GSV's AI News & Updates (03/06/22)
ChatGPT launches API, Quizlet's Q-Chat, AI Fundraise Frenzy (Stability, Inflection, Character.ai), Typeface Emerges from Stealth
You are receiving this weekly update on the intersection of AI and education as part of our GSV community – we hope this will be a helpful resource as we navigate this evolving and exciting intersection. Please feel free to send over any relevant resources you may come across (claire@gsv.com) – we’d love to learn and hear from you!
General 🚀
ChatGPT launches API: Developers can now integrate ChatGPT and Whisper models into their apps and products through their API, dubbed “gpt-3.5-turbo.” The “turbo” moniker refers to an optimized, more responsive version of GPT-3.5 that OpenAI’s been quietly testing for ChatGPT. It’s priced at $0.002 per 1,000 tokens, or about 750 words - 10x cheaper than existing GPT-3.5 models. Snap, Quizlet, Instacart and Shopify are among the early adopters.
They also launched dedicated capacity plans, allowing large enterprises with correspondingly large budgets to gain deeper control over system performance.
YouTube’s new leader teases AI tools: “Creators will be able to expand their storytelling and raise their production value, from virtually swapping outfits to creating a fantastical film setting through AI’s generative capabilities”.
Stability AI is seeking to raise at a $4B valuation: London-based Stability, whose investors include Coatue and Lightspeed, last raised $101M at a valuation of about $1B.
Inflection looking to raise $675M in funding: founded by Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Inflection is building an AI personal assistant for the web. Suleyman founded Inflection following his departure from Google in early 2022. At the search giant, Suleyman led the team tasked with integrating LaMDA, one of Google’s conversational AI chatbots, into Google Search.
Personal AIs . . . will feel like more than just a browser or an app. They’ll be the main way that you find stuff, do stuff, buy stuff, book stuff online.
After 8 years, Reid Hoffman decides to step back from the OpenAI board
Character.ai recently raised between $200-$250M valued at $1bn: Character.ai uses LLMs to generate conversation in the style of various characters, including Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Nintendo character Mario, from user prompts. Launched less than six months ago, the company was founded by Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who previously built Google’s conversational model LaMDA.
AI voice technology used in phone scams: AI voice technology is making it easier and cheaper for bad actors to mimic voices, convincing people, often the elderly, that their loved ones are in distress.
Winners and losers in the race to add AI: ChatGPT is now running inside Snapchat, Notion, and other apps. Will it give them a sustaining advantage — or just line OpenAI's pockets?
The hidden army of workers in China influencing how AI is built
Education and the Future of Work 📚
Quizlet introduces Q-Chat, your new AI study coach: a fully-adaptive AI tutor that engages students with adaptive questions based on relevant study materials. Q-Chat uses the Socratic method to promote critical thinking by helping to deepen your understanding.
LinkedIn introduces “collaborative articles”: knowledge topics published by LinkedIn with insights and perspectives added by the community - these begin as AI-powered conversation starters. Using LinkedIn’s Skills Graph, they match each article with relevant member experts who can contribute their lessons, anecdotes, and advice based on their professional experience.
Typeface emerges from stealth with $65M: the startup transforms enterprise content creation with generative AI, raised from Lightspeed, Google Ventures, M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund), and Menlo Ventures. Founded by former Adobe CTO Abhay Parasnis, Typeface combine generative AI with a brand’s tone, audiences and workflows to “reimagine” content workflows and corporate content development.
Figure emerges from stealth: AI Robotics company building the world's first commercially viable autonomous humanoid robot. We believe humanoids will revolutionize a variety of industries, from corporate labor roles, to assisting individuals in the home, to caring for the elderly, to building new worlds on other planets.
CNET apparently laid off 50% of its News and Video staff: to focus on simplifying operations and its tech stack (a.k.a., AI).
Using A.I. to Detect Breast Cancer That Doctors Miss: study shows AI analyzed mammogram images and outperformed radiologists in accurately identifying cancer.
Startups and Tools 🛠️
Code-generating platform Magic challenges GitHub’s Copilot with $23M Series A: led by Alphabet’s CapitalG with participation from Elad Gil, Nat Friedman and Amplify Partners.
Cargoship: add AI to your software without any machine learning knowledge. Select a model from their open source collection, run the container and access the model API in your product.
Summarize.tech: summarize any YouTube video in seconds.
Sheet.ai: AI inside Spreadsheets, describe what you want in plain English, and watch the magic happen in your spreadsheet.
ChatPDF: chat with any PDF to understand content and extract information from large PDF files.
Tech 💻
The 100 most cited AI papers in 2022: Google still holds the top spot in AI research followed by Meta, Microsoft, UC Berkeley, DeepMind and Stanford.
OpenAI Price Drop: on the 90% drop on ChatGPT’s API.
ElevenLabs' AI voice designer is now available.
Listen 🎧
A fully AI generated podcast with 2 hosts that don't exist: join Laura, a quirky Machine Learning Model, and Zod, a subset of GPT-3.5's neural net.
Attend
How ChatGPT and AI are Changing Children’s Learning and Their Future (Event for Parents & Teachers) - Wednesday 3/8/, 7-8PM EST.
Fun/Other 🎉
NextThreeBooks: personalized book suggestions.
Text-to-3D-city: edit a 3D city with AI and natural language.
Memes
