AI news and funding updates from the last 24 hours(15th Jan 2025):

🏻 Policy and Regulation

✅ Executive Order on AI: President Biden signed an order allowing federal land leases for AI data centers, boosting national security and clean energy while mandating American-made semiconductors.

🏻 AI News

✅ Microsoft AutoGen v0.4: Introduced a multi-agent AI framework with asynchronous architecture, debugging tools, and cross-language support.

✅ Google NotebookLM Update: Resolved AI host politeness issues in "Interactive Mode" with "friendliness tuning."

✅ Google Titans Architecture: Unveiled a new AI architecture combining short✅ and long-term memory, outperforming Transformers and RNNs.

✅ Sundar Pichai's Cricket Bid: Google CEO leads a $97M bid for a London-based cricket team in The Hundred league.

✅ OpenAI Board Update: Added Adebayo Ogunlesi to its board, part of a major restructuring post-2023 leadership changes.

✅ OpenAI o1 Model Quirk: Observed multilingual reasoning even when prompted in English, raising transparency concerns.

✅ ChatGPT Tasks Beta: Introduced scheduled reminders and recurring requests for Plus, Team, and Pro users.

✅ Apple Joins UALink Consortium: Invests in AI accelerator chip connectivity for data centers.

✅ Meta Llama 3 Goals: Internally aimed to outperform GPT-4 and Claude, focusing on open AI models.

✅ Meta Apology in India: VP apologized for Zuckerberg's incorrect election-related statement on a podcast.

✅ Amazon Alexa Rebranding: Plans to reposition Alexa as an advanced AI agent with expanded capabilities.

✅ Soket AI Realtime Speech API: Launched a multilingual API with voice cloning and low latency.

✅ India's Sovereign LLM: IT Minister discusses developing a large language model for Indian languages.

✅ Bhashini at Maha Kumbh: AI chatbot "Kumbh Sah‘AI’yak" offers real-time assistance in 11 languages.

🏻 AI Funding Rounds

✅ Anysphere Series B: Raised $105M for its AI-powered coding tool, reaching a $2.5B valuation.

✅ Nvidia Invests in MetAI: Taiwanese startup accelerates digital twin creation for robotics and industry.

✅ Synthesia Series D: Raised $180M to enhance AI video tech, now valued at $2.1B.

✅ Arva AI Seed Round: Raised $3M to improve KYB verification with generative AI.

✅ Applied Digital Investment: Secured up to $5B from Macquarie for AI-focused data centers.

✅ AWS Mexico Expansion: $5B investment over 15 years, including a new server region to boost GDP by $10B.

✅ Thoras Seed Round: Raised $5M for its AI-powered cloud reliability and cost optimization platform.

✅ SEEQC Quantum Chips: Raised $30M to integrate quantum computing functions into scalable chips.

✅ Telstra-Accenture JV: Launched a $700M venture to enhance AI integration in Telstra's operations.

✅ OrbitAID Aerospace: Secured $1.5M for space refueling tech, advancing India's space sector.

✅ Sarla Aviation Series A1: Raised $10M to develop the Shunya electric flying taxi and expand in India.

AI news and funding updates from the last 24 hours(14th Jan 2025):

🏻 AI News

✅ OpenAI Blueprint: Released a proposal urging the US to attract AI funding, build infrastructure, and responsibly regulate AI to maintain leadership and prevent $175B investment loss to China.

✅ Microsoft CoreAI Division: Formed under Jay Parikh to accelerate AI infrastructure and software, focusing on "model-forward" applications reshaping software.

✅ Nvidia's AI Mini PC: Launched $3,000 Project Digits with Grace Blackwell GB10 Superchip, a Linux-based AI supercomputer hinting at potential Windows PC disruption.

✅ Mercedes-Benz & Google AI: Integrating generative AI into MBUX Virtual Assistant for conversational search and navigation, debuting in the new CLA model.

✅ UK Antitrust Probe: CMA investigates Google's AI search and ad practices, examining market dominance and data usage, with potential for major regulatory actions.

✅ Raspberry AI Funding: Raised $24M Series A for its text-to-image AI platform revolutionizing fashion design for brands like Under Armour.

✅ Blaize IPO: AI chip startup focusing on edge computing to go public via SPAC merger, targeting a $1.2B valuation.

✅ Meta Backlash: Faces criticism for AI-generated images in Instagram feeds, reflecting struggles with profitable AI applications.

✅ Simpli.fi Autopilot AI: Launched tools for simplified omnichannel campaign management, making programmatic advertising more accessible.

✅ ArcherMind & Arraymo: Unveiled FusionOS2.0 and ArraymoAIOS1.0 at CES 2025 for AI+OS integration, enabling smart applications in automotive, IoT, and smart home sectors.

✅ Singapore AI for Aging: Using robots like Dexie and AI tools for early depression detection to address its aging population, investing heavily in healthcare AI.

🏻 AI Funding Rounds

✅ SuperDial Acquisition: Acquired MajorBoost to enhance voice AI capabilities for healthcare automation, improving benefits verification and claim follow-up.

✅ Bioptimus Funding: Raised $41M to develop a "GPT of biology" for disease prediction and treatment development, with plans for a multi-modal model release.

✅ Open Ledger Launch: Raised $3M for AI-driven accounting software offering APIs and components for automated financial tasks in enterprises.

✅ LemFi Series B: Raised $53M to expand remittance services into Europe and Asia, handling $1B monthly transaction volume.

AI news and funding updates from the last 24 hours(13th Jan 2025):

🏻 Government and Policy

✅ US AI Regulations: New rules restrict access to advanced AI chips (TPP limit ~50,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs) and control AI model weights, with exemptions for allies and small orders.

✅ Nvidia Criticism: Nvidia argues the US chip export rules harm AI leadership and innovation without improving national security.

✅ UK AI Investments: PM Starmer announced a $17B private investment plan, fast-tracking data centers, a supercomputer, and a national data library.

✅ UK AI Opportunities Action Plan: creating 13,250 jobs and boosting AI growth.

🏻 AI News

✅ iPhone Market Decline: Global share dropped to 18% due to delayed AI features and competition from Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Vivo.

✅ VLC AI Features: Developing on-device AI for real-time subtitle generation and translation, enhancing privacy and accessibility.

✅ AI Misinformation: AI-generated images on corn digestion dominate Google search, highlighting issues with low-quality content.

✅ AI in Coding: Mark Zuckerberg predicts AI will replace mid-level coders by 2025, with Meta and Google already automating significant code development.

✅ Ariqt Expansion: Dutch AI firm opens an innovation hub in Hyderabad, hiring 300+ engineers and reinforcing Telangana's innovation ecosystem.

✅ Coreweave Expansion: $19B cloud computing company launches two UK data centers with Nvidia H200 GPUs, aligning with AI infrastructure investments.

✅ GitHub Copilot Workspace: Now open to all, supporting natural language coding in Indian languages like Hindi and Kannada.

✅ India’s First Private Fab: Andhra Pradesh partners with YITOA and Indichip to establish a ₹14,000 crore silicon carbide semiconductor fab in Kurnool.

✅ TCS-Nvidia Collaboration: Using BioNeMo for accelerated protein research in flavors and fragrances, modernizing R&D processes.

✅ TransPixar AI: Simplifies creating transparent video effects via text prompts, democratizing tools for creators.

✅ Private AI in Banking: Enhances compliance with DORA by improving risk management, incident response, and fraud detection.

🏻 AI Funding Rounds

✅ Qventus: Secured $105M at a valuation over $400M to advance AI healthcare solutions.

✅ Fetch.ai Accelerator: Launched a $10M fund for startups in AI agents, quantum computing, and high-performance tech.

AI news and funding updates from the last 24 hours(12th Jan 2025):

🏻 AI Funding Rounds:

✅ Nobel Hygiene, a diaper manufacturer, is seeking up to ₹200 crore in funding led by Neo Group's investment arm, highlighting a broader interest in AI applications across various industries.

🏻 AI Technology and Innovations:

✅ Researchers have developed Sky-T1, an open-source reasoning AI model competitive with early OpenAI models, for under $450 using synthetic data and efficient training methods. While not surpassing the latest OpenAI models, Sky-T1 demonstrates the increasing accessibility and affordability of developing powerful reasoning AIs.

✅ Oracle's Exadata X11M claims faster database performance than AWS and Azure, even on their own clouds, using AMD processors and targeting a multi-cloud strategy. While Oracle emphasizes its scale and performance, competitors like CockroachDB promote multi-cloud freedom and open-source alternatives like PostgreSQL are gaining traction.

