THE NEWS

⏳Google delays launch of ChatGPT competitor Gemini until next year

Google's been hyping up its new AI chatbot, Gemini, for months now, saying it might even be better than GPT-4 in some ways.

But guess what? They've just pushed back Gemini's launch from December to next year. Why? Turns out, Gemini's kinda struggling with non-English stuff.

This isn't really new – researchers showed that most chatbots are prone to jumping their guardrails when they get requests in languages with small training data sets. They end up happily answering questions like how to make molotov cocktails. Looks like Gemini's got the same issue.

Meanwhile, OpenAI isn't slowing down – they're already working on GPT-5. Makes you wonder, even if Gemini does one-up GPT-4 when it finally comes out, how long can Google stay ahead in this super-fast AI race?

🖥️ OpenAI to Purchase $51M in AI Chips from Altman-Backed Startup

OpenAI plans to buy $51 million worth of AI chips from a startup called Rain, which Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, has personally invested in. The company signed a nonbinding agreement back in 2019, agreeing to buy the chips once they were available. This letter of intent was not previously reported.

Rain's working on a new brain-inspired chip, the NPU, which might be 100x more powerful and 10,000x more energy-efficient than the stuff we use now for training AI. They aim for a 2024 October release date.

BUT: The company has been hitting some bumps. They got tangled up in some government issues. A committee that polices investments for national security risks forced a Saudi Arabia–affiliated fund to sell its stake in the company. Rain also had to deal with changes in their leadership.

Now, why should you care? Well, Sam already threw $1 million into Rain before. And there's some chatter about whether his investment choices played a part in some workplace drama, including his firing.

He also spoke earlier about OpenAI possibly making their own chips, and tried to raise funds from the Middle East to do so.

It seems like the US does not look kindly at these investments and he must find backers with deep pockets domestically if he wants to compete with the Big Tech giants.

What about the chips? Rain's NPU could be a big deal for AI, shaking things up, but we're still waiting to see if their big claims hold up. Either way, it's clear that new, specialized hardware like this is super important for pushing AI forward.

ONE MORE THING

AI turns videos into SVG animation

Another tool to throw in the toolbox of creators. Check out more examples and the research paper here.

⌚ If you have one more minute

• 🔍 Magnific AI - A 2K image upscaler AI, you can get 50 free credits if you register today.

• 🎥 Meta released a large video dataset on skilled human activities for training AI and robots.

• 💬 OpenAI COO thinks AI for business is overhyped

• 🇯🇵 Nvidia is promising to help Japan get the AI chips it needs with a whole network of new plants

• ⚖️ Getty lawsuit against Stability AI to go to trial in the UK

AI Art of the Day 🎨

Thousands of Tiktok dancers will be out of a job soon.

🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄

That's all for today, folks!

If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing this hand-crafted newsletter with a friend.