Wiser! #121: Google's AI Search | Autonomous AI | Meta's Dancing Animations | MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Strategy

Wiser! is a weekly newsletter that makes sense of what’s going on in the tech economy; from BigTech to Emerging Tech, from Strategy to Innovation, from Trends to What’s Coming Next.

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What’s going on in Tech that you might have missed?

1. Google?is building AI search

According to the?New York Times ,?Google is making a major change to its search engine with a new AI-powered search engine called Project 'Magi.' Here's what you need to know:

• Google has 160 engineers working on this project.
• The search engine will have a chat-like interface, similar to ChatGPT.
• Transactions such as booking a flight will be possible directly on Google search.
• The public release is expected to be next month, but only for limited U.S. citizens.

Google is replacing the old-school method of displaying 10 results per page with an intelligent chatbot that provides instant answers. This innovative move by Google comes after Samsung considered switching to Microsoft Bing as its default device search engine, which could have potentially cost Google a staggering $3 billion in annual revenue.

2. Auto-GPT demonstrates the potential of autonomous AI

The recent release of generative AI tools called?Auto-GPT ?and?BabyAGI ?has showcased the significant potential of so-called autonomous agents. Built on large language models (LLMs), these autonomous AI agents enable the AI chatbots to execute complex sequences of tasks based on their own judgment. These AI tools go much further than ChatGPT, which is (just) a question-and-answer response machine.

The other major trend in generative AI is training specialised LLMs. Already, firms like Citadel and Bloomberg are training their own specialised models. Bloomberg has created an AI model?similar to ChatGPT ?that can accurately answer research and analysis questions based on Bloomberg’s proprietary data sets.

A?2.7 billion parameter Large Language Model trained on PubMed biomedical data ?achieved positive results on the US Medical Licensing Exam’s (USMLE) question-and-answer test, but it only cost approximately $38K to train the AI and took just over 6 days to complete.

Side Note:?According to?ARK research , AI software could generate up to $14 trillion in revenue and $90 trillion in enterprise value in 2030. Right now, at the pace AI is evolving, I’d say that number is on the low side

3. MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin strategy enjoys a brief spell in the black

MicroStrategy has invested $4.17 billion in bitcoin for its balance sheet. Led by chairman and previous CEO Michael Saylor, the company has accumulated 140,000 bitcoin since 2020 at an average purchase price of $29,803. The recent rally in Bitcoin price, sparked by the recent banking collapses, has seen the price of bitcoin go past $30k for the first time since last summer. MicroStrategy remains the largest corporate holder of BTC by a long shot, especially after Tesla sold the majority of its initial $1.5 billion investment.

4. Meta brings drawings to life

A remarkable project has been created by Meta (Facebook) that breathes life into doodles through animation.?The code and a dataset of almost 180,000 annotated drawings is available for anyone to use.

The new model has the ability to detect four things in a doodle:

1. Human figure detection - Does the doodle contain a person?
2. Segmentation - Which parts of the doodle represent arms, legs, and the head?
3. Pose estimation - In which direction are the arms and legs pointing?
4. Animation - Make them dance!

With the animation code and dataset provided, in theory, anyone can create their own doodle animation system.?By combining this new tool with other AI models like stable diffusion, you could turn simple doodles into professional animated drawings.

What Else Is Going On In Tech

Adidas?released their latest web3 consumer engagement initiative : the ALTS Dynamic NFT Collection. Total trading volume in Adidas NFTs is almost $100 million.

Over the past 7 days?Azuki #3628?was the most expensive NFT sold for 329 ETH, or around $629k.

Swedish startup?Stilride has unveiled the Stilride 1 , an electric motorcycle that uses a revolutionary design process called "industrial origami." The process involves folding a single sheet of stainless steel instead of welding it, producing minimal pollutants.

Amazon is?rolling out cashless palm payments tech in its Denver stores . Last month, coffee house chain Panera announced that they were trialling the Amazon One palm payment system.

Separately, Amazon announced that its working on?generative AI ?aimed at its cloud customers.?The company will debut two large-language models: one for generating text and one for web search personalisation.

Neural Networks seem to be good enough at simulating human neurons for consciousness.?Here’s how and why .

An AI entirely recreated a 51-minute episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience". The episode features AI-generated versions of Joe Rogan and Sam Altman discussing topics such as AI ethics and its impact on content creation.

Universal Music Group has told streaming platforms , including Spotify and Apple, to block artificial intelligence services from scraping melodies and lyrics from their copyrighted songs.

A?Japanese breakthrough in AI research raises the possibility of mind-reading technology. ?It has sparked a debate about the potential ethical concerns and implications for privacy, surveillance, and personal autonomy.

Reddit has released a third-generation NFT avatar collection ?featuring its 'Snoo' mascot, reimagined by over 100 artists who will earn royalties on their work. The launch was a success, causing the avatar shop's servers to crash. (Takeaway: don’t write off NFTs too soon!)

Alphabet have integrated?AI into Google Docs to automate functions such as generating email drafts and composing marketing messages . However, there are limitations to the AI's accuracy and editing options, and it may produce boilerplate writing or overly creative elaborations.

Ethereum’s long-awaited Shanghai upgrade , which will allow users to make withdrawals of staked Ether for the first time, went live on April 12. It has unlocked $2 billion in Ethereum’s cryptocurrency. Many believe?this change will have positive economic implications for Ethereum .

Failed crypto exchange FTX has recovered $7.3 billion in assets and is considering relaunching itself as a crypto business.

The US?Department of the Treasury has released the 2023 DeFi Illicit Finance Risk Assessment , a report that considers risks associated with DeFi services. The report confirms that money laundering, terrorist financing and financial crimes most commonly occur using proper money, not crypto.

The?New York Times has identified 34 Bitcoin mines ?in the United States, all putting immense pressure on the power grid and most finding novel ways to profit from doing so.

The USA’s disparate approach to regulating the tech economy has thrown up 2 new attempts. First, Arkansas has introduced an?18-year-old?age requirement for using social media. ?Meanwhile,?Montana lawmakers have voted 54-43 to completely ban TikTok in the state . It’s not clear how either bill will be enforced or policed.

43% of US adults who have invested in cryptocurrencies said they are?“not very or not at all confident” in the safety and reliability of the technology,?according to a?Pew Research Center ?survey of US adults.

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