Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Meta made some big splashes in the AI talent war, but the tech giant’s AI chief isn’t thrilled by the narrative that his team is a bunch of mercenaries. Loading audio narration… “This is one of, I think, the larger, I would say, like narrative violations or maybe like differences between external perception and what the day-to-day inside is like actually,” Wang told tech journalists Ashlee Vance and Kylie Robison during an interview for their “Core Memory” podcast that was posted on Wednesday.Vance asked Wang about the reputation that Meta’s SuperIntelligence Lab is composed of top AI researchers who were…

In May 2023, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was sworn in and testified before Congress about the regulation of artificial intelligence. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana heard his ideas about licensing advanced models and asked if Altman might be qualified to run a hypothetical AI regulatory agency. “I love my current job,” Altman said, to titters. “You make a lot of money, do you?” Kennedy asked him. “No, I’m paid enough for health insurance. I have no equity in OpenAI,” Altman assured him. “You need a lawyer,” Kennedy replied. Now Altman has many lawyers, who watched as their client suffered a…

As AI begins to interact with the physical world, new types of labs are working to build world models that could be used to operate physical robotics or model objects in physical space. Unlike large language models, there isn’t an easy source of data for those models, which has left many labs scrambling to assemble the necessary training sets. Now, one startup is emerging with an unlikely data source: the video game industry. That’s the premise of Origin Lab, which just announced an $8 million seed funding round led by Lightspeed Ventures. SV Angel, Eniac, Seven Stars, and FPV also…

Anthropic is looking to court smaller companies. To that end, the company announced Wednesday the launch of Claude for Small Business, a new suite of services designed for customers who less resemble Walmart and Starbucks and more resemble the local hardware store or coffee shop. So far, much of the most intensive AI adoption has occurred at the enterprise level. In the recent past, studies have shown that most companies that scaled AI systems beyond experimental or pilot-level integration tended to be large companies with expansive budgets. This appears to be changing somewhat, as smaller and midsized businesses are seeing…

LinkedIn is laying off employees, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider sent by CEO Daniel Shapero. Loading audio narration… Impacted employees would receive a calendar invite within an hour of Shapero’s email being sent at 7 a.m. Pacific, according to the memo. Roles include those in the Microsoft-owned company’s Global Business Organization, marketing, engineering, and product teams.It’s unclear how many employees would be impacted by this round of layoffs. LinkedIn employs around 17,500 workers.The company will also “scale back investments” in areas including marketing campaigns, vendor spend, customer events, and underutilized office space, according to the memo.”As…

Whether you like it or not, Amazon continues to put AI at the center of the shopping journey. The company announced Wednesday “Alexa for Shopping,” its new personalized AI shopping assistant, powered by Alexa+.  Notably, the experience will replace Rufus, its generative AI shopping assistant that launched in 2024. According to the company, Alexa for Shopping is designed to offer a voice- and touch-enabled shopping experience across mobile, desktop, and Echo Show smart displays. While Rufus focused on helping customers discover and compare products, Alexa for Shopping is meant to provide more personalized recommendations and automate the shopping experience across…

Anthropic has crossed a symbolic threshold in the AI race: businesses are now spending more on Anthropic than OpenAI for the first time, according to one closely watched measure. Loading audio narration… New data from Ramp’s AI Index shows Anthropic reached 34.4% business adoption in April, overtaking OpenAI at 32.3%, a dramatic reversal in a market OpenAI once dominated.Ramp helps companies pay their bills. It analyzes corporate card and bill-paying activity on its platform from more than 50,000 US businesses to track billions of dollars spent on AI services each month. The index doesn’t capture all corporate spending on AI,…

For the first time, Anthropic has more verified business customers than OpenAI, according to this month’s AI Index from the fintech firm Ramp.  The survey, compiled from Ramp’s clients’ expense data, shows 34.4% of participating businesses are paying for Anthropic services, more than any other AI lab, while only 32.3% pay for OpenAI. It is the first time Anthropic has held the top position. “Anthropic has already been in the lead amongst the high adoption groups like finance, tech, professional services,” Ramp economist Ara Kharazian told TechCrunch. “It’s across the other firms where OpenAI still has a lead, but that…

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Meta on Wednesday said it is adding the ability to start “incognito” conversations with its Meta AI chatbot within WhatsApp. These conversations, the company said, will be processed in a secure environment and can’t be seen by anyone. Users can start an incognito session by tapping on a new icon in one-on-one chats with Meta AI. The company said the feature will also be available on the standalone Meta AI app as well. Incognito chats will roll out to WhatsApp and the Meta AI app over the next few months. Meta said these incognito conversations are not saved, and messages…