Daily Digest: AI shareholders

PLUS: Open's AI monster valuation, Microsoft's annual report and Anthropic gets sued.

October 20, 2023

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Daily Digest #267

Hello folks, here’s what we have today;

PICKS

  1. 3X boost for Open AI's valuation - Investment firm Thrive Capital is leading a deal to buy shares from OpenAI employees. The deal would boost OpenAI's valuation to at least $80 billion, more than triple its valuation just 6 months ago.🍿Our Summary (also below)

  2. Universal Music Group sues Anthropic - Universal, Concord and ABKCO have filed a copyright lawsuit against AI startup Anthropic, alleging that Anthropic's chatbot Claude scrapes and regurgitates the studios’ lyrics without permission.🍿Our Summary (also below)

  3. DALL·E 3 is now available in ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise. OpenAI says it has added a series of safety controls over it before making it available to all paid users. In a surprise, the DallE-3 paper is not as hush-hush as the GPT-4 one.

  4. Satya Nadella’s annual letter to shareholders about Microsoft's vision and progress in ushering in a new era of AI. He talks about other companies using Microsoft’s AI products, the history of building these and what lies ahead.🍿Our Summary (also below)

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  • Speaking Practice - A new tool from Google to learn English (available in select countries).

WHO’S HIRING IN AI
NEWS
QUICK BITES

Investment firm Thrive Capital is leading a deal to buy shares from OpenAI employees. The deal would boost OpenAI's valuation to at least $80 billion, more than triple its valuation just 6 months ago.

What is going on here?

Thrive Capital is leading the share buyback for OpenAI’s latest round.

What does this mean?

After making $28 million in revenue last year, OpenAI’s annualized revenue now tops $1.3 billion. Still, this new investment in OpenAI values the startup at over 60 times its annualized revenue. Thrive Capital also invested in OpenAI at its $27 billion valuation in April and now the latest deal will boost OpenAI's valuation over 3 times in just 6 months.

This enormous new valuation suggests investors expect OpenAI will continue raising huge new funding rounds. Rumours are that Sam Altman wants to raise $100 billion to develop advanced AI. While some investors are wary of overpaying, others are eager to get a piece of the red-hot AI startup.

Why should I care?

OpenAI's exploding valuation reveals just how much promise investors see in artificial intelligence. ChatGPT's viral success proves consumer appetite for AI is real. I wonder how long OpenAI is considered a “startup”.

QUICK BITES

Universal, Concord and ABKCO have filed a copyright lawsuit against AI startup Anthropic, alleging that Anthropic's chatbot Claude scrapes and regurgitates the studios’ lyrics without permission.

What is going on here?

Universal Music group sues Anthropic for generating identical song lyrics.

What does this mean?

Universal alleges Anthropic's Claude chatbot copies lyrics word-for-word when prompted, violating copyrights. Anthropic has not properly licensed or attempted to license the lyrics, Universal claims.

Universal is separately working with Google to license its catalogue for AI songs and partnered with BandLab for ethical AI use of its copyrights. It has also asked Spotify to cut off AI developers' access to its catalogue.

Why should I care?

This reminds the industry of the Napster days. But much of the perspective isn’t anti-AI, it’s more anti-piracy. The other deals and the claims in the lawsuit hint that the group just want to be paid for the license. But how much is the big question, I guess.

QUICK BITES

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has shared his annual letter to shareholders about Microsoft's vision and progress in ushering in a new era of AI. He talks about other companies using Microsoft’s AI products, the history of building these and what lies ahead.

What is going on here?

Nadella believes we are entering a transformational new age of AI and is positioning Microsoft to lead the way responsibly.

What does this mean?

Microsoft sees two key breakthroughs enabling this AI era - natural language interfaces and more powerful reasoning capabilities. Together, these will reshape software and businesses across the board. Microsoft aims to infuse AI throughout its stack and products to empower every person and organization.

As per Nadella, Microsoft is already applying AI across its business solutions, applications, infrastructure, and industry offerings. This includes tools like GitHub Copilot, Dynamics 365 Copilot, and Azure OpenAI Service.

Microsoft believes it has a unique opportunity and responsibility to democratize this technology while also building it responsibly. The latter half of the letter talks mostly about upskilling people, gaining trust and protecting fundamental rights.

Why should I care?

These developments matter because AI has huge potential to boost productivity and address major global challenges. But the technology also carries risks around bias, fairness and misuse which companies like Microsoft must proactively address. As a tech leader, Microsoft's moves will likely influence the entire industry. And to much extent, they already are—they’ve made Google dance.

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