Strange Daily: Issue #5

Stability AI gets into code generation, OpenAI introduces a webcrawler in anticipation of GPT-5, Google and Universal Music Group reportedly team up to let artists get paid for AI-generated songs

Let’s jump in! If you’re on the go, you can listen to the briefing here on Spotify:

Latest news

  • Stability AI launches StableCode, an LLM for code generation [Link]

  • Apple Music finally adds personalized recommendations, while Spotify expands its AI DJ feature, with AI-generated commentary on the music you’re listening to, globally [Link]

  • OpenAI introduces web crawler GPTBot in preparation for GPT-5 [Link]

🤝 Partnerships

  • Google and Universal Music Group in talks to license AI songs: Developing a potential tool that fans could use to make AI-generated songs, while paying the copyright owners [Link]

  • Shutterstock collaborates with Luma Labs AI, RECON Labs and Volinga AI: Bringing 3D NeRF generative AI technology to 3D creators globally [Link]

  • New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) and Intuition Robotics expands partnership: Combating aging adult loneliness with ElliQ robot [Link]

🎓 Recent Academic Papers

  • PUG: A new research project by Meta AI exploring photorealistic and semantically controllable synthetic data for representation learning [Link to abstract/full-text]

  • Google AI research proposes VidLNs: An annotation procedure that obtains rich video descriptions that are semantically correct and densely grounded with accurate spatio-temporal localizations [Link to abstract/full-text]

  • AnyLoc: The latest universal method for Visual Place Recognition, which is the ability for robots to recognize where it is in current surroundings. [Link to abstract/full-text]

  • Researchers from NVIDIA and Tel Aviv University introduce Perfusion: A compact 100KB neural network with efficient training time [Link to abstract/full-text]

  • Researchers from University of Waterloo introduce a new model that reduces bias and enhances trust in AI decision-making and knowledge organization [Link to abstract/full-text]

🔧 Cool Tools and Experiments

  • Whatsapp tests group voice chats, similar to Discord's voice chats and Twitter Spaces, that allows users jump in and out of group voice chats [Link]

  • Google introduced AI-powered grammar check to its search functionality [Link]

  • Shutterstock launches a text-to-360 image generation tool [Link] 

  • Note-taking app and PDF editor Goodnotes adds AI-powered handwriting recognition features to its app [Link]

💰 Latest Startup Fundings

  • VR design platform ShapesXR raises $8.6M in seed funding: Plans to expand new devices, including Apple Vision Pro, Pico and Magic Leap [Link]

  • Advertising experience platform Monetizr raises $6M to replace intrusive in-game ads with engaging brand experiences [Link]

  • Narrative games firm Telltale acquires interactive video tech company Flavourworks [Link]

Stay in-the-know!