IBL News

Category: Top News

  • OpenAI Doubles Its Valuation to $157 Billion

    OpenAI Doubles Its Valuation to $157 Billion

    IBL News | New York

    OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, said yesterday that it had completed a $6.6 billion fundraising, achieving a valuation of $157 billion (it was $80 billion nine months ago).

    The VC firm Thrive Capital led the round, investing about $1.3 billion, with $750 million coming from its fund and $550 million from other investors through an instrument called a special purpose vehicle.

    Thrive  Capital also has the option to invest up to $1 billion more in OpenAI at the same $157 billion valuation through 2025, The New York Times reported. Other investors do not have that option.

    Microsoft, Nvidia, the tech conglomerate SoftBank, and the United Arab Emirates investment firm MGX participated in the finance deal. However, Apple backed away and declined to invest.

    The Financial Times reported that OpenAI asked investors to avoid backing rival startups, such as Anthropic and xAI, in an exclusive funding arrangement to keep its generative AI lead.

    According to financial documents reviewed by The New York Times, the start-up expects about $3.7 billion in sales this year.

    It is also expected to lose roughly $5 billion after paying for the high cost of building and running AI technologies like ChatGPT.

    The company has about 1,700 employees after adding more than 1,000 in the last nine months.

    OpenAI has also long discussed restructuring itself as a for-profit company. However, according to The New York Times, that is not expected until sometime next year.

    [In the picture, OpenAI researchers.]

  • Duolingo Will Transform Its Language-Learning App Into an Automated AI Tutor 

    Duolingo Will Transform Its Language-Learning App Into an Automated AI Tutor 

    IBL News | New York

    Luis Von Ahn, CEO and founder of Duolingo, announced that he plans to transform its language-learning app into an automated AI tutor.

    This month, Duolingo unveiled a video chat allowing people to practice conversing in other languages with an AI friend, Lily, an early version of a fully automated tutor.

    Chatting with Lily — a purple-haired, sarcastic, cartoon AI woman — requires purchasing a $ 30-a-month subscription tier called Duolingo Max. The dialogue is generated by OpenAI’s GPT-4o model.

    Like a human tutor, Lily learns more about the user with each session. Duolingo also tries not to discourage users by having Lily correct their pronunciation or grammar, knowing that people get intimidated by their fear of mistakes.

    As long as the AI “understands” what the user is saying, conversations continue without those reprimands. The company said it intentionally keeps conversations short to keep people engaged, capping them at about one minute for beginners and two and a half minutes for more advanced users.

    Lily follows specific prompting techniques and content moderation guidelines to keep AI responses on the rails.

    Another new AI addition is a mini-game called Adventures, which puts users in interactive situations to practice their language skills, like ordering a coffee from a cafe or getting their passport checked.

    Regarding its organization, in 2023, Duolingo decided not to renew the contracts of 10% of its contracted workforce who did translations and lesson writing. The company opted to use AI for those tasks in many cases.

    • “If we can automate something, we will,” von Ahn told Forbes. “A full-time employee’s job is tough to automate. But we had some hourly contractors who were doing pretty rote stuff,” said Luis Von Ahn.

    • “AI will bring tough situations that’ll affect the poor, the less educated,” he said. “And not just in the U.S., but in poor countries.”

    • “AI would be generally good for the world,” he said. “It may put one-on-one human tutors out of business. I understand that. But I think net-net it is better if everybody has access to one.”

    • “AI will make computers better teachers than humans.”

    The AI push caused Duolingo to generate a revenue hit of $178.3 million in the past quarter, up 41% from last year.

    The company has a $11.75 billion market valuation with Von Ahn, who owns roughly 10%.

  • OpenAI Expects Losses of $5B in 2024 and $2.7B in Revenue

    OpenAI Expects Losses of $5B in 2024 and $2.7B in Revenue

    IBL News | New York

    OpenAI is growing fast while burning through piles of money, struggling to get its costs under control.

    According to documents reviewed by The New York Times, OpenAI expects about $3.7 billion in annual sales in 2024 (up from $700 million in 2023) and losses of $5 billion —without including equity-based compensation to employees.

    Revenues expected for 2025 are $11.6 billion—and $100 billion in 2029, roughly matching the current annual sales of Nestlé or Target.

    Monthly revenue hit $300 million in August, up 1,700% since the beginning of 2023. Over 350 million people use OpenAI’s services. Roughly 10 million users pay the company a $20 monthly fee for ChatGPT. OpenAI expects to raise that price by $2 by the end of the year.

    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is pitching a $7 billion investment round as the company needs more cash. That could value the start-up at $150 billion, up from just $30 billion a year ago.

    Microsoft invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, but much of that money is spent on its cloud computing systems, which host OpenAI’s products.

