Why Meta’s new release is causing headaches for OpenAI

Welcome to this edition of Loop!

To kick off your week, we’ve rounded-up the most important technology and AI updates that you should know about.

‏‏‎ ‎ HIGHLIGHTS ‏‏‎ ‎

• Why Wiz walked away from Google’s $23 billion acquisition

• The remarkable video generator that matches Sora

• How OpenAI is taking on Google Search

• … and much more

Let's jump in!

1. Open-source models are rapidly catching up with GPT-4o and Claude

It has been a big week for AI model releases, following Meta’s release of the Llama 3.1 model. They have made the model open-source, which means that its code is available for others to access for free.

What’s surprising is how well their open-source model performs, as its benchmark scores are incredibly close to GPT-4o’s and Claude 3.5 Sonnet’s.

While benchmarks aren’t perfect indicators, these results are pretty remarkable. For some time, we have wondered if open-source models will ever perform as well as closed-source models.

When we refer to closed-source models, this means that the general public can’t access the model’s code and change it. Instead, companies like OpenAI and Anthropic control who can and can’t access it.

Following this release, Meta have just demonstrated that open models can beat those being built behind closed doors.

That could become problematic for the big AI companies, as their moat is being eroded away.

Their best bet is to build products and guardrails around those models, especially for enterprise customers, as it’s becoming clear that the other companies are rapidly catching up and can create models that match theirs.

2. Google will invest another $5 billion into Waymo

The self-driving company will receive billions in the next few years, as they try to improve their autonomous driving technology.

Waymo is now one of the biggest self-driving companies in the US, following Cruise’s troubles last year. They’re now delivering well over 50,000 rides per week, have expanded into LA, and are about to launch in Austin, Texas.

This is a good decision for the company, as their competitors are scaling back their investments and Waymo can enter that gap in the market - especially with this renewed funding.

Google is taking a longer view on the project and is not under pressure for quick results.

I was at a talk with Waymo’s Co-CEO earlier this year, who stressed the need to slowly roll the technology out and work closely with regulators.

That contrasted sharply with Cruise’s former CEO, Kyle Vogt, who was pushing for the company to expand across America’s southern states.

It’s clear that in this race, slow and steady is winning.

3. OpenAI unveils SearchGPT and takes aim at Google

The new search feature is being pitched as a “prototype” and uses the web to quickly answer your questions.

It looks very similar to ChatGPT and is being tested by a small group of users.

Some of the competitors in this space are Perplexity and Google, who have both faced very negative press in the last few months.

Perplexity has been under fire for stealing content online and not paying for it. That’s really bad news for millions of websites, as it will mean they get less ad revenue and could quickly become unprofitable to run.

Google has also had some difficulties, as their AI suggested that you could put glue on pizza. All of this is to be expected, due to the inherent nature of these AI models - they don’t really “know” what they’re saying.

OpenAI will face the same issues, which is why they’ve stressed it’s a prototype. It’ll be interesting to see how they differentiate it vs Google and Perplexity.

If you want to sign up for the SearchGPT waitlist, you can click the link below.

4. Wiz walks away from Google’s $23 billion offer

The 4 year old startup has walked away from acquisition talks with Google, after they were offered a staggering $23 billion. Wiz currently specialises in cybersecurity tools and has over 1,200 employees worldwide.

While Google was willing to pay a significant premium for Wiz, given their last private valuation was $12 billion, it seems like this decision was due to concerns from regulators.

All the top tech companies are under heavy scrutiny and a deal like this could be stopped by bodies in the US, UK, and EU.

This is something that Figma and Adobe faced, which put a stop to their $20 billion deal.

5. CrowdStrike offers a $10 gift card for global disruption

It’s worth remembering that CrowdStrike’s faulty software update caused significant disruption around the world.

It led to huge delays at airports, postponed surgeries at hospitals, and paralysed businesses across the globe.

So when they offered a $10 Uber Eats gift card to say sorry, many of their customers were furious.

And to make things even worse, that gift card was later flagged as fraud by Uber and subsequently cancelled. Incredible.

CrowdStrike is the perfect example of how not to roll out software updates, how not to inform the public about why their flights and surgeries are delayed, and how not to compensate their customers.

This model lets you create Sora-level videos for free

The Kling model was developed by a Chinese company and allows you to create incredible videos for free.

After you’ve signed up, you can generate 5 second clips that rival OpenAI’s Sora model.

You’re given enough credits to create around 5 or 6 videos per day, which is more than enough to experiment and try it out.

Yet again, OpenAI is facing stiff competition on all fronts. After they announced Sora in February, they surprised many people with just how realistic the videos were.

However, the Silicon Valley startup has not released it yet - largely because it could be used to spread misinformation.

Given that we’re in a busy election year around the world, OpenAI wasn’t comfortable with that risk.

These video generators do not threaten the jobs of those in the film and TV industry, at least not yet. That’s because the videos it produces are good, but not good enough for the big screen.

That will take some time, as the technology continues to evolve and improve - but it’s a lot closer than we might think.

Applied Intuition raises $550 million for autonomous vehicle software

The startup has recently closed a $300 million round, just four months after it raised $250 million.

Applied Intuition creates tools for other companies, which allows them to develop and test their own autonomous vehicle software - such as planes or cars.

The company has some very impressive partners. They have signed partnership deals with "18 of the top 20 automakers" - including General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Porsche.

Signing up with most of the top car companies and raising $550 million - in just a few months - is an impressive feat.

It’s a clear vote of confidence from investors, especially when you consider how competitive the AI sector is for funding.

📱 Researchers are using iPhone scans to train robots

🏙️ Hackers used malware to shut down heating in a Ukrainian city

🤝 Apple signs up for the White House's commitment to AI safety

🔋 GM-backed Addionics will use wavy foil to make lithium-ion batteries cheaper

🧠 Mistral's Large 2 aims to rival Meta and OpenAI's latest models

🤖 After AgentGPT's success, Reworkd pivots to web-scraping AI agents

🚗 GM abandons Cruise's custom driverless car

🎬 Runway's AI video generator was trained on thousands of YouTube videos

🌇 Tech billionaires can't build their own city, yet

🗺️ Apple Maps launches a web version to challenge Google Maps

Skip

This is a wearable tech startup, which produces exoskeleton technology and originally began as a secretive project inside Google.

They’ve just announced a partnership with Arc'teryx, who specialise in outdoor clothing, and aim to bring their product to outdoor walkers.

The tiny exoskeleton can be used to improve the walker’s mobility and support their movement in challenging terrain.

The company is offering it in popular hiking spots, such as the Grand Canyon, and has raised $6 million from investors.

Clinical trials are also ongoing, as they test how well the device can benefit people with Parkinson's. Although, I wouldn’t get too excited as it takes years for a device to be certified for medical use.

Regardless, Skip is a really interesting startup and one to keep an eye on.

This Week’s Art

It’s been another busy week and we’ve covered a lot, including:

• Why OpenAI and Anthropic are facing a challenge from open-source models

• Google’s announcement that it’s investing $5 billion into Waymo

• OpenAI’s new product that aims to compete with Google Search

• Why Wiz did not agree to Google’s $23 billion acquisition offer

• CrowdStrike’s offer of a $10 Uber Eats gift card for causing billions in damages

• China’s Kling video generator has matched OpenAI’s Sora

• Applied Intuition’s mega $550 million funding rounds

• And how Skip are developing an exoskeleton to improve walking mobility

Have a good week!

Liam

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About the Author

Liam McCormick is a Senior AI Engineer and works within Kainos' Innovation team. He identifies business value in emerging technologies, implements them, and then shares these insights with others.