At its re:Invent 2024 conference, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced groundbreaking tools aimed at addressing common issues in generative AI, including hallucinations. The new Automated Reasoning Checks service verifies the accuracy of AI-generated content by cross-referencing customer-provided information. This tool is integrated into AWS’s Bedrock platform and allows users to refine models with “ground truths” for better reliability, though it shares similarities with earlier offerings from Microsoft and Google.
AWS also introduced Model Distillation, a feature for Bedrock that enables users to transfer capabilities from larger AI models to smaller, more cost-efficient ones. While this helps lower costs, it comes with limitations, such as requiring models from the same family and a slight dip in accuracy. Additionally, Bedrock now offers a multi-agent collaboration feature, which lets customers assign AI agents specific subtasks, improving efficiency in larger projects.
These innovations reflect AWS’s commitment to staying ahead in the competitive AI space. The new features aim to address industry-wide concerns about AI’s reliability and cost while expanding Bedrock’s capabilities for customers like PwC, whose VP of AI and data, Swami Sivasubramanian, highlighted significant growth in the platform’s user base over the past year.
Google Cloud has partnered with Air France-KLM to apply generative AI technology to the airline group’s vast data. The airline’s extensive operations, which include 551 aircraft and 93 million passengers carried in 2023, generate significant amounts of data. Google Cloud’s AI solution will analyse passenger preferences and travel patterns and optimise aircraft maintenance predictions.
The partnership aims to enhance the airline’s operations by offering more tailored services to passengers and improving maintenance efficiency, reducing the time needed for predictive analysis from hours to minutes.
Despite the collaboration, Air France-KLM will retain full control over its data. Matt Renner, President of Google Cloud’s Global Revenue, emphasised the value of airline data in driving operational insights and enhancing customer experiences.
Chinese AI company SenseTime Group, which has struggled to keep up with rivals in the generative AI sector, announced a major organisational restructuring on Tuesday to shift its focus toward generative AI technologies. The Hong Kong-listed firm, which was once a leader in computer vision and surveillance, has faced a 61% drop in its share price since its IPO three years ago.
As part of its transformation, SenseTime is pivoting to make generative AI its core business, aiming to drive future growth and profitability. This comes as its traditional AI business, especially in computer vision, has seen a significant decline, with revenues from its ‘traditional AI’ segment dropping by more than 50% in the first half of the year.
SenseTime launched its own large language model, SenseNova, in early 2023, positioning it as a competitor to OpenAI’s GPT models. The company’s restructuring involves the creation of several new business units, each with its own CEO, focusing on sectors like smart healthcare, robotics, and smart retail. Despite its challenges, SenseTime continues to push for a shift toward more profitable, cutting-edge AI technologies.
Investors are flocking to data centre operators in the Asia Pacific region, driven by the growing demand for AI services and robust market valuations. Major transactions, like Blackstone’s $15.58 billion acquisition of Australia’s AirTrunk, have set high benchmarks for the sector. Industry experts predict that the region’s data centres will continue to see strong valuations due to their nascent stage and promising growth, despite concerns about insufficient infrastructure in some areas.
Several notable investment opportunities have surfaced, such as the sale of stakes in Indonesian data centre NeutraDC and Telkom’s data centre arm, which could be valued at over $1 billion. These deals reflect a broader trend of investors seeking high-growth opportunities in the region. NeutraDC’s expansion plan, which aims to increase capacity to 500 megawatts by 2030, has made it an attractive target, with valuations potentially exceeding 20 times core earnings.
The Asia Pacific region has become a leader in global data centre mergers and acquisitions, surpassing half of the world’s total transactions this year. This surge is attributed to the booming AI demand, with companies rapidly expanding their data processing capacity. However, some investors warn that the sustainability of these high valuations will depend on overcoming challenges like power shortages and the reliable delivery of new infrastructure projects.
While the long-term outlook for Asia Pacific’s data centre market remains positive, experts predict that growth may slow slightly as new capacity is brought online. Investors will need to navigate execution risks to maintain the sector’s momentum and ensure the continued expansion of data centre infrastructure.
World Labs, the startup co-founded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, has introduced groundbreaking technology that transforms single images into interactive 3D environments. Unlike existing tools, these AI-generated scenes can be explored and modified directly within a browser, offering a dynamic and engaging experience.
The startup’s system leverages a category of AI known as ‘world models,’ which simulate 3D environments with improved consistency and physical realism. While the technology is still in its early stages, it aims to revolutionise industries like gaming, filmmaking, and design by providing accessible and cost-effective tools for creating virtual worlds.
Backed by $230M in funding from prominent investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Intel Capital, World Labs is valued at over $1B. The company plans to refine its system further and release its first product in 2025, marking a significant step in the evolution of interactive AI applications.
This holiday season, millions of shoppers are set to buy gifts online, but tech companies are vying to make AI agents the new shopping assistants. Platforms like Perplexity, OpenAI, and Google are developing AI tools that can browse websites, select products, and even complete purchases. Perplexity recently launched a shopping agent that combines navigation and checkout features, though it’s still ironing out inefficiencies.
