Claude Will Run Alexa, $1B for Sutskever, and High Demand for AI Coding Startups

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Sep 06, 2024

Hello and welcome to our weekly roundup!

So here's the plan: assemble a team of 10 people, launch a startup developing secure AI, and raise $1 billion in a seed round. If it worked for Ilya Sutskever with Safe Superintelligence, why shouldn't it work for us?

Okay, don't answer that. We better get to the news. Besides record funding for SSI, we've got tons of other interesting topics today, including details on AI in the new Alexa, demand for AI Coding startups, and ethical issues in the GPT Store.

Let's get started.

In case you missed it. This week, we summarized the summer by rounding up the top AI tools released over the past three months:
Top AI Tools of Summer 2024
Stepan Ikaev
·
Sep 3
Read full story

This Creators’ AI Edition:

Featured Materials 🎟️
News of the week 🌍
Useful tools ⚒️
Weekly Guides 📕
AI Meme of the Week 🤡
AI Tweet of the Week 🐦
(Bonus) Materials 🎁

Featured Material 🎟️

Amazon Turns to Anthropic's AI for Alexa Revamp

Now we know which model will be responsible for the updated version of Alexa. According to five Reuters sources, the new device, which Amazon will release in October, relies on Anthropic's Claude AI. Amazon plans to charge between $5 and $10 per month for its new “remarkable” version of Alexa, while its “classic” voice assistant will be offered for free.

Apparently, something went wrong with Amazon's AI project.

Insiders say that the first versions of the new Alexa, using proprietary software, had trouble picking up words. In some cases, it took from six to seven seconds to confirm a request and respond. For this reason, Amazon decided to turn to Anthropic, one of OpenAI's main competitors. If the information is confirmed, Claude could eventually be deeply integrated into Amazon's massive product line.

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Background

The decision to abandon its own AI could be a major shift in Amazon's strategy. The company prefers to rely on its technology rather than using products from other vendors. Plus, the developer has been betting heavily on the new platform. In September 2023, Amazon showed it for the first time and said that this system could be fully responsible for managing a smart home.

In June, analysts at Bank of America also estimated that Amazon could earn between $600 million and $1.2 billion yearly in sales from AI-enabled Alexa. However, there was no known collaboration with Anthropic then, so that prediction is now unlikely to be relevant.

In addition, analysts reported at the time that free alternatives were questioning Alexa's adoption rate.

That said, the choice of Anthropic as the main supplier seems quite logical. This spring, Amazon concluded a $4 billion investment in Claude's developer. As part of the funding round, the partners said they planned to provide customers worldwide with the most advanced generative AI technologies. At the same time, the deal became the subject of an investigation by British regulators.

The approximate date for the launch of the new Alexa is October. However, Amazon hasn’t confirmed it yet, so the confirmation of the partnership with Anthropic may take place later.

Well, the major mobile and home gadget vendors have decided on their AI platforms. We already know that Apple uses ChatGPT to develop Siri, and Google relies on its own Gemini. And now Amazon and Claude are joining that list. From the looks of it, next year, we'll be watching to see if the masses are ready for a deep adoption of AI into everyday life.

News Of The Week 🌍

Reuters: Ilya Sutskever's AI Startup SSI Raises $1 billion

According to Reuters, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), a startup founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised $1 billion in its first funding round. Among the investors were the most significant firms: a16z and Sequoia Capital. The money will be used to develop safe AI systems that promise to surpass human capabilities. Yes, we can't say anything more specific than that right now.

After the round, SSI, which now employs ten people, is valued at $5 billion. In addition to Sutskever, the founders include Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy. The team operates from two offices, one in Palo Alto, CA, and the other in Tel Aviv, Israel.

$1 billion for a seed round. Sounds pretty good, right? However, we can understand the investors, though: Sutskever is one of the big-name founders with enormous credibility.

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AI Coding Startups Raise Nearly Half a Billion This Week

This week, two AI startups developing code-generation tools raised major funding rounds at once. Magic landed a $320M investment from Eric Schmidt, Atlassian, and other VCs, and Codeium has raised $150M at a $1.25B valuation. Combined, this means almost half a billion dollars for the AI coding sphere. Investors attribute their interest to the demand from companies and private developers for new tools.

By the way, we’ve got a newsletter about programming prompt engineering:
Programming Prompt Engineering & Copilots
Stepan Ikaev
·
Mar 14
Read full story

Adult Content Generators and Cheating Tools Inside GPT Store

Gizmodo columnists analyzed the GPT Store and found more than 100 tools that violated OpenAI policies. Among them were solutions that ignored rules regarding sexual content, scams, legal and medical advice, gambling, creating fake reviews, and romantic relationships. Whether OpenAI plans to combat this problem remains to be seen.

If the Gizmodo story doesn't go unnoticed, we may soon see a major purge within the GPT Store. However, the problem here may be much deeper than with a single platform. AI is becoming more and more accessible, and controlling the proliferation of such products is increasingly difficult. Will regulators handle this, or should we trust the platform developers? There's no simple answer, but I think we're going to hear a lot more discussion on this topic.

Google Rolls Out AI-Powered Ask Photos in The US

Google has started updating Ask Photos, powered by the Gemini AI model, for users of the Photos app. It allows users to search for photos using natural language queries that utilize the AI's understanding of the content of their photos and other metadata. The update will allow for a wide range of questions: not just about places and items of clothing, but those that require a deep understanding of photos.

One of the most welcome features for those who are unable to put their gallery in order (such as myself). Of interest: Ask Photos also allows you to ask photography-related questions and get useful answers. For example, the AI can use a photo to remind you what you ordered at your favorite restaurant the last time you visited.

Anthropic Introduces Enterprise-Focused Plan for Claude

Anthropic is launching another subscription plan for its Claude chatbot, Claude Enterprise, aimed at enterprise customers. The company says the plan will help users who need more administrative control and enhanced security. As you can guess from the name, the new release is a direct competitor for the ChatGPT Enterprise plan.

Claude Enterprise allows companies to upload their knowledge bases to a chatbot and then use AI to analyze and process the information. Claude will create graphics, simple web pages, and other content based on the provided data upon user request.

Every month, OpenAI is losing its position as a developer of unique products. Either we will soon see another game-changer from Sam Altman, or we will be able to claim that the AI industry has formed its leaders.

Useful Tools ⚒️

Promi – Personalized discounts for e-commerce merchants

PicStudio.AI – Pro portraits created with AI

Kimblur - AI Powered presentation creator

Weavel – Automate prompt engineering

Branding 5 – an AI tool for competitor analysis

Indigo AI – Your AI sidekick: save prompts and run them in any app

Indigo AI was built to help individuals and teams increase productivity with AI without the hassle of switching between apps or overcoming the difficulties of traditional chatbots. This platform allows you to store, share, and run used prompts and choose the best-fit OpenAI model for each command. If you feel overwhelmed by various prompts and chatbots, perhaps Indigo will solve your problem.

The creators also promise to expand the service in the next eight weeks. It will support smart highlights, file handling, advanced workflows, and more models.