AI will predict what you'll buy in two years; is AI the future of film-making? 16 examples of how open-source LLMs are used today; the US is building AI infrastructure for academic researchers;
Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft are rushing to build custom AI chips for inference; AI's role in the recent wave of layoffs; AI can teach you about itself; Tim Cook teases gen AI announcement
In the summer of 2022, two of the largest social media platforms in the world were re-evaluating their investments in ecommerce: TikTok’s foray into QVC-style shopping in Europe and the US was struggling to gain traction with consumers while Instagram employees were told that the Shopping tab, which launched with much fanfare at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, would eventually disappear to make more room for Reels and Direct Messages, two features that were becoming popular with younger users. Meanwhile, Amazon was considering what to do with Amazon Live, a feature it quietly launched in 2019 to compete with the live shopping phenomenon that was taking the internet ecosystem in Asia by storm.
Today, ecommerce in Europe and North America is still growing steadily but it hasn’t reached the levels of revenue or social acceptance that exist in Asian markets such as China, where sales generated through livestreams alone were projected to have surpassed $500bn in 2023.
One explanation for why ecommerce is back to its pre-pandemic levels of growth in Europe and North America is that the experience is not very consumer-centric. In other words, it’s as boring as the TV equivalent became decades ago. Despite improvements in targeted advertising, ecommerce is still too focused on putting generic goods in front of large audiences and hoping they would sell.
However, an article from Bloomberg this week explores what the future of online shopping could become if AI can accurately forecast what people might want to buy or trends that could become viral in the future. Recent innovations in natural language processing, computer vision, and conversational avatar interfaces also signal ecommerce could be making a comeback.
Powerful large language models like Anthropic's Claude are able to parse context and multipart instructions, pointing towards a new generation of ecommerce apps where shoppers can converse with virtual store clerks to identify desired items. Researchers have demonstrated how these models can answer conditional follow-up questions around product attributes, availability, comparisons and recommendations, moving closer to replicating brick and mortar shopping guidance. Avatars take the realism a step further through visual embodiment and emotional expressiveness. Shopping-focused Chinese creators are already creating avatars of themselves and using them on 24/7 shopping livestreams, generating significant more revenue than before while maintaining similar levels of audience engagement.
Combining language capabilities with computer vision creates additional opportunities on the back end of online stores too. Shopify has developed an AI assistant called Sidekick that helps merchants create product image backgrounds, write better product descriptions and personalized FAQs, and even generate insights about the financials of their business.
Together, these advances in AI add up to a future where anyone will be able to build the equivalent of an in-person boutique able to intently manage interactions with each customer and deliver context-aware, visually-precise and personally engaging experiences. The combined result will finally make ecommerce welcoming for even those currently preferring traditional retail.
And now, here are the week’s news:
❤️Computer loves
Our top news picks for the week - your essential reading from the world of AI
Is AI the future of movie-making? [The Economist]
Dear Taylor Swift, we’re sorry about those explicit deepfakes [MIT Technology Review]
Will AI save us from customer-service hell? [The Economist]
How enterprises are using open source LLMs: 16 examples [VentureBeat]
Generative AI’s enterprise gamble: IT leaders bet big on tech despite security woes [VentureBeat]
Nvidia’s Big Tech Rivals Put Their Own A.I. Chips on the Table [New York Times]
Los Angeles Startup Uses AI To Reduce The Carbon Footprint Of Concrete [Forbes]
As layoffs deepen, AI’s role in the cuts is murky – but it definitely has one [TechCrunch]
The U.S. Just Took a Crucial Step Toward Democratizing AI Access [Time]
Introducing The Information’s AI Chip Database [The Information]
Most organizations fear AI failure, but those that implement AI do report benefits [ZDNet]
AI Is Helping Pick What You’ll Wear in Two Years [Bloomberg]
AI Fuels a New Era of Product Placement [New York Times]
⚙️Computer does
AI in the wild: how artificial intelligence is used across industry, from the internet, social media, and retail to transportation, healthcare, banking, and more
Google Maps is getting ‘supercharged’ with generative AI [The Verge]
ECB's AI model shows inflation falling faster than expected [Reuters]
Microsoft's full set of Office apps will be available on Apple's Vision Pro — including the company's new AI assistant, Copilot [Business Insider]
Britain plans ‘robocop’ force to protect nuclear sites with paint bombs [The Telegraph]
This robot can tidy a room without any help [MIT Technology Review]
Shopify boosts its commerce platform with ‘Magic’ image editor and other AI enhancements [VentureBeat]
The Pixel 8 is getting Google’s new AI search feature today [The Verge]
Warwick scientists develop AI tool to aid cancer treatment decisions [BBC]
Yelp adds AI summaries, budgeting tools in push to aid businesses [VentureBeat]
13 innovative AI tools that are changing content creators' work processes, from ideation to production to editing [Business Insider]
