Hedra, an AI startup founded by Stanford PhDs, has emerged from stealth with a $10M seed funding round, introducing Character-1, the fastest video foundation model on the market, which has already generated 1.6 million videos for over 350,000 users.
The EU's AI Act, which came into force on August 1, 2024, introduces a risk-based classification system for AI applications. In preparation for the full enforcement of the AI Act, the European Commission has launched a consultation for the first General-Purpose AI Code of Practice.
Sybill distinguishes itself in the AI-powered sales assistance market with its holistic, context-aware approach that leverages in-house developed models to analyze entire deal cycles and provide comprehensive insights to amplify human capabilities in B2B sales rather than replace them.
Google has expanded its Gemma family with three new offerings: Gemma 2 2B, a lightweight yet powerful model; ShieldGemma, a suite of safety classifiers; and Gemma Scope, a tool for model interpretability, all designed to advance responsible, safe, and accessible AI development.
OpenAI has launched two alpha programs: GPT-4o Long Output, which extends the output token limit to 64K tokens, and Advanced Voice Mode, a carefully tested voice feature for ChatGPT Plus users, both of which are being rolled out gradually to selected users for testing and feedback.
Meta has launched AI Studio, a platform built on Llama 3.1 that allows users to create, customize, and share AI characters across its apps, enabling anyone to develop personalized AIs for various purposes and allowing creators to extend their reach through AI-powered interactions with fans.
Perplexity AI has announced a Publisher's Program offering revenue-sharing and other benefits to partner publishers, amid controversy over its web scraping practices. Still, details of the revenue-sharing mechanism remain unclear and the company appears unlikely to stop its web scraping practices.
The UK's CMA has opened a case concerning the partnership between Google and AI startup Anthropic, scrutinizing Google's $2.3 billion investment and cloud computing agreement with the company, despite both parties asserting that the arrangement does not constitute a merger.
Canva has acquired Leonardo.Ai, a leading generative AI company, to enhance its design AI capabilities and integrate advanced AI-generated visual content tools into its platform, aiming to revolutionize visual communication across various industries.
Days after facing scrutiny for its data collection practices, Runway has announced significant updates to its Gen-3 Alpha video generation model, including image-to-video capabilities and a faster "Turbo" version which accelerates generations while driving down costs.
Meta has released SAM 2, an advanced AI model that extends object segmentation capabilities to videos, offering real-time, promptable segmentation for both images and videos with improved accuracy and speed, along with a large new dataset to support further research and development in the field.
The NTIA's report on models with widely available weights concludes that while open AI models pose potential risks, their benefits outweigh these concerns, recommending continued monitoring and preparation for future action rather than immediate restrictions on model availability.