Inside AI

Here’s a look at today's AI briefing:

• Apple stock hits record high after AI announcements.
• Elon Musk drops lawsuit against OpenAI.
• France's Mistral AI raises $640M at $6.2B valuation.
• AlphaSense secures $650M at $4B valuation.
• Survey: More students, teachers familiar with and using ChatGPT.
• Who's hiring in AI.

Beth
p/beth-duckett

Apple stock rose 7% on Tuesday, reaching a record high a day after announcing its AI platform, Apple Intelligence, and ChatGPT in its operating systems. As noted by Bloomberg and Reuters, Apple's foray into the AI space could boost sales of the iPhone and other devices in the long term.

More:

• "Apple Intelligence," its suite of generative AI features, is coming to future operating systems for iPhones, Macs, and iPads.
• The new AI features include managing notifications, summarizing and rewriting text, generating images, transcribing calls, solving math problems, creating custom emojis, and more.
• Through its new Apple partnership, OpenAI will also integrate GPT-4o into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS later this year.
• Apple Intelligence will require at least an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or an iPad or Mac with M1 and later chips.

Zoom out:

• Analysts note that the infusion of AI could re-invigorate iPhone sales, which fell nearly 10% during the March quarter.
• Analyst Dan Ives predicts a major iPhone 16 upgrade cycle, with over 15% of users upgrading, driven by Apple's new AI features.

France's Mistral AI raised €600M ($640M) in funding, valuing the startup at $6.2B as it competes with global competitors like OpenAI. General Catalyst led the Series B funding round, joined by investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, Nvidia, Samsung Ventures, Cisco, and IBM.

More:

• Mistral's valuation has tripled since December, when it raised about $415M at a roughly $2B valuation.
• The European competitor to OpenAI offers open-source AI models while charging for API access to proprietary models, such as Mistral Large.
• Mistral recently hired ex-Foursquare CFO Marjorie Janiewicz as its first U.S. general manager as it broadens its reach in the U.S. market.

Zoom out:

• Mistral has drawn over €1B in investment in the past year.
• In February, Microsoft signed a multiyear partnership with Mistral that included taking a minority stake in the company.
• The EU's competition watchdog is examining Microsoft's investment in Mistral. The U.K.'s CMA chose not to probe the partnership, saying it doesn't qualify under its merger laws.

A recent poll shows K-12 students' familiarity with ChatGPT rose from 37% to 75% in just over a year. The survey, by Impact Research for the Walton Family Foundation, also found that teachers' familiarity with ChatGPT jumped from 55% to 79% from February 2023 to May 2024.

What the numbers show: Nearly 50% of students and teachers now use ChatGPT weekly or more, with student usage rising by 27 percentage points since last year. Furthermore, 70% of K-12 students, 75% of undergraduates, and 68% of parents now view AI chatbots favorably. For K-12 students, their support rose by a net 26 points since last year.

What it means: Over the past year, AI usage in education has skyrocketed, with more teachers, parents, and students using it regularly and viewing it positively. However, schools still lack clear AI policies, teacher training, and support for AI-related careers, according to Impact's findings.

Who's hiring in AI:

• Acoustic ML Application Specialist
  • Apple | Cupertino, California
• AI Solution Architect / Senior AI Solution Architect
  • C3.ai | Multiple cities
• Sr Advanced Data Scientist (Generative AI, Python, AWS)
  • Honeywell | Pittsford, New York
• Senior Research Scientist - Adversarial Machine Learning
  • Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Sr. Engineering Manager - Applied AI
  • Databricks | Mountain View, California
• Sr. Dir., Engineering for AI/ML platform
  • PayPal | Austin, Texas
• Machine Learning Engineering Manager
  • United Airlines | Chicago, Illinois

Quick Hits:

• The Biden administration is weighing additional restrictions on China's access to advanced AI chip technology, in particular the gate-all-around (GAA) architecture, according to Bloomberg sources.
• MediaTek is working on an Arm-based chip to run Microsoft Windows and support AI applications in so-called "AI PCs."
• Google is bringing Gemini Nano to the Pixel 8 and 8a. The generative AI model was previously exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro.
• England-based entrepreneur Steve Endacott is running in the U.K. general election as an "AI representative", using an avatar and a digital rendition of his voice.

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