Cult-favorite fashion brand Selkie used AI to design its new clothes, and fans are disappointed [Business Insider]
From Goldman to Bridgewater, here's everything we know about how Wall Street is embracing AI [Business Insider]
I used Google's new AI Art Selfie feature to become a 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' [Business Insider]
Browser alternatives Brave, Arc, add new AI integrations [VentureBeat]
Samsung to Showcase Baidu’s Ernie AI in Latest Galaxy Phones [Bloomberg]
Mammography AI can cost patients extra. Is it worth it? [CNN]
AI is coming for your local weather report [Fast Company]
Pentagon plans AI-based program to estimate prices for critical minerals [Reuters]
🧑🎓Computer learns
Interesting trends and developments from various AI fields, companies and people
Growth in Cloud Spending Reflects Early-Stage AI Efforts [WSJ]
Tim Cook teases Apple AI announcement ‘later this year’ [CNBC]
Nvidia CEO Says Nations Seeking Own AI Systems Will Raise Demand [Bloomberg]
Arc is building an AI agent that browses on your behalf [TechCrunch]
Nvidia's new China-focused AI chip set to be sold at similar price to Huawei product [Reuters]
Chip race: Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Nvidia battle it out for AI chip supremacy [The Verge]
Cadence to sell AI supercomputer for jet design software [Reuters]
Generative A.I.’s Biggest Impact Will Be in Banking and Tech, Report Says [New York Times]
Over a third of EU firms adopt AI, bringing digital goals in reach [Reuters]
Microsoft, Google Woo India Programmers to Win AI Leadership [Bloomberg]
Can This A.I.-Powered Search Engine Replace Google? [New York Times]
First ‘truly’ open source LLM from AI2 to drive ‘critical shift’ in AI development [VentureBeat]
Google Bard gets image generation and a more capable Gemini Pro to take on ChatGPT [VentureBeat]
Authors are collaborating with AI—and each other [The Economist]
Could AI 'trading bots' transform the world of investing? [BBC]
Salary data revealed: Here's how much 16 top US and European AI startups like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face are paying staffers [Business Insider]
More than half of UK undergraduates say they use AI to help with essays [The Guardian]
In cloud, there's AI (which is hot) and everything else (which is not) [Business Insider]
Synthesia launches LLM-powered assistant to turn any text file or link into AI video [VentureBeat]
Mistral CEO confirms ‘leak’ of new open source AI model nearing GPT-4 performance [VentureBeat]
Salesforce AI CEO Clara Shih says AI is a ‘moving target’ — but her aim is steady [VentureBeat]
ByteDance Was Late to AI Party, CEO Says in All-Hands Meeting [Bloomberg]
YouTube Talks Creators as Execs Promise More AI Tools [The Information]
Protect AI expands efforts to secure LLMs with open source acquisition [VentureBeat]
Microsoft LASERs away LLM inaccuracies [The Verge]
AI Can Speed Drug Discovery. But Is It Really Better Than a Human? [Bloomberg]
Dynatrace ventures into AI observability with new solution, covers entire LLM stack [VentureBeat]
AI boom drives demand for server-cooling technology [Nikkei]
Volkswagen founds AI lab, in talks with potential partners [Reuters]
Microsoft’s and Google’s AI plans clouded by concerns of rising costs [FT]
Meta’s OK-Robot performs zero-shot pick-and-drop in unseen environments [VentureBeat]
WPP says ‘too early’ to know whether AI overhaul will hit advertising jobs [FT]
Are the myths of Pandora and Prometheus a parable for AI? [The Economist]
Metal unveils new AI assistant for financial services and private equity funds [VentureBeat]
We’ve trained more than 200,000 employees on AI basics, says Indian IT services firm [CNBC]
Using A.I., Hollywood Agency and Tech Start-Up Aim to Protect Artists [New York Times]
AI poisoning tool Nightshade received 250,000 downloads in 5 days: ‘beyond anything we imagined’ [VentureBeat]
Atropos Health partners with Google Cloud to rapidly generate insights from healthcare data using AI [VentureBeat]
The New York Times is building a team to explore AI in the newsroom [New York Times]
ChatGPT users can now invoke GPTs directly in chats [TechCrunch]
Studio’s new online school for musicians uses AI to create custom curriculums [TechCrunch]
Tencent chief says gaming business under threat, catching up in AI [Reuters]
You can now sign up to try a $2,000 AI headband that a startup says will help control your dreams [Business Insider]
China is building its own AI at a rapid pace [Business Insider]
OpenAI is working on AI education and safety initiative with Common Sense media [CNBC]
Can AI Solve Legacy Tech Problems? Companies Are Putting It to the Test [WSJ]
AI Officer is the Hot New Job That Pays Over $1 Million [Bloomberg]
Elon Musk compares the AI race to playing poker — you need to spend billions every year just to sit at the table [Business Insider]
AI-fuelled chip rally tested by semiconductor demand warnings [FT]
Younger workers are actually using AI on the job less than Gen X and millennials [Business Insider]
Microsoft’s AI Coding Product Becomes Weapon in Battle with AWS [The Information]
2024 may be the year AI learns in the palm of your hand [ZDNet]
Study finds AI ‘revolution’ moving at a crawl in enterprises [VentureBeat]
AI Companies Are Obsessed with AGI. No One Can Agree What Exactly It Is [Bloomberg]
Data centres improved greatly in energy efficiency as they grew massively larger [The Economist]
Meta releases ‘Code Llama 70B’, an open-source behemoth to rival private AI development [VentureBeat]
India’s population speaks over 100 languages. Microsoft thinks AI can bridge its linguistic gaps [Fortune]
Women laughing alone with AI-generated content spam [Business Insider]
Will AI take my job? The view from the experts [The Times]
Can A.I. Help the Fire Trucks Show Up Sooner? [New York Times]
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