Last Week in AI

Latest Episodes:

#189 - Chat.com, FrontierMath, Relaxed Transformers, Trump & AI Nov 17, 2024

Show notes

Our 189th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!

Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris.
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/.

In this episode:

* OpenAI's acquisition of chat.com and internal shifts, including hardware lead hire and hardware model leaks, signal significant strategy pivots and challenges with model scaling and security.
* Saudi Arabia plans a $100 billion AI initiative aiming to rival UAE's tech hub, highlighting the region's escalating AI investments.
* U.S. penalties on GlobalFoundries for violating sanctions against SMIC underline ongoing challenges in enforcing AI-chip export controls.
* Anthropic collaborates with Palantir and AWS to integrate CLAWD into defense environments, marking a significant policy shift for the company.

Sponsors:

The Generator - An interdisciplinary AI lab empowering innovators from all fields to bring visionary ideas to life by harnessing the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
The AI safety book “Uncontrollable" which is not a doomer book, but instead lays out the reasonable case for AI safety and what we can do about it. Max TEGMARK said that “Uncontrollable” is a captivating, balanced, and remarkably up-to-date book on the most important issue of our time" - find it on Amazon today!

If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.

Timestamps + Links:

(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:01:28) News Preview
(00:02:10) Response to listener comments
(00:05:02) Sponsor Break
Tools & Apps
Applications & Business
- (00:21:39) OpenAI acquired Chat.com
- (00:23:40) Saudis Plan $100 Billion AI Powerhouse to Rival UAE Tech Hub
- (00:28:28) Meta’s former hardware lead for Orion is joining OpenAI
- (00:31:38) OpenAI Accidentally Leaked Its Upcoming o1 Model to Anyone With a Certain Web Address
- (00:35:50) Nvidia Rides AI Wave to Pass Apple as World’s Largest Company
Projects & Open Source
Research & Advancements
Policy & Safety
- (01:19:52) What Donald Trump’s Win Means For AI
- (01:28:44) Fab Whack-A-Mole: Chinese Companies are Evading U.S. Sanctions
- (01:33:57) US fines GlobalFoundries for shipping chips to sanctioned Chinese firm
- (01:36:55) Anthropic teams up with Palantir and AWS to sell its AI to defense customers
(01:39:23) Outro

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#188 - ChatGPT+Search, OpenAI+AMD, SimpleQA, π0 Nov 08, 2024

Show notes

Our 188th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!

Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris.
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/.

This episode was sponsored by The Generator.
If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.
In this episode:
* Meta's open-source models utilized by China's military prompt regulatory adjustments; US agencies gain access to counterbalance.
* OpenAI partners with Broadcom and AMD to develop custom AI hardware, aiming for profitability and reducing inference costs.
* Physical Intelligence unveils a generalist robot control policy with a $400M funding boost, showcasing significant advancements in zero-shot task performance.
* New U.S. regulation mandates quarterly reporting for large AI model training and computing cluster acquisitions, aiming to bolster national security.

Timestamps + Links:

(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:02:16) News Preview
(00:03:05) Response to listener comments / corrections
(00:05:00) Sponsor Break
Tools & Apps
- (00:06:28) OpenAI’s search engine is now live in ChatGPT
- (00:12:18) Image Playground, ChatGPT, and more Apple Intelligence features roll out in beta
- (00:14:34) GitHub Copilot will support models from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI
- (00:19:00) Introducing the analysis tool in Claude.ai
- (00:21:34) ElevenLabs Introduces Voice Design: A New AI Feature that Generates a Unique Voice from a Text Prompt Alone
- (00:24:18) Midjourney's new web editor lets you tweak images uploaded from your PC
- (00:26:02) Watch out, Midjourney — Recraft just announced new AI image generator model
Applications & Business
- (00:29:57) Meta strikes multi-year AI deal with Reuters
- (00:33:15) OpenAI will start using AMD chips and could make its own AI hardware in 2026
- (00:40:47) Elon Musk's xAI in talks to raise funding valuing it at $40 billion, WSJ reports
- (00:46:07) Physical Intelligence, a Robot A.I. Specialist, Raises Millions From Bezos
- (00:48:32) Waymo ramps up robotaxi push with $5.6 bn in funding
- (00:49:11) Alphabet's Waymo Serving Over 150,000 Paid Robotaxi Rides Every Week Now, Surging 50% In 2 Months
Projects & Open Source
Research & Advancements
- (01:08:19) This Is a Glimpse of the Future of AI Robot
- (01:15:06) Can Language Models Replace Programmers? REPOCOD Says 'Not Yet'
- (01:19:01) Brain-like Functional Organization within Large Language Models
- (01:21:20) Decart’s AI simulates a real-time, playable version of Minecraft
- (01:25:39) Raising the bar on SWE-bench Verified with Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Policy & Safety
(01:48:16) Outro

