☕️ Google's Willow Could Make The Quantum Dream a Reality

Billions of dollars and decades of development later, the quantum field sees another breakthrough from Google to inch closer to a quantum reality with the showcase of Willow, its latest quantum chip. Other key takeaways of the include:

• OpenAI's Sora video generation model making its public debut as part of the company's shipmas event

• Chinese authorities launching an antitrust investigation against AI hardware poster child Nvidia

• Elon Musk's xAI-made Grok briefly receiving a new in-house developed image generation model called Aurora

Join us at AI Tangle as we untangle this week's happenings in AI!

Google's Quantum AI team makes another industry breakthrough with Willow to inch closer to a quantum reality

After what feels like forever since quantum technology was last seen front and center, Google Quantum AI has unveiled a quantum computer based on an entirely new chip of theirs called Willow, which was capable of performing a calculation in under five minutes that would have taken a traditional supercomputer 10 septillion years. Rooted in quantum mechanics, quantum computing has long been considered a theoretical concept, but Google's breakthrough could suggest a future where quantum computers could revolutionize areas like drug discovery and AI - it seems to be a matter of "when," not "if."

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How does it work, and what are Willow's implications?

Quantum computing operates on "qubits" that can represent multiple states simultaneously, unlike traditional bits that are either 0 or 1. Google's latest machine employs superconducting qubits, chilled to near absolute zero, to achieve exponential computational power. Despite achieving so-called "quantum supremacy," the practical use cases, such as chemistry or AI advancements, still remain in development, but the potential is there, according to experts. Importantly, Google also surpassed the error correction threshold, a milestone toward reliable quantum systems. Competing with global efforts, including China's $15.2 billion investment in quantum research, Google's achievement underscores a significant stride to make quantum computing universally impactful.

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OpenAI's fabled Sora AI video generation model finally sees the light of day during a shipmas livestream

Following months of teasing, OpenAI's video generation model, Sora, was recently released for ChatGPT Pro and Plus subscribers in select countries, as recently revealed during a Monday livestream earlier this week. Sora Turbo, the version that was launched that day, can create 5-20 second-long clips in various resolutions and aspect ratios, using text prompts, images, or editing tools like Storyboard and Blend. While pricing depends on video quality and duration, Pro users get more credits and unlimited low-priority videos. Unfortunately for users in the EU, Sora won't initially be available due to regulatory challenges.

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Chinese executives launch an antitrust investigation into Nvidia amid rising tensions between the US and China

China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) made a statement on Monday saying that it launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Nvidia, with the main focus on its 2020 acquisition of Mellanox Technologies. Tensions between the US and China over semiconductors have driven Beijing to retaliate against recent US export curbs by banning critical mineral exports and incentivizing local companies to prioritize domestic chips. Nvidia, a dominant player in China's AI chip market, now faces mounting challenges as Beijing strengthens its own chip industry while scrutinizing foreign ones.

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X's AI chatbot Grok briefly gains a new image generator model called Aurora before disappearing

A new image generator called Aurora was briefly seen being leveraged by X's Grok chatbot, which became available to some users this weekend with an emphasis on photorealistic outputs. Users quickly shared its creations, including depictions of Tesla's Cybertruck and famous figures. However, Aurora was removed a short while later and replaced with the existing "FLUX (beta)" system. Musk confirmed Aurora is an internal beta tool, suggesting it was accidentally released, though it is not clear whether Aurora is meant to be an alternative to Black Forest Labs' FLUX or a replacement entirely.

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Reddit releases an early preview of its own take on AI-powered content summarization in the form of Reddit Answers

​Reddit has begun testing Reddit Answers, an AI-powered conversational tool of its own that generates curated summaries of responses and threads from across the platform. The tool looks to compete with the likes of ChatGPT and Perplexity to provide an alternative for users looking for quick and concise answers directly on Reddit without the hassle of going through individual threads. Powered by Reddit's own AI models as well as integrations with OpenAI and Google Cloud, the feature is currently being rolled out to a limited user base in the US in English only.

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Elon Musk's X users spot its local AI chatbot Grok becoming free for all users

Speaking of Grok earlier, the AI model has also recently been spotted by some users to now be available for free users on the social media platform as well, allowing non-Premium subscribers to send up to an unimpressive 10 messages every two hours. Previously limited to Premium users, Grok is marketed as a "humorous AI assistant" that is aiming to compete with free alternatives like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude. Also supporting the move is a recent fundraiser by xAI, which raked in $6 billion and, much like its competitors, is considering launching a standalone app.

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Ten Septillion Years Beyond Classical (6-min watch)

In this discussion of the Google Quantum AI team's latest groundbreaking news, Hartmut Neven, John Preskill, and Sergio Boixo explore the meaning of their latest quantum milestone and take a deeper dive beyond AI Tangle's article into the debut of Google's latest quantum chip - Willow.