Nvidia's AI Showdown: Rubin Leads
Plus: AMD outlined new chip architecture strategy for AI data centers, ElevenLabs launches Text to Sound for creators.
Hello Engineering Leaders and AI Enthusiasts!
Welcome to the 288th edition of The AI Edge newsletter. This edition features NVIDIA’s new announcements about Rubin and next-gen chips.
And a huge shoutout to our amazing readers. We appreciate you😊
In today’s edition:
📢 Nvidia CEO drops a series of AI announcements
🚀 AMD outlined new chip architecture strategy for AI data centers
🔊 ElevenLabs' Text to Sound AI wows creators
🧠 Knowledge Nugget: The AI "Race to the Bottom" by
Let’s go!
Nvidia CEO drops a series of AI announcements
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed the company's ambitious plans for annual AI accelerator upgrades, targeting a broader range of industries to expand its customer base.
It will release the Blackwell Ultra chip in 2025 and the next-generation Rubin platform in 2026.
It is also releasing a new server design, MGX, to help companies like HPE and Dell bring products to market faster.
They are promoting the use of digital twins in its Omniverse virtual world, showcasing a digital twin of Earth for sophisticated modeling tasks.
Introduces Project G-Assist, an RTX-powered AI assistant technology that provides context-aware help for PC games and apps.
G-Assist uses voice or text inputs and game window snapshots to provide personalized responses based on in-game context.
Developers can customize the AI models for specific games or apps, and they can run on the cloud or locally on GeForce RTX AI PCs and laptops.
Nvidia partnered with Studio Wildcard for a tech demo using ARK: Survival Ascended, showcasing how G-Assist can help with quests, items, lore, and challenging bosses. Check out full keynote speech:
Why does it matter?
These announcements show how eager Nvidia is to retain its position as a leader in the AI hardware market. In addition to pushing the acceleration of AI chips, Nvidia is developing new tools to shape AI's implementation in multiple sectors.
AMD outlined new chip architecture strategy for AI data centers
AMD CEO Lisa Su introduced new AI processors at Computex, including the MI325X accelerator, set to be available in Q4 2024.
The CEO announced the MI325X accelerator, which will be released in Q4 2024, and outlined the company's plan to develop AI chips over the next two years.
Introduced the MI350 series, expected in 2025, which promises a 35x improvement in inference performance compared to the current MI300 series.
The company also teased the MI400 series, slated for 2026, based on the mysterious "Next" architecture.
With AMD and Nvidia moving to annual release cycles, the competition is heating up to meet the soaring demand for AI semiconductors.
Why does it matter?
AMD's aggressive push to challenge Nvidia's market leadership could lead to increased innovation, lower prices, and more widespread adoption of AI across various sectors.
ElevenLabs' Text to Sound AI wows creators
ElevenLabs introduces Text to Sound, an AI model that generates sound effects, instrumental tracks, soundscapes, and character voices from text prompts. The tool aims to help film, TV, video games, and social media creators produce high-quality audio content quickly and affordably.
They have partnered with Shutterstock to fine-tune the model using their diverse audio library of licensed tracks. Users can generate sound effects by logging in, describing the desired sound, and downloading the best results.
Note: This tool doesn't have a content filter and can generate any raw content through conditional prompting.
Why does it matter?
It could significantly reduce production costs and timelines by simplifying the development of high-quality sound effects, music, and voices, encouraging smaller studios and individual creators to compete with larger players.
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Knowledge Nugget: The AI "Race to the Bottom"
In his recent post,
discusses how Microsoft's decision to offer Khanmigo, a GPT-4 powered AI tutor app, for free to U.S. teachers could signal a "race to the bottom" in GenAI app pricing. With Big Tech companies increasingly offering free tools for specific verticals, AI startups may need to adjust their strategies to remain competitive.He suggests that the "ChatGPT wrapper" industry, including apps like Perplexity.ai, may face slower growth. The author also explores the reasons behind Microsoft and Google's move to give away chatbots, citing plummeting inference costs, the need for training data, and a defensive stance against competitors.
Why does it matter?
As Big Tech’s AI offerings are too cheap to beat, startups with non-moats like “ChatGPT wrappers” or easy-to-mimic features won’t last long or even end up in a pricing war to the bottom. To survive in this increasingly competitive landscape, AI start-ups must build a strong moat around enterprise AI products for a long-term sustainable advantage.
What Else Is Happening❗
🤖 xAI is developing two new modes for the Grok AI chatbot
These two new modes are ‘Socrates' and 'DEI' (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). Grok currently offers normal mode, fun mode, and the recently announced 'Unhinged' mode. In DEI mode, Grok will act as a 'Senior VP of Diversity and Inclusion' and provide correct answers even to incorrect questions. The function of the 'Socrates' mode is not yet clear. The release date for these new modes has not been confirmed. (Link)
🎬 Sony Pictures CEOannounces AI plans for better movie and TV production
The move comes amid negotiations between Hollywood's major crew union and top studios. While union agreements will define the extent of AI use in the industry, the tech is already eliminating jobs in Hollywood, particularly in voice acting, concept art, VFX, and postproduction. (Link)
🚀 Arm predicts 100 Billion devices AI-ready by 2025
According to CEO Rene Haas at the Computex forum in Taipei, Arm Holdings expects a staggering 100 billion Arm devices worldwide to be primed for artificial intelligence by the end of 2025. (Link)
💬 Meta's AI generates bizarre summaries of Facebook comments on various posts
The AI picks up on both serious and lighthearted comments, often highlighting the more outlandish ones. It's unclear how Meta chooses which posts to display these summaries on. However, the summaries have raised privacy concerns, as Meta feeds user comments into its AI system. (Link)
🗑️ Finnish startup Binit is developing an AI household waste tracker
The gadget, designed to be mounted in the kitchen, has cameras and sensors to scan items before throwing them away. Binit uses OpenAI's GPT for image recognition, achieving nearly 98% accuracy in trash recognition. The app provides analytics, feedback, and gamification to encourage users to reduce waste, with tests showing a 40% reduction in mixed bin waste. (Link)
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