Weekly bulletin from AIport, issue #7

Welcome to the latest edition of the AI bulletin! Enjoy our lucky number 7, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave your feedback – we’re always keen to engage.

North America:

• Aided by OpenAI’s speech-to-speech generative model, a California-based robotics company Figure posts a YT video showcasing its AI humanoid robot.

• Cognition releases Devin: the first-of-its-kind, fully autonomous AI software engineering tool that only requires written instructions from the end user to operate.

• Apple buys DarwinAI, a Canadian startup that builds GenAI solutions for businesses, aiming to strengthen its standing in the global AI market. 

• Amazon launches a new GenAI-powered feature for vendors that automatically generates product pages using only company URLs. 

• Meta unveils a major AI infrastructure upgrade with 24K GPU clusters and plans for 350,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, bolstering its GenAI capabilities.

Europe:

• The European Parliament passes the historic EU AI Act set to regulate the use of AI technology across the union, with 523 votes in favor, 46 against, and 49 abstentions.

• German automobile giant Mercedes begins to trial ML-enhanced Apollo robots made by Apptronic for physically demanding and repetitive tasks at its factory in Hungary.

• Silicon Box raises $3.5 billion to build a new AI chip factory in northern Italy, declares the country’s Minister for Business, Adolfo Urso.

Asia: 

• China’s Tencent releases Follow-Your-Click, a novel GenAI solution that uses text prompts and static images to generate videos. 

• Thailand’s government outlines six key projects as part of the second phase of its national AI strategy and action plan. 

• 100K Filipino women to be trained by Microsoft in AI and cybersecurity, which includes learning GenAI tools from OpenAI. 

Australia:

• RSM Australia, a member firm of the multinational accounting conglomerate, reveals how it uses AI to optimize business processes and boost productivity. 

• Melbourne-based marketing company Trade Indy gets acquired by Singapore’s SQREEM Technologies in an effort to further enhance AI-powered audience targeting.