☕️ All Eyes on Google

Good morning from the folks at AI Tangle, hoping you enjoy your Friday! For the latter part of the week, Google has seemingly been hell-bent on stealing the spotlight with a monstrous array of AI developments, the most eye-catching being the fabled Lumiere generation model. But the competition won't go down quietly, as Nvidia unveils their SDR-to-HDR tech and Apple hints at more commitments to the scene. Join us at AI Tangle as we untangle the news and look over what's been going on.

​Lumiere, Google Research's revolutionary Space-Time diffusion text-to-video generation model, is out now​

Created by a team at Google Research, Lumiere premiered in the middle of the week as AI-generated video continues at shockingly fast speeds. With Lumiere, the bar was raised much higher for future competitors as comprehensive studies showcased unrivaled fidelity and narrative consistency when Lumiere was pitted against other high-end AI video generation models. The tool is not just for experts in the field either - Lumiere is straightforward, easy to use, and accessible to everyone.

How does it work?

Lumiere is a cutting-edge technology that uses Google's Space-Time U-Net architecture to generate entire temporal durations of videos in a single pass through the model, capable of creating clips of up to five seconds in length. As mentioned earlier, what truly makes Lumiere stand out is its expertise in maintaining temporal coherence, ensuring that the frames in a video create a seamless flow instead of a yank, disjointed mess. Despite its limited duration, Lumiere has made remarkable advancements in a short period, and its results speak for themselves in the form of outstanding benchmarks.

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​Nvidia can now turn SDR videos into HDR on the fly with its new AI-powered RTX Video HDR technology​

Just weeks after the initial teaser for RTX Video HDR, Nvidia has sneaked in the new tech as part of their latest graphics card driver release. The technology leverages AI algorithms for converting videos from SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) to HDR (High Dynamic Range), currently working only on Chromium-based browsers, such as Chrome and Edge, and any streamed video with an easy setup. Though the results are not jaw-dropping, and the technology requires an Nvidia RTX graphics card and an HDR-capable monitor or display to function, it shows that Nvidia is keen on the tech and is making great strides.

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​Vile AI-generated pictures of Taylor Swift go viral, causing outrage from fans​

As if deepfake technology wasn't controversial to begin with, Taylor Swift now sees herself in a position where nonconsensual AI-generated pornography of her likeness sweeps across the internet. Taylor Swift has been, in recent months, attending the Kansas City Chiefs games to support her boyfriend, star player Travis Kelce, from which these vile videos take "inspiration." The videos depict the singer committing a suite of graphic acts themed around the Kansas City Chiefs, with the videos themselves hosted on Celeb Jihad, one of many deepfake porn websites that continue to elude authorities by cloaking their existence with proxy IP addresses on the web.

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​Education gets a leg-up from Google as the company introduces a plethora of AI-based features​

As part of the Bett education tech event in the UK​, Google unveiled new features for the education scene, including classroom management, accessibility, and some AI-powered advancements. For the AI-powered ones, teachers were given the ability to add questions midway through a YouTube video back in June of 2023, but now AI will soon be able to help with suggestions for questions at different timestamps. For Practise sets, the amount of supported language by the AI was increased to 50, and a new Resources tab to manage practice sets and interactive questions asked during a video. Finally, Google mentioned that its Duet AI will help create lesson plans for teachers who opt in for it.

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​Apple's big push to bring more AI to iPhones​

​As reported by the Financial Times, it seems that tech giant Apple is making strides toward bringing AI to its next iteration of the iPhone. Among industry leaders, Apple has not been in the limelight of the AI scene much at all, but many, including Daniel Ives at Wedbush Securities, believe that Apple is "getting ready to do some significant M&A," as data from Pitchbook shows that the company has been actively acquiring talent and AI startups in recent years. Additionally, Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated that AI and machine learning are "virtually embedded in every product," but emphasizes Apple's slow yet methodical approach to the technology.

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​Google cuts ties with Australian-based Appen, the AI data firm that helped train Bard​

In a shocking turn of events for the Australian-based AI data firm Appen, Google has recently announced its decision to end its contract with Appen, which helped the tech giant train its largely successful Bard language model. In a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange, Appen says that the company “had no prior knowledge of Google’s decision to terminate the contract," which adds insult to injury as many human workers at companies like Appen handle the more unpleasant side of work in addition to low pay. Google's decision stems from their "ongoing efforts to evaluate and adjust supplier partnerships across Alphabet", said Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini.

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​PayPal unveils new AI-powered features to be included in up-and-coming updates​

Together with Venmo, PayPal announced on Thursday that the company will be implementing new AI-enhanced features to their platform. PayPal's "CashPass," which will arrive sometime in March with partners like Über, McDonald, eBay, and more, is a new cash-back offering "Smart Receipts" that leverages AI, containing personalized recommendations, an elevated checkout and guest experience, as well as Venmo enhancements. The "Fastlane" service offers a one-click experience guest checkout experience for merchants and platforms that have PayPal as an option for speedy purchases, adding that regular checkouts will also be accelerated by reducing latency during processing.

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​SAP announces plan to restructure 8,000 jobs in preparation for the surge in business AI​

On Tuesday, shares of the German-based software company SAP jumped after the company released its quarterly and full-year results in addition to announcing the implementation of a company-wide transformation plan, which will restructure around 8,000 jobs. SAP Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam says that the move is part of the company's plan to "fully capitalize on the opportunity" for the "next big opportunity," artificial intelligence, emphasizing SAP's focus on reskilling their workforce to be well-prepared for the occasion.

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EU-mandated Supercomputers for AI Startups (9-min read)

Not thrilled about getting swept up by emerging AI tech, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, European Union lawmakers are scrambling to make the bloc a contender in the generative AI by offering support packages to AI startups.

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The Science Behind Lumiere (21-min watch)

Join Wes Roth, an AI News channel dedicated to emerging tech and artificial intelligence breakthroughs, as he delves into the inner workings of Google's latest revolutionary Lumiere AI text-to-video generation model.