Artificial Intelligence
Sam Altman Lays Out Roadmap for OpenAI’s Long-Awaited GPT-5 ModelBenj Edwards | Ars Technica
“On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a roadmap for how the company plans to release GPT-5, the long-awaited followup to 2023’s GPT-4 AI language model that made huge waves in both tech and policy circles around the world. In a reply to a question on X, Altman said GPT-5 would be coming in ‘months,’ suggesting a release later in 2025.”
Robotics
China’s EV Giants Are Betting Big on Humanoid RobotsCaiwei Chen | MIT Technology Review
“It’s becoming clear that China is now committed to becoming a global leader in robotics and automation, just as it did with EVs. Wang Xingxing, the CEO of Unitree Robots, said this well in a recent interview to local media: ‘Robotics is where EVs were a decade ago—a trillion-yuan battlefield waiting to be claimed.’”
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic Strikes BackStephanie Palazzolo | The Information
“[Anthropic] has developed a hybrid AI model that includes reasoning capabilities, which basically means the model uses more computational resources to calculate answers to hard questions. But the model can also handle simpler tasks quickly, without the extra work, by acting like a traditional large language model. The company plans to release it in the coming weeks, according to a person who’s used it.”
Biotechnology
AI Used to Design a Multi-Step Enzyme That Can Digest Some PlasticsJohn Timmer | Ars Technica
“Unfortunately, there isn’t an enzyme for many reactions we would sorely like to catalyze—things like digesting plastics or incorporating carbon dioxide into more complex molecules. …With the advent of AI-driven protein design, however, we can now potentially design things that are unlike anything found in nature.”
Computing
This DARPA-Backed Startup Banked $100 Million for Its Energy-Slashing Analog ChipsAlex Pasternack | Fast Company
“EnCharge says that, for a wide range of AI use cases, its specialized chips, or accelerators, require up to 20 times less energy compared to today’s leading AI chips. …Rather than using only digital transistors to perform some of the multiplication operations at the heart of AI inference—the continuous computations that produce chatbot outputs—EnCharge’s chips exploit the non-binary wonders of the analog world.”
Tech
Will We Get a $1 Trillion Private Tech Firm?Cory Weinberg | The Information
“Will a private tech company reach a $1 trillion valuation in the coming years? It’s not a ridiculous question. A couple of companies seem like potential candidates. OpenAI is closing in on $300 billion in its financing with SoftBank, and SpaceX recently shot to $350 billion.”
Robotics
Meta’s Next Big Bet Might Be AI Humanoid Robots for At-Home ChoresNadeem Sarwar | Digital Trends
“[Meta’s] interests have swayed wildly over the past few years. Phones, crypto, tablets, metaverse, smart glasses, and finally, AI. The next avenue for Meta is apparently humanoid robots. According to Bloomberg, the company is pouring resources into the development of AI-powered humanoid robots. ‘Meta plans to work on its own humanoid robot hardware, with an initial focus on household chores,’ says the report.”
FUTURE
Motor Neuron Diseases Took Their Voices. AI Is Bringing Them Back.Jessica Hamzelou | MIT Technology Review
“Rodriguez and his wife, Maria Fernandez, who live in Miami, thought they would never hear his voice again. Then they re-created it using AI. After feeding old recordings of Rodriguez’s voice into a tool trained on voices from film, television, radio, and podcasts, the couple were able to generate a voice clone—a way for Jules to communicate in his ‘old voice.’”
Computing
This Breakthrough Holographic Display Could Make AR Glasses a Reality in 2026Alan Truly | Digital Trends
“Swave CEO Mike Noonen told me the bill of materials (BOM) is just $50 per eye and the expected weight of AR glasses using HXR technology could be less than 50 grams. The FoV and apparent resolution are tunable with a view as wide as 120 degrees and a retina-like resolution of up to 60 pixels per degree (PPD). Battery life is estimated at more than 10 hours, making these suitable for daily wear.”
Tech
Thomson Reuters Wins First Major AI Copyright Case in the USKate Knibbs | Wired
“This ruling is a blow to AI companies, according to Cornell University professor of digital and internet law James Grimmelmann: ‘If this decision is followed elsewhere, it’s really bad for the generative AI companies.’ Grimmelmann believes that Bibas’ judgement suggests that much of the case law that generative AI companies are citing to argue fair use is ‘irrelevant.’”
Space
The Dream of Offshore Rocket Launches Is Finally Blasting OffBecky Ferreira | MIT Technology Review
“’The best way to build a future where we have dozens, hundreds, or maybe thousands of spaceports is to build them at sea,’ says Tom Marotta, CEO and founder of the Spaceport Company, which is working to establish offshore launch hubs. ‘It’s very hard to find a thousand acres on the coast over and over again to build spaceports. It’s very easy to build the same ship over and over again.’”
Future
Who’s Using AI the Most? The Anthropic Economic Index Breaks Down the DataMichael Nuñez | VentureBeat
“The Anthropic Economic Index, released today, provides a detailed analysis of AI usage across industries, drawing from millions of anonymized conversations with Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. The report finds that while AI is not yet broadly automating entire jobs, it is being widely used to augment specific tasks—especially in software development, technical writing and business analysis.”
Artificial Intelligence
ChatGPT, Can You Write My New Novel for Me? Och Aye, Ye Preenin’ SassenachGareth Rubin | The Guardian
“The monsters of artificial intelligence are coming for you. They will cast you out on the street like a Dickensian mill owner and laugh as they do it—at least they will if you work in any sort of creative industry. …Well, I’m going to turn the tables. My publisher is anxiously waiting for me to finish my new novel, a sequel to my previous thriller The Turnglass. So let’s see if AI can take the faff—the actual writing bit—out of creative writing.”
The post This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through February 15) appeared first on SingularityHub.