We have 16 generative AI news stories from the first two weeks in February. The evolution of assistants topped the news with ChatGPT, Gemini (aka Google Bard), and Hugging Chat. We break that down in depth and how memory and how generative AI personal assistants are attempting to fill in the gaps where their predecessors fell short. There is more funding news, and a number of new products from Slack, AirBnB, and Otter. We talk about smart glasses, a new product in the category that is not from Apple, and the unglorious history of the category. And, we also do a breakdown of the new USPTO guidelines on AI-assistant patent applications.

Top Stories of the Week 🔦

• OpenAI is Testing a Memory Feature with ChatGPT

• OpenAI Gives ChatGPT a Customizable Memory

• Bard Becomes Gemini, Ultra is Here, and Other Ways Google is Mirroring OpenAI's Strategy

• Google Bard (and Duet and Assistant Mobile App) No More – Gemini Now The Star of Generative AI Show

• Google Warns Gemini Users Automatically Saves Conversations

• Hugging Face Introduces Assistants (GPTs) for HuggingChat

Generative AI Product Garden 🪴

• Frame Smart Glasses from Brilliant Labs Are a Vehicle for an Always-There AI Assistant

• Slack New Generative AI Features Help Navigate Endless Message Flood

• Otter Invites Generative AI to Your Conference Room With New ‘Meeting GenAI’ Chatbot and Tools

• Airbnb CEO Hints at Generative AI Plans Around Acquisition of Adam Cheyer-Founded Startup GamePlanner.AI

• Bumble Adds Generative AI Scam and Catfish Detective to Dating App

Generative AI Funding Fountain 💰⛲️

• Generative AI Video Platform Colossyan Raises $22M

• Jua AI Raises $16M for Climate and Weather Generative AI Model

• Clinical Generative AI Startup Ambience Healthcare Raises $70M

Generative AI in the World 🌎

• Deepfake of Jailed Pakistani Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan Declares Victory in Election

• No! An AI Cannot Be a Patent Inventor. However, USPTO Adds an Important Caveat

GAIN is recorded live and streamed via YouTube, LinkedIn, and X on Thursdays or Fridays. You can re-watch each week’s discussion on Voicebot’s YouTube channel.

Here are fifteen generative AI news stories from the past week. Links to the articles are below, or you can watch the GAIN Rundown via YouTube above.

Deepfakes and momentum by Microsoft topped the news this week, while positive moves by Google may have gone unnoticed. Plus, we have another deep dive into new retail-oriented solutions, new funding rounds, and more.

Top Stories of the Week 🔦

• Sex and Politics: Deepfakes Make a Big Splash to Kick Off 2024

• Microsoft Azure AI Users Base Rose by 50%, Half of Fortune 500 Adopt OpenAI Service

Generative AI Product Garden 🪴

• Google Chrome Embeds Generative AI to Write Text, Organize Tabs, and Design Browser Experience

• OpenAI is Rolling Out ‘GPT Mentions’ in ChatGPT to Invoke Custom GPTs

• Meta’s New Code Llama 70B Rivals GitHub Copilot for Generative AI Programming Models

• IBM’s Generative AI Will Scout Soccer Players for Sevilla FC

• Brave Installs Mistral’s Mixtral as Default LLM for Generative AI Browser Assistant Leo

• Google Bard Gets Gemini Pro in 40 Languages and Hits #2 on Popular Benchmark Leaderboard

• Google Adds Imagen2 and GeminiPro To Bard

Generative AI Funding Fountain 💰⛲️

• Indian Generative AI Startup Krutrim Raises $50M to Hit $1B Valuation

• Kore ai Raises $150M to Scale Enterprise Generative AI Platform

Generative AI in Retail & Commerce 🛒

• Shopify Expands Generative AI Features with Synthetic Image Editor for Product Backgrounds and More

• Yelp Rolls Out Generative AI Features to Summarize Business Reviews

• Etsy Launches Generative AI ‘Gift Mode’ to Suggest Personalized Presents

Generative AI in the World 🌎

• Washington State Issues Generative AI Ethics Guidelines

GAIN is recorded live and streamed via YouTube, LinkedIn, and X on Thursdays or Fridays. You can re-watch each week’s discussion on Voicebot’s YouTube channel.

Sixteen generative AI news stories from the past weeks were on the agenda for this week’s edition of GAIN. You can watch the video discussion above or click the links below to read the news.

Meta, Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, ByteDance, Anthropic, Amazon, Walmart, McKinsey, 1x, Will.i.am, and more all had news this week. Eric Schwartz, head writer of Voicebot.ai, joined me to discuss the stories behind the news in generative AI.

Top Stories of the Week 🔦

• Meta to Buy 350k NVIDIA GPUs to Train AI Models Like Llama 3 for AGI

• Generative AI Video Competition Heats Up --ByteDance + TikTok Will Be a Key Player

• Deceptive LLMs, Model Poisoning, and Other Little Known Generative AI Security Risks

Generative AI Product Garden 🪴

• Microsoft Copilot Mimics ChatGPT With New Copilot Pro Service and Customized ‘Copilot GPTs’

• OpenAI (Partially) Lifts Ban on Military Generative AI Projects

• Google Assistant Snips 17 Features as Shift to Generative AI and Bard Continues

• Hundreds of Google Assistant Employees Laid Off as Google Restructures Voice Assistant Around Generative AI

Generative AI Partner Parade 🥁🎉

• Microsoft and Vodafone Ink $1.5B Decade-Long Generative AI Deal

• McKinsey expands alliance with SAP to accelerate generative AI-enabled transformation

• Capgemini and AWS expand strategic collaboration to enable broad enterprise generative AI adoption

Generative AI Funding Fountain 💰⛲️

• Intel Launches Articul8, a New Company Offering a Secure On-prem Generative AI Stack

• AI-Powered Humanoid Robot Startup 1X Raises $100M

Generative AI in Retail 🛒

• Walmart Unveils Generative AI Search and In-Home Refills

• Amazon Rolls Out Generative AI Shopping Assistant

Generative AI in the World 🌎

• OpenAI Shares Strategy to Counter Generative AI Misuse During 2024 Elections

• Will.i.am Starts New SiriusXM Podcast With AI Co-Host Qd.Pi

We highlighted 19 generative AI news stories from early January in the latest episode of GAIN. Watch the video discussion above or read the news through the links below.

CES is the featured segment at the top, with some hits and misses but mostly misses. We also have news from OpenAI with two ChatGPT announcements. That is followed by news from Google, Poe, and a number of funding rounds.

Eric Schwartz, head writer of Voicebot.ai, joined Bret Kinsella to break down the news. 

Featured CES Stories of the Week 🔦

• Rabbit Launches R1 Device for GenAI-Enabled Experiences and Adds $10M in New Funding

• Amazon Alexa Showcases New Generative AI Experiences From Character.AI, Volley, and Splash

• BMW and Amazon Fuse Generative AI and Alexa for New Automotive Voice Assistant

• Getty Completes its Reversal on Generative AI and Launches Generative AI by iStock

• Intuition Robotics Releases ElliQ 3 Robot With Upgraded Hardware Augmented by Generative AI

• McAfee’s New Project Mockingbird Aims to Detect Deepfake Voices

• Microsoft Installs Copilot Key on PC Keyboards for Generative AI Assistant Access

• A Day in the Life With Ballie: An AI Companion Robot for the Home

Generative AI Product Garden 🪴

• OpenAI Launches GPT Store for Custom ChatGPT Apps

• OpenAI's GPT Store to Launch this Week - Don't Get Your Hopes Up

• ChatGPT Team Edition is the Small Business Solution to Complement ChatGPT Enterprise

• OpenAI and Microsoft Sued by New York Times for Copyright Infringement

• Google Bard Code Leaks Point to New Features and a Paid Version with Gemini Ultra

• Google Cloud launches new generative AI tools for retailers

• Quora Gets $75M to Grow Poe into the Web Browser of AI Products

Generative AI Funding Fountain 💰⛲️

• Conversational Generative AI Search Startup Perplexity AI Raises $73.6M

• Clinical Generative AI Assistant Nabla Raises $24M

• Leonardo.AI Raises $31 Million to Fuel Generative AI Art Platform

• Open-Source Generative AI Model Startup Replicate Raises $40M

Google once again made our featured story section with an independent benchmark performance analysis of the Gemini Pro LLM compared with GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. We go into more depth about the benchmarks and how to interpret the results. Channel 1 says it’s positioned to change the news media with its virtual human avatar-delivered stories and Accenture did a lot of generative AI revenue.

Eric Schwartz, head writer of Voicebot.ai, joined me to break down the news this week and offer additional context behind the headlines.

Featured Stories of the Week 🔦

• CMU Study Shows Gemini Pro Trails GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 in Performance Benchmarks

• Accenture Had $450M in Gen AI Projects Last Quarter, New Deal with McDonald's, But...

• Channel 1 Will Use Generative AI to Hyper-personalize Your News. An AI-Enabled CNN?

Generative AI Funding Fountain 💰⛲️

• Generative AI Legal and Professional Services Startup Harvey Raises $80M

• OpenAI Startup Fund’s Converge Accelerator Starts Accepting New Applicants

• Anthropic is in Talks for another $750 Million in Funding and a 4.5x Rise in Valuation (we didn’t get to it in the show, but it is a big funding rumor)

Generative AI Product Garden 🪴

• OpenAI Grants Board Veto Power and Forms in Generative AI Safety Advisory Group

• Stability AI Brings Out Image-to-3D and a New Membership Model

• Instagram Rolls Out Generative AI Background Image Editing Tool in the U.S.

• Microsoft Copilot Adds Generative AI Music Engine

• Microsoft and TomTom Unveil Generative AI Car Voice Assistant

• Cerence and Nvidia Debut Automotive Large Language Model CaLLM to Power New Generative AI Features

Generative AI in the World 🌏

• Google Cloud Will Serve Generative AI to McDonald’s Restaurants

• Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan Addresses Supporters from Jail Via Deepfake Generative AI Voice Clone [Report]