Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
On this day, 25 years ago, Research In Motion (RIM) introduced the first BlackBerry.
In today's Techpresso:
🧠 Mark Zuckerberg’s new goal is creating AGI
🎶 TikTok can generate AI songs, but it probably shouldn’t
💸 Amazon plans to charge for Alexa
🍎 Apple to open iPhone NFC payments to 3rd-party providers in Europe
🤖 Smallest, lightest, fastest micro-robots ever devised, experts claim
🎁 + 7 other news you might like
🔮 + 0 handpicked research papers and tools
🧠 Mark Zuckerberg’s new goal is creating AGILINK
Mark Zuckerberg has announced his intention to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) and is integrating Meta's AI research group, FAIR, with the team building generative AI applications, to advance AI capabilities across Meta's platforms. Meta is significantly investing in computational resources, with plans to acquire over 340,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs by year's end. Zuckerberg is contemplating open-sourcing Meta's AGI technology, differing from other companies' more proprietary approaches, and acknowledges the challenges in defining and achieving AGI.
🎶 TikTok can generate AI songs, but it probably shouldn’tLINK
TikTok is testing a new feature, AI Song, which allows users to generate songs from text prompts using the Bloom language model.
The AI Song feature is currently in experimental stages, with some users reporting unsatisfactory results like out-of-tune vocals.
Other platforms, such as YouTube, are also exploring generative AI for music creation, and TikTok has updated its policies for better transparency around AI-generated content.
💸 Amazon plans to charge for AlexaLINK
Amazon is planning to launch a subscription-based version of Alexa, named Alexa Plus, aimed at generating revenue, potentially starting June 30.
Internal reports suggest there's uncertainty and debate within Amazon about charging users for Alexa, with concerns about customer willingness to pay.
The development of the revised Alexa, which includes conversational AI capabilities, is facing technical difficulties and may cause delays.
🍎 Apple to open iPhone NFC payments to 3rd-party providers in EuropeLINK
Apple has agreed to allow third-party payment providers to use the iPhone's NFC for payments, addressing a European Union antitrust investigation.
The European Commission, which has been investigating Apple for nearly four years, is now seeking feedback on Apple's commitment to open NFC access.
Apple's NFC access proposal is limited to the European Economic Area and includes a 10-year commitment, potentially facing a large fine if not honored.
🤖 Smallest, lightest, fastest micro-robots ever devised, experts claimLINK
Washington State University researchers have created the smallest, lightest, and fastest micro-robots to date, with applications in pollination, search and rescue, and surgery.
The micro-robots use innovative actuators made from shape memory alloy wires, allowing swift and energy-efficient movement.
Featured micro-robots include an 8 mg MiniBug and a 56 mg WaterStrider, capable of impressive speeds and movements for their size.
Other news you might like
Rabbit R1 partners with Perplexity to integrate live, AI-powered answer engine for up-to-date information, with first 100,000 buyers receiving a free one-year Pro subscription.LINK
OpenAI partners with Arizona State University to use ChatGPT in classrooms.LINK
Anthropic argues that training its AI with song lyrics is transformative fair use, dismisses claims of irreparable harm, and refutes jurisdiction in its legal defense against copyright infringement allegations.LINK
YouTube and Spotify join Netflix in opting out of creating native apps for Apple's high-priced Vision Pro headset.LINK
Microsoft introduces AI-powered Reading Coach that offers customizable stories and interactive reading practice to enhance students' literacy skills.LINK
Half of game developers report using generative AI at work, while a notable portion of companies show no interest or restrict its use, amid ethical concerns and a mixed outlook on its industry impact.LINK
Google News is increasingly filled with low-quality AI-generated content that often plagiarizes and distorts genuine journalism, challenging both users and search engines.LINK
Latest research and tools
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