Introduction
Happy Friday everybody! It’s April 28, 2023 and I’m Dean from the Daily AI Podcast. Today’s episode is packed with exciting industry news, including major investments into
the AI ecosystem. We’ll also share some of our favorite tools including an open source
alternative to ChatGPT, a platform that makes building computer vision apps a breeze,
and an open source github project that can help you automate your codebase with GPT.
So, sit back, relax, and let’s dive into today’s top stories in AI.
INDUSTRY NEWS
Google Cloud Takes a Major Step Towards Cybersecurity with Generative AI Model SEC-PALM
Source
Google Cloud has introduced Sec-PaLM, a big language model that drives Google Cloud Security AI Workbench. The platform takes advantage of the company’s extensive security intelligence and optimises operations for cybersecurity applications. Sec-PaLM incorporates data, such as cybersecurity threats, Mandiant security flaws, malware, and threat indicators to offer valuable threat intelligence and other security features through an Application Programming Interface. The generative AI model has helped deter hundreds of sophisticated cyber assaults, and Google claims this solution uses advanced incident analysis to mitigate cyber-attacks. Other features of the Security AI Workbench include VirusTotal Code Insight, which employs Sec-PaLM to deconstruct malicious codes and identities to carry out real-time corrections. The Security Command Center (SCC) uses the system to translate complicated threat intelligence graphs into understandable insights for consumers to implement.
AI startup Pinecone raises $100 million as vector database market for LLMs heats up
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Pinecone, a New York-based vector database firm, has raised $100m at a $750m valuation in series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. The firm provides long-term memory for large language models using embeddings from AI models for fast and scalable applications. Pinecone experienced an explosion in paying customers including Gong and Zapier during 2023, and the vector database category has grown to include other tools. While Pinecone was founded to cater to an increase in the usage of large language models, the generative AI shift took the company by surprise when it became an integral part of AI software stack memory. Pinecone’s interest among developers continues to grow, with AI researchers exploring how to use large language models.
PwC US to invest $1 billion for expanding generative AI capabilities in collaboration with Microsoft
Source
Consulting firm PwC has announced that it will invest $1bn over the next three years to expand its generative artificial intelligence (AI) portfolio. The move will involve a partnership with Microsoft, in which the latter’s Azure OpenAI service is harnessed alongside OpenAI’s GPT-4/ChatGPT technology. PwC will also introduce an internal generative AI environment to streamline its tax, audit and consulting services. The plan includes a major upskilling programme for PwC’s employees, which attempts to ensure that they leverage the full power of AI tools and capabilities through the company’s My+ programme.
Replit, the web-based IDE developing a GitHub Copilot competitor, raises $100M
Source
IDE startup Replit, which develops a code-generating AI-powered tool called Ghostwriter, has raised $97.4m at a $1.16bn valuation. Replit offers a web-based integrated development environment (IDE) for software development, and supports a range of programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, Go and C++. Ghostwriter is powered by an AI model that is trained on publicly available code to create suggestions and explanations based on user inputs, and is similar to Github’s Copilot. Replit’s user base has surpassed 22 million developers, and the new funds will be used to develop the product experience, expand the cloud services and innovate AI. However, Replit has warned its users that the suggestions that are made may contain “incorrect, offensive or otherwise inappropriate” strings.
ENGINEERING TOOLS
Hugging Face launches open-source version of ChatGPT in bid to challenge dominance of closed-source models
Source
Hugging Face has launched an open-source alternative to ChatGPT called HuggingChat. HuggingChat is essentially an interface for Open Assistant, an open-source chat assistant created by the nonprofit LAION, which created the data set that trained Stable Diffusion. The interface will allow users to plug in new chat models. The success of other AI chatbot clients, as well as OpenAI’s ChatGPT plugins, has led to speculation that Hugging Face may become the equivalent of the Android App Store. HuggingChat is currently version zero and limitations remain. Licencing issues also need to be resolved. Nonetheless, HuggingFace has said that it is committed to the fight for open source AI.
Andrew Ng’s Landing AI makes it easier to create computer vision apps with Visual Prompting
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Landing AI has released Visual Prompting, a tool that aims to make it easier for users to build computer vision apps by leveraging visual prompts to quickly and efficiently label data. The tool is a feature of the company’s flagship product, LandingLens and allows users to specify a visual prompt by painting over object classes they wish the system to detect. If initial results are subpar, users can immediately re-enter the prompt to further refine their models, guiding the AI system toward better recognition by highlighting the specific pixels they want to improve. An intuitive software platform, LandingLens allows users to create, deploy and scale AI-powered industrial computer vision applications such as defect detection, faster and with higher accuracy. CEO Andrew Ng said Visual Prompting “enables a much faster speed of development of applications.” The tool is available in public beta at Landing AI’s website.
Automate Your Codebase with Promptr and GPT
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Looking to automate your codebase with GPT? Tired of copy-pasting? Then, here is an open-source solution in the form of Promptr, a command line-based tool. The tool has been created to streamline workflows and optimize codebase to enable programmers to build logic and concentrate less on mundane tasks. Promptr is used to apply GPT code recommendations to the codebase with just a single line of text, including tasks such as refactoring code, class implementation, and debugging. Supported by OpenAI API, promotion and implementation are made simple. The pros of the technology are its self-repair capabilities, while the cons identified to date include potential for data loss and token cost when using the OpenAI API. Follow the link to the official GitHub repository for more information on Promptr.
DISCUSSIONS
Brace Yourself for the 2024 Deepfake Election
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Deepfakes created using AI could pose a threat to the 2024 presidential election as it becomes easier to produce convincing audio, images, and videos of politicians. While such content is already being produced, the technology soon to be democratized could significantly blur the line between what is real and what is fake. Anyone can now quickly create a convincing deepfake of a politician with a laptop and minimal effort. The risk of fake images, audio, and videos spread during the election can cause people to distrust the legitimate material while putting it up for potential abuse and manipulation. While AI tools can be developed to detect deepfakes, it isn’t the solution as the technology isn’t reliable enough. The idea is to develop a sort of instant fact-checker for social media users and have media literacy evolving at the same pace as technology. The solutions lie in technology like C2PA that would cryptographically sign any content created by a device to mandate a proof of legitimacy. Other options include watermarking images and videos, taking hashes from content through fingerprinting, and fact-checking apps.
Daily Feature
Nick St. Pierre on Twitter
Nick St. Pierre does great work with image generation using AI. His twitter is a goldmine of good prompts and techniques to improve the quality of your images. If you do any work with media generation, want to get started, or elevate your game, his twitter is a great place to go!
Conclusion
And with that, we wrap up another episode of the Daily AI Podcast. We hope you’re feeling inspired to join the conversation about AI and help shape its future. After all, AI isn’t just a technology, it’s a community of innovators, thinkers, and doers. So keep sharing your ideas, keep exploring new possibilities, and keep listening to the Daily AI Podcast for all the latest updates.
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