AI News Roundup: Perplexity Shopping, Microsoft Ignite 2024, AI “Manhattan Project,” Suno V4 and More
The past week has seen some major developments in the world of AI. At Social Gains, we’re keeping a close eye on the rapid pace of innovation to help businesses stay ahead of the curve. Here’s a rundown of the biggest AI stories you need to know about:
Perplexity Launches AI-Powered Shopping Experience
Perplexity, the AI search engine, has rolled out a new shopping feature called Buy with Pro. This allows Perplexity’s paid users in the US to research and purchase products directly through the platform.
Here’s how it works:
- When you ask a shopping-related question, you get natural language responses along with product cards showing relevant items available for purchase.
- These product recommendations are unbiased and tailored to your search by Perplexity’s AI.
- You can use one-click checkout to buy items right within Perplexity if you’ve saved your payment info.
- All Buy with Pro orders currently come with free shipping.
This move positions Perplexity as a potential competitor to traditional e-commerce platforms by leveraging AI to create a more seamless shopping experience.
Microsoft Positions Copilot as the “UI for AI” at Ignite 2024
At its Ignite 2024 event, Microsoft doubled down on its AI strategy, framing Copilot as the default interface for AI interactions. CEO Satya Nadella described Copilot as the “UI for AI” and announced several major updates:
- Copilot Actions: Customizable prompt templates to automate repetitive tasks.
- New purpose-built AI agents in Copilot for specialized roles like HR, IT support, meeting collaboration, and project management.
- Enhanced Copilot Studio with autonomous capabilities, allowing agents to take background actions without human prompting.
- Teams integration to analyze screen-shared content during meetings.
- New AI features for PowerPoint, including a Narrative Builder to create presentations from referenced documents and the ability to translate entire presentations into 40 languages.
Microsoft also highlighted its commitment to AI education, noting they’ve trained over 23 million people in AI and digital skills in the past year.
Google Gemini Gets Memory and App Control
Google is rolling out two significant updates to its Gemini AI:
- A new memory feature allows Gemini to remember personal information for more contextual responses. For example, it might recall your favorite foods or work details to reference when relevant. This feature is currently available only to Google One AI Premium subscribers at $20 per month, can be turned off, and works only in English on the web client.
- Hidden code in Android 16’s developer preview suggests Gemini may soon be able to take direct actions within apps. This could enable users to perform tasks like ordering food through DoorDash simply by telling Gemini what they want, without opening the app directly.
These updates could significantly enhance Gemini’s utility and user experience, making it a more powerful personal assistant.
Meta Makes Major Enterprise AI Play
Meta has hired Clara Shih, former CEO of AI at Salesforce, to lead a new business AI group. This move signals Meta’s intentions to make a significant push into the enterprise AI market.
With Meta’s Llama models seeing over 600 million downloads and Meta AI claiming 500 million monthly active users, the company seems well-positioned for this expansion. Shih stated their vision is “to make cutting-edge AI accessible to every business, empowering all to find success and own their future in the AI era.”
U.S. Calls for “Manhattan Project” Style AI Initiative
A major U.S. congressional commission is advocating for a Manhattan Project-style initiative to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI). The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission believes this large-scale public-private partnership is necessary to keep America competitive with China in the race to develop human-level AI systems.
While specific details on funding and structure are yet to be determined, one suggestion has emerged to streamline the permitting process for data centers, addressing a major bottleneck in training large AI models.
Amazon Doubles Down on Anthropic with $4 Billion Investment
Amazon has invested an additional $4 billion in AI company Anthropic, bringing its total investment to $8 billion. As part of this expanded partnership, AWS will be Anthropic’s primary cloud and training partner.
A key aspect of this collaboration involves close work on AWS Trainium hardware, a purpose-built machine learning accelerator for high-performance model training. Anthropic’s engineers are working directly with Amazon’s Annapurna Labs team to advance specialized machine learning hardware capabilities.