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#187 - Anthropic Agents, Mochi1, 3.4B data center, OpenAI's FAST image gen Oct 28, 2024

Show notes

Our 187th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news, now with Jeremie co-hosting once again!

Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris. Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/.

This episode was sponsored by The Generator.

If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.

Timestamps + Links:

(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:03:07) Response to listener comments / corrections
(00:05:13) Sponsor Read)
Tools & Apps
- (00:06:22) Anthropic’s latest AI update can use a computer on its own
- (00:18:09) AI video startup Genmo launches Mochi 1, an open source rival to Runway, Kling, and others
- (00:20:37) Canva has a shiny new text-to-image generator
- (00:23:35) Canvas Beta brings Remix, Extend, and Magic Fill to Ideogram users
- (00:26:16) StabilityAI releases Stable Diffusion 3.5
- (00:28:27) Bringing Agentic Workflows into Inflection for Enterprise
Applications & Business
- (00:32:35) Crusoe’s $3.4B joint venture to build AI data center campus with up to 100,000 GPUs
- (00:39:08) Anthropic reportedly in early talks to raise new funding on up to $40B valuation
- (00:45:47) Longtime policy researcher Miles Brundage leaves OpenAI
- (00:49:53) NVIDIA’s Blackwell GB200 AI Servers Ready For Mass Deployment In December
- (00:52:41) Foxconn building Nvidia superchip facility in Mexico, executives say
- (00:55:27) xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup, launches an API
Projects & Open Source
Research & Advancements
- (01:13:21) OpenAI researchers develop new model that speeds up media generation by 50X
- (01:17:54) How much AI compute is out there, and who owns it?
- (01:25:28) Rewarding Progress: Scaling Automated Process Verifiers for LLM Reasoning
- (01:33:30) Inference Scaling for Long-Context Retrieval Augmented Generation
Policy & Safety
(02:06:37) Outro

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#186 - Adobe AI Tools, Tesla's Cybercab, Nobel Prizes Oct 20, 2024

Show notes

Our 186th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news! With hosts Andrey Kurenkov and guest host Jon Krohn from the SuperDataScience Podcast.

Check out Jon’s upcoming agent-focused event here - AI Catalyst: Agentic Artificial Intelligence

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/.

If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.

Email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

Timestamps + Links:

(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:04:14) News Preview
(00:05:28) Response to listener comments / corrections
Tools & Apps
Applications & Business
- (00:27:46) Tesla’s big ‘We, Robot’ event criticized for ‘parlor tricks’ and vague timelines for robots, Cybercab, Robovan
- (00:37:25) OpenAI announces content deal with Hearst, including content from Cosmopolitan, Esquire and the San Francisco Chronicle
Projects & Open Source
Research & Advancements
Policy & Safety
Synthetic Media & Art
- (01:26:26) Adobe Pushes Content Authenticity Forward With a Free Web App Designed for Creators
(01:29:13) Outro

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#185 - Movie Gen, ChatGPT Canvas, OpenAI's VC Round, SB 1047 Vetoed Oct 12, 2024

Show notes

Our 185th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news! With hosts Andrey Kurenkov and guest host Gavin Purcell from the AI for Humans podcast.

