provides context)

• Boosts research (summarizes data, helps analyze large datasets)

Impressive results: Beats other models in tests and achieves high accuracy (78-89.5%).

The future:

• Reducing errors through human feedback

• Keeping knowledge current with ongoing training

• Expanding to other specialties and data types

PathChat's human-AI collaboration is a major leap in diagnosis, paving the way for a future of improved patient care. (Link)

AI Speeds Up Cancer Fight: Faster Diagnosis, Less Waiting

New hope in the fight against cancer! Color Health and OpenAI's AI copilot, powered by GPT-4o, helps doctors find missing tests and create personalized treatment plans much faster.

Here is how:

• Step 1: The AI analyzes your medical history and even complex guidelines.

• Step 2: It identifies any crucial screenings you might be missing.

• Step 3: It creates a personalized treatment plan in minutes.

• Step 4: A doctor always reviews and refines the AI's suggestions for optimal care.

Doctors are finding 4x more missing tests and analyzing records in just 5 minutes – a massive improvement.

The good news:

• Earlier detection: This AI tool can significantly reduce delays in diagnosis, potentially saving lives.

• Smoother process: Streamlining everything means less waiting for you and less paperwork for doctors, reducing stress for everyone.

• More doctor focus: Doctors can dedicate more time to what matters most – providing excellent care for you.

This AI copilot is a major step forward. With plans to help over 200,000 patients by year-end, the future of cancer care is looking faster and more efficient. (Link)

⚖️ Law

Hona: The Startup Bringing Transparency and Efficiency to Legal Cases

Manny Griffiths co-founded a legal tech startup Hona to improve communication between lawyers and clients. Hona is a communication portal that integrates with law firms' existing software and sends automated updates to clients. The company aims to provide clients with an easy way to track their cases and reduce the need for unnecessary communication with lawyers. Hona has grown significantly since its launch in February 2022 and is currently used by over 500 law firms and 308,000 clients. The company recently closed a $9.5 million Series A funding round. (Link)

🛠️ Tool of the Week

FluentHQ, a Tiferes-backed company, is an AI powered data analyst that not only makes it easy to get answers to business questions with simple, natural language, but its platform makes sharing this data with key stakeholders extremely easy. Building a data-centric culture is key to evolving in today’s landscape, but having the tools in place to generate reliable insights that can be understood by a wider audience within your organization is a tall order for most businesses. FluentHQ not only provides valuable insights but also offers an intuitive interface for effortlessly exploring and sharing those insights with your key decision-makers.

More Tools To Try:

• Dropbase.io

• Spiral

• Coachvox.ai

• Bizway.io

• Callin.io