Physical AI is coming.

Jony Ive said to be making the "Iphone for AI". Archetype soft launches, building a foundational model for the physical world.

Author

Tara Tan
September 28, 2023

AI is looking to the real world.

Jony Ive and Open AI are said to be in talks to raise $1B from Softbank to make the “iPhone of AI”. Ive, the creator of Apple’s consumer mobile phone, started his own design agency, LoveForm in 2021 after departing from Apple.

Similarly, ChatGPT introduces voice and image interfaces, meaning you can converse with or show ChatGPT what you’re talking about. (If you haven’t, check out our Future of Voice AI deep dive).

In related Strange news, our portfolio company, Archetype, recently announced their soft launch. Archetype is founded by a team of scientists, researchers, and designers (inventors of the Soli radar!), who are building a foundation AI model for the physical world. Sign up for beta access. 🎉


✨ Inspiration

Dentsu built a cheeky AI bot that offers “client feedback” on creative work. Turn on sound for the full, humbling experience. (Link)

🔥 Latest news

  • Amazon invests $4B in Anthropic to boost AI capabilities. Anthropic’s flagship product, the Claude and its advanced iteration, Claude 2, are LLM-based chatbots similar in functionality to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Amazon is set to integrate Anthropic’s cutting-edge technology into a range of its products, including the Amazon Bedrock service, designed for building AI applications. https://tinyurl.com/2p8x8sew 

  • Intel and Dell to collaborate on AI; Intel to build ‘most powerful AI supercomputer in Europe’ for Stability AI – Gelsinger. With the goal of building the most powerful AI supercomputer in Europe, Intel has formed an alliance with Stability AI. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said the system will utilize thousands of Intel Gaudi2 accelerator GPUs and Intel Xeon CPUs. https://tinyurl.com/3wty99d8 

  • OpenAI reportedly raising funds at a valuation of $80B to $90B. OpenAI is in discussions to possibly sell shares in a move that would boost the company’s valuation from $29B to somewhere between $80B and $90B, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the talks. https://tcrn.ch/3Zx8ORf 

  • LLMS are surprisingly great at compressing images and audio, DeepMind researchers find. A recent research paper by Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind suggests that LLMs could be strong data compressors for text, image, and audio. This means that there is potential for LLMs to be applied to image, audio, video, and more, and to apply them to practical compression tasks.

  • Open Interpreter releases Generator update: The model’s biggest update yet allows developers to build Open Interpreter into their apps, supports 100+new LLMs including Claude, introduces the option to resume historical conversations, and has custom settings and instructions https://tinyurl.com/29bccypu 

  • Microsoft’s AI companion Copilot to be available in November. Copilot will begin to roll out in its early form as part of its free update to Windows 11, starting Sept. 26 and across Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365 Copilot this fall. https://tinyurl.com/2dkrmw2x 

  • Meta to push for younger users with new AI chatbot characters. Meta is preparing to announce a generative AI chatbot, called “Gen AI Personas” internally, aimed at younger users. They would come in multiple “personas” geared towards engaging young users with more colorful behavior. https://bitly.ws/VHv9 

  • Spotify will clone podcasters’ voices and translate them to other languages. A partnership with OpenAI will let podcasters replicate their voices to automatically create foreign-language versions of their shows. https://tinyurl.com/bdha2rud 

🔧 Cool Tools and Experiments

💰 Latest Startup Fundings

  • Social AI platform Chai receives strategic investment of $8M from GPU provider CoreWeave at a $450M valuation https://tinyurl.com/2hjdrnbu 

  • PartyKit, an open-source multiplayer deployment platform, secures $2.5M in pre-seed funding from Sequoia Capital https://bitly.ws/VLiQ 

  • AI-powered learning startup Gizmo raises $3.5M in seed funding to scale its platform that uses gamified quizzes and flashcards to engage learners https://tcrn.ch/3ELiAFM