BNP Paribas has signed a multi-year agreement with Mistral AI, granting the bank access to the French company’s current and future AI models for its business lines. The partnership builds on their collaboration since September 2023, when BNP Paribas’s global markets division began testing Mistral AI’s large language models (LLMs).
Following successful trials, BNP Paribas is now integrating the AI models into various divisions, focusing on customer support, sales, and IT. Sophie Heller, COO of BNP Paribas commercial, personal banking & services, emphasised the bank’s commitment to security and the development of hyper-personalised digital services. Generative AI will enable the bank to launch virtual assistants that provide 24/7 customer support and streamline processes, enhancing client service.
The agreement with Mistral AI follows BBVA’s announcement in May to incorporate OpenAI’s ChatGPT, making BBVA the first European bank to partner with the generative AI company. BBVA aims to use GenAI to improve processes, boost productivity, and drive innovation.
Hedge funds are increasingly investing in South Korean chipmakers, betting on a surge in demand for high-end memory chips driven by AI advancements and government support. Notable funds, including Britain’s Man Group and Singapore’s FengHe Fund Management, target giants like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which have lagged behind the broader AI sector rally.
FengHe and other investors see SK Hynix as a key player in the AI market, given its significant supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to Nvidia. Despite Hynix’s crucial role, its stock trades at a lower multiple than Taiwan’s TSMC, presenting a perceived value opportunity. Additionally, the South Korean government’s 26 trillion won support package for the chip industry and initiatives to enhance shareholder returns add to the appeal of these stocks.
The influx of hedge fund investment has bolstered the stock market in South Korea, with the KOSPI index achieving its best performance in seven months in June. South Korean stocks have attracted the highest inflows among Asian emerging markets this year, with Samsung and Hynix accounting for a significant portion of KOSPI’s market capitalisation. Despite Hynix’s substantial gains, Samsung is expected to catch up in the latter half of the year.
Beyond chipmakers, the AI boom is benefiting other South Korean industries. For instance, HD Hyundai Electric has seen a significant rise in share price, driven by increased power consumption from AI developments. The ongoing US-China technology conflict further ensures demand for South Korean advanced memory chips as Chinese manufacturers struggle under US export restrictions.
South Korean cosmetics giant AmorePacific has seen immense interest in its new AI beauty lab, where robots custom mix face products and advanced technology recommends the most suitable lipstick colours. Customers like Kwon You-jin appreciate the personalised service, which uses AI-generated reports to analyse skin conditions and match products precisely to individual skin tones.
AI technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in the cosmetics industry, with global brands like L’Oréal and Sephora also adopting it to tailor products to customer needs. In 2023, global beauty industry sales, including cosmetics, reached $625.6 billion, showing steady growth since a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AmorePacific employs deep learning and machine learning techniques to recommend the best product choices. The use of AI speeds up product development and reduces human error and variability in consultations. Analysts believe that AI integration will continue accelerating product launches and lowering industry hurdles.
The market for AI in the beauty and cosmetics sector is projected to more than double from $3.27 billion in 2023 to $8.1 billion by 2028. According to Business Research Company, services such as personalised beauty recommendations, skin analysis, diagnostics, and virtual makeup artists are expected to drive this growth.
According to industry estimates, India‘s technology sector will need over 1 million engineers with advanced AI and other tech skills in the next 2-3 years. The demand highlights a considerable skills gap that current education and training systems must address. Sangeeta Gupta of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) stressed the need for continuous reskilling, as new college graduates can only fill a quarter of these advanced roles.
The sector, employing around 5.4 million people and contributing significantly to India’s GDP, faces a critical challenge in matching workforce skills to job requirements. Major IT firms like Tata Consultancy Services and Larsen and Toubro are already struggling to fill thousands of positions due to this mismatch, which could disadvantage them against global competitors.
Why does this matter?
The issue’s root lies in India’s education system, which needs more practical skill development. NASSCOM predicts the digital talent gap will widen from 25% to 29% by 2028, exacerbating the problem. Prominent economists, including former central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan, warn that poor schooling could hinder the country’s growth prospects, especially with a predominantly young population.
French startup Bioptimus has unveiled an AI model, H-optimus-0, designed to assist in disease research and diagnosis. The AI model, trained on hundreds of millions of images, can perform complex tasks such as identifying cancerous cells and detecting genetic abnormalities in tumours. Bioptimus claims it is the largest open-source model for pathology, aiming to enhance transparency and accelerate medical advancements.
The launch of H-optimus-0 is part of a broader trend of leveraging AI for medical breakthroughs. Similar initiatives include Google’s DeepMind and its AlphaFold system and American startup K Health, which recently raised $50 million for its patient-interfacing chatbot. Despite these advancements, there is widespread concern about AI in healthcare. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey indicated that 60% of patients are uncomfortable with doctors relying on AI for their care.
Bioptimus CTO Rodolphe Jenatton emphasised that this release is just the beginning, with plans for further developments to extend the model’s capabilities beyond tissue analysis. The startup, founded in February with backing from French biotech firm Owkin Inc., secured $35 million in seed funding from investors including Bpifrance and telecom billionaire Xavier Niel.
OpenAI is partnering with Los Alamos National Laboratory, most famous for creating the first atomic bomb, to explore how AI can assist scientific research. The collaboration will