    In addition to Thrive Capital, the lead investor in the new round, OpenAI is in talks with Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Tiger Global and MGX, a technology investment firm controlled by the United Arab Emirates, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

     

  • Google’s NotebookLM Tool Allows Users to Create Shareable Notebooks and Audio Discussions

    Google’s NotebookLM Tool Allows Users to Create Shareable Notebooks and Audio Discussions

    IBL News | New York

    Google enhanced this month its AI-research assistant and note-taking tool NotebookLM, allowing users to create shareable notebooks and audio discussions, and extract summaries and key points from YouTube videos and audio files.

    NotebookLM also gets AI-based summarization in languages that are different from what they set on the tool.

    It’s powered by the multimodal LLM Gemini 1.5 Pro.

    The search giant company plans to broaden the use cases and reach of the tool, which was originally launched by Google Labs as a project for educators and learners at its I/O developer conference last year.

    NotebookLM Audio Overview was added recently. It allows users to turn their documents into engaging audio discussions and share them with a public URL.

    Google said that professionals are uploading web pages, resumes, and presentations on NotebookLM to generate Audio Overviews, then sharing those with their employers, colleagues, or clients.

    NotebookLM provides clickable citations from the content users upload, letting users go deeper into the summarized notes.

  • Meta Released Llama’s Multimodal Version 3.2 11B and 90B

    Meta Released Llama’s Multimodal Version 3.2 11B and 90B

    IBL News | New York

    Meta released this Wednesday, during its Meta Connect 2024 developer conference in Menlo Park, Llama’s multimodal version, 3.2 11B and 90B, a larger model that can interpret charts and graphs, analyze and caption images, and pinpoint objects in pictures given a simple description.

    The multimodal Llama models can be downloaded from Hugging Face, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. Meta is also hosting them on the official Llama site, Llama.com.

    The company uses them to power its AI assistant, Meta AI, across WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

    Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said that Meta AI is one of the most used AI assistants worldwide, with almost 500 million monthly active users. Zuckerberg said that Meta AI is on track to become the most used assistant worldwide.

    Llama 3.2 1B and 3B are lightweight, text-only models that run on smartphones and other devices. They can be used for tasks such as summarizing and rewriting paragraphs (e.g., in an email). Optimized for Arm hardware from Qualcomm and MediaTek, 1B and 3B can tap tools such as calendar apps.

    Another Connect 2024 developer conference announcement was that Meta’s AI assistant is getting a new voice mode.

    Meta AI can now respond to questions out loud across platforms where it’s available: Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook.

    Meta also said it’s piloting an AI translation tool to translate voices in Instagram Reels automatically. The tool dubs a creator’s speech and auto-lip-syncs it, simulating the voice in another language.

    Users can choose from several voices, including the AI clones of celebrities that Meta hired: Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.

    Google released upgraded Gemini models earlier this week, and OpenAI unveiled its o1 model earlier in the month.

    • Meta’s Connect 2024 Conference

     

  • OpenAI’s CTO, Mira Murati, Will Leave the Company After Six and a Half Years

    OpenAI’s CTO, Mira Murati, Will Leave the Company After Six and a Half Years

    IBL News | New York

    OpenAI continues to lose top talent. Its CTO, Mira Murati, said Wednesday that she is leaving the company after six and a half years.

    Research chief Bob McGrew and vice president Barret Zoph are also departing the company.

    Murati wrote in a memo to the company that she’s “stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration.” She said her focus will be on ensuring a “smooth transition.”

    “After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI,” she wrote in a post published on social media site X. “There’s never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right.”

    Meanwhile, OpenAI’s board is considering plans to restructure the firm into a for-profit business with a more straightforward structure for investors.

    Currently backed by Microsoft, OpenAI is pursuing a funding round that would value the company at more than $150 billion.

    Thrive Capital is leading the round and plans to invest $1 billion.

    Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple are reportedly in talks about investing.

  • Coursera Expands Its AI tools for Learning, Instructor Assistance, and Career Guidance

    Coursera Expands Its AI tools for Learning, Instructor Assistance, and Career Guidance

    IBL News | New York

    Coursera announced this month, during its Connect annual conference, that it is adding new features to expand its one-year-old AI-powered Coach.

    Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda revealed that Coach had over 1 million users since its launch, with a 9.5% higher quiz pass rate on the first attempt and 11.6% more lessons completed per hour.

    He revealed that by the end of the year, its Coach for career guidance will help learners explore career paths and identify transferable skills, recommending tailored learning paths based on their experience and goals.

    “This is especially useful for those seeking a career change like a remote tech job but are unsure which role suits them, where to start, or how to acquire the required skills,” he explained.

    Powered by Google Gemini, Coach for Interactive Instruction will allow instructors to incorporate pedagogical methods into their online courses, starting with Socratic dialogue.

    “Instructors can tailor their activities by specifying learning objectives, teaching style, assessment criteria, and additional files for enhanced context.”

    According to Coursera, the early adopters are Vic Strecher from the University of Michigan, Barbara Oakley from Oakland University, Jules White from Vanderbilt University, and Andrew Ng from DeepLearning.AI.

