Artificial intelligence

New acquisition expands Automattic’s AI efforts in WordPress

Automattic, the company behind WordPress, announced its acquisition of WPAI, a startup specialising in AI tools for WordPress. WPAI’s offerings include CodeWP, a tool for creating plugins using AI, and AgentWP, an AI assistant for site builders. While these tools will be discontinued in their current form, Automattic plans to integrate their capabilities into its own suite of products.

The founding team of WPAI will join Automattic to spearhead AI initiatives within the WordPress ecosystem. According to Automattic, their efforts will focus on creating new AI-driven solutions to simplify development, enhance website management, and improve user experience all while staying true to WordPress’s open-source values.

This acquisition comes on the heels of Automattic’s recent purchase of Harper, a Grammarly competitor for developers. Together, these moves highlight Automattic’s growing investment in AI technologies to streamline content creation and site functionality for its millions of users worldwide. Financial details of the WPAI deal were not disclosed.

WPAI has expressed a commitment to advancing AI standards for WordPress and collaborating closely with the community to ensure thoughtful and innovative implementation. These developments could redefine how developers and users interact with WordPress, making the platform even more accessible and efficient.

OpenAI expands AI tools with text-to-video feature

OpenAI has launched its text-to-video AI model, Sora, to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users, signalling a broader push into multimodal AI technologies. Initially limited to safety testers, Sora is now available as Sora Turbo at no additional cost, allowing users to create videos up to 20 seconds long in various resolutions and aspect ratios.

The move positions OpenAI to compete with similar tools from Meta, Google, and Stability AI. While the model is accessible in most regions, it remains unavailable in EU countries, the UK, and Switzerland due to regulatory considerations. OpenAI plans to introduce tailored pricing options for Sora next year.

The company emphasised safeguards against misuse, such as blocking harmful content like child exploitation and deepfake abuse. It also plans to gradually expand features, including uploads of people, as it enhances protections. Sora marks another step in OpenAI’s efforts to innovate responsibly in the AI space.

China probes Nvidia amid escalating tech tensions

China has launched an anti-monopoly investigation into US chipmaker Nvidia, citing possible violations linked to its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies in 2020. The move is widely seen as retaliation against recent US restrictions on China’s semiconductor sector, including curbs on advanced chip exports.

Nvidia, which dominates China’s AI chip market, is accused of breaching conditions tied to the Mellanox deal, such as fair trade requirements and restrictions on bundling products. The probe comes amid heightened trade tensions, with Beijing encouraging local companies to avoid US chips and Washington tightening export controls on critical semiconductor technologies.

Analysts suggest the investigation is unlikely to significantly impact Nvidia in the near term, as its most advanced chips are already restricted from sale in China. However, the company faces growing competition from domestic firms like Huawei. China accounted for 17% of Nvidia’s revenue last year, down from 26% two years prior, as US-China tech conflicts continue to reshape the global semiconductor landscape.

Apple to debut custom modem chips in 2024

Apple plans to launch its own cellular modem chips next year, starting with the iPhone SE, replacing components from Qualcomm. This marks a significant step towards reducing reliance on the chipmaker, whose modems have powered iPhones for years. Apple aims to phase out Qualcomm’s technology entirely by 2027.

The move follows Apple’s $1 billion acquisition of Intel‘s modem unit in 2019 and its integration of modem design into its chip development team. Additionally, Apple has signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with Broadcom for 5G components.

Qualcomm has acknowledged Apple’s transition but is leveraging advancements in laptops and AI-powered data centres to offset expected revenue declines. Investors and suppliers like Skyworks Solutions and Qorvo are closely monitoring the impact of Apple’s strategy on their business.

Palantir and Anduril team up for defence AI

Palantir Technologies and Anduril Industries have joined forces to optimise defence data for AI training. Palantir’s platform will organise and label sensitive defence data for model training, while Anduril’s systems will manage the retention and distribution of this information for national security applications.

The collaboration highlights challenges in deploying AI for defence, where sensitive data complicates model training. Anduril recently partnered with OpenAI to integrate advanced AI into security missions, underscoring its commitment to autonomous defence solutions.

Palantir, a key player in the AI boom, continues to see robust demand from governments and businesses seeking advanced software solutions.

EU probes Nvidia’s sales practices amid antitrust concerns

The European Union is investigating Nvidia’s business practices, focusing on whether the AI chip leader ties its GPU products to other hardware like networking equipment. Nvidia, which dominates the GPU market with an 84% share, has faced increasing global scrutiny due to its role in the AI and accelerated computing sectors.

