Round 2 🥈 Your News, Your Way! You Voted, You Get it - StartupFest Speaker Spot 2024

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For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey hey!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Strap in, we have another big issue this week!

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Round 2 🥈of Your Top Voted StartupFest 2024 Speaker Recap

• The Raise Recap

• DEV ALERT: I Found A Cool Thing!

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Your Weekly Industry News Recap

Some other notable news and product launches from this week

• Hugging Face, Nvidia, and OpenAI are blazing trails with small language models in AI's latest frontier, making waves in the industry. 🌊 Curious about the future of AI language models? Read more

• Responsive is betting big on its AI platform to revolutionize the SaaS world and bring new solutions to businesses. 🌟 Want to see how AI is changing the game? Read more

• Lakera just raised $20 million in Series A funding to secure generative AI applications, pushing the boundaries of what AI can do. 💰 Interested in AI innovation? Read more

• AI is redefining edge computing strategies and making significant impacts on how data is processed at the edge. 📈 Ready to explore this shift? Read more

• Competition authorities in the EU, US, and UK have issued a joint statement on AI, emphasizing the need for collaborative regulation. 🌐 Curious about their joint action plan? Read more but here’s a TL:DR: Everyone’s tired of having 3-5 big guys eat up the entire AI market (Amazon + Google + Microsoft and friends). So the Trade Commissions are tightening the grip!

• OpenAI just launched SearchGPT, aiming directly at Google with its new AI-powered search capabilities. 🔍 Want to see how it's shaking up the search landscape? Read more

• Las Vegas is implementing AI surveillance in public transit, bringing cutting-edge technology to enhance safety and security. 🚌 Want to know how this AI upgrade will affect public transit? Read more

Your Runner Up StartupFest 2024 Speaker Recap

A few weeks back, I was out and about getting the sweet digs on one of Montreal’s hottest Startup Events: StartupFest 2024. You voted on which talk you wanted to hear more about, and…

🎉 The Runner Up was "How Are AI Companies Dealing with the Problem of Truth" at Startupfest!" 🎉

Key Highlights from the Talk

TL;DR: AI is shaking up the truth, And If You’re A Founder, It’s Something You Should Stay Focused On As Your Data & Tech Evolve.

This panel featured Gabrielle Hurtubise-Radet, Haris Amiri, Jamie Joyce, and Philippe Beaudoin, and it did not disappoint. The discussion was a nearly philosophical discussion on the challenges and, ultimately, the responsibilities AI companies face when it comes to truth and trust.

Fundamentally, trust is an evolving thing, and it’s in AI companies’ best interest to seek it for a plethora of reasons.

Key Highlights from the Talk

The panel delved into the intricate relationship between AI, truth, and trust. They highlighted that perceived truth equates to trust, and managing this relationship requires time and resources. Much like how a police investigation unfolds to reveal the truth, companies end up acting in their best interest by pursuing truth in the information they disperse/enable. We learned that truth isn’t instant; it’s a process that needs careful consideration and verification. The panel, in their own words stressed that truth needs to be both generalizable and verifiable, which often involves open sharing of information between parties. They pointed out that while a high volume of information can skew perceptions, verifiability is the ultimate measure of truth. Philippe Beaudoin also shared some intriguing insights on how AI could actually support the verification process, making truth more accessible and reliable.

Emphasizing the need for transparency and collaboration among AI companies to create frameworks that prioritize truth. Their discussion provided valuable perspectives on navigating the complex dynamics of AI and truth in today’s digital world.

Unsponsored shout out to Jamie and her team’s work, which is wildly valuable to the fundamentals of institutions as we know them: “The Society Library, a 501(c)3 collective intelligence organization focused on truth-seeking by modelling the logic of debates about policy issues; […] Currently, her work at the Society Library includes mapping debates about AI, in part by creating AI models which collect and model arguments from different points of view.”

Thanks for voting for this session! There were more questions than answers brought up during this whole discussion, but nonetheless it was a fantastic opportunity to crack into such a crucial topic in the AI landscape!

This Week’s Raise Recap

• Swiss AI security startup Lakera has just secured $20M in Series A funding to push the boundaries of AI security solutions. 💰 Want to see how they're revolutionizing AI security? Read more

• Venture capitalists are getting more comfortable investing in proven AI technologies, driving a surge in generative AI funding. 💡 Curious about the latest trends in AI investments? Read more

• Velents AI has secured new investment from the Women Collective, aiming to innovate further and expand its AI-driven solutions. 🌟 Want to learn more about this empowering investment? Read more

• C5I has announced the acquisition of Analytic Edge, enhancing its capabilities in analytics and AI-driven insights. 🔍 Excited to see how this acquisition will boost their offerings? Read more

TO THE DEVS: IMPROMPTU NERDOUT - I FOUND SOMETHING COOL THAT I CAN’T TEST?!

I found this tech a cool tool that’s headed in such a great direction. It’s AI-deployment related, and it’s all about packaging it in a way that solves one of AI’s tough challenges: Energy consumption for user interactions at scale. So yes, this is technically on-device edge computing.

Enough preface, let’s get into it!

Basically, mLange helps you connect your AI model, package it and make it shippable for having it directly onboard the mobile devices that are normally making the API calls to your backend & AI servers! The tech helps with everything from testing to deployment for your models.

“ZETIC.MLange is an On-device AI runtime library supporting heterogeneous Mobile NPUs’ utilizations. [It] provides [...] for real On-device AI. End-to-end on-device AI”

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Stay well, and see you Friday!

-✌🏽 Sam