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The future belongs to you. Let’s make conscious leadership the norm and embrace innovation as the driving force for positive change 🌍✨

WHAT’S AT STAKE TODAY ⚡

• 💼📢 Salesforce hiring 2,000 AI salespeople. Benioff's building an AI army!
• 🌍💰 Google drops $90M on African digital dreams. Silicon Valley goes safari!
• 🎭🔑 OpenAI giving o1 API access to special friends. Not everyone gets to join this club!
• 📊🦄 Databricks scores $10B pre-IPO. Data unicorn getting ready for Wall Street!
• 🇬🇧⚖️ UK pondering AI training opt-out rules. Copyright drama gets British!
• 🤖🔒 Google okays 'high-risk' AI with human babysitters. Keep your robots on a leash!
• 📝👑 Grammarly gobbles up Coda, gets new CEO. Grammar nerds level up!
• 💸😢 Non-AI startups feeling funding blues. No AI? No money!
• 🎬⏳ OpenAI keeping Sora API under wraps. Video generation stays exclusive... for now!

⚡ Latest in AI

Salesforce Plans to Hire 2,000 People to Sell Its AI Products

Salesforce doubles down on AI salesforce expansion

Salesforce is making a significant move in the AI market with plans to hire 2,000 new sales representatives to promote its artificial intelligence products. This announcement, made by CEO Marc Benioff at a recent company event, represents a doubling of the company's previously announced hiring plans and signals a major push into the AI market.

The ambitious hiring initiative comes at a crucial time for Salesforce, as the company prepares to launch the second generation of its AI agent software in February. The company has already received over 9,000 referrals for these positions, highlighting strong interest and demand.

Benioff has expressed unprecedented enthusiasm for the company’s AI initiatives, predicting that Salesforce will have more than a billion AI agents running within the next 12 months. The move reflects the company’s strategic focus on capturing growing enterprise demand for AI solutions.

Why it matters: Salesforce’s hiring spree highlights the growing importance of human expertise in implementing and selling AI tools. By pairing advanced AI products with a specialized sales force, Salesforce aims to lead the enterprise AI market and set new standards for how AI solutions are delivered and adopted.

⚡ The companies of the future

Google Joins $90M Investment into Cassava to Bolster Africa’s Digital Infrastructure

Strengthening Africa’s digital infrastructure with global partnerships

Google has joined a $90 million investment round in Cassava Technologies, an African digital infrastructure company, alongside the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and Finnfund.

The investment is part of Cassava's larger $310 million funding round, which includes a $220 million credit facility. It will support Cassava's initiatives across Africa, including its collaboration with Google on the Umoja subsea cable project connecting Africa and Australia.

Through its subsidiary Liquid C2, Cassava is also partnering with Google and Anthropic to bring cloud, cybersecurity, and AI services to African companies, aligning with Google’s $1 billion commitment to Africa's digital economy.

Why it matters: This investment highlights a growing focus on Africa's digital transformation. By strengthening connectivity and infrastructure, Cassava and its global partners aim to unlock significant economic opportunities and bridge the digital divide.

⚡ MORE AI BITES

OpenAI Brings Its o1 Reasoning Model to Its API — for Certain Developers

OpenAI’s latest reasoning model available for API developers

OpenAI is rolling out its o1 reasoning model to API users in its tier 5 category (those spending at least $1,000 and with 30+ day accounts). The new version, o1-2024-12-17, introduces advanced features like function calling, developer messages, and image analysis.

A key highlight is the "reasoning_effort" parameter, which gives developers control over response time. However, the model comes at a premium price—costing 6x more than GPT-4o, at $15 per 750,000 input words and $60 per 750,000 output words.

OpenAI has also updated its Realtime API with new GPT-4o models, added WebRTC support, and introduced preference fine-tuning capabilities. Early access SDKs for Go and Java are now available for developers looking to integrate the technology into their workflows.

Why it matters: This rollout showcases OpenAI’s continued push to empower developers with advanced reasoning models, enhancing AI applications for complex decision-making while balancing efficiency and customization.

⚡ Insights on AI Today

1. 📊 💰Databricks raises $10B as it barrels toward an IPO.
2. 🇬🇧 ⚖️UK consults on opt-out model for training AIs on copyrighted content.
3. 🤖 ⚠️Google says customers can use its AI in 'high-risk' domains, so long as there's human supervision.
4. ✍️ 💼Grammarly acquires productivity startup Coda, brings on new CEO.
5. 💸 📉AI boom masks fundraising struggles for non-AI startups.
6. 🎬 ⏳OpenAI says it has no plans for a Sora API — yet.

⚡ Trends for the Future

Google Enhances Code Assist with Third-Party Tool Integration

Third-party tools integrated into Code Assist

The details:

Google is expanding the capabilities of its AI-powered coding assistant, Code Assist, by introducing support for third-party tools. The enterprise-focused service, which rebranded from Duet AI in April, aims to streamline the coding environment.

The new feature integrates real-time data from platforms like GitLab, GitHub, Sentry.io, and Atlassian Rovo directly into the development environment. Developers can now access tools like Jira comments or site issue summaries without leaving their workflow.

Access to these integrations is currently limited to Google Cloud partners, positioning Code Assist as a strong competitor to GitHub Copilot Enterprise, particularly with its on-premises codebase support.

Why it matters: This update highlights the growing competition among AI-powered coding tools and Google's commitment to improving developer efficiency. By integrating third-party tools, Code Assist minimizes context switching, a critical bottleneck in modern development workflows.

Do you have a business problem keeping you up at night?

Here’s your chance to get it solved! Share your most staggering challenges with us, and I’ll use the power of AI to find solutions tailored just for you. I’ll feature the answers in one of our upcoming Supercharged issues—let’s tackle it together!

⚡ AI Playground: Code & Craft

🔧 This Week’s Tool: YouWrite 🔧

Overview: YouWrite is an AI-powered writing assistant developed by You.com, designed to help users generate high-quality content effortlessly. Ideal for students, professionals, and content creators, YouWrite assists in drafting emails, essays, articles, and more, enhancing productivity and creativity.

Why Is It Better Than Other Tools?

• Integrated Search and Writing: Combines AI-driven writing assistance with real-time search capabilities, providing up-to-date information and context.
• User-Friendly Interface: Offers an intuitive platform that requires no prior technical expertise, making it accessible to all users.
• Free Access: Provides robust writing assistance without subscription fees, making it a cost-effective solution for quality content creation.

What Does It Do Best?

• Content Generation: Assists in creating well-structured and coherent text for various purposes, including emails, reports, and creative writing.
• Idea Development: Helps brainstorm and expand on ideas, providing suggestions to enhance your writing.
• Editing and Proofreading: Offers grammar and style suggestions to improve the clarity and readability of your content.

Applications:

• Academic Writing: Draft essays, research papers, and study notes with enhanced clarity and coherence.
• Professional Communication: Compose polished emails, reports, and presentations for workplace communication.
• Content Creation: Generate engaging blog posts, social media updates, and marketing copy to captivate your audience.
• Creative Writing: Develop stories, poems, and scripts with AI-driven inspiration and assistance.

Follow This Simple Guide to Get Started with YouWrite:

1. Visit You.com: Navigate to you.com and select the YouWrite feature.
2. Enter Your Prompt: Provide a brief description or topic for the content you wish to create.
3. Generate Content: Let YouWrite produce a draft based on your input, which you can then review and edit as needed.
4. Refine Your Text: Utilize the editing suggestions to enhance grammar, style, and clarity.
5. Finalize and Use: Once satisfied, incorporate the generated content into your projects or communications.

Leverage YouWrite to streamline your writing process, enhance creativity, and produce high-quality content with ease.

📝 Challenge: Use YouWrite to draft a piece of content—be it an email, article, or social media post. Share your creation by replying to this email. At the end of the week, we will select one winner to receive a special prize! Happy writing!