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/.

If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.

Email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

In this episode:

Meta's MovieGen introduces innovative features in AI video generation, alongside OpenAI's real-time speech API and expanded ChatGPT capabilities.
Mio's foundation model and Apple's Depth Pro enhance multimodal AI inputs and precise 3D imaging for AR, VR, and robotics.
Microsoft and OpenAI's strategic advancements highlight significant financial moves and AI enhancements, including Microsoft's enhanced Copilot.
AI policy discussions intensify as California's vetoed bill sparks debates on regulation, alongside Google's $1 billion investment to expand AI infrastructure in Thailand.

Timestamps + Links:

(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:02:51) Response to listener comments / corrections
Tools & Apps
- (00:03:48) Meta announces Movie Gen, an AI-powered video generator
- (00:14:28) OpenAI launches new ‘Canvas’ ChatGPT interface tailored to writing and coding projects
- (00:19:31) OpenAI’s DevDay brings Realtime API and other treats for AI app developers
- (00:24:43) Black Forest Labs releases Flux 1.1 Pro and an API
- (00:28:30) Microsoft gives Copilot a voice and vision in its biggest redesign yet
- (00:32:36) Pika 1.5 is now live — AI video generator just got major upgrades
Applications & Business
- (00:37:49) OpenAI closes the largest VC round of all time
- (00:45:23) Google brings ads to AI Overviews as it expands AI’s role in search
- (00:51:05) Anthropic hires OpenAI co-founder Durk Kingma
- (00:51:49) OpenAI’s newest creation is raising shock, alarm, and horror among staffers: a new logo
- (00:53:45) Waymo to add Hyundai EVs to robotaxi fleet under new multiyear deal
- (00:57:28) Cerebras, an A.I. Chipmaker Trying to Take On Nvidia, Files for an I.P.O.
- (00:59:18) Y Combinator is being criticized after it backed an AI startup that admits it basically cloned another AI startup
Research & Advancements
- (01:03:30) Were RNNs All We Needed?
- (01:06:52) MIO: A Foundation Model on Multimodal Tokens
- (01:09:20) Apple releases Depth Pro, an AI model that rewrites the rules of 3D vision
Policy & Safety
Synthetic Media & Art
- (01:21:58) AI reading coach startup Ello now lets kids create their own stories
(01:25:13) Outro

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#184 - OpenAI's Voice 2.0 + execs quitting, Llama 3.2, To CoT or not to CoT? Oct 02, 2024

Show notes

Our 184th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news! With hosts Andrey Kurenkov and guest host Jon Krohn.

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/.

If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.

Email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

In this episode:

OpenAI, Meta, and Google are enhancing their AI assistants with advanced voice modes, while Meta released Llama 3.2, an open-source model capable of processing both images and text.
Significant AI infrastructure developments include Grok's partnership with Aramco for a massive data center in Saudi Arabia, and Microsoft's plan to power data centers using a reopened Three Mile Island nuclear plant.
Recent research shows chain-of-thought prompting is most effective for math and symbolic reasoning, while OpenAI's GPT-4 with vision capabilities is being integrated into Perplexity AI's search platform.
AI is being rapidly integrated into various sectors, with examples including ChartWatch reducing unexpected hospital deaths, Snapchat and YouTube introducing AI video generation tools, and Lionsgate partnering with Runway for AI-assisted film production.

Timestamps + Links:

(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:04:45) Response to listener comments / corrections
Tools & Apps
Applications & Business
Projects & Open Source
- (00:52:58) Meta Releases Llama 3.2—and Gives Its AI a Voice
- (00:56:52) Alibaba Unveils Ovis 1.6 – A New Multimodal Language Model
Research & Advancements
Policy & Safety
Synthetic Media & Art

(01:28:01) Outro

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#183 - OpenAI o1, Adobe vid gen, Reflection 70B, DeepMind AlphaProteo Sep 26, 2024

Show notes

Our 183rd episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news! With hosts Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris.

