🤖 THE Scoop: AI at Davos, CES 2024, Robots…

Building Startups by Ajay Yadav

The ‘No-BS’ BS Newsletter

🤖 THE Scoop: AI at Davos, CES 2024, Robots…

Happy Friday everybody!

AI has had a bold start to the year with many significant developments and conversations. Here is a round-up of everything that’s created buzz this month.

❗️P.S. DON’T miss the AI video tool upgrades at the end 👀 

▶️ CES 2024: My Highlights

I went to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas for the very first time. Boy does it live up to the hype:

Some of my moments from CES 2024

The show highlighted the latest innovations in consumer technology from the world's leading firms. I urge you to experience it if you can, because if nothing, it’ll make you visualise what the future looks like.

My personal highlights were:

• The Rabbit R1: Probably THE COOLEST wearable AI device to exist right now. Rabbit's R1 aims to be a smartphone companion comparable to a chat assistant, but with its own hardware. You can get the device to perform verious actions across multiple apps on your phone, like book a cab, schedule an appointment, even take photos and videos!

• Mobility and AI: Autonomous vehicles, AI integrations, flying cars? Had it all. Volkswagen premiered the FIRST vehicles with ChatGPT integrations in its voice assistant. Super fun.

• Transparent TV: LG Electronics unveiled its first wireless transparent OLED television! According to LG, the 77-inch TV is nearly invisible when turned off. When on, the content on the transparent screen literally floats in the air and blends with the surrounding area to produce a captivating and ambient visual impression.

▶️ AI takes center stage at World Economic Forum’24

Artificial Intelligence’s continued prominence was visible at the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos from January 15th to 19th. This statement visible on WEF’s public affairs page broadly summarises the conversation:

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Artificial intelligence holds the potential to address global challenges, but it also poses risks of widening existing digital divides or creating new ones.

The International Monetary Fund unveiled its report "Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work” at Davos, stating that up to 60% of jobs in advanced economies are at risk due to AI.

Leaders like Satya Nadella, Sam Altman and French president Emmanuel Macron presented strong viewpoints, but here is something important Hadi Partovi, CEO of Code.org, highlighted:

The main challenge is not job displacement by machines, but by AI-enabled people. He called for the integration of AI education to prepare citizens, particularly young people, for an AI-augmented world.

Other discussions included AI’s impact on creativity, productivity improvements, and the urge for responsible AI supervision.

Read what 10 prominent leaders said about AI at Davos 2024.

▶️ Robots: Bill Gates discusses the powerful potential

Bill Gates in his latest article highlighted his belief in the potential of robotic technology, and highlighted 5 companies spearheading it.

Recent AI advancements have led to programs capable of human-like creation, calculation, understanding, decision-making, pattern recognition, and learning.

Robots could assist in dangerous disasters, agriculture, factory work, and even prosthetics, Gates says. He also believes they are more likely to take on roles in labor-short areas or undesirable jobs, not just replace jobs.

Companies highlighted:

1. Agility Robotics: Created Digit, a human-centric robot designed for logistics work

2. Tevel: Developed flying autonomous robots that can pick fruit and collect harvesting data

3. Apptronik: Focuses on general-purpose humanoid robots capable of performing a variety of tasks

4. RoMeLa: Developed ARTEMIS, a robot capable of navigating difficult terrain and retaining balance

5. Field AI: Develops AI robot software to perceive environments, navigate without GPS, and communicate with each other

Bonus: AI for Videos

There have been some very impressive AI upgrades for video creation. Google has launched LUMIERE, a new tool that converts text into video clips! This model is intended to generate realistic, diverse, and cohesive motion in videos. Check it out.

AND if you haven’t already, you NEED to try Runway. They’ve recently introduced a new feature, Multi Motion Brush, to help you control several areas of your generated videos with independent motion.

That’s it for today’s newsletter! I hope you’re feeling inspired, or even simply curious about how the year is gonna unfold.

Keep reading, keep exploring, there’s lots and lots brewing.

Keep subscribed, and spread the word around. I’ll see you in the next one :)