☕️ Llama 3.2, Meta AI's Voice, and The Orion AR Glasses - Meta's Connect 2024 Has it All

After a short skip on Tuesday, AI Tangle is back to covering AI, and Meta's Connect 2024 developer event has much to cover, from Llama 3.2 to a fully functional AR glasses prototype. Other key takeaways include:

• OpenAI's headcount shrinks more as a trio of executives, including CTO, depart from the company

• Reports on Google's Character.AI licensing deal say the company spent $2.7 billion to rehire a former AI genius

• Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto says its company will try to stray clear of AI despite competitors hyping it up

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

Meta Connect 2024 unveils big steps for AI, AR, and the Metaverse

​Meta's annual developer-centric Connect event on September 25 showcased CEO Mark Zuckerberg's latest innovations, emphasizing AI advancements, augmented reality, and immersive experiences for the metaverse. The event revealed new products, including updates to its Llama family of AI models, a new voice assistant, an impressive AR glasses prototype, and a plethora of other notes.

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Let's start going down the exhaustive list.

Meta's Llama family reaches version 3.2, and along with that, the arrival of multimodal functionality to several of its models. Llama 3.2's 11B and 90B versions can now perform complex tasks like extracting data insights from charts and identifying objects in photos. However, European users will have to sit this one out as regulatory restrictions mean they won't have access to many of these features.

Along with Llama 3.2 came Meta's new voice assistant that allows users to chat with Meta AI across Messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. It includes celebrity voices like those of John Cena and Judi Dench and can now respond to voice queries. This rollout comes alongside the announcement that Meta AI has reached over 500 million users as Meta's AI push continues snowballing.

The last of the big three announcements - Orion, Meta's first consumer holographic AR glasses prototype. Lightweight and equipped with hand and eye tracking, Orion also boasts a neural interface, making it a key piece of Meta's AR vision. While still in development with commercial release looking to be years away, Orion aims to make fully immersive AR as simple as just wearing glasses.

Other announcements made @ Meta Connect 2024 are as follows:

• Meta Quest 3S launches for $299 with mixed-reality features, replacing the now-discontinued Quest 2 and Quest Pro​

• ​Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses get real-time AI video processing and music integration upgrades

• Meta's visual search AI allows users to search and edit images through prompts and share them directly to Instagram

• Facebook users will see more AI-generated content designed for engagement in their feeds

• Meta's AI translation tools will create dubbed creator content with synchronized lip movements

• ​Android apps are now supported on Quest, with new game announcements for VR

OpenAI's headcount continues to dwindle as CTO, chief research officer, and research VP leave the company

On Wednesday this week, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati posted on X/Twitter stating her decision to depart "to do her own exploration" after 6 years together with the company. A few hours later, OpenAI's chief research officer, Bob McGrew, and a research VP, Barret Zoph, followed suit. Sam Altman made a post of his own addressing the company's leadership plans and the previously mentioned resignations. After 9 years since OpenAI's founding, just 3 of the original 13 people remain.

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Google coughs up $2.7 billion for a Character.AI licensing deal to rehire an ex-Google AI genius

Though reported on over a month ago, Google penned a licensing deal to use Character.AI's technology and intellectual property, with one main focus being the re-recruitment of ex-Google AI genius Noam Shazeer. The 48-year-old Noam Shazeer left his 21-year-long stint at Google in 2021 after it refused his request to release a chatbot he had developed with co-worker Daniel De Freitas. Fast-forward to 2024, a recent report by The Wall Street Journal states that Noam Shazeer ended up costing Google roughly $2.7 billion to get him back on the Google DeepMind team.

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Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto says the company "would rather go in a different direction" amidst industry AI eagerness

Known for making the childhoods of many, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that Nintendo "would rather go in a different direction" when it comes to AI compared to the rest of the gaming industry. While companies like EA and PlayStation embrace AI for personalization and support, Miyamoto stated that Nintendo aims to maintain its unique value by trying to focus on and find what makes it special. Despite seeing the potential, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa raised concerns around IP issues and would rather "continue delivering value that is unique to Nintendo and cannot be created by technology alone."

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Sam Altman reassures staff there are no plans for him to receive equity in OpenAI following talent departures

Despite always saying otherwise, rumors have been circulating stating that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was looking for a "giant equity stake" in the company following recent talent departures. In response, an all-hands employee meeting was held this Thursday, where Altman denied such plans, addressing the concerns of investors. While the board has discussed equity compensation for Altman, OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor says no specific figures have been put out, nor is this expected to change anytime in the near future.

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Bharti Airtel launches a free AI-powered network solution to combat India's ever-increasing spam problems

India's second-largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, recently launched a free AI-powered spam-detection system to try to handle the country's electronic epidemic. The system, which is India's first network-based AI solution, will automatically alert Bharti Airtel's 387 million users to spam calls and messages, offering real-time protection. The company says the system is capable of processing over 1.5 billion messages and 2.5 billion calls daily, and of those, it can identify 100 million potential calls and 3 million messages as spam every day.

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Prepared raises $27 million in funding to "revolutionize" 911 emergency calls with AI

​Prepared, a company aiming to revolutionize emergency response tech, has recently raised $27 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company's platform improves 911 dispatch capabilities by providing real-time GPS, text, photo, and video support. Co-founder Michael Chime emphasizes the goal of reducing response times through AI-powered tools, including call transcription, language translation, and incident summaries. With deals across 1,000 agencies in 49 states, Prepared plans to use the funding for R&D, expansion, and further increasing its headcount.

​Dicte - Dicte is an AI-powered meeting assistant that turns voice notes and recorded meetings into reports and minutes automatically with seamless integration.

​Gainsty - Drive organic, bot-free growth on Instagram with Gainsty, an AI social assistant leveraging industry expertise and AI technology.

​Epsilla - Build production-ready AI agents or LLM-powered applications grounded by public or private data with the no-code, RAG-as-a-service Epsilla platform.

​Transistor - Get the most out of your favorite podcasts with Transistor by automatically converting your audio into engaging, searchable, and accessible text.

Fake Job Scams Leveraging AI are On The Rise (2-min read)

With AI becoming more powerful and accessible than ever, it's no wonder that scammers have started leveraging it en masse, and cybersecurity experts warn that fake job listings are an especially hot commodity among scammers.

The Future Mark Zuckerberg is Trying to Build (47-min watch)

Join video journalist Cleo Abram for an interview with Mark Zuckerberg right before Connect, discussing the world Zuckerberg and his team might see billions of people living in shortly, how they're trying to build towards it, and much more.