Regulators recently distributed questionnaires to Nvidia’s competitors and customers as part of their preliminary fact-finding process. If proven, antitrust violations could result in fines up to 10% of the company’s annual global turnover.

Nvidia has denied any wrongdoing, asserting its products compete on merit and support customer choice. The inquiry coincides with a separate investigation by France‘s antitrust authority, which may soon press charges.

Google’s AI advances weather forecasting

Google’s DeepMind has introduced GenCast, a cutting-edge AI weather prediction model that outperforms the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ (ECMWF) ENS, widely regarded as the global leader in operational forecasting. A study in Nature highlighted GenCast’s superior accuracy, predicting weather more effectively 97.2% of the time during a comparative analysis of 2019 data.

Unlike earlier deterministic models, GenCast creates a complex probability distribution of potential weather scenarios by generating 50 or more forecasts per instance. This ensemble approach provides a nuanced understanding of weather trajectories, elevating predictive reliability.

Google is integrating GenCast into its platforms like Search and Maps, while also planning to make real-time and historical AI powered forecasts accessible for public and research use. With this advancement, the tech giant aims to revolutionise weather forecasting and its applications worldwide.

US lawmaker urges support for AI energy needs

Congressman Jay Obernolte has called on federal energy regulators to prioritise co-located data centres directly connected to power plants. The move, he argues, is essential for advancing US AI capabilities while addressing energy demands and grid resilience.

The proposal comes amid debates over co-location’s potential impact on grid reliability. A recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decision rejected an Amazon-Talen Energy project in Pennsylvania, citing grid concerns. Obernolte urged FERC to expedite decisions on such projects to support US AI innovation.

Energy firms Talen and Constellation have challenged FERC’s recent rulings, highlighting the growing importance of energy policies in AI expansion.

Google’s quantum computing leap forward with Willow

In the quantum computing world, Google’s Quantum AI lab is at the forefront, pioneering a new era where the rules of quantum mechanics dictate the dance of data. Unlike the binary world of classical computing, which is all about ones and zeros, quantum computing introduces qubits. These aren’t just your average bits; they can exist in multiple states simultaneously, thanks to the whims of superposition and entanglement, making them the rock stars of the computational universe.

Enter Willow, Google’s latest quantum chip, which could be described as a virtuoso in the orchestra of quantum technology. Willow isn’t just another chip; it’s a leap towards solving some of humanity’s most complex puzzles. This chip has mastered the art of error correction, a challenge that’s been the quantum computing community’s white whale for nearly three decades. With Willow, errors don’t just decrease; they do so exponentially as more qubits join the ensemble.

But Willow’s talents don’t stop at error correction. In a performance that would make even the universe blink in disbelief, Willow completed a computation in under five minutes that would take the world’s fastest supercomputers a mind-boggling ten septillion years. To put that into perspective, that’s longer than the age of our universe, suggesting that Willow might be tapping into some multiversal jazz.

The magic of Willow is crafted in Google’s specialised quantum lab in Santa Barbara, where every component from qubit gates to the chip’s architecture is meticulously tuned for harmony. Willow boasts 105 qubits, each a note in this symphony of computation, offering both numbers and quality. Focusing on quality over quantity ensures that Willow isn’t just another player but a lead in the orchestra.

Willow’s performance sets the stage for the next act: to conduct a computation beyond the reach of classical computers and relevant to real-world applications. Whether it’s accelerating drug discovery, enhancing AI, or solving energy crises, Willow and its successors are poised to turn theoretical quantum wonders into practical symphonies.

The journey with Willow is just beginning, and Google invited the curious minds of researchers, engineers, and developers to join this quantum odyssey. With open-source software and educational platforms like Coursera, Google aims to democratise quantum computing, hoping to inspire the next generation to compose their quantum symphonies, solving problems that today’s classical computers can only dream of.

Musk introduces Aurora image generator to X

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has introduced Aurora, an advanced image generation tool integrated into its Grok AI assistant. Aurora allows users to create photorealistic visuals and explore imaginative concepts. However, some users noted the tool briefly disappeared after its launch.

Aurora, accessible through X’s mobile and web apps, appears to have minimal content restrictions. It can generate images of public and copyrighted figures, though explicit and graphic content is reportedly limited. The tool is still in beta, with Musk promising rapid improvements. While Aurora excels in landscapes and still-life depictions, it struggles with more complex details, like human hands, a common challenge for AI-generated visuals.

The release follows X’s decision to make Grok free for all users, enabling broader access to AI-driven features. Meanwhile, Musk’s xAI team, which developed Aurora, recently secured $6B in funding and is working on further innovations, including Grok 3 and a standalone app.