Weekly bulletin from AIport, issue #9

Hello and welcome to our latest issue of the AI bulletin! This week is jam-packed with interesting AI events and happenings — be sure to have a read and give us a thumbs-up if you like our content. Enjoy!

North America:

• NYC Mayor Eric Adams announces new AI-backed technology across the city’s subway stations for gun detection.

• The White House publishes a memorandum, ordering every US federal agency to appoint a Chief AI Officer.

• Meta is to upgrade its Ray Ban smart glasses with AI in April, reports the New York Times.

• Amazon injects an additional $2.75 billion into Anthropic (the maker of Claude), bringing the tech giant’s total investment into the San Francisco-based startup to $4 billion. 

• Hume introduces EVI, which the company claims is the first AI assistant with emotional intelligence. 

• Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI unveils its newest model Grok-1.5 with improved reasoning. The Grok chatbot will be available to all paid subscribers on X (formerly Twitter) by the end of the week, promises the billionaire. 

Europe: 

• Researchers from Belgium publish a paper in Nature Communications, explaining how AI models could predict new beer flavors prior to brewing.

• In Britain, the IPPR thinktank releases a report, arguing that close to 8 million UK jobs could soon be lost to AI. Meanwhile, the country’s National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme says it will use AI to understand the animal’s declining populations.

Asia:

• In India, Bill Gates meets PM Modi to discuss the future of AI, including India’s burgeoning AI talent and the challenges of AI-generated deepfake content.

• iPhone 16 devices in China will feature Baidu AI (aka Ernie Bot), claims a SCMP article, citing a Chinese media report. 

Australia:

• CSIRO, the country’s state agency responsible for scientific innovation, puts out a report, outlining how GenAI models could boost efficiency and transform entire industries in Australia.