Daily AI Newsletter: Elon Musk’s xAI is closing on $6B in funding

In today’s email:

🤯 An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deep fake of me that’s so good it’s scary
🤔 Elon Musk wants to turn Tesla’s fleet into AWS for AI — would it work?
👀 AI Can Tell Your Political Affiliation Just by Looking at Your Face
🧰 11 new AI-powered tools and resources. Make sure to check the online version for the full list of tools.

Elon Musk’s xAI is closing on $6B in funding

xAI, an AI company founded by Elon Musk as a competitor to OpenAI, is reportedly closing in on a funding round that could bring in $6 billion, giving the company a pre-money valuation of $18 billion. Initially, the funding targets were lower, with plans to raise $3 billion at a $15 billion valuation. However, due to high investor demand, these figures were revised upwards. Prominent investment firms like Sequoia Capital and Future Ventures are participating, along with other close associates of Musk, such as the founders of Gigafund and Valor Equity Partners.

Musk’s vision for xAI extends beyond conventional AI applications. He aims to leverage data from his various enterprises, including Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink, to enhance xAI's capabilities. This could potentially revolutionize industries by integrating AI with real-world applications, such as self-driving cars and operational robots like Tesla’s Optimus. Additionally, xAI’s integration into X, Musk's social media platform, provides both a customer base and a massive distribution network for xAI's technologies.

The emergence of xAI poses significant implications for OpenAI, Musk’s former venture. Musk has been critical of OpenAI's operational directions and its decision to remain secretive about its technologies. In contrast, Musk has made xAI’s developments more accessible by open-sourcing its technologies, marking a strategic divergence from OpenAI's practices. This move underscores Musk's broader ambitions to redefine the landscape of AI and its applications, challenging the status quo and setting the stage for a potential industry shakeup.

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At Moderna, OpenAI’s GPTs Are Changing Almost Everything

Moderna is set to announce a significant partnership with OpenAI, which will integrate ChatGPT Enterprise into its operations to enhance productivity and accelerate business processes. This collaboration will provide 3,000 Moderna employees access to ChatGPT, built on OpenAI's GPT-4, aiming to facilitate the development of 15 new products over the next five years. The integration of AI is expected to revolutionize Moderna's approach across various sectors including science, legal, and manufacturing.

Moderna's CEO, Stéphane Bancel, emphasized the transformative potential of AI in their processes, particularly in advancing beyond their Covid-19 vaccine, their only commercial product so far. The company has already developed over 750 tailored GPTs to perform specific tasks, such as optimizing drug doses for clinical trials and drafting regulatory responses. These AI-driven innovations could significantly cut down the time for these processes and improve efficiency.

Despite the optimism, some industry leaders remain skeptical about AI's ability to surpass human capability in drug discovery. However, OpenAI provides extensive support to Moderna, including dedicated teams and regular strategic discussions, highlighting the unique and comprehensive nature of this partnership. This relationship could set a precedent for future collaborations, as OpenAI looks to replicate this successful model with other enterprises.

AI Can Tell Your Political Affiliation Just by Looking at Your Face

A recent study published in the "American Psychologist" journal by Stanford University researchers claims that artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology can determine a person's political orientation just by analyzing their expressionless face. The study involved 591 participants who first completed a political questionnaire. Their faces were then scanned by an AI algorithm which predicted their political leanings with significant accuracy, even when factors like age, gender, and ethnicity were not considered. This accuracy increased when these demographic factors were included.

The research highlighted noticeable differences in facial morphology between the most liberal and most conservative individuals. Liberals reportedly have smaller lower faces with downward shifted lips and noses, and smaller chins compared to conservatives. These physical traits, the study suggests, may influence and reinforce social and psychological behaviors over time due to the self-fulfilling prophecy effect, where societal expectations based on physical appearance could lead individuals to adopt behaviors consistent with perceived traits.

Furthermore, the findings raise concerns about the potential misuse of biometric surveillance technologies. The ability of AI to predict political orientation from a neutral facial image, irrespective of demographic decorrelation, suggests a profound capability that could be exploited, particularly in targeted political messaging and surveillance. The implications are considered far-reaching, touching on issues of privacy and the ethical use of AI in the public and private sectors.