Interestingly, Amazon appears to be hedging its bets. A report from The Information reveals that Amazon has developed a new AI model for processing images and video, potentially reducing its reliance on Anthropic’s technology.
AI Agent Startup Raises Massive $56M Seed Round
A new AI startup called /dev/agents has secured a $56 million seed round at a $500 million valuation. Led by former Stripe CTO David Singleton and backed by ex-Android and Meta Oculus veterans, the company is building what it calls an operating system for AI agents.
The startup aims to create a foundational platform for AI agents, drawing parallels to how Android laid the groundwork for the mobile revolution. However, details about the actual product remain scarce, with the company’s website offering minimal information.
Salesforce Brings AI Agents to Slack
Salesforce is integrating its AI agents into Slack, positioning them as digital coworkers within Slack workspaces. These AI assistants will have access to an organization’s Slack conversations and enterprise data, allowing them to understand context and take relevant actions directly in the workflow.
Salesforce’s Agentforce platform enables these AI agents to suggest and execute actions across different departments. For example:
- HR agents can handle onboarding and benefits questions
- IT agents can resolve help desk tickets
- Sales agents can prepare executive briefings and create proposals
Early adopters like Accenture have already developed IT support agents to handle first-tier questions in Slack channels. Specific pricing and availability details for Agentforce have not yet been announced.
Apple Preps AI-Powered Siri Upgrade
Apple is developing an AI-powered version of Siri, internally called “LLM Siri,” to compete with other AI assistants. This major upgrade aims to transform Siri into a more conversational AI powered by large language models.
Key improvements include:
- More human-like interactions
- Better handling of complex tasks
- Expanded control of third-party apps
- Integration with Apple Intelligence features like text generation and summarization
The new Siri will be built on Apple’s own AI models and is currently being tested as a separate app on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. While Apple plans to announce these updates as early as 2025 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16, consumers likely won’t get to use these features until spring 2026.
Suno V4 Raises the Bar for AI Music
AI music generator Suno has released a major update, Suno v4, that promises improved audio quality and more sophisticated song structures. New features include:
- A “Remaster” function to upgrade existing tracks to v4 quality
- A Cover Art generator to create visuals matching your music’s style
- A “Covers” feature to reimagine songs in different styles
- “Personas” that maintain a consistent musical identity across multiple creations
The update is currently in beta and available to Suno’s Pro and Premier subscribers.
Eleven Labs Doubles Down on Voice AI
AI voice cloning company ElevenLabs has announced two major updates:
- A platform for building conversational AI agents that can be fine-tuned across multiple variables and work with various language models.
- GenFM, a service that transforms written content into AI-hosted podcast discussions. Available through their ElevenReader app, it can convert any PDF, article, or ebook into a podcast featuring two AI co-hosts discussing the content in any of 32 languages.
These developments showcase ElevenLabs’ efforts to leverage their voice technology expertise to create more natural-sounding AI conversations and innovative content transformation tools.
Runway’s “Frames” Tackles AI Image Consistency
Runway has unveiled a new AI image model called Frames that claims to make significant advances in controlling styles across AI-generated imagery. The model is designed to maintain consistent visual styles across multiple generations, allowing users to create many images in the same visual style.
Runway has organized the model’s capabilities around the concept of “worlds” – coherent visual styles that can be consistently applied across multiple generations. Examples include worlds that replicate the aesthetic of 1970s album art or the visual style of disposable camera photos.
The technology is being gradually rolled out through Runway’s Gen-3 Alpha platform and API.
At Social Gains, we’re excited to see how these AI developments will shape the future of marketing and business. Our community is focused on leveraging cutting-edge tools and automations to drive real results. Whether you’re looking to boost content production or streamline workflows, we’re here to help you navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Perplexity Shopping Announcement
Meta Enterprise AI Announcement
US “Manhattan Project” AI Initiative
Salesforce Agentforce for Slack
Apple’s AI-Powered Siri Upgrade
