Grok is going open source

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Welcome back, Superhuman

If you can’t beat em at their game, play a different game. Elon Musk says he’s making his ChatGPT rival open source — but why? We explore the open vs closed AI debate that’s dividing Silicon Valley.

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TODAY’S MENU

• Should AI be open source? Elon Musk re-enters the chat

• The company helping robots learn new tasks

• Chart: The rise in non-profits and government groups studying AI

• Tutorial: How to generate images with consistent faces

• 5 new AI tools to boost your productivity

• AI Generated Images: Impossible architectural designs

NEWS

Today in AI & Tech

• r/IPO: Reddit, the birthplace of meme stocks like AMC and GameStop, said it hopes to raise $750 million in its own stock launch.

• Borrowed Books: Three authors sued Nvidia for copyright infringement, claiming their books were among nearly 200,000 works that were used to train the company’s NeMo AI platform.

• Privacy Payoff: Telegram founder Pavel Durov told the Financial Times his encrypted messaging platform now has 900 million users and could become profitable by the end of the year.

• Singularity Scare: Workers at some of the top AI labs revealed they feared their companies were putting safety on the back burner, according to a new report commissioned by the State Department.

• Royal Retouching: Kate Middleton said she edited a photo of her and her three kids after internet users speculated that the image had been created with AI (pictured above).

NEXT IN AI

Should AI be open source? Elon Musk re-enters the chat

After criticizing (and even suing) OpenAI for keeping its source code out of the hands of the public, Elon Musk is putting his money where his mouth is by making his rival AI platform Grok open-source by the end of the week.

Open Sesame vs Opening Pandoras Box: The ‘open vs closed’ debate is causing a sharp divide in Silicon Valley. A recent argument between venture capital heavyweights Vinod Khosla and Marc Andreessen captures the essence of the rift:

• Khosla argued that the source code for the world’s most powerful AI models should be protected at all costs. “Would you open source the Manhattan Project?” he asked in one recent post.

• Andreessen, on the other hand, thinks that anyone should have the ability to adapt and experiment with AI systems, ensuring that no single company holds the keys to the kingdom.

Prevention & Profits. Some major AI companies like OpenAI keep their source code secret, citing safety concerns and the potential dangers of unleashing their code. But there’s also undeniably a strong profit motive for keeping your secret sauce a secret.

Other AI models, however, like Meta’s Llama 2 and Mistral AI’s model are open source and allow anyone to tweak and modify their source code. Grok will soon join those ranks.

The stakes are high. The outcome of the open vs closed AI model debate will decide whether AI becomes a decentralized technology that’s open to all — or a powerful tool that’s concentrated in the hands of a few dominant companies.

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AI & ROBOTICS

The robotics company bringing AI into the physical world

Most of us interact with generative AI platforms by entering prompts on a computer screen. But what if AI platforms could help with physical tasks, too? A California-based robotics company called Covariant wants to do just that.

What can it do? The startup’s software can already simulate some fun tricks, like fetching a tote bag or an apple from a box of random items. But Covariant, which has already raised about $222 million in funding, thinks its robotics platform will eventually have plenty of practical uses, too. 

How it was built: Most generative AI models are trained with vast quantities of textual data from the Internet, along with books and other sources. But Covariant’s model incorporates additional motion-based data, including videos of robots performing various tasks in the real world. 

It means that the company’s AI model not only understands factual information — but also knows how to move through physical spaces.

What’s the value? Robots are generally only capable of performing one specialized task over and over again. Covariant’s software would instead allow robots to perform a wide variety of activities — based entirely on verbal commands from employees.

“It can take in all of these different modalities that matter to robotics, and it can also output any of them,” CEO Peter Chen recently told Wired. “It’s a little bit mind-blowing.”

CHART

Breaking down which groups have contributed to AI research over the decades

A recent study by EpochAI shows which groups have been involved in major AI breakthroughs and innovations since the 1950s.

Private sector entities appeared to see the largest increase in AI-related activity over the past few years, with non-profits and governmental groups also seeing a modest rise in research involvement.

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AI AT WORK

How to generate images with consistent faces

If you’ve ever generated images with AI, you probably know how hard it is to create two or more images with the same face and character.

Image generation app Midjourney released a feature yesterday that finally solves this problem.

How to sign up to Midjourney:

• Sign up for Midjourney and Discord on their website

• Once you’re signed up, go to the Discord website → click on the Direct Messages icon on the top left → click on Midjourney bot

• To generate an image type /imagine followed by your prompt and press enter to generate your image

How to use the feature:

• Once you’ve generated an image of a person that you like, click on the image and then click on Open in Browser to the bottom left of the image

• Write a prompt in Discord for the new image that you’d like to generate and add --cref URL (of the image that you just opened in browser) to the end of your prompt

• For example, your new prompt could look like: /imagine woman in an office with large windows --cref https://…

And there you have it. With that simple addition to the end of your prompts, you should now be able to generate consistent faces across all your images.

PRODUCTIVITY

5 AI Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity

Coefficient: Connect, automate, and share live data in Google Sheets or Excel, so your reports and insights always stay up-to-date.

PipeLime: Automatically collect real-time leads and drive them through the sales funnel with AI.

Chatsimple:* AI Copilot that lets visitors talk to your website. Help them find exactly what they want in seconds and increase website CTA clicks by 3X.

EverLearn: Create customized digital tutorials and interactive exercises to help train employees.

Lummi: Find and download free stock photos and royalty free images made with AI.

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AI GENERATED IMAGES

Impossible Architectural Designs

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Until next time!

Zain

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