The week's developments in AI, quantum, and biotech, explained | 20.03.24

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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? 

Meanwhile, researchers are upping their game, with the “ANYmal bot” now adeptly navigating debris and performing parkour, and UCLA bioengineers teaching AI to speak for us, debuting a wearable that converts larynx muscle movements to speech with remarkable 95% accuracy.

Keep reading for the latest updates on mastering ‘soft touch’, Grok’s open-sourcing, and AI collective intelligence — plus the coolest AI tools to train, present and brainstorm…

— Charlie and the Research & Intelligence Team 

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Innovation and Releases

👀 Are we witnessing an Apple x Google partnership? Apple is reportedly exploring a partnership with Google to incorporate the Gemini AI model into iPhone features, aiming to enhance iOS with AI-powered updates amid competitive pressure from other tech giants.

🌐 NVIDIA announced Project GR00T to develop a general-purpose foundation model for humanoid robot learning in both simulated, and real world environments. The initiative involves collaboration with top robotics firms like Boston Dynamics, and Figure — with the notable exception of Tesla.  

🧠 Elon Musk's xAI has open-sourced Grok AI, specifically its model's base code, excluding training details, on GitHub. This release joins a trend of tech giants sharing AI models, with companies now exploring Grok's integration into their services.

👤 It’s Chat-GPT, but with a body: meet Figure 01, a humanoid robot powered by OpenAI tech. In a recent video the advanced ‘bot demonstrated it can both understand and interact with its environment: identifying objects, offering an apple and picking up trash.

AI Tools of the Week

💼 Train: Parallel AI is a platform to build personalised AI employees trained on your business, to enhance operations.

👁️‍🗨️ Present: Beautiful AI uses AI to automate the presentation creation process, with design-conscious adjustable slides.  

🧠 Brainstorm: Brainstory uses socratic questioning to streamline brainstorming and enhance thinking, to get you out of a slump.

Latest Research

🗣️ Vocal chords? Who needs them.. UCLA bioengineers have developed a wearable device that translates larynx muscle movements into speech. It harnesses machine learning to match muscle movements with words, boasting nearly 95% accuracy in voice prediction.

🤖 ‘ANYmal’ robot can walk across rubble and do parkour. Through ML and model-based control, the bot moves dynamically over obstacles and is stable on challenging surfaces. There is potential for it to assist in hazardous environments too dangerous for humans

🖐️ Researchers master a ‘soft touch’ through haptic device, SORI, capable of accurately simulating the softness of various materials, from food to a human heart. This unique tech, opens up myriad possibilities in robotics: from medical training, to remote exploration.  

🌐 Exploring AI-enhanced collective intelligence. This paper explores how combining AI with human intelligence can address complex societal challenges. It introduces a multilayer framework for understanding human-AI systems, emphasising the complementarity of human and AI capabilities.

In case you missed it

‘Compute is going to be the currency of the future’ Sam Altman and Lex Fridman sit down to discuss GPT-5, AGI, and power.

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