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Zhipu AI of China Develops Sora-Inspired Technology to Advance Artificial General Intelligence

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An early proponent of Chinese large language models (LLM), Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co. (Zhipu AI) stated that it is creating Sora-like technology as a means of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), highlighting a national aspiration to overtake US advancements.

Later this year, the public will be able to access OpenAI’s text-to-video generator, Sora. This has caused numerous Chinese companies, where Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT is not readily available, to step up their efforts to keep up with recent advancements in the US in this area.

According to Zhang Peng, the CEO of Beijing-based Zhipu AI, “we’re not surprised about the advent of Sora, and we’re also working on [similar technology],” as reported this week by the local media outlet TMTPost.

Noting that Sora’s multi-modal capabilities are “very state-of-the-art,” Zhang praised the project but also pointed out that Sora and related Chinese efforts are currently behind in terms of technology.

Zhang was reported in the report as saying, “Sora has experienced progressive enhancement, there’s still a gap between [it] and us and we need to keep working hard.”

Being the company behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other similar services, Zhipu was one of the first in China to investigate the development of LLMs. One year before OpenAI released its GPT-3 LLM series, it was founded in June 2019 by a group of Tsinghua University computer science research fellows.

Based on research conducted by Tsinghua University’s Knowledge Engineering Group (KEG), the company was founded. Zhang was a key member of the KEG team and holds a doctorate from the university’s computer science department.

Zhipu declared in October that it had raised $342 million, or 2.5 billion yuan, in total. Numerous Big Tech companies and venture capital (VC) firms in China have supported it, including Alibaba Group Holding, the company that owns the Post, Tencent Holdings, Meituan, and Xiaomi.

The venture capital arm of Hillhouse Capital, GL Ventures, and HongShan, formerly Sequoia China, are among the backers.

ChatGLM, Zhipu’s response to ChatGPT, was unveiled in March of last year. It was one of the first sets of generative AI services authorized for general release by the Chinese government.

Beijing has placed restrictions on the use of foreign chatbots and required all local services to obtain a permit before going live in order to keep generative AI services under control.

Several of the top AI start-ups in the world, such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Mistral AI in Europe, have not yet released their products on the mainland.

As per the TMTPost report, Zhang remains optimistic about collaborating with foreign companies on AI technologies in the future and is considering international markets.

“Globalization is a crucial business strategy. Going outside [of China] would be a very significant milestone for as a Chinese company, Zhang added.

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Google’s Gemini AI Upgraded with Exciting New Features

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New artificial intelligence (AI) products, including chat and search functions as well as AI hardware for cloud users, have been added to Google’s Gemini AI following a significant update.

Even if certain features are still in beta or only available to developers, they provide valuable information about Google’s artificial intelligence approach and sources of income.

With the goal of making AI more accessible to all, Google CEO Sundar Pichai kicked off the company’s annual I/O developer conference on Tuesday with a keynote address that focused on Gemini, the company’s advanced AI model, which was recently upgraded to Gemini 1.5 Pro. Gemini powers important services like Android, Photos, Workspace, and Search.

Google Gemini AI: Enhanced Functionalities

  1. The new Gemini 1.5 Pro from Google can now process significantly more data. With the ability to summarize up to 1,500 pages of text submitted by users, the application facilitates the processing of vast amounts of data.
  2. Google unveiled the Gemini 1.5 Flash AI model, intended for simpler jobs like media captioning and conversation summarization. For consumers with less complex data needs, this model provides an affordable option.
  3. Gemini is now accessible to developers globally in 35 languages thanks to improved translation capabilities.
  4. Gemini, which Google intends to replace Google Assistant with on Android phones, might challenge Apple’s Siri on iPhones.

Additionally, Google revealed that Gemini will be able to provide Gmail with enhanced AI features. Users of Gmail will notice a new feature that lets them ask the AI chatbot to summarize particular emails in their inbox because Gemini powers Gmail. For Gmail users, this innovation promises to simplify email management and boost productivity.

Google Gemini AI: Gmail-related Features

  1. Gemini can now summarize emails for users, serving as your inbox’s CliffsNotes. For instance, Gemini will provide you a summary of emails without requiring you to view them if you ask it to catch you up on correspondence from a particular sender or subject.
  2. To help you swiftly comprehend crucial information from lengthy conversations, you can ask Gemini to highlight essential topics from Google Meet recordings.
  3. Gemini can respond to inquiries regarding details tucked away in your communications. For example, you can ask Gemini about event details or order delivery times, and Gemini will look into those for you.

According to Google, the email summary feature will launch this month, while the other features will follow in July.

