OpenAI's Shipmas Unveils Apple Integration as Google Fires Back with Gemini 2

Tech Giants Battle Intensifies, While Solos Challenges Meta in AI Glasses, Cognition Debuts Developer AI Assistant, and Scripps Research Breaks Ground with Brain-Inspired Video AI.

Author

Sebastian Krogh
December 12, 2024 • Reading time: 9 minutes

⚡Quick News

  • Google announces a new $20B investment: Google partners with Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate to develop industrial parks featuring data centers and clean energy facilities, aiming to streamline AI infrastructure growth and sustainable power generation.

  • Meta FAIR researchers introduce COCONUT: A groundbreaking AI reasoning approach allowing models to think more naturally rather than through rigid language steps, leading to better performance on complex problem-solving tasks.

  • AI language startup Speak raises $78M: Speak, valued at $1B, facilitates over a billion spoken sentences this year through its adaptive AI-powered tutoring technology, driving language learning innovation.

  • AI Startup's "Stop Hiring Humans" Ads Spark Fury: Artisan AI’s provocative San Francisco billboards tout replacing workers with AI, labeling humans "complainers." Critics have slammed the dystopian marketing ploy as insensitive.

  • Lisa Su Named Time Magazine’s CEO of the Year: AMD’s Lisa Su earns the honor for steering the company from near bankruptcy to a leading force in AI, achieving a 50x stock value increase over a decade.

Source: Open AI

OpenAI continues its 12-day Shipmas announcements with the Day 5 unveiling of the Apple Intelligence Extension, pairing seamlessly with the new iOS 18.2 update. This feature brings Siri and ChatGPT integration into the spotlight, enhancing Apple’s intelligence capabilities across devices.

Key Highlights:

  • Visual Intelligence now allows Siri to read images, organize information, and create lists through ChatGPT integration.

  • Users can access these features on iPhones, Macs, and the ChatGPT app.

  • This update follows significant recent releases, including Sora for AI video creation and Canvas for all users.

  • CEO Sam Altman has hinted at eight more major announcements in the coming days, promising "stocking stuffers" and "big surprises."

Easter Egg: During the Shipmas livestream, viewers were treated to a lighthearted trolling moment when a “Super Secret AGI” event was spotted on the iPhone’s calendar widget. This playful teaser sparked widespread speculation on what surprises might still be in store, keeping anticipation high for the remaining announcements.

Why It Matters: OpenAI’s collaboration with Apple demonstrates the growing synergy between leading tech giants. By integrating ChatGPT directly with Siri, OpenAI enhances its ecosystem’s accessibility and functionality, giving users new ways to interact with AI through their favorite devices.

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Source: Google

Google has unveiled Gemini 2, its latest AI model, signaling the dawn of the "agent era." The first release, Gemini 2.0 Flash, boasts remarkable speed and reasoning capabilities, setting a new benchmark in AI innovation.

Key Highlights:

  • Gemini 2.0 Flash, the "workhorse model," is faster and smaller yet outperforms its predecessors, including Pro 1.5, on key benchmarks.

  • Capable of advanced reasoning, visual understanding, and seamless generation of text, images, and speech.

  • Introduces "Deep Research," an agent tool to browse the web and report on complex topics.

  • Gemini 2’s modular design integrates across Google products, from Android apps to chatbots and experiments.

  • Enhanced video analysis and translation speed elevate Gemini’s versatility for professional use cases.

Why It Matters: Gemini 2 positions Google as a formidable player in the AI landscape. Its focus on agents capable of performing tasks autonomously highlights a transformative leap toward practical, real-world applications. The agent era, as defined by Gemini 2, could redefine productivity, creativity, and efficiency in AI-powered workflows.

The battle for AI-powered smart glasses is heating up as Solos introduces its new AirGo Vision spectacles, directly challenging Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories. With groundbreaking features and competitive pricing, Solos aims to redefine the augmented reality (AR) experience.

Key Highlights:

  • The AirGo Vision integrates GPT-4o and offers open architecture, allowing access to AI systems like Claude and Gemini.

  • Equipped with advanced cameras, the glasses can identify people, objects, and text, enabling sci-fi-like capabilities like text translation, navigation, and real-time landmark explanations.

  • At $299, Solos matches Meta’s pricing but differentiates with superior hardware and AI flexibility.

  • Augmented reality usage is projected to double this year, with Solos leveraging this trend to expand its market share.

Why It Matters: Solos’ entrance into the AI glasses market marks a significant evolution in wearable technology. By integrating cutting-edge AI with user-friendly designs, these glasses push the boundaries of what’s possible, offering consumers and professionals alike a powerful new tool for both productivity and entertainment.

Source: Cognition

Cognition Labs has officially launched Devin, its AI developer assistant, targeting engineering teams with capabilities ranging from bug fixes to automated PR creation.

Key Highlights:

  • Devin integrates directly with development workflows through Slack, GitHub, and IDE extensions.

  • Teams can assign work to Devin through simple Slack tags, with the AI handling testing and providing status updates.

  • The AI assistant can handle tasks like frontend bug fixes, backlog PR creation, and codebase refactoring.

  • Devin's capabilities were demonstrated through open-source contributions, including bug fixes for Anthropic's MCP.

  • Pricing starts at $500/month for unlimited team access.

Why It Matters: Devin's launch represents a significant step in AI-assisted software development. By automating routine tasks and integrating seamlessly with existing workflows, it could potentially increase developer productivity and allow engineering teams to focus on higher-priority work.

Source: Scripps Research

Researchers at Scripps Research have developed MovieNet, a new AI model that processes videos like the human brain, achieving higher accuracy and efficiency than current AI models in recognizing dynamic scenes.

Key Highlights:

  • MovieNet was trained on how tadpole neurons process visual information in sequences.

  • The AI achieved 82.3% accuracy in identifying complex patterns in test videos, outperforming humans and popular AI models.

  • The technology uses significantly less data and processing power than conventional video AI systems.

  • Early applications show promise for medical diagnostics, such as detecting subtle movement changes indicative of early Parkinson's.

Why It Matters: MovieNet's approach to video analysis, inspired by biological visual systems, could lead to more efficient and accurate AI models for understanding video content. This breakthrough has potential applications across various fields, from medical diagnostics to autonomous systems, and demonstrates the value of looking to nature for AI inspiration.

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