Trending AI news stories + papers

Today's Top AI news stories and papers

AI news stories

1. Elon Musk’s AI startup — X.AI — files to raise $1 billion in fresh capital

   X.AI, an artificial intelligence startup founded by Elon Musk, has filed with the SEC to raise $1 billion in an equity offering. The company has already brought in nearly $135 million from four investors, with the first sale occurring on Nov. 29.X. X.AI seeks to “understand the true nature of the universe,” Last month, X.AI released a chatbot called Grok, which the company says is modelled after “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The chatbot debuted with two months of training and has real-time knowledge of the internet.

2. Meta and IBM launch ‘AI Alliance’ to promote open-source AI development

   Meta and IBM have teamed up with over 40 companies and academic institution to form the AI Alliance, a coalition dedicated to open source artificial intelligence development. This initiative aims to foster responsible AI growth, focusing on safety, security, and the creation of open source AI models, in contrast to proprietary systems. The alliance, intends to establish a governing board and technical oversight committee. This move aligns with Meta’s belief that open development of AI allows broader access to benefits, fosters innovation, and enhances safety.

3. AI-Generated Jimmy Stewart Reads a Bedtime Story for Calm App

   The sleep app Calm introduced a new bedtime story narrated by an AI-generated voice resembling the late actor Jimmy Stewart. This innovative feature, created in collaboration with Ukrainian company Respeecher, marks a first for Calm. It was approved by Stewart's estate and the company managing his licensing, amidst broader discussions about the ethics of using AI to recreate voices of public figures.

4. AMD To Launch AI Chip Wednesday That Could Heat Up Competition With Nvidia

   AMD is set to launch the Instinct MI300, a new artificial intelligence (AI) chip, at its "Advancing AI" event on Wednesday, positioning the company to better compete with Nvidia.This launch, expected to generate significant sales, could see AMD comparing the MI300's capabilities with Nvidia's H100, while potentially featuring collaboration with Microsoft to integrate the chip into Azure.

5. Visual Electric launches an AI-powered image generator with a designer workflow focus

   Visual Electric, supported by Sequoia Capital, has introduced a generative AI-based image generation tool designed specifically for designers. Founded in November 2022 by Colin Dunn (former Universe executive), Adam Menges (ex-Apple, founder of Lobe and Lowkey), and Zach Stiggelbout (former Microsoft employee), the company emphasizes a non-linear, creative workflow.Visual Electric's AI image tool, aimed at designers and artists from companies like Stripe and Riot Games, features mood and color choices, and iterative creation.

AI Repos

1. sh-lee-prml / HierSpeechpp

   HierSpeech++ is a fast, robust zero-shot speech synthesizer that improves expressiveness and naturalness in text-to-speech and voice conversion, surpassing large language model and autoregressive speech models.

2. lllyasviel / Fooocus

   Fooocus is an image-generating software inspired by Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.

3. chatchat-space / Langchain-Chatchat

   Langchain-Chatchat, formerly known as Langchain-ChatGLM, is a local knowledge-based language model (LLM) designed for question-answering. It utilizes Langchain and ChatGLM language models to provide local knowledge-based responses​.