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Google I/O 2024: Top 5 Expected Announcements Include Pixie AI Assistant and Android 15

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The largest software event of the year for the manufacturer of Android, Google I/O 2024, gets underway in Mountain View, California, today. The event will be livestreamed by the corporation starting at 10:00 am Pacific Time or 10:30 pm Indian Time, in addition to an in-person gathering at the Shoreline Amphitheatre.

During the I/O 2024 event, Google is anticipated to reveal a number of significant updates, such as details regarding the release date of Android 15, new AI capabilities, the most recent iterations of Wear OS, Android TV, and Google TV, as well as a new Pixie AI assistant.

Google I/O 2024’s top 5 anticipated announcements are:

1) The Android 15 is Highlighted:

It is anticipated that Google will reveal a sneak peek at the upcoming Android version at the I/O event, as it does every year. Google has arranged a meeting to go over the main features of Android 15, and during the same briefing, the tech giant might possibly disclose the operating system’s release date.

While a significant design makeover isn’t anticipated for Android 15, there may be a number of improvements that will assist increase user productivity, security, and privacy. A number of other new features found in Google’s most recent operating system include partial screen sharing, satellite connectivity, audio sharing, notification cooldown, app archiving, and notification cooldown.

2) Pixie AI Assistant:

Also anticipated from Google is the introduction of “Pixie,” a brand-new virtual assistant that is only available on Pixel devices and is powered by Gemini. In addition to text and speech input, the new assistant might also allow users to exchange images with Pixie. This is known as multimodal functionality.

Pixie AI may be able to access data from a user’s device, including Gmail or Maps, according to a report from the previous year, making it a more customized variant of Google Assistant.

3) Gemini AI Upgrades:

The highlight of Google’s I/O event last year was AI, and this year, with OpenAI announcing its newest large language model, GPT-4, just one day before I/O 2024, the firm faces even more competition.

With the aid of Gemini AI, Google is anticipated to deliver significant enhancements to a number of its primary programs, including Maps, Chrome, Gmail, and Google Workspace. Furthermore, Google might be prepared to use Gemini in place of Google Assistant on all Android devices at last. The Gemini AI app already gives users the option to switch the chatbot out as Android’s default assistant app.

4) Hardware Updates:

Google has been utilizing I/O to showcase some of its newest devices even though it’s not really a hardware-focused event. For instance, during the I/O 2023 event, the firm debuted the Google Pixel 7a and the first-ever Pixel Fold.

But, considering that it has already announced the Pixel 8a smartphone, it is unlikely that Google would make any significant hardware announcements this time around. The Pixel Fold series, on the other hand, might be introduced this year alongside the Pixel 9 series.

5) Wear OS 5:

At last, Google has made the decision to update its wearable operating system. But the business has a history of keeping quiet about all the new features that Wear OS 5 will.

A description of the Wear OS5 session states that the new operating system will include advances in the Watch Face format, along with how to build and design for an increasing range of devices.

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A Vision-to-Language AI Model Is Released by the Technology Innovation Institute

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The large language model (LLM) has undergone another iteration, according to the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

An image-to-text model of the new Falcon 2 is available, according to a press release issued by the TII on Monday, May 13.

Per the publication, the Falcon 2 11B VLM, one of the two new LLM versions, can translate visual inputs into written outputs thanks to its vision-to-language model (VLM) capabilities.

According to the announcement, aiding people with visual impairments, document management, digital archiving, and context indexing are among potential uses for the VLM capabilities.

A “more efficient and accessible LLM” is the goal of the other new version, Falcon 2 11B, according to the press statement. It performs on par with or better than AI models in its class among pre-trained models, having been trained on 5.5 trillion tokens having 11 billion parameters.

As stated in the announcement, both models are bilingual and can do duties in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and several other languages. Both provide unfettered access for developers worldwide as they are open-source.

Both can be integrated into laptops and other devices because they can run on a single graphics processing unit (GPU), according to the announcement.

The AI Cross-Center Unit of TII’s executive director and acting chief researcher, Dr. Hakim Hacid, stated in the release that “AI is continually evolving, and developers are recognizing the myriad benefits of smaller, more efficient models.” These models offer increased flexibility and smoothly integrate into edge AI infrastructure, the next big trend in developing technologies, in addition to meeting sustainability criteria and requiring less computer resources.

Businesses can now more easily utilize AI thanks to a trend toward the development of smaller, more affordable AI models.

“Smaller LLMs offer users more control compared to large language models like ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, making them more desirable in many instances,” Brian Peterson, co-founder and chief technology officer of Dialpad, a cloud-based, AI-powered platform, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in March. “They’re able to filter through a smaller subset of data, making them faster, more affordable, and, if you have your own data, far more customizable and even more accurate.”

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