Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s secret AI device

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

It’s official: OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Apple’s design legend Jony Ive have been secretly developing a brand new AI-powered device together.

Could the dream team finally deliver AI hardware that changes the best way we interact with and use AI? Let’s get into it…

In today’s AI rundown:

• Altman and Ive announce AI hardware device

• Microsoft fuels AI ambitions with nuclear

• Edit images in real-time with Krea and FLUX

• EA reveals AI-powered video game creation

• 5 recent AI tools & 4 recent AI jobs

• More AI & tech news

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

😱 Altman and Ive announce AI hardware device

The Rundown: Former Apple design chief Jony Ive has officially confirmed he’s collaborating with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on a brand new AI-powered hardware device, marking Ive’s first major tech project since leaving Apple.

The small print:

• Ive and Altman are developing an AI device geared toward making a computing experience that’s “less socially disruptive than the iPhone.”

• The project has already raised private funding and plans to boost as much as $1 billion in startup funding by yr’s end.

• Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, is leading the device’s design with a team that features former Apple executives Tang Tan and Evans Hankey.

• While specifics are still confidential, the device goals to leverage generative AI’s capabilities to handle complex user requests beyond traditional software.

Why it matters: While OpenAI and Apple strengthen their ties with ChatGPT on the iPhone 16, Altman and Ive are constructing a relationship of their very own. Combining Ive’s iconic design with OpenAI’s models, including o1, could (hopefully) create AI hardware that’s actually useful in our each day lives, unlike the vast majority of options currently available.

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MICROSOFT

☢️ Microsoft fuels AI ambitions with nuclear

The Rundown: Microsoft just signed a landmark 20-year cope with Constellation Energy to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, aiming to fuel its data centers and AI operations with clean energy.

The small print:

• The 20-year agreement will provide carbon-free power for Microsoft’s data centers, that are crucial for running its AI and cloud computing operations.

• This move highlights the substantial energy requirements of AI, as corporations seek reliable and sustainable power sources to support AI expansion.

• The deal aligns with recent trends within the tech industry, comparable to Bill Gates’ $1 billion investment in a nuclear plant in Wyoming, which may also power homes and AI operations.

• The plant shall be renamed the ‘Crane Clean Energy Center’ and is about to reopen in 2028.

Why it matters: Recent AI-driven power demands are leading tech giants to hunt nuclear energy solutions. By securing a dedicated nuclear power source, Microsoft is strategically positioning itself to fulfill the increasing computational demands of AI development and deployment, without increasing its carbon footprint.

AI TRAINING

🎨 Edit images in real-time with Krea and FLUX

The Rundown: Krea AI is an AI-powered image editing platform that gives real-time image generation with Flux, allowing users to edit and enhance images on the fly — with a generous free tier.

Step-by-step:

1. Enroll or log in to Krea AI and go to the “Generate” section

2. Upload your starting image

3. Select “Flux” as your model and enter a prompt (e.g., “corgi with a red ball”)

4. Use the comb tool to color where you wish changes

5. Adjust the AI Strength slider to fine-tune the transformation

Pro tip: Experiment with different AI Strength levels to seek out the ‘sweet spot’ between your vision and AI’s creativity.

PRESENTED BY CODESIGNAL

📝 Report: AI Coding Benchmark with Human Comparison

The Rundown: CodeSignal’s latest report compares top AI models with human engineers using real-world coding assessments and the identical technical assessment relied on by major tech corporations for hiring.

Key findings:

• Advanced AI (o1-preview, o1-mini) outperforms average human engineers

• Top human coders still edge out the very best AI models

• AI shows significant improvement with multi-shot attempts

Read the total report here.

ELECTRONIC ARTS

🎮 EA reveals AI-powered video game creation

The Rundown: Electronic Arts (EA) recently demonstrated a brand new AI-driven concept for user-generated video game content, showcasing how players can create and modify games in real-time using natural language commands.

The small print:

• EA’s “Imagination to Creation” concept video displays two players rapidly constructing a posh game world and gameplay rules through voice commands without coding expertise.

• The system leverages EA’s vast proprietary dataset, including 3D assets, code, gameplay hours, and telemetry events, to coach custom creation models.

• Players can remix elements from existing EA games and asset libraries, potentially creating entirely recent gaming experiences.

Why it matters: This idea could change EA’s business model, making a more interactive and dynamic relationship with their player base while possibly unlocking recent revenue streams and lengthening the lifespan of games. Nonetheless, it’s only a concept video—only time will tell what the longer term of video game creation will truly appear to be.

NEW TOOLS & JOBS

Trending AI Tools

• 🎬 Scenery – Let AI edit videos for you

• 👨‍💻 Epsilla – No-code platform for constructing production ready LLM apps

• 🤖 Clones – Engage in conversations with lifelike AI companions

• 🎓 Solidroad – AI-first training and assessment platform

• 📝 Fathom – Transcribes, highlights, and summarizes meetings

Recent AI Job Opportunities

• 🖥️ Kumo – Software Engineer

• 📱 Captions – Android Engineer

• 📊 Meta – Marketing Insights Researcher

• 🧪 Deepmind – Research Scientist

QUICK HITS

Disney researchers developed an AI system allowing robots to learn complex movements from random motion data, improving robots’ versatility across industries.

Pudu Robotics unveiled PUDU D7, a 5’5” tall, 100-pound ‘semi-humanoid’ robot for service and industrial use, featuring 30 degrees of freedom and 8-hour battery life.

Google released recent evaluations for long context reasoning in AI models, with their 1.5 Pro model outperforming others by 12.5% on tasks beyond easy information retrieval.

Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds significantly increased investments in AI startups, with funding up fivefold prior to now yr.

Researchers introduced AnySkin, a flexible, replaceable tactile sensor for robots that enables learned manipulation policies to generalize across different sensor instances.

Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5 7B coder model reportedly matched GPT-4’s coding performance at a fraction of the price, offering similar capabilities as an open-source alternative.

THAT’S A WRAP

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