Updates from Google, Microsoft, Cohere and Amazon were the headlines in AI this week. Oh and of course, the OpenAI drama continues. Let’s dive in:
A big win for open-source: Cohere releases a multilingual LLM with 101 languages
We’ve heard of Massively Multiplayer before, but Massively Multilingual is a first. Cohere has released an open source model, Project Aya 23. Backed by 3000+ researchers from over 119 countries, this LLM aims at making generative AI accessible and scalable for different languages. While the model benchmarks at 75% against other open source LLMs, and even 80% and 90% in simulated tests, this is still a good start. Especially for many obscure languages that aren’t given much attention in this AI race. They even support Somali. Good going Cohere!
Today, we launch Aya 23, a state-of-art multilingual 8B and 35B open weights release.
— Cohere For AI (@CohereForAI) May 23, 2024
Aya 23 pairs a highly performant pre-trained model with the recent Aya dataset, making multilingual generative AI breakthroughs accessible to the research community. 🌍https://t.co/9HsmypAbBb pic.twitter.com/TqHlNfh6zf
Alexa finally slated to get an AI upgrade!
This is welcome news from Amazon. Alexa and Siri have been missing from any recent AI related conversations. We can already see Amazon move the needle on AI in their enterprise offering! It’s about time that investment in Anthropic started to see some traction. While this may also mean an additional charge for the end use, over and above prime, we definitely see the value in it for those who already have Alexa setup and managing various parts of their smart-home.
#Amazon is giving Alexa a big #AI upgrade – and will add a monthly subscription to offset some of the cost. @Kr00ney has the story: pic.twitter.com/mJIHS0Nqj2
— CNBC's Closing Bell (@CNBCClosingBell) May 22, 2024
Microsoft Build: A tonne of MS updates!
Microsoft has made a few announcements this week:
- Copilot + PCs
- Phi-3 Vision
- New VMs – first to use AMD’s latest chips
- Github Copilot
- New Partnership with Cognition – Devin get’s a job at Microsoft!
- And a whole lot of other updates that you can check out here.
With Microsoft Copilot, Copilot stack, and Copilot+ PCs, we're creating new opportunity for developers at a time when AI is transforming every layer of the tech stack. Here are highlights from my keynote this morning at #MSBuild. pic.twitter.com/KZceoAUmd5
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) May 21, 2024
Our favourite part of having Copilot in your PC is to have a potential friend while playing games. As a solo gamer, this is the next best thing!
Sam Altman: Evil genius or just another drama queen?
Sam Altman is a marketing genius. Despite the Google and Microsoft having some pretty large announcements and events, much of the discussion in the world of AI has been around OpenAI. Whether it’s real announcements or manufactured drama, Sam knows how to stay on top of everyone’s minds! First it was issues with NDAs or non-disparaging agreements and then it was Scarlett Johansson accusing OpenAI of stealing ‘her’ voice. Of course, since then the original voice of ‘Sky’ has come forth claiming that she’s been working with OpenAI long before they contacted Scar-Jo. While this does throw light on the issue of IP, privacy and safety, we believe most of it is just a distraction to suck the oxygen out of the PR room.
We are genuinely excited for the future of Microsoft. As Google starts to look more and more like ‘Hooli’, the fact that Microsoft is the sober one in the family is the real shocker!
Till next week!
