AI in Action: ChatGPT Faces Major Updates and Amazon’s Investment in Anthropic
Emerging Tech Roundup — September 29
The Quantious team’s top picks for timely trending news in the tech world.
This week in tech: NYPD Introduces Robot Police Officer for its Manhattan Subway, ChatGPT Now Supports Voice Chats and Image-Based Queries, TeachMe.To Lands $2M to Connect Beginner Athletes with Local Coaches, Goodnotes Invests $1.9M in Digital Stationery Company, Amazon to Invest Billions in Anthropic, Getty Images Promises its New AI Contains No Copyrighted Art, and ChatGPT Users Can Now Browse Internet.
NYPD Now Has a Robot Police Officer for its Manhattan Subway
(Interesting Engineering, September 23)
The City of New York and the NYPD have unveiled security robot Knightscope K5 for a pilot program aimed at enhancing public safety. Deployed in a Manhattan subway station, the autonomous robot will undergo a two-week training and configuration period before commencing its nightly safety checks from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. This initiative reflects the city’s commitment to leveraging technology to safeguard its residents.
ChatGPT Now Supports Voice Chats and Image-Based Queries
(Engadget, September 25)
OpenAI is introducing significant updates to ChatGPT, allowing voice commands and image-based queries. Users on Android and iOS can engage in voice conversations with ChatGPT, and all platforms will support image input. Initially available to Plus and Enterprise users, these features include five different voice options for voice conversations and utilize advanced text-to-speech and speech recognition technologies.
TeachMe.To Lands $2M to Connect Beginner Athletes with Local Coaches
(Tech Crunch, September 25)
Sports coaching platform TeachMe.To has successfully raised $2 million in seed funding, with plans to expand its services. Founded in 2021 by CEO Nick O’Brien and chairman Tyler Maloney, the company’s mission is to simplify the process of learning new sports or skills. TeachMe.To currently offers access to personalized lessons in over 100 U.S. cities, covering sports such as pickleball, tennis, golf, surfing, and boxing.
Note-Taking App Goodnotes Invests $1.9M in Digital Stationery Company WeBudding
(Tech Crunch, September 25)
Note-taking company Goodnotes has announced a $1.9 million investment in South Korean digital stationery company WeBudding. Founded in 2018, WeBudding transitioned from selling physical paper notebooks to digital stationery items, with 80% of its sales coming from mobile platforms. This investment, along with an additional $200,000 from Strong Ventures, brings WeBudding’s Series A round to $2.1 million. The company aims to soon develop globally relevant content for Goodnotes’ recently launched digital stationery store within its app.
Amazon to Invest Up to $4 Billion in Anthropic, a Rival to ChatGPT Developer OpenAI
(CNBC, September 25)
Amazon is set to invest up to $4 billion in AI firm Anthropic while also acquiring a minority ownership stake. This partnership aims to advance generative AI and will involve Anthropic selecting Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider. In addition to challenging Nvidia’s dominance in the generative AI chip market, Anthropic’s AI chatbot, Claude 2, is positioned as a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, attracting investments from tech giants like Google and Salesforce Ventures.
Getty Images Promises its New AI Contains No Copyrighted Art
(Technology Review, September 25)
Getty Images has launched a new generative AI tool called “Generative AI by Getty Images,” which is exclusively trained on its extensive library of licensed content. This tool allows users to generate images from text prompts, providing them with a royalty-free license and safeguarding them against potential copyright issues. It’s built on Nvidia’s text-to-visual AI model and is restricted from creating images featuring public figures or mimicking the styles of living artists. All AI-generated images will be marked with a watermark for transparency.
ChatGPT Users Can Now Browse the Internet, OpenAI Says
(Reuters, September 27)
OpenAI announced that users of ChatGPT will now have the capability to browse the web, extending the chatbot’s access to information beyond its previous knowledge cutoff in September 2021. This new browsing feature enables websites to have control over ChatGPT’s interactions with their content. Additionally, OpenAI shared that this browsing feature is currently available for Plus and Enterprise users, with plans to expand access to all users in the near future.
