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  • Amazon dedicates team to train ambitious AI model codenamed 'Olympus'

Amazon dedicates team to train ambitious AI model codenamed 'Olympus'

Also: Samsung unveils generative AI model ‘Gauss’

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AI KATANA
November 08, 2023

Welcome!

In today's newsletter, we delve into significant strides in AI technology and investment across various industry leaders. Amazon announces "Olympus," a groundbreaking AI model with ambitions to outperform GPT-4, while Samsung unveils "Gauss," a generative AI set to enhance its Galaxy smartphones and appliances. PwC is upskilling its workforce with a $1 billion investment in AI, including Chatbot Assistants for employees and clients. Google expands its AI-powered Search Generative Experience to over 120 countries, improving user interactions with new languages and features. Airbnb introduces an AI-powered "Guest Favorites" badge to recognize top-rated properties. Lastly, Cercle, a health AI startup focusing on women's fertility care, launches with support from prominent investors, including Sheryl Sandberg. These updates highlight a trend of AI integration into products and services, aiming to boost user experience and operational efficiency.

Sliced:

  • 📦 Amazon dedicates team to train ambitious AI model codenamed 'Olympus’

  • 🆕 Samsung unveils generative AI model ‘Gauss’

  • 🤖 PwC’s $1B Investment Will Give Every Worker AI Training—And Staffers Access To Chatbot Assistants

  • 🌍 Google’s AI-powered search experience expands globally to 120+ countries and territories

Amazon is creating a new team dedicated to training a highly ambitious AI model named "Olympus", which has two trillion parameters—double the size of OpenAI's GPT-4. This initiative is led by Rohit Prasad, the former head of Alexa, and the team includes researchers from Alexa AI and the Amazon science team. Amazon's strategy is to make AWS more appealing to enterprise clients by offering access to top-tier AI models. Despite the substantial investment and focus on AI, Amazon has cut back on other areas such as retail fulfillment and transportation. The company has previously collaborated with AI startups and has trained smaller models like Titan. The details of "Olympus" and its release timeline have not been made public yet.

Samsung Electronics has announced the launch of its new generative AI model named "Samsung Gauss," after the German mathematician. Introduced at the company's AI forum in Seoul, Gauss is designed to initially serve internally for employees, with plans to integrate it into various appliances and Galaxy smartphones. While the first device to be equipped with Gauss is rumored to be the upcoming Galaxy S24, Samsung has not confirmed this. The AI model emphasizes security and adherence to ethical standards. Gauss will support tasks like writing emails, summarizing documents, and translating content. It comprises three specialized models: Gauss Language for text generation, Gauss Code for software development, and Gauss Image for creating and editing images. Samsung highlights Gauss Code's optimization for internal software development, including code description and test case generation, and Gauss Image's ability to generate creative images and enhance image resolution.

PwC has committed $1 billion to AI initiatives, training its 75,000 U.S. employees and incorporating Chatbot Assistants internally and for client use. This move, spurred by the buzz at Davos and a desire to lead in generative AI, involves partnerships with Microsoft and OpenAI, and aligns with industry trends where firms like Deloitte, EY, and KPMG also invest heavily in technology upskilling. With a rapid deployment after Davos, PwC is advancing knowledge work with AI, under the leadership of figures like Atkinson, Kande, and Seals-Coffield. The firm has launched an AI-driven internal marketplace, “ChatPwC” for employee use, and plans to expand AI tools globally, maintaining a focus on enhancing human work rather than replacing it.

Google's AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) has expanded globally to over 120 countries and territories, now supporting new languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Indonesian, in addition to previously supported languages such as English, Hindi, and Japanese. This rollout follows SGE's initial launches in select markets and aims to provide a conversational experience with AI, where users can interact using natural language to receive complete answers with cited references instead of just a list of links. SGE has also been updated with new features such as AI-powered summaries of paywalled articles and definitions of unfamiliar terms. Additional improvements in the U.S. will enable users to ask follow-up questions and use translation features more effectively, with more enhancements and global rollouts planned for the future.

🛠️ AI tools updates

Airbnb’s AI-powered "Guest Favorites" badge, which dynamically updates daily to highlight properties favored by guests. This new feature comes as the Airbnb Plus program is discontinued. The "Guest Favorites" system uses machine learning to evaluate various factors such as quality rating, cancellation rate, and customer service tickets, automatically awarding the badge to top-rated properties among the 7 million on the platform. Currently, about 2 million properties have received this badge. Unlike the Plus program, which required an application and property inspection, the "Guest Favorites" is a more automated process, aimed at simplifying the identification of superior hosts and properties for users.

💵 Venture Capital updates

Cercle, a new health AI startup, launched with an emphasis on enhancing women's health, specifically targeting fertility care through the use of artificial intelligence. With notable backing from Sheryl Sandberg, Meta's former COO, and her husband Tom Bernthal via their venture fund, the company aims to revolutionize fertility treatment by organizing and standardizing medical data for use by clinicians. This data-driven approach is expected to foster personalized treatment plans and spur pharmaceutical breakthroughs. Cercle is beginning with fertility care but intends to broaden its impact to additional aspects of women's health, in collaboration with partners like Eurofins Genoma and US Fertility.

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