The week's developments in AI, quantum, and biotech, explained | 07.02.24

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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?

Meanwhile, popular romantic chatbot apps face scrutiny for potentially exposing the intimate data of over 100 million users to third-party entities…talk about trust issues.

Plus, Dutch startup Monumental secured $25 million to roll out bricklaying robots that work alongside humans on sites across Europe. The tech aims to ease labour shortages and physical strains in construction through automated assistance.

Keep reading for the latest updates on Google’s next-generation model Gemini 1.5, self-improving diffusion models and a 'quantum leap' at room temperature — plus the coolest AI tools to create, search, and integrate.

— Charlie and the Research & Intelligence Team 

P.S. You can now register your interest for CogX Festival LA 6-9 May, where we’ll be talking all things AI, Impact, and Transformational Tech!

Innovation and Releases

🤖 Google Intensifies AI rivalry with Gemini 1.5: Unveiling a more powerful, multi-modal language model with enhanced efficiency, Google's Gemini 1.5 aims to set a new benchmark against competitors like OpenAI's GPT-4, promising superior data processing and vast improvements in performance.

🧠 ChatGPT gets a memory. OpenAI is enhancing ChatGPT with a "memory" feature, allowing it to recall personal preferences and past conversations. While aiming for a more tailored interaction, this development raises data privacy and security concerns. 

💘 Don't trust AI girlfriends — they only want you for your data. Romantic chatbots are putting the intimate data of 100 million users at risk, with popular apps like Replika, Chai, and Eva harvesting and potentially sharing sensitive information with third parties.

💰 Dutch startup secures $25M to bring autonomous bricklaying robots to Europe. With a focus on automation and efficiency, Monumental robots aim to address the industry's labour shortages and physical demands by working alongside humans in construction.

🔋 Celadyne coats membranes with nanoparticles to make hydrogen fuel cells more efficient. This Chicago-based startup promises to tackle the hydrogen market's supply-demand dilemma by improving both fuel cell designs and hydrogen production costs.

AI Tools of the Week

🎵Create: Kits AI offers musicians an AI voice platform to modify or create unique AI voices from a library of artist-licensed or royalty-free options, or easily train their own.

🕵️‍♂️Search: Otio is an AI-powered research and writing platform designed to simplify the research workflow for scholars and researchers, offering intelligent summarisation options.

🗣️Integrate: AI/ML API provides a seamless interface for over 100 AI models, including chat, language, image, and coding assistance, with easy OpenAI service transition.

Latest Research

⚛️ Scientists have achieved a breakthrough in quantum mechanics, by controlling quantum phenomena at room temperature. This innovation paves the way for practical applications by overcoming the need for near-absolute zero conditions.

🌱 Advanced artificial photosynthesis catalyst uses CO2 more efficiently to create biodegradable plastics. This breakthrough not only promises to reduce carbon emissions but also innovates in the reuse of waste resources for sustainable manufacturing.

🌐 Researchers unveil SPIN-Diffusion, a novel method empowering diffusion models to self-enhance through iterative self-play, dramatically advancing performance without extra data input. The model demonstrated strong improvements in just 1-2 iterations of self-play.

🦈 Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University use 500-million-year-old marine fossils to innovate soft robots, aiming for safer human interaction. These robots are well-suited for applications ranging from medical devices to enhancing efficiency in various tasks.

In case you missed it

The unveiling of Sora, a groundbreaking text-to-video AI platform, represents a pivotal stride towards AGI — but is it just the tip of the iceberg? Check out the full story here:

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🚀 Remember to register your interest for CogX Festival LA 6-9 May!