    Learners can experience a Coach-powered Socratic dialogue in the University of Michigan’s Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life and Grow with Google’s AI Essentials. 

    Coursera’s AI authoring tool Course Builder, intended to help organizations create, update, and deploy custom training at scale, will also include Coach for instructional design support in the new year.

    The learning company said a pilot will be launched in the coming months to help authors refine course content, suggest course modifications, and uphold pedagogical best practices.

    • Video: Coursera’s CEO Talk 

  • Google Announced a $120M Fund for Global AI Education and Training

    Google Announced a $120M Fund for Global AI Education and Training

    IBL News | New York

    Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced a $120 million fund for global AI education and training, which will be operated in partnership with local nonprofits and NGOs.

    Sundar Pichai  Introduced his Global AI Opportunity Fund during a speech at the UN Summit of the Future last Saturday.

    “AI is poised to accelerate progress at unprecedented scale. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unlock human potential for everyone, everywhere,” he said.

    “We can drive deeper partnerships to ensure the technology benefits everyone.”

    Regarding the AI opportunity, he said that AI is boosting productivity across sectors and empowering governments to provide public services.

    Some studies show that AI could boost global labor productivity by 1.4 percentage points, and increase global GDP by 7%, within the next decade.

    “AI will have limitations … be it issues with accuracy, factuality, and bias … as well as the risks of misapplication and misuse, like the creation of deep fakes. It also presents new complexities, for example the impact on the future of work. For all these reasons, we believe that AI must be developed, deployed, and used responsibly from the start.”

    Pichai also highlighted “Grow with Google,” which has already trained one hundred million people worldwide in digital skills.

  • Tech Companies Increase Layoffs While They Put More Resources Into AI

    Tech Companies Increase Layoffs While They Put More Resources Into AI

    IBL News | New York

    The tech industry is readjusting its labor needs and pushing some workers out, exactly as it did in the early 2000s when the dot-com bubble burst.

    Tech industry layoffs continue this year, with companies shedding around 137,000 jobs since January, according to Layoffs. FYI, Indeed.com reports that postings for software development jobs have been down more than 30% since February 2020.

    Some of the largest tech employers who had never done large-scale layoffs started cutting tens of thousands of jobs.

    According to a report in The Wall Street Journal this week, companies’ strategies are also shifting. They are becoming laser-focused on revenue-generating products and services instead of growth at all costs. They have also pulled back on entry-level hires and cut recruiting teams.

    During the pandemic, tech companies went on hiring sprees and took on far too many workers. Recruiters enticed prospective employees with generous compensation packages, the paper explains.

    At the same time, they started putting enormous resources into AI while the market experienced a frenzy of investment and a race to build advanced AI systems. AI engineers are being offered twice to four times the salary of a regular engineer.

    In addition, companies outside the tech industry are also adding AI talent while relying on more consultants and outsourcing roles.

  • “The Homework Apocalypse Has Already Happened,” Says Prof. Ethan Mollick

    “The Homework Apocalypse Has Already Happened,” Says Prof. Ethan Mollick

    IBL News | New York

    AI can now ace most tests, so its use among students has become nearly universal. It’s the Homework Apocalypse.

    Of the students using AI (eight months ago, 82% of undergraduates and 72% of K12), 56% use it to help with writing assignments, and 45% to complete other types of schoolwork.

    In an analysis of AI assistance on homework, Prof. Ethan Mollick at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, says that students don’t always see AI help as cheating (they get answers to some tricky problem or a challenging part of an essay), but many teachers do.

    • “To be clear, AI is not the root cause of cheating. Cheating happens because schoolwork is hard and high stakes. After all, learning is not always fun, and forms of extrinsic motivation, like grades, are often required to get people to learn,” he says.

    • “No specialized AI detectors can detect AI writing with high accuracy, and even watermarks won’t help much. Even so, there are plenty of ways to disguise “AI writing” styles through simple prompting. Well-prompted AI writing is judged more human than human writing by readers.”

    • “There are still options that preserve old assignments. Teachers can return to in-class writing, asking students to demonstrate their skills in person, or other techniques that might mitigate AI cheating through close monitoring and shifting how they approach teaching and assessment.”

    • “Students are not using AI just to do their homework. They are getting aid in understanding complex topics, brainstorming ideas, refreshing their knowledge, creating new forms of creative work, getting feedback, getting advice, and so much more.”

    • “Almost three-quarters of teachers are already using AI for work, so we need to center teachers on using AI rather than just leaving AI to students.”

    • “Integrating AI requires fundamentally reimagining how we teach, learn, and assess knowledge. Our focus must evolve as AI becomes integral to the educational landscape. The goal isn’t to outsmart AI or pretend it doesn’t exist but to harness its potential to enhance education while mitigating the downside. The question is not whether AI will change education but how we will shape that change to create a more effective, equitable, and engaging learning environment for all.”