Perplexity shows why people distrust AI companies

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 ‏‏‎ ‎

• Uber’s partnership to create autonomous trucks

• Why OpenAI has delayed ChatGPT’s voice mode

• How Perplexity is a risk to your favourite websites

• … and much more

Let's jump in!

1. OpenAI delays ChatGPT’s new Voice Mode

The company’s advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT, which was initially planned for June, has now been postponed due to recurring issues.

The company is working on improving the model's ability to detect and refuse inappropriate requests. They’re also working to prepare OpenAI’s infrastructure, as it needs to scale and allow for real-time responses.

Their initial announcement did generate quite a lot of controversy, as the default "Sky" voice sounded very similar to Scarlett Johansson's. She then hired lawyers and released a public statement, claiming that she had previously denied OpenAI’s request to use her voice.

It’s quite disappointing that the feature has been delayed, but not surprising. OpenAI’s launch was brought forward to steal the thunder of Google, which announced a very similar product the next day.

However, it’s not the end of the world. Developers can already use OpenAI’s Whisper model, which I’ve used recently for projects. It returns responses in almost real-time and works incredibly well, although it could do with some non-American accents.

Either way, we still have plenty of other options.

2. Formation Bio raises $372 million for AI drug development

This is a startup that has been backed by Sam Altman, who’s the CEO of OpenAI. It recently raised $372 million in funding and is working on using AI to accelerate drug development.

They’re partnering with OpenAI to create new AI models and Sanofi will provide them with the data they need.

The startup is currently working on 3 drugs, with one of them at phase 3 testing already.

In recent months, we have seen a huge amount of money thrown at AI-drug startups. Back in April, Xaira Therapeutics raised a whopping $1 billion for their work.

This trend is likely to continue as the year goes on, with companies like Google’s DeepMind also investing heavily in the sector.

3. Waymo’s robotaxis are now available for everyone in San Francisco

Google’s self-driving company has removed the waitlist for its robotaxi service in San Francisco, which allows anyone to download the app and immediately request a ride.

While Waymo has been testing in San Francisco since 2009, it only began charging customers for rides last year.

There are tens of thousands of trips every week, with over 300 robotaxis available within the city. It’s definitely something to try the next time you’re in San Francisco, but just pray it doesn’t drive into wet concrete again…

4. OpenAI buys a video conferencing startup

The company has acquired Multi, which have created a video platform that looks a lot like Zoom. It allowed enterprise staff to collaborate via video chats and to share their screen.

Most of Multi's team will now join OpenAI and the platform will shut down after 24 July. Before the acquisition, the company had raised $14 million.

This deal works well for OpenAI, who are investing heavily into enterprise solutions as they’re a quicker way to increase revenues.

For some time now, it has been rumoured that they are developing AI models that can control your computer screen. This acquisition seems to bring them a step closer to that goal.

5. Uber partners with Aurora on self-driving trucks

The multi-year partnership will see Uber’s freight network use their self-driving tech until 2030.

Their aim is to provide a Driver-as-a-Service (DaaS) model. This would allow shipment companies to pay for autonomous trucks and have their goods delivered at a lower price.

The DaaS launch is good timing, as Aurora has already signed a deal with Continental - who will mass-produce their autonomous vehicle hardware by 2027.

By the end of 2024, Aurora will launch a fully driverless commercial service on the Uber Freight network. But given the hardware limitations, this is likely to be at a small scale.

Perplexity comes under fire for stealing online content

Perplexity is a startup that’s fighting to disrupt Google and their dominant position in Web Search. Rather than suggesting dozens of links, Perplexity tries to give you the correct answer.

However, they have faced huge criticism this week. Journalists have pointed out that Perplexity is intentionally avoiding paywalls and are using that content in their answers.

This is a major threat for the news companies and journalism as a whole, as it means that the public no longer need to pay to access their content.

Plus, since Perplexity provides the answer directly, those companies will not get any ad revenue either.

Essentially, as Perplexity continues to grow it will starve these companies and ensure that their revenues plummet.

While ads and paywalls can be annoying, they’re necessary to hire thousands of staff and investigative journalists.

If media companies can’t fund their operations, those jobs are at risk - and losing good journalists will only harm us all.

But it goes much further than journalists. Any website that relies on ads to survive and pay their bills could eventually disappear.

Perplexity’s CEO has tried to dodge responsibility, instead claiming that 3rd parties are scraping the data for them.

Aravind Srinivas has also admitted that he lied about being an academic researcher, which allowed him access to Twitter’s tools and to scrape their data.

Hundreds of AI startups are trying to capitalise on the latest trends and gain market share. But Perplexity’s decision to ignore all the rules is exactly why people distrust AI companies.

LangChain lets you run agents in the cloud

LangChain is starting to launch LangGraph Cloud, which allows you to deploy agents at scale.

Basically, AI agents are independent bots that can solve tasks for you. They can either work on their own, or together with other agents.

LangChain’s new platform will handle everything you need to deploy your solution - such as queues, servers, and scaling to meet user demand.

You can also use LangGraph Studio to visualise your AI agents, how they will work together, and debug failures.

Interestingly, they also support one-click deployment from a GitHub repo - which will make it even easier to setup.

To get access, you can sign up for their waitlist here.

🥽 Apple Vision Pro is now available in countries beyond the US

🚀 SpaceX wins a massive NASA deal to take ISS out of orbit by 2030

⚖️ Apple's App Store falls foul of the EU’s digital rules

🎨 Figma announces a big redesign with AI

🤖 OpenAI introduces CriticGPT to improve GPT-4 responses

🔌 VW will invest up to $5 billion into Rivian in new electric car partnership

🛒 Dappier creates platform for publishers to sell content to AI companies

♿ TestParty raises $4 million to help automate coding for accessible sites

🏛️ Tengo uses AI to sort out the messy world of government procurement

🕵️ Emergence thinks it can solve challenges with AI agents

Orby

Continuing with the theme of AI agents, Orby is a startup that’s building AI agents for the enterprise.

With agents, they aim to automate several business tasks - such as data entry, processing documents, and validating forms.

They use their own fine-tuned model to complete these tasks and combine it with symbolic AI, which uses rules to come up with a solution.

The startup has already raised $30 million in Series A funding and have a dozen customers using their platform.

There’s no doubt that this sector will continue to grow. It’s something that I recently saw at the Collision conference in Toronto, with several startups pitching their own agent solutions.

I’ve added a link below if you want to learn more about Orby.

This Week’s Art

We’ve covered quite a bit this week, including:

• Why OpenAI has delayed ChatGPT’s voice mode

• Formation Bio’s massive $372 million for AI drug development

• Waymo opens their robotaxi service to everyone in San Francisco

• Why OpenAI acquired a video conferencing startup

• Uber and Aurora’s partnership on self-driving trucks

• Perplexity’s problem with trust and following the rules

• LangChain’s cloud platform for agents

• And how Orby are developing AI agents for the enterprise

Have a good week!

Liam

Share with Others

If you found something interesting in this week’s edition, feel free to share this newsletter with your colleagues.

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.