After months of showcases and reveals, Apple debuted its AI suite, Apple Intelligence, as part of its latest software update for iPhones, finally bringing native AI to the fingertips of its user base. Other key takeaways include:
- Unknown image generation model "red_panda" appears out of nowhere to dethrone the competition
- Meta quietly debuts an alternative to Google's NotebookLM AI research companion, dubbed NotebookLlama
- OpenAI's Whisper transcription tool falls under heavy scrutiny from researchers due to an abundance of inaccuracies
Join us at AI Tangle as we untangle this week's happenings in AI!
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Apple's long-awaited Apple Intelligence finally goes live on iPhones worldwide as part of its iOS 18.1 software update. This update, coupled with updates for iPads and Macs, follows a beta test period for developers a few weeks earlier. Though its features are limited at the start, iOS 18.1 represents a crucial milestone for Apple as the company finalizes its first big official move to embrace AI.
What of Apple Intelligence does the iOS 18.1 update bring to the table?
The first wave of Apple Intelligence features as part of the update includes Apple's Writing Tools for refined text editing, improved Photos and Mail app functionalities, and a summarized notification feature that consolidates multiple alerts into one digestible message. Siri, too, comes with a new design that includes full-screen animations and a text interface for quieter interaction but does not include ChatGPT integration nor the previously showcased abilities of Siri to interact within apps. However, it is important to note that only the iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 16 models support Apple Intelligence. Users interested in Apple Intelligence with an eligible phone will need to apply for Apple's waitlist via Settings
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Seemingly out of nowhere, a new image generation model has appeared on the popular Artificial Analysis (AA) crowdsourced benchmark, surpassing and beating well-known and established models. The model, which goes under the inconspicuous name of "red_panda," currently sits atop the AA leaderboard by a comfortable 39 Elo points ahead of Black Forest Labs' FLUX 1.1 Pro, also boasting respectable generation speeds at a median of 7 seconds. For the time being, despite the very promising results and clear voter approval, the company or creator behind "red_panda" remains unknown.
Media and tech giant Meta quietly debuted an open-source alternative to Google's NotebookLM, called NotebookLlama, an AI-powered app that empowers scientists and developers with a research companion. NotebookLlama is powered by one of Meta's most highly optimized versions of LLMs and directly integrates into an open notebook interface, similar to Jupyter or Google Colab, tailor-made for documentation and code generation. The customizability, ease of use, and accessibility of NotebookLlama are making it a stand-out alternative to Google's original.
Researchers and developers alike have recently been flagging issues with OpenAI's Whisper transcription tool, which reportedly produces frequent "hallucinations," known as when LLMs make up information, or inaccuracies, in its transcriptions, according to the Associated Press. Concerns are especially high when considering that Whisper sees a fair amount of use in sensitive fields like healthcare, where accurate transcription is critical. One investigation by a University of Michigan researcher suggests that hallucinations or inaccuracies occur in over 80% of transcriptions - OpenAI has publically stated that they are looking into it.
Following a fairly extensive test run and ironing out some issues, Google's AI Overviews feature expands its reach beyond the US and a few select more, becoming available in over 100 more countries, full list included here. Additionally, AI Overviews now comes in more languages, including Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish, allowing AI Overviews to, for example, reply to a search in Spanish with a Spanish summary. The feature has also begun displaying cited websites and sources for its summary to allow users to follow up on the AI-made summary.
Sierra, a San Francisco-based AI startup founded by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and ex-Google executive Clay Bavor just last year, recently closed a funding round worth $175 million that quadrupled its valuation, going from $1.1 billion to $4.5 billion. The company focuses on helping enterprises, both big and small, improve their customer service through personalized, conversational AI agents leveraging a "constellation" of models under a supervisor, avoiding the term "chatbot" as Sierra emphasizes focusing on AI agents that reflect each brand's unique voice.
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AI as The Focal Point in Geopolitics (7-min read)
As data centers become critical for AI, their locations are determined by strategic choice, not natural resources, and countries like the US, China, and the Gulf states are making a run for it. Leveraging partnerships to ensure energy reliability, security, and technological leadership, AI is slowly becoming a focal point in geopolitics.
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