Note: once again, apologies from Andrey on this one coming out late. Starting with the next one we should be back to a regular(ish) release schedule.

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/. If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.

Email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

In this episode:

- OpenAI's O1 and O1 mini models boast advanced reasoning and longer responses.

- Adobe adds video generation to Firefly, Anthropic launches AI safety-focused Claude enterprise.

- LLAMA3 8B excels with synthetic tokens, AI-generated ideas deemed more novel.

- New AI forecasting bot competes with veteran human forecasters.

Timestamps + Links:

(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:02:38) Response to listener comments / corrections
Tools & Apps
- (00:04:00) OpenAI releases o1, its first model with ‘reasoning’ abilities
- (00:22:06) Adobe says video generation is coming to Firefly this year
- (00:25:27) Anthropic launches Claude Enterprise with more security, admin controls
- (00:27:55) Tell Replit's AI Agent Your App Idea, and It'll Code and Deploy It for You
Applications & Business
Projects & Open Source
- (00:47:31) The fable of Reflection 70B
- (00:53:08) DataGemma: Using real-world data to address AI hallucinations
- (00:56:31) DeepSeek-V2.5 wins praise as the new, true open source AI model leader
Research & Advancements
- (01:01:35) Google DeepMind Launches AlphaProteo , an AI Model for Generating Proteins
- (01:08:27) Synthetic continued pretraining
- (01:16:55) A Large-Scale Human Study with 100+ NLP Researchers
- (01:23:55) Superhuman Automated Forecasting
Policy & Safety
- (01:28:05) OpenAI o1 System Card
- (01:36:58) US roll outs new export controls aimed at restricting China’s chip industry
- (01:39:50) Employee Call for Governor Newsom to Sign SB 1047
- (01:42:34) Taylor Swift says AI version of herself falsely endorsing Trump 'conjured up my fears'
Synthetic Media & Art
- (01:44:42) YouTube is developing AI detection tools for music and faces, plus creator controls for AI training
(01:45:08) Outro

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

# 182 - Alexa 2.0, MiniMax, Surskever raises $1B, SB 1047 approved Sep 17, 2024

Show notes

Our 182nd episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news! With hosts Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris.

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/. If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.

Email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

Sponsors:

- Agent.ai is the global marketplace and network for AI builders and fans. Hire AI agents to run routine tasks, discover new insights, and drive better results. Don't just keep up with the competition—outsmart them. And leave the boring stuff to the robots 🤖

- Pioneers of AI, is your trusted guide to this emerging technology. Host Rana el Kaliouby (RAH-nuh el Kahl-yoo-bee) is an AI scientist, entrepreneur, author and investor exploring all the opportunities and questions AI brings into our lives. Listen to Pioneers of AI, with new episodes every Wednesday, wherever you tune in.

In this episode:

- OpenAI's move into hardware production and Amazon's strategic acquisition in AI robotics.
- Advances in training language models with long-context capabilities and California's pending AI regulation bill.
- Strategies for safeguarding open weight LLMs against adversarial attacks and China's rise in chip manufacturing.
- Sam Altman's infrastructure investment plan and debates on AI-generated art by Ted Chiang.

Timestamps + Links:

(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:05:15) Response to listener comments / corrections

Tools & Apps
- (00:07:32) Amazon Picks Anthropic to Power Alexa 2.0
- (00:12:12) Forget Sora — MiniMax is a new realistic AI video generator and it’s seriously impressive
Applications & Business
Projects & Open Source
- (00:44:10) Alibaba releases new AI model Qwen2-VL that can analyze videos more than 20 minutes long
Research & Advancements
Policy & Safety
- (01:08:16) California Legislature Approves Bill Proposing Sweeping A.I. Restrictions
- (01:11:14) Tamper-Resistant Safeguards for Open-Weight LLMs
- (01:17:12) China's chip capabilities just 3 years behind TSMC, teardown shows
- (01:20:50) China Threatens to Cut Off ASML Over New US Chip Curbs
- (01:23:22) Altman Infrastructure Plan Aims to Spend Tens of Billions in US
Synthetic Media & Art
- (01:26:23) NaNoWriMo is in disarray after organizers defend AI writing tools
- (01:28:54) Tom Hanks warns followers to be wary of 'fraudulent' ads using his likeness through AI
- (01:30:48) Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art
(01:34:28) Outro

