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.