AI-driven shopping isn’t without challenges. Early tests show agents struggling with stock availability and delayed purchases, while companies like Perplexity rely on human oversight to address errors. Privacy concerns are also emerging, especially with AI systems accessing billing information. However, partnerships like Perplexity’s with Stripe, which uses single-use payment cards, aim to mitigate risks and provide secure transactions.
These tools could revolutionise online shopping by saving time and uncovering hidden deals, but they also threaten traditional e-commerce models. Retailers and advertisers may resist as fewer consumers visit storefronts and targeted ad opportunities shrink. Despite the hurdles, 2025 is expected to see significant advancements in AI shopping agents, promising a glimpse into the future of effortless online retail.
AI hardware startup Tenstorrent has secured a $693M Series D funding round, valuing the company at over $2.6B. The investment, led by Samsung Securities and AFW Partners, includes participation from Hyundai and Bezos Expeditions, among others. Founded in 2016 and based in Toronto, Canada, Tenstorrent aims to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the AI chip market.
Tenstorrent’s CEO, Jim Keller, a renowned microprocessor engineer, announced plans to develop AI training servers and expand its engineering team using the new capital. The company has also committed to releasing a new AI processor every two years, with signed customer contracts amounting to nearly $150M. This move positions Tenstorrent among a growing number of startups racing to innovate in AI hardware, alongside competitors such as Axelera, Etched, and Groq.
The funding highlights escalating investor interest in alternative AI chipmakers as demand for cutting-edge computing solutions soars. With its ambitious roadmap and backing from high-profile investors, Tenstorrent is poised to carve out a significant share of the burgeoning AI hardware market.
Cancer drug development faces a pressing challenge: most new compounds fail to advance through clinical trials, despite rising cancer rates, particularly among younger adults. French entrepreneur Fanny Jaulin believes the root cause lies in outdated trial designs, not the drugs themselves. Her startup, Orakl Oncology, founded in 2023 as a spinoff from the Gustave Roussy Institute of Oncology, aims to revolutionise this process by blending data analysis with biological insights.
Unlike competitors focusing solely on AI or biology, Orakl combines the two to tackle cancer’s complexity. The approach leverages organoids—miniature, simplified organ versions—to test drug responses, supplemented by patient avatars that integrate tissue samples with extensive datasets. These datasets, though smaller than those of some competitors, contain 40 variables per patient, allowing a focus on hard-to-treat cancers like colorectal and pancreatic.
Orakl plans to commercialise two products: O-Predict, which forecasts how patients might respond to drug candidates, and O-Validate, designed to match drugs to biological data. These innovations cater to pharmaceutical developers and biotech firms alike, supported by nearly €15 million in funding, including a recent seed round led by Singular.
Jaulin’s mission goes beyond business success. She seeks to address the therapeutic gaps in precision medicine, making drug discovery faster and more effective. With cancer increasingly becoming a chronic condition, Orakl’s ultimate goal is to bring more life-saving treatments to patients.
The Browser Company, creators of the Arc Browser, is developing a new web browser named Dia, centred around artificial intelligence integration. Set to debut in early 2025, Dia aims to expand the company’s reach by offering AI-driven features to a broader audience. Unlike traditional AI tools, Dia is designed as an interactive browsing environment where users can perform tasks like drafting emails, retrieving data, or automating online activities directly through the browser interface.
Initial demonstrations highlight innovative features, including a writing assistant that can suggest sentences or retrieve relevant links and facts. Dia’s natural language commands enable actions such as fetching and emailing documents or scheduling meetings within the browser. A standout capability is its automation feature, where Dia can browse websites like Amazon to fulfil tasks, such as adding items to a cart based on a user’s email list. Despite its potential, early versions may require refinements to ensure precision in task execution.
The Browser Company‘s CEO, Josh Miller, emphasised the vision of creating user-friendly AI tools while keeping Arc’s dedicated user base in mind. Miller acknowledged that Arc’s complexity appeals to a niche audience, whereas Dia’s broader functionality could attract new users and provide sustainable revenue opportunities. As part of the development, the company has launched a dedicated website showcasing Dia’s capabilities and open roles to expand its team.
OpenAI is exploring advertising as a potential revenue model, according to a Financial Times report. While CFO Sarah Friar emphasised that there are ‘no active plans to pursue advertising,’ the company recently hired Shivakumar Venkataraman, a former Google ad executive, signalling interest in the possibility. OpenAI currently relies on subscriptions to fund its costly generative AI models, but rising expenses may prompt a shift in strategy.
The idea of ads doesn’t sit comfortably with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who described advertising as a “last resort” during a Harvard Business School chat. Altman has expressed unease about combining ads with AI, calling the prospect ‘uniquely unsettling.’ Still, the financial realities of sustaining and expanding AI tools may leave OpenAI with few alternatives.
As OpenAI balances innovation with business pressures, any move toward advertising could reshape how users engage with tools like ChatGPT. For now, the debate underscores the tension between maintaining accessibility and meeting operational demands.