✅ Nvidia has dramatically increased its investments in AI startups, participating in 83 funding rounds over the last two years, focusing on "game changers." These investments range from billion-dollar rounds in companies like OpenAI and xAI to over $100 million in startups like Runway and Enfabrica.

✅ Elon Musk's Grok AI identified a teen's wrist fracture missed by medical professionals, prompting timely treatment and avoiding surgery. Beyond medical uses, Grok offers real-time search, image generation, fact-checking, and travel planning capabilities.

✅ An X user successfully ran a llama2.c-based AI model on a 20-year-old Xbox 360, optimizing the code for its PowerPC architecture and memory limitations. This demonstrates the potential to run AI models on older, less powerful hardware, furthering accessibility beyond resource-intensive corporate systems.

✅ Google's AI Overview, intended to summarize web content, included a fake image of a tiny baby elephant from Etsy in its search results. This incident highlights ongoing issues with the AI tool's reliability and discernment of credible sources, raising questions about its usefulness.

✅ Kimberly-Clark's $2.5 million investment in its Bangalore Global Digital Technology Centre has resulted in an eightfold growth in staff, from 50 to 430 employees, in five years. This Bengaluru hub now drives global AI innovation and cost optimization for the company.

AI news and funding updates from the last 24 hours(11th Jan 2025): 🏻 AI Technology and Innovations: ✅ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's prediction that useful quantum computers are 15-30 years away triggered an $8 billion selloff in the sector. Quantum computing leaders pushed back, arguing some systems are already commercially viable, while Huang's own company is actively hiring quantum engineers. ✅ Salesforce's Marc Benioff and Microsoft's Satya Nadella clashed over AI strategies, with Benioff criticizing Copilot and promoting Salesforce's AI platform, while Nadella emphasized AI agents and Copilot Studio. Both CEOs assert their companies are at the forefront of AI innovation for businesses. ✅ HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah's Agent.ai, a platform for creating custom AI agents, has gained 258,000 users in four months. Shah believes AI agents are the future and hopes to integrate Agent.ai into HubSpot, while Indian founders are driving growth in the burgeoning AI agent market. ✅ AWS launched a data center region in Thailand, investing $5 billion over 15 years and boosting the country's digital infrastructure. This benefits Indian startups by providing easier access to Southeast Asian markets and advanced AWS services like AI/ML. ✅ Microsoft is suing a group for allegedly bypassing its cloud AI safety measures using stolen customer credentials and custom software. The defendants reportedly created a "hacking-as-a-service" to generate illicit content, prompting Microsoft to take legal action and implement countermeasures. ✅ OpenAI is reviving its robotics department and plans to develop its own robots with custom sensors, aiming for eventual mass production. The company envisions general-purpose, adaptive robots powered by its AI models, joining a competitive but growing robotics sector. ✅ OpenAI's GPTBot caused a DDoS-like attack on Triplegangers' e-commerce site by aggressively scraping its images, highlighting the vulnerability of websites to AI bots. Triplegangers blocked the bot but has no way to know what data was taken or retrieve it, raising concerns about copyright and data protection. ✅ Gigabyte showcased new AI-enhanced hardware at CES 2025, including Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs, Intel/AMD motherboards with AI-driven features, and laptops with the GiMATE AI agent. The new products focus on improved performance, cooling, and AI integration for gaming and other demanding tasks ✅ Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas is hiring in India to expand the company's presence there, following a meeting with PM Modi about AI's potential in the country. Srinivas, an IIT Madras alumnus, aims to grow the $9 billion AI search engine startup in India after discussing AI adoption and localized solutions with Modi. ✅ Hugging Face settled a lawsuit with FriendliAI, which had accused it of patent infringement related to data batching in AI systems. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but FriendliAI agreed to dismiss the case permanently. ✅ The World Economic Forum predicts 39% of core job skills will change by 2030, emphasizing tech skills like AI/ML alongside creative thinking and resilience. Naukri.com confirms this trend, noting a 36% growth in AI/ML roles in India, along with rising demand for creative and leadership skills. ✅ AI and Market Dynamics: Oil prices reached a three-month high due to new US sanctions on Russian crude, indirectly affecting AI development costs due to energy consumption considerations. 🏻 AI Funding Rounds: ✅ HPE's AI Server Deal: Hewlett Packard Enterprise secured a $1 billion+ deal with Elon Musk's company X for AI-optimized servers. ✅ Gumloop Funding: Raised $17 million to enhance its no-code, modular platform for workflow automation. ✅ Innovaccer's Series F Funding: Secured $275 million to expand AI and cloud offerings, including copilots and agents.

AI news and funding updates from the last 24 hours(10th Jan 2025):

🏻 AI Funding Rounds:

✅ 0G Labs secured $30 million to advance decentralized AI development.

✅ Hippocratic AI, a startup creating patient-facing AI agents for non-diagnostic tasks, raised $141M Series B, reaching a $1.64B valuation. This funding will fuel expansion of their services within and beyond the US market.

✅ Movement Labs is closing a $100 million Series B funding round, focusing on blockchain technology with AI integration, valuing the company at $3 billion.

✅ Blackstone invested $300 million in DDN, a company providing data storage and analysis solutions crucial for AI, valuing DDN at $5 billion. This investment aims to support major AI projects like xAI's Colossus supercomputer.

🏻 AI Technology and Innovations:

✅ Microsoft's rStar-Math allows small language models (SLMs) to solve complex math problems as accurately as larger models, using self-evolution and step-by-step verification. This makes advanced AI more accessible and affordable due to the SLMs' lower computational demands.

✅ Meta is being sued for copyright infringement for training its AI models on pirated books from LibGen, with allegations that Zuckerberg approved the practice despite internal concerns about legality. Plaintiffs also accuse Meta of stripping copyright information and illegally torrenting the dataset.

✅ OpenAI is reportedly shifting its focus towards superintelligent AI, while competitors like Google and NVIDIA are emphasizing world modeling and hardware advancements.

✅ OpenAI is revamping ChatGPT's custom instructions, allowing users to specify preferred names, professions, and desired chatbot traits for more personalized interactions. This appears to be a user-friendly redesign of the existing prompt engineering feature.

✅ Intel is spinning off its RealSense depth-sensing camera division into a standalone company within its Intel Capital portfolio by mid-2025. This move raises questions about RealSense's future funding and direction after a history of uncertainty.

✅ There's a trend towards AI agents with Nvidia betting big on this technology, and LangChain planning an agent conference. Vertical SaaS solutions using AI agents are also being discussed.

✅ Alibaba's Qwen launched a free AI web app, NVIDIA introduced Project DIGITS, and Runway ML announced 4K video capabilities among other AI developments.

✅ Nvidia's prototype AI avatar, R2X, runs on PCs, using AI models for visuals and popular LLMs like GPT-4 for interaction. It can help with tasks, access screen content, but is still in early stages with some bugs.

✅ Google is moving its AI Studio and Gemini API teams into Google DeepMind to accelerate AI development and streamline the research-to-product pipeline. This follows other team shifts to DeepMind, reflecting Google's focus on scaling Gemini and strengthening its AI leadership.

✅ Plaintiffs in a copyright lawsuit against Meta allege Zuckerberg approved using pirated ebooks from LibGen to train Llama, despite internal concerns. They further claim Meta stripped copyright info and torrented the dataset, potentially compounding infringement.

✅ Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has invested in Relativity Space, a 3D-printed rocket company, providing a financial boost as the company develops its Terran R rocket for a planned 2026 launch. Relativity, despite past funding challenges, remains committed to its ambitious launch goals.

✅ Cohere launched North, an AI-powered workspace platform focused on secure data management and workflow automation for businesses. It features advanced search, custom AI tool creation, and prioritizes data privacy, addressing key enterprise concerns.

AI news and funding updates from the last 24 hours(9th Jan 2025):

🏻 AI News, Developments, and Trends:

✅ Microsoft's new 14B-parameter Phi-4 model, now available on Hugging Face, outperforms much larger models like Llama 3.3 70B and GPT-4o Mini in benchmarks, showcasing its efficiency and reasoning capabilities. With a focus on curated high-quality data and support for ten Indian languages, Microsoft is betting big on India, including a $3 billion Azure expansion and AI training for 10 million people by 2030.

✅ Elon Musk's xAI launched a beta iOS app for its chatbot Grok, expanding access beyond X users and offering features like Q&A, text rewriting, and image generation. Musk and other experts agree the AI industry has exhausted real-world training data, driving a shift toward synthetic data for cost-efficient development and self-learning. Grok plans to introduce an "Unhinged Mode" for edgy, offensive responses, reflecting Musk's vision of unfiltered AI. However, Grok has faced criticism for leaning left on political topics, which Musk attributes to biased training data. Companies like Microsoft and Meta are also leveraging synthetic data to innovate AI systems.

✅ Google Deep Research, launched for Gemini subscribers, is an AI-powered tool designed for complex research tasks with customizable prompts and step-by-step research plans. It analyzes over 50 websites simultaneously, compiles findings with citations, and allows users to edit and export reports to Google Docs for further interaction. Ideal for market research and competitor analysis, it offers a free trial but is expected to cost $20/month with Gemini Advanced in 2025.

✅ In 2025, companies continue to struggle with practical AI applications, as highlighted at CES with gimmicky products like AI-powered spice dispensers and air fryers. CES also featured bizarre tech, including a robotic cat coffee cooler, a $1,350 smart espresso machine, and a heating/cooling gaming chair. Other oddities included a bird-detecting smart birdbath, a massive gaming console, and a $1,500 "In Case of Death" iPad bundle. These products reflect the gap between AI's potential and its often-hyped, impractical implementations.

✅ Halliday’s smart glasses, launching in March 2025, project a 3.5-inch display directly into your line of sight using a tiny module called DigiWindow, offering features like real-time language translation, phone notifications, and navigation. Sleek and camera-free, these $489 glasses prioritize functionality and style, but fitting issues and concerns about projecting light into the eye may give some users pause.

✅ François Chollet is co-founding the ARC Prize Foundation to develop benchmarks, like ARC-AGI, that test AI for "human-level" intelligence by solving novel problems. The nonprofit aims to advance progress toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) and plans to launch updated benchmarks, competitions, and partnerships with organizations like OpenAI to refine AI evaluations.

✅ San Francisco startup Based Hardware unveiled Omi, a $89 AI wearable designed to boost productivity, at CES 2025. The device, which can be worn as a necklace or taped to the head with a "brain interface," uses GPT-4o to answer questions, summarize conversations, and create to-do lists, while running on an open-source platform to address privacy concerns and support developer-built apps.

✅ Stanford engineers Tran Le and Sohit Gatiganti founded Grove AI to streamline clinical trial enrollment using generative AI. Their voice-based AI agent, Grace, pre-screens patients, schedules visits, and has already interacted with 70,000 patients, attracting $4.9 million in seed funding to further reduce bureaucratic hurdles and build advanced patient data management tools.

AI news and funding updates from the last 24 hours(8th Jan 2025):

🏻 AI News, Developments, and Trends:

✅ X's Trend Genius: X (formerly Twitter) launched "Trend Genius" at CES 2025, an ad feature linking campaigns to trending topics.

✅ Delta's CES Updates: Delta showcased incremental updates at CES, including an AI travel assistant and free YouTube Premium for SkyMiles members.

✅ Panasonic's Umi: Panasonic introduced Umi, an AI-powered family wellness assistant using the Claude AI model, launching in 2025.

✅ UK Deepfake Criminalization: The UK plans to criminalize the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes under the Online Safety Act.

✅Trump's Data Center Investment: Trump announced a $20 billion data center investment by a UAE billionaire, but the plan faces skepticism.

✅Altman Denies Assault Allegations: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denied sexual assault allegations made by his sister in a lawsuit.

✅Meta's AI Avatars: Meta is testing AI-generated avatars in Instagram feeds, but some users find the personalized ads unsettling.

✅ AI in Cancer Detection: A study highlighted AI's potential to improve cancer detection rates.

✅ European AI Optimism: Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström expressed optimism about Europe's AI future, despite funding disparities with the US.

🏻 AI Funding Updates:

✅ Anthropic's Growth: Anthropic is in talks to raise $2 billion, boosting its valuation to $60 billion.

✅ AWS Infrastructure Expansion: Amazon Web Services plans an $11 billion investment in Georgia for cloud and AI infrastructure development.

✅ AMD Enters Healthcare AI: AMD's $20 million investment in ABSI marks its entry into the AI-driven drug discovery market.

✅ Fermata's AgTech Success: Fermata, an AI-powered crop monitoring startup, secured $10M in funding and aims for profitability by 2026.

✅ AI Drives VC Funding: AI startups are a major force in the U.S. venture capital landscape, accounting for nearly half of the record $209 billion raised in 2024.