AI & DeepTech

In this week’s AI & DeepTech digest we explore how OpenAI helped transform software-giant Microsoft from tech-dinosaur to the world’s most valuable business — a strategic focus on AI boosting their stock by 1000% in the past decade. Is this a standout case or glimpse of the transformative power of AI to come?

In this week’s AI & DeepTech digest, we spotlight a UK startup gearing up to initiate vertical farming in space by 2026, using a fully robotic system to cultivate vegetables in microgravity. Plus, luxury space tourism brand Halo Space has unveiled the design for its zero-emission balloon — would you take a ride for €150,000 a ticket?

In this week’s AI & DeepTech digest, we explore how US-China tensions spurred a hefty $6.6bn TSMC investment in Arizona, Belfast-based Neurovalen’s noninvasive neurotech for anxiety, and the AI agents with a greenlight for oncology diagnostics — would you trust an AI doctor?

This week, we spotlight innovations from Ukraine's drone sector, which is transitioning from military to civilian use, aiming for global UAV supremacy with over 200 firms (up from only 7 last year). Meanwhile in China, flying cars approach reality with KleinVision and Hebei Jianxin's commercial AirCar deal — is the future of tech aerial?

This week’s dispatch spans medical innovation and deep space to natural disaster prediction: AI tool ‘Foresight’ is using patient digital twins to predict diseases (with crazy high accuracy) and a new wearable from Mytos can track chronic kidney disease in real-time. Plus, there’ll be more where that came from, as OTB Ventures has secured a NATO backed $185 million fund for European DeepTech ventures — watch this space.

This week we’ve got big news from big-tech — an Apple x Google partnership is on the cards for ‘iPhone AI’, NVIDIA launched Project GR00T to develop a foundational model for humanoid robots, and Figure partnered with OpenAI to launch the first *embodied ChatGPT*. In light of these developments, how do you see the landscape of competition and innovation evolving for smaller tech companies?

In this week's deep dive into AI & DeepTech, Elon Musk stirred the pot by announcing xAI's move to open-source its LLM Grok, boldly challenging ChatGPT amid OpenAI dispute.

Just days after the buzz surrounding Google's Gemini 1.5 release, another European player, Mistral, steps into the ring with its latest flagship model, Mistral Large. Hosted on Microsoft’s Azure AI, this powerful new model boasts "top-tier" capabilities in areas like reasoning, code generation, and multilingual support. But how does it compare to OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google's Gemini?

This week, OpenAI introduces a groundbreaking feature: Memory in ChatGPT. Functioning as a meticulous curator, ChatGPT now stores and adapts to past conversations, offering a glimpse into the future of personalised AI interactions. Are we witnessing a paradigm shift in AI chatbot interactions?

This week, a breakthrough paper from Daniel Olsher proves development of the first-ever AGI and superintelligence. It outlines key principles for AGI, proposes methods for its development, and introduces the Olsher Test as solid evidence of its reality: could this be the biggest AI development of 2024?

This week, researchers proved that AI can learn just like a human can, by hooking one up to a baby via headcam. The AI was able to grasp basic objects and words from ‘real-life’ experience, indicating a new and natural way of training autonomous systems.

In this week's DeepTech update, Elon Musk announced the successful implantation of a human brain chip by Neuralink. The chip should allow mobile phone and computer control, from thoughts alone…(pretty sci-fi, right?)

Welcome to this week's DeepTech update! In the world of VR, Disney's HoloTile may be the solution to restricted movement in the metaverse, offering users omnidirectional treadmills to explore virtual worlds. Plus, it’s also changing football, with top players using VR to improve their game performance, even when injured. Are we on the cusp of a VR revolution? 

This week in DeepTech: Norwegian startup 1x is readying Neo, a humanoid robot for home integration while green-tech innovator Hestiia promises to heat your home with a bitcoin-mining radiator. Will tech for the home be the next AI trend in 2024?

Some exciting developments in DeepTech this week: AI can now predict significant life events — including the time of death — with remarkable precision. Plus, genetically engineered plants can now communicate with you through fluorescence.

Good news for the deeptech community: a new report found that the industry was one of Europe’s most resilient in 2023. Despite a difficult funding climate, European deeptechs have raised $15 billion so far this year. Read on to find out what gives Europe an edge over the US.

From drug discovery to embodied AI, this week has been huge for AI & DeepTech. Let’s kick off with Sam Altman: rumours are surfacing that shortly before his exile, researchers warned of an AI so good at maths that it could be the first sign of humanity-threatening AGI. Could this maths-whiz bot really be the cause of OpenAI’s board reshuffle?

This week was big for biotech: the UK was the first country to approve gene-editing therapy, AI learnt to predict heart disease from eye scans, and scientists successfully printed a robotic hand with bones and tendons. Are we ready for tech-integrated healthcare? Because if this week is anything to go by, it may be coming sooner than you think…

This week Humane released the AI Pin, a groundbreaking AI wearable with a camera, poised to potentially replace smartphones. Meanwhile, robotics may be about to reach its 'GPT moment' – expect a surge in commercial deployment of more versatile and intelligent robots in 2024.

Big Tech has been busy with LLMs this week: OpenAI has announced GPT-4 Turbo — their best model yet, and a no-code personal bot creation platform. Plus, Elon Musk announced ‘Grok’, the first bot to come out of his AI startup, characterised by a sharp, sarcastic wit and a repository of knowledge from X.

The UK government has announced a £100m investment in AI to enhance healthcare and life sciences, aiming to improve treatments, expedite diagnoses, accelerate drug development, and provide vital support to the NHS.

Apple's highly-anticipated "scary fast" launch event saw them introduce their cutting-edge M3 chip series, alongside a sleek new 24-inch iMac and MacBook Pro range.

Amazon is gearing up to broaden its drone delivery horizons, with plans to expand its advanced MK30 drone, to the UK next year. Amazon envisions accomplishing 500 million drone deliveries by the end of this decade.

Meanwhile, can AI have a favourite food? Researchers at Penn State certainly believe so, as they work toward an electronic tongue, they hope will bolster EQ in artificial intelligence.

OpenAI is considering producing its own AI chips amidst ongoing compute shortages and escalating demand caused by generative AI. Meanwhile, University of Oxford researchers have successfully 3D printed stem cells replicating the intricate structure of the brain, which demonstrated remarkable compatibility when introduced into mice.

This week, Meta unveiled AI Studio, which allows users to create their own AI chatbots on Facebook and Instagram. Meanwhile, Paris-based startup Mistral has launched Mistral 7B, its first generative AI model, which reportedly can outperform existing open source models such as Llama 2.