Latest news with #ChatGPT-maker
Qatar Tribune
4 days ago
- Business
- Qatar Tribune
Big tech on a quest for ideal AI device
Agencies ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has enlisted the legendary designer behind the iPhone to create an irresistible gadget for using generative artificial intelligence (AI). The ability to engage digital assistants as easily as speaking with friends is being built into eyewear, speakers, computers and smartphones, but some argue that the Age of AI calls for a transformational new gizmo. 'The products that we're using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology are decades old,' former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive said when his alliance with OpenAI was announced. 'It's just common sense to at least think, surely there's something beyond these legacy products.' Sharing no details, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said that a prototype Ive shared with him 'is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.' According to several U.S. media outlets, the device won't have a screen, nor will it be worn like a watch or broach. Kyle Li, a professor at The New School, said that since AI is not yet integrated into people's lives, there is room for a new product tailored to its use. The type of device won't be as important as whether the AI innovators like OpenAI make 'pro-human' choices when building the software that will power them, said Rob Howard of consulting firm Innovating with AI The industry is well aware of the spectacular failure of the AI Pin, a square gadget worn like a badge packed with AI features but gone from the market less than a year after its debut in 2024 due to a dearth of buyers. The AI Pin marketed by startup Humane to incredible buzz was priced at $699. Now, Meta and OpenAI are making 'big bets' on AI-infused hardware, according to CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood. OpenAI made a multi-billion-dollar deal to bring Ive's startup into the fold. Google announced early this year it is working on mixed-reality glasses with AI smarts, while Amazon continues to ramp up Alexa digital assistant capabilities in its Echo speakers and displays. Apple is being cautious embracing generative AI, slowly integrating it into iPhones even as rivals race ahead with the technology. Plans to soup up its Siri chatbot with generative AI have been indefinitely delayed. The quest for creating an AI interface that people love 'is something Apple should have jumped on a long time ago,' said Futurum research director Olivier Blanchard. Blanchard envisions some kind of hub that lets users tap into AI, most likely by speaking to it and without being connected to the internet. 'You can't push it all out in the cloud,' Blanchard said, citing concerns about reliability, security, cost, and harm to the environment due to energy demand.'There is not enough energy in the world to do this, so we need to find local solutions,' he added. Howard expects a fierce battle over what will be the must-have personal device for AI, since the number of things someone is willing to wear is limited and 'people can feel overwhelmed.' A new piece of hardware devoted to AI isn't the obvious solution, but OpenAI has the funding and the talent to deliver, according to Julien Codorniou, a partner at venture capital firm 20VC and a former Facebook executive.
Business Insider
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
OpenAI Bags $200M Defense Deal to Boost Government AI Capabilities
Sam Altman -led OpenAI has won a $200 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to develop frontier artificial intelligence (AI) models for national security purposes across warfighting and enterprise domains. The contract is awarded to OpenAI Public Sector LLC, with the project mostly being conducted in and around the National Capital Region and an expected completion date of July 2026. Frontier AI models are characterized by their multimodal capabilities, large scale, high computational power needs, and potential for creating significant impact across different industries. Confident Investing Starts Here: To mark the occasion, OpenAI launched the 'OpenAI for Government' initiative on its portal, aiming to bring its most advanced AI tools to public servants across the U.S. The segment combines all of the ChatGPT-maker's previous government-related customers and partnerships under one roof. Plus, its work with the U.S. National Labs, the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, NIH, and the Treasury will all be brought under the OpenAI for Government initiative. OpenAI Doubles Down on U.S. Defense Goals The new contract has a $200 million ceiling and is signed with the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO). The company will provide the department access to its advanced AI tools, particularly its ChatGPT GOV and ChatGPT Enterprise products. OpenAI will help in transforming the department's administrative operations, including getting health care for service members and their families, streamline programming and acquisition data, and help prevent cyberattacks. Last year, OpenAI also join hands with Anduril Industries to develop AI for anti-drone systems, furthering national security missions. OpenAI is taking all necessary measures to ensure that its government contracts are executed successfully, with appropriate guidance. The AI company has brought in a former top Pentagon officer to lead its national security policy team, as well as added former head of the National Security Agency, Paul Nakasone, to its board. OpenAI's valuation and revenue base have grown in leaps and bounds within a short period. The Microsoft (MSFT) -backed company boasts 500 million weekly active users and recently announced that its annualized revenue run rate has reached $10 billion. Meanwhile, it is in the process of raising $40 billion in its latest funding round, led by Japan's SoftBank (SFTBY), which assigns a hefty valuation of $300 billion to the AI startup. What Are the Best AI Stocks to Invest in? We used TipRanks' Stock Comparison Tool for Best Artificial Intelligence Stocks to determine which stock is most favored by analysts. Investors can invest in any of these stocks after thorough research. Currently, Microsoft, Meta (META), Alphabet (GOOGL), Micron (MU), Amazon (AMZN), and Nvidia (NVDA)
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Business Standard
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
OpenAI wins $200 mn contract with Pentagon to pilot AI for defence tasks
OpenAI will work with the Defense Department to come up with ways that AI can help with administrative tasks, such as getting health care for US military members and helping prevent cyberattacks Bloomberg OpenAI has won a $200 million contract for a pilot program aimed at helping the US Defense Department determine how it could use artificial intelligence for a range of administrative and security tasks. The one-year contract, which the Defense Department disclosed Monday, is the latest push by the ChatGPT-maker to sell its technology to the US government. As part of the effort, OpenAI will work with the Defense Department to come up with ways that AI can help with administrative tasks, such as getting health care for US military members and helping prevent cyberattacks. OpenAI for Government consolidates all of OpenAI's existing government projects in one area of the company, including ChatGPT Gov — a version of ChatGPT meant for government workers — as well as its work with Nasa, the National Institutes of Health, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Treasury Department. The company also said late last year that it would partner with weapons maker Anduril Industries Inc. to build AI for anti-drone systems, in another sign of its expanding work with the US government, particularly around national security. In recent months, OpenAI has said that it plans to build out AI tools that uphold democratic values. The AI startup has also brought in a former top Pentagon official to lead its national security policy team and added the former head of the National Security Agency to its board.
Straits Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
OpenAI snags $256 million contract with US Defence Department
OpenAI's pilot programme is aimed at helping the US Defence Department determine how it could use AI for tasks. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS WASHINGTON – OpenAI has won a US$200 million (S$256.3 million) contract for a pilot programme aimed at helping the US Defence Department determine how it could use artificial intelligence for a range of administrative and security tasks. The one-year contract, which the Defence Department disclosed on June 16 , is the latest push by the ChatGPT-maker to sell its technology to the US government. In a blog post on June 16 , OpenAI said the contract is the company's first project under a new entity it's calling OpenAI for Government. As part of the effort, OpenAI will work with the Defence Department to come up with ways that AI can help with administrative tasks, such as getting health care for US military members and helping prevent cyberattacks. OpenAI for Government consolidates all of OpenAI's existing government projects in one area of the company, including ChatGPT Gov – a version of ChatGPT meant for government workers – as well as its work with Nasa, the National Institutes of Health, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Treasury Department. The company also said late last year that it would partner with weapons maker Anduril Industries Inc. to build AI for anti-drone systems, in another sign of its expanding work with the US government, particularly around national security. In recent months, OpenAI has said that it plans to build out AI tools that uphold democratic values. The AI startup has also brought in a former top Pentagon official to lead its national security policy team and added the former head of the National Security Agency to its board. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
We would like to be DeepSeek in the West, says Essential AI cofounder
Dearth of collaborative efforts in AI domain may widen inequality around these capabilities even as pressures to monetise AI models which are 'difficult to ignore' may eventually lead companies to prioritise less on a long-term focus in research, said Ashish Vaswani , CEO and cofounder at Essential AI , a San Francisco-based AI startup. Vaswani, who earlier worked as a research scientist at Google Brain, is known for his pioneering contributions to the field of deep learning. In 2017, he co-authored the seminal paper 'Attention is All You Need' that broke new ground by introducing the transformer architecture which forms the foundation of generative AI applications like ChatGPT and its successors. Vaswani later cofounded Adept AI labs with another co-author Niki Parmar, before co-founding Essential AI with Parmar in 2023. The startup, backed by the likes of Google, Nvidia and AMD, builds full-stack AI solutions that enhance efficiency for automating labour-intensive and repetitive work. Its mission is to 'deepen the partnership between humans and computers.' Over the last few years, billions of dollars have been spent on scaling AI models, with less to show in terms of return on investments. Speaking to ET during this visit to India, Vaswani said this could impact AI research. 'There are several instances of companies shuttering the longer-term R&D efforts in interest of pouring all the resources into the money-making aspects, especially at a time of distress,' he said. According to him, the onus is on the leadership to ensure healthy long-term bets in addition to building a sustainable business. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Further, in the pursuit of leadership in the AI arms race, companies are running the risk of ignoring important ideas. 'Any race forces you to take existing ideas that work, and pour resources into it to scale it up, while ignoring other riskier, and alternative but faster paths,' Vaswani noted. Lack of transparency A lack of openness, unlike earlier, is hindering the advancement of ideas, according to Vaswani. 'In 2017, there were many labs that could produce revolutionary ideas, and models are just an artifact of that spirit. It is never a single innovation but a series that comes together and then gives you these nonlinear improvements. The chance of that being widely shared is lower today,' he said. The end goal of creating artificial general intelligence (AGI) too is narrowing people's view, according to Vaswani. AGI is the stated aim of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI , for instance. 'I don't think of AGI as much as a state of progression, like growth in capabilities or intelligence growth. I don't think there is an end to these progressions,' said Vaswani. Need for open-source At Essential AI, therefore, the team is building an open science or open-source frontier model that everybody can control, said Vaswani. He explained that the idea is to put their work on frontier models out in the open so that others can build on them. This would include opening up its weights, and even to a certain extent data that they are using for training, he added. 'I think this is a strategic imperative because the point when we are able to reach the same level in the domains we care about, which is frontier, companies will trust our model more because they can see the process,' he said. On generating returns on investments from using open-source models, Vaswani said, 'I would not say it is trivial to make money as a closed-source model today, either - they are spending a lot of money, right?' He sees a growing market 'Having spoken with potential future collaborators and customers, they would love to use an open-source model in collaboration with us. I think there are business opportunities. I don't want to cast this moniker on us. But, in the short term, we would like to be the DeepSeek in the West,' he said, referring to the Chinese AI startup which rapidly gained prominence for developing high-performing and cost-efficient large language models.
