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- ⚡🔋Google Pledges $20M to Accelerate Science with AI Funding
⚡🔋Google Pledges $20M to Accelerate Science with AI Funding
And more: Josh Kushner Praises Elon Musk Despite OpenAI Lawsuit; Perplexity Challenges Amazon and Google with New Shopping Feature
Supercharged With AI
November 19, 2024
Good morning aspiring leaders of the next gen!☀️
🚀 Here is the most impactful AI news today. Enjoy and we wish you an amazing day:
Google.org throws $20M at AI science projects. Making breakthroughs more affordable! 🧬💰
Meta's Ray-Bans getting AI upgrade in Europe. Smart glasses just got smarter! 👓🇪🇺
Kushner praising Musk despite OpenAI drama. Tech world's most awkward love triangle! 💝⚔️
Altman joins SF mayor-elect's transition team. AI guru goes political! 🏙️👔
ElevenLabs drops DIY conversational AI agents. Build-a-Bot Workshop is open! 🎭🛠️
AI enters the confessional booth. Even robots need spiritual guidance! ⛪️🙏
ServiceTitan worried about LLMs. Someone's getting AI anxiety! 😰💻
DOJ wants Google to ditch Chrome. Browser drama intensifies! 🌐⚖️
Ben Affleck tells Hollywood AI fears are overblown. Batman's not scared of robots! 🎬✌️
Google.org commits $20M to researchers using AI for scientific breakthroughs
Google has announced a significant commitment to advancing scientific research through AI, pledging $20 million in cash and $2 million in cloud credits to support researchers and scientists worldwide. The initiative, revealed by Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis at the AI for Science Forum in London, aims to accelerate scientific breakthroughs using artificial intelligence.
Strategic Investment in Scientific Innovation
The funding, administered through Google.org, the company's philanthropic arm, targets academic and non-profit institutions focusing on complex scientific challenges. Unlike Google's traditional investments and acquisitions, this initiative provides non-equity funding, specifically supporting projects at the intersection of different scientific disciplines, including rare disease research, experimental biology, materials science, and sustainability.
Google plans to distribute the funding strategically, focusing on approximately 15 organizations by 2026. Rather than dispersing small amounts widely, the company aims to provide substantial funding to fuel significant scientific breakthroughs. This approach reflects Google's commitment to enabling transformative research rather than incremental advances.
The initiative comes at a time when Big Tech companies are increasingly seeking to establish relationships with innovative researchers and institutions. However, Google's approach differs from typical corporate strategies by focusing on direct support for scientific advancement rather than equity investments or acquisitions.
Building on DeepMind's Success
The announcement follows a remarkable year for Google's AI division DeepMind. The company's achievements include Hassabis receiving a knighthood for his contributions to AI and sharing half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with John Jumper for their groundbreaking work on AlphaFold, which has accelerated research in drug discovery and disease diagnosis.
This initiative builds upon DeepMind's successful track record in applying AI to scientific challenges. AlphaFold's success in protein structure prediction demonstrates the potential for AI to accelerate scientific discovery, setting a precedent for future projects under this funding program.
The funding initiative parallels similar moves by other tech giants, such as AWS's recent $110 million commitment to AI researchers. However, Google's focus on non-equity funding for academic and non-profit institutions distinguishes it from typical corporate investment strategies. This approach allows Google to foster relationships with leading scientific minds while potentially developing future customers for its AI and cloud infrastructure.
The initiative represents a strategic intersection of philanthropy and business development, positioning Google to support scientific advancement while strengthening its presence in the research community. By providing funding and computational resources, Google aims to facilitate breakthrough discoveries while building lasting relationships with innovative researchers and institutions.
This commitment to scientific research through AI funding demonstrates Google's long-term vision for integrating artificial intelligence into fundamental scientific discovery. The program could establish new paradigms for private sector support of academic and non-profit research, potentially accelerating the pace of scientific breakthroughs across multiple disciplines.
The impact of this initiative could extend beyond individual research projects. By supporting multiple institutions across various scientific disciplines, Google is helping to create a network of AI-enabled research that could lead to unexpected synergies and discoveries. This ecosystem approach to scientific funding could become a model for future corporate involvement in academic research.
Looking ahead, this initiative may influence how other technology companies approach their role in advancing scientific research. The combination of financial support and technological resources could become a standard approach for corporate engagement with the scientific community, potentially leading to more efficient and effective research outcomes.
Meta brings certain AI features to Ray-Ban Meta glasses in Europe
Meta has started rolling out AI features to Ray-Ban Meta glasses in France, Italy, and Spain, allowing users to interact with Meta AI in their local languages. However, multimodal features that enable users to ask questions about objects given the glasses' camera remain limited to the US, Canada, and Australia. The limited rollout reflects Meta's ongoing challenges with EU regulations, including the AI Act and GDPR concerns about AI model training using European user data. While Meta has resumed AI training on UK user data after revising its opt-out process, the company hasn't updated its practices for the rest of Europe.
OpenAI investor Josh Kushner praises Musk, despite Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit
Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital and major OpenAI investor, has admired Elon Musk despite Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI. As lead investor in OpenAI's $6.5 billion round with a $1.3 billion contribution, Kushner praised Musk's intentions to join Trump's administration and avoided criticizing the dispute between Musk and OpenAI's founders. The situation is complicated by allegations that OpenAI asked investors to avoid backing competitors like Musk's xAI, while some firms like Sequoia have invested in both companies. Thrive can invest an additional $1 billion in OpenAI if it reaches its $11.6 billion revenue goal.
📔#1 Insights Today on AI. Click the Links to Read
Sam Altman will co-chair San Francisco mayor-elect Daniel Lurie’s transition team
ElevenLabs now offers the ability to build conversational AI agents
Hail Mary! AI in the confessional
ServiceTitan names LLMs from Microsoft, OpenAI as risk factors
Justice Department reportedly pushing Google to spin off Chrome
Ben Affleck tells actors and writers not to worry about AI
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AI is not just about making computers smarter; it's about giving humanity new tools to understand and solve increasingly complex challenges. Each breakthrough in AI represents a new lens through which we can view and approach problems.
Padhraic Smyth is a Professor of Computer Science in UC Irvine's Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences. He also serves as Director of UC Irvine's Data Science Initiative and Associate Director for UC Irvine's Center for Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems.
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⬆️ ️ Trends: How Businesses Implement AI
Perplexity Challenges E-commerce Giants with AI-Powered Shopping Features
Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, is making a bold move into e-commerce with a new shopping feature that aims to revolutionize how people discover and purchase products online. Launched exclusively for U.S. Pro subscribers, this new tool represents a direct challenge to established giants like Google and Amazon, offering a streamlined shopping experience powered by advanced AI technology.
The new feature transforms shopping-related searches into visual experiences, presenting users with detailed product cards that include pricing, seller information, and AI-generated pros and cons lists. Going beyond traditional product listings, Perplexity has integrated one-click checkout functionality, complete with stored payment information and automatic tax calculations. Pro subscribers even receive free shipping on purchases made through the platform.
What sets Perplexity's approach apart is its commitment to unbiased recommendations. Unlike traditional e-commerce platforms, the company currently offers no sponsored slots, ensuring that product recommendations are based purely on relevance and quality. The system is powered by integrations with various sellers, including the entire network of U.S.-based Shopify merchants.
The platform also introduces innovative search capabilities, including the ability to combine image and text queries - similar to Google's visual search features but with the added power of AI-driven understanding. A new merchant program complements these features, offering sellers enhanced visibility and API access to power their own site searches.
This launch comes at a time when AI is transforming e-commerce search capabilities. With companies like Daydream, Deft, and Remark also entering the space, and tech giants like Amazon introducing AI assistants like Rufus, the race is on to leverage large language models for better shopping experiences. The premise is simple but powerful: instead of struggling with traditional keyword searches, users can describe what they want in natural language and let AI do the heavy lifting.
However, success in this space will depend on building user trust in AI-curated results. As Perplexity and others push forward with AI-powered shopping, they'll need to carefully balance convenience with transparency, ensuring their recommendations remain free from bias and preferential treatment.
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⚡ AI Playground: Code & Craft
🔧 This Week’s Tool: Zapier 🔧+ Canva
The AI-Powered Marketing Challenge 🎯🤖
Scenario:
Imagine you're launching a product and need to create a powerful email marketing campaign that converts. Your goal? Craft a personalized, high-converting email sequence using AI tools in under 10 minutes!
Rules:
Use Jasper AI (an incredible AI copywriting tool) to create an email sequence.
Plug it into Zapier to automate sending these emails when a user signs up via your website. Zapier institutions here.
Add a visual twist: use Canvas AI Design Suite to create an eye-catching email banner or graphic.
Steps to Play:
Generate content: Use Jasper AI to create email headlines, body text, and even A/B test subject lines.
Automate: Set up a trigger-action flow in Zapier to send emails automatically.
Design like a pro: Enhance your email visuals with Canva’s Magic Design feature, which uses AI to create professional templates in seconds.
Test and share your results: Test your sequence and share your best-performing email and graphic with the group for feedback.
Prize: The best sequence (judged on creativity and potential for impact) gets a feature in next week’s newsletter and a free one-on-one session to brainstorm more AI-powered marketing ideas!
No more playing catch-up. It's time to GET AHEAD!!! 🚀🚀🚀, Elena
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