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The 'Godmother of AI' is building a new startup
ALSO: How to refine your prompts in six steps
Zain Kahn
July 18, 2024
Read time: under 4 minutes
Welcome back, Superhuman
The evolution of eyesight during the Cambrian explosion let animals better perceive their surroundings, forever changing the way organisms interact with each other. Half a billion years later, the Godmother of AI wants to take LLMs to the next level by teaching them how to visualize the world in a similar way.
Today’s Insights
The ‘godmother of AI’ has a new startup in the works
Tutorial: A six-step ChatGPT framework
Everything else you should know today
How AI chips reshaped Taiwan’s economy
5 new AI tools to boost your productivity
AI-Generated Images: Monet meadows
NEXT IN AI
The ‘godmother of AI’ sets her sights on spatial awareness
Source: Makers
When the “Godmother of AI” shares her vision for a new startup, it’s no wonder investors would sit up and pay attention. Fei-Fei Li, the co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, became a pioneer in the field after developing an influential visual recognition database called ImageNet. Now, she’s back with a mysterious project called World Labs, which will build new models based around spatial awareness.
The company raised $100 million from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and Radical Ventures in its second funding round — just four months after it got off the ground. VCs, meanwhile, have already valued the startup at around $1 billion. But as speculation swirls, Li has kept quiet about the project — fueling even more hype about what she might have in the works.
What will the company be working on? While details are scant, we did get some hints during a TED Talk Li gave in April. In it, she talked about how sight helps us make sense of the world around us. Our eyes also let us perceive how our own actions shape the environment. “Simply seeing is not enough,” Li said. Instead, spatial intelligence models — like the ones World Labs is developing — will eventually be able to make decisions and act based on visual inputs.
We’re already moving in that direction: Consider your phone’s tendency to sort photos based on where they were taken or who appears in them — or an autonomous car’s ability to navigate roadways on its own.
What sorts of real-world applications could we see down the line? In her TED Talk, Li offered several examples: An autonomous robot that can transport supplies to doctors during medical emergencies, for instance, or a platform that could let paralyzed patients perform everyday tasks with their minds. Li’s model would also likely be compatible with humanoid robots — another step toward bringing AI into the physical world.
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THE AI ACADEMY
6-step ChatGPT prompting framework
Ready to take the next step and level up your AI skills? Access 100+ actionable courses and tutorials at our AI Academy
AI & TECH NEWS
Everything else you need to know today
Source: Menlo Ventures
Better Together: Anthropic is teaming up with VC firm Menlo Ventures to put $100 million toward early-stage companies who use Anthropic’s Claude AI model in their products.
Stream Snatchers: A Wired investigation revealed that tech companies — including Nvidia, Apple, and Salesforce — trained their AI models using more than 170,000 YouTube videos without creators’ permission.
Two for One: France’s Mistral just released a pair of new AI models: One helps programmers code faster and more efficiently, while the other can be used for math and scientific discovery.
No More Hold: Salesforce unveiled a customer-facing AI platform called Einstein Service Agent that can perform different actions on its own, such as facilitating returns or issuing refunds.
😄One Fun Thing: Even Tinder is outfitting its app with AI features. The latest tool scans your photo reel and picks out your most photogenic pics. It even takes things like lighting and composition into account.
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AI & ECONOMICS
Taiwan’s AI investments are paying off
There are about twice as many Ferraris cruising along Taiwan’s roadways than there were just four years ago — and the AI boom might be responsible. The 22nd-largest economy has gotten a boost over the past few years from the world’s sudden interest in AI-capable processors. It’s home to some of the biggest semiconductor designers and manufacturers, including behemoth TSMC, which produces about 90% of the world’s AI chips.
According to a Financial Times analysis, Taiwan is generating millionaires at a faster rate than anywhere else on earth, with its share expected to rise 47% by 2028. But high-level executives aren’t the only ones benefiting. Tech employees across the board have been getting bonuses that in some cases dwarf their annual salaries. For instance, WinWay, which helps chip companies test their equipment, gave workers a payment worth about 30 months of work last year.
There’s little sign of things slowing down: Instead, major chip companies like Asia Vital Components and Quanta Computer have seen their shares steadily increase since the start of 2024. One factor contributing to this rise: Some stockholders who had previously financed Chinese companies now see Taiwanese startups as a safer bet.
It hasn’t been rosy for everyone though: The sudden demand for AI-capable hardware has already introduced some new problems. For one, people with larger salaries tend to invest in real estate, inflating the price for everyone else. Young graduates in Taiwan say they’re struggling to afford housing as a result. Still, most economists see the chip boom as a net positive for Taiwan and think the influx of revenue can lift all boats in the long run.
PRODUCTIVITY
5 AI Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity
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✅TypeflowAI: Build AI tools in minutes without coding, then easily share or embed them into your website.
✅Inro: Turn your Instagram account into a conversion engine with an AI tool that automatically analyzes contacts based on engagement history.
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AI-GENERATED IMAGES
Monet Meadows
Source: Inspired by @trichiz. on Midjourney
Midjourney Prompt: Spring Meadow Painting,Vintage Landscape Print,Country Field,impessionlism,claude monet
--style raw --ar 4:3 --stylize 750
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