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#181 - Google Chatbots, Cerebras vs Nvidia, AI Doom, ElevenLabs Controversy Sep 15, 2024

Show notes

Our 181st episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!

With hosts Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/

If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.

Email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

In this episode:

- Google's AI advancements with Gemini 1.5 models and AI-generated avatars, along with Samsung's lithography progress.
- Microsoft's Inflection usage caps for Pi, new AI inference services by Cerebrus Systems competing with Nvidia.
- Biases in AI, prompt leak attacks, and transparency in models and distributed training optimizations, including the 'distro' optimizer.
- AI regulation discussions including California’s SB1047, China's AI safety stance, and new export restrictions impacting Nvidia’s AI chips.

Timestamps + Links:

(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:03:08)Response to listener comments / corrections
Tools & Apps
- (00:09:19) Google’s custom AI chatbots have arrived
- (00:12:52) Google releases three new experimental AI models
- (00:17:14) Google Gemini will let you create AI-generated people again
- (00:22:32) Five months after Microsoft hired its founders, Inflection adds usage caps to Pi
- (00:26:42:) Plaud takes a crack at a simpler AI pin
Applications & Business
- (00:30:31) Cerebras Systems throws down gauntlet to Nvidia with launch of ‘world’s fastest’ AI inference service
- (00:41:06) Nvidia announces $50 billion stock buyback
- (00:46:24) OpenAI in talks to raise funding that would value it at more than $100 billion
- (00:50:44) OpenAI Aims to Release New AI Model, ‘Strawberry,’ in Fall
- (00:52:53) 3 Co-Founders Leave French AI Startup H Amid ‘Operational Differences’
- (00:57:29) Samsung to Adopt High-NA Lithography Alongside Intel, Ahead of TSMC
- (01:02:11) Unitree's $16,000 G1 could become the first mainstream humanoid robot
Projects & Open Source
- (01:04:59) Meta leads open-source AI boom, Llama downloads surge 10x year-over-year
- (01:09:08) A_Preliminary_Report_on_DisTrO.
Research & Advancements
- (01:13:56) Diffusion Models Are Real-Time Game Engines
- (01:23:18) LLM Defenses Are Not Robust to Multi-Turn Human Jailbreaks Yet
- (01:32:21) Interviewing AI researchers on automation of AI R&D
- (01:40:33) Anthropic releases AI model system prompts, winning praise for transparency
Policy & Safety
Synthetic Media & Art
- (02:11:13) Actors Say AI Voice-Over Generator ElevenLabs Cloned Likenesses
(02:14:06) Outro

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#180 - Ideogram v2, Imagen 3, AI in 2030, Agent Q, SB 1047 Sep 03, 2024

Show notes

Our 180th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!

With hosts Andrey Kurenkov (https://twitter.com/andrey_kurenkov) and Jeremie Harris (https://twitter.com/jeremiecharris)

If you would like to get a sneak peek and help test Andrey's generative AI application, go to Astrocade.com to join the waitlist and the discord.

Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/

If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form.

Email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai

Episode Highlights:

Ideogram AI's new features, Google's Imagine 3, Dream Machine 1.5, and Runway's Gen3 Alpha Turbo model advancements.
Perplexity's integration of Flux image generation models and code interpreter updates for enhanced search results.
Exploration of the feasibility and investment needed for scaling advanced AI models like GPT-4 and Agent Q architecture enhancements.
Analysis of California's AI regulation bill SB1047 and legal issues related to synthetic media, copyright, and online personhood credentials.

Timestamps + Links: