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OpenAI shuts the door on China as Google emissions surge 48%

Plus, Ray Kurzweil explains how AI will radically extend lifespans

Author

Steve Brown
July 03, 2024

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This Week in AI

This week’s issue is coming to you a day earlier than usual since tomorrow is a public holiday in the United States. Happy birthday to the USA! 🇺🇸🦅

Google, like other major tech companies, is grappling with the risk of not meeting its climate commitments. The culprit? The rising importance of AI workloads in their core business. In its 2024 annual environmental report, Google revealed its greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 48% over the past half-decade, with a 13% rise in just the last year, and says its goal to reach net zero emissions by 2030 “won’t be easy.”

Starting on July 9th, OpenAI will block developers and companies in mainland China and Hong Kong from accessing its site, signaling an uptick in the geopolitical tech war. The move will likely spark increased efforts by the Chinese to develop homegrown AI for their domestic market. This move by OpenAI comes days after the Biden administration announced plans to restrict American investment in key Chinese technology sectors.

A bundle of AI features, which Google is rumored to be branding “Google AI,” is set to launch on the upcoming Pixel 9 phone series on August 13th. One of the features, Pixel Screenshots, apparently resembles Microsoft’s controversial Recall feature on Windows. Other AI features include ‘Add Me’, an assistant for taking group photos, and a feature called ‘Studio.’

Video: Figure robot working in BMW plant

This week, Figure released a ‘status update’ video to show their Figure 01 robot performing tasks inside the BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The robot works very slowly but learned how to perform tasks by observing human workers and then practicing them. Figure and BMW are probably taking the most sensible approach to development: assure accuracy before working to speed up operation. (1m 38s)

AI Tech and Innovation

Textured 3D models generated by Meta’s new ‘3D Gen’ platform

Meta researchers have released a new system to create textured 3D objects from a text prompt. The research paper claims the new model can generate output between three and 60 times faster than alternative models. Samples are impressive and have high detail and accuracy.

Simple pipeline diagram for 3D Gen use cases (Source: Meta)

Today, most generative AI is experienced as turn-based conversations with a large language model: You ask ChatGPT a question and await its response, and then ChatGPT waits while you frame your next question. But the future of AI will be a major leap forward with the advent of autonomous AI agents. Agents will understand instructions, plan their approach, and then execute sets of complex actions and deploy a range of tools to accomplish goals. Imagine a future of AI travel agents, AI paralegals, AI research assistants, and so on. Teams of agents will work together to achieve ever more complex goals while improving their overall accuracy. This article, which includes a 30-minute accompanying video, dives into the technical implementation of such agents and how the gen AI stack will is evolving to deliver agentic AI.

Robots include many sensors in their limbs to sense their environment and aid movement. But there’s no reason to limit the type of sensors in robots to mimic those in animals. Could cameras in robot feet help them to walk better? New research has begun to explore ‘foot-eyes.’ 🦶👁️

AI Insights and Analysis

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“In effect, we are in the process of turning medicine into an information technology, harnessing the exponential progress that characterizes these technologies to master the software of biology.”
Ray Kurzweil, Futurist and Inventor, “The Singularity is Nearer: When we merge with AI”

In an excerpt from his new book, The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge With AI, Ray Kurzweil shares his view that AI will combine with biotechnology to defeat degenerative diseases this decade and that soon after we will reach longevity escape velocity, where average life expectancy increases by more than one year, every year.

Will AI and automation eventually lead to mass unemployment? If AI does most of the work, will people still feel motivated to seek a high-quality education, or education of any kind? Will the role of education change in a post-labor world? Could a decline in education lead to humanity's atrophy and infantilization? These are some of the questions Synthetic explores in this post.

As the U.S. military courts tech startups to help it win the AI arms race, Freethink explores the history, present, and future of AI warfare and its implications.

Based on insights emerging from its annual Transform event, VentureBeat lists six AI implementation conversations happening now in the enterprise world and shares its perspective on each. Topics include whether LLMs have reached a plateau, whether AGI has hit peak hype, the infrastructure realities around GPUs, content rights, and legal landmines, when generative AI will transform core business functions, and whether AI agents are the next frontier or overblown hype.

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