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Ford's Biometric Cars, Databricks’ $55B Valuation, and Perplexity's Hardware plans

Author

Stefan
November 27, 2024

Hi there,

Today’s Daily AI Brief highlights Ford’s advanced biometric vehicle security system, Databricks’ ambitious $8 billion fundraising round, and Perplexity’s move into AI-powered hardware. Plus, the latest on OpenAI's legal battles and the U.S. Department of Defense's $15 billion AI modernization initiative.

Today’s top stories

Ford has filed a patent for 'scene authentication' technology, which uses facial and biometric recognition to enhance vehicle security, raising privacy concerns as cars become increasingly connected. Read more

Salesforce is seeking to patent a technology for 'controllable image generation,' which utilizes diffusion models to streamline AI image generation across multiple tasks. Read more

OpenAI is embroiled in a legal dispute with The New York Times, accused of deleting data that might prove copyright violations in training ChatGPT. The case's outcome could have significant implications for OpenAI's defense strategy and future copyright lawsuits. Read more

Inflection AI Shifts Strategy from Next-Gen Models to Enterprise Solutions

Inflection AI is pivoting its focus from developing next-generation AI models to serving enterprise clients, following the hiring of its former CEO by Microsoft and recent acquisitions of three AI startups to enhance enterprise offerings. Read more

Perplexity Plans to Enter Hardware Market with Voice-Enabled Device

Perplexity's CEO, Aravind Srinivas, confirmed plans to develop an affordable voice-activated device after receiving enough online support. This move aligns with a trend of AI startups, like Midjourney and OpenAI, expanding into hardware despite the challenges faced by previous ventures. Read more

A group protesting OpenAI's practices leaked early access to the Sora video generator on Hugging Face, allowing users to generate short videos before access was revoked. The group claims OpenAI pressures early testers and lacks transparency about Sora's capabilities. Read more

/dev/agents, led by ex-executives from Google, Stripe, and Meta, secures $56M to develop an operating system for AI agents aimed at mainstream use, with backing from Index Ventures and CapitalG. Read more

Databricks is in talks to secure up to $8 billion from investors, potentially increasing its valuation to $55 billion. This fundraising effort, one of the largest in Silicon Valley, involves secondary share sales and aims to boost employee morale while keeping the company private longer. Read more

The US Department of Defense is proposing a $15 billion contract to modernize its Advana platform, enhancing decision-making in defense operations with improved data analytics and new technologies. Read more

The US is set to impose sanctions on 200 additional Chinese chip companies, potentially banning the export of High Bandwidth Memory to China, as part of ongoing trade tensions impacting the semiconductor industry. Read more

OpenAI is offering its employees the opportunity to sell approximately $1.5 billion worth of shares to SoftBank in a new tender offer, granting SoftBank a larger stake in the company and providing liquidity to employees. The offer is open until December 24 and is part of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son's strategy to increase his firm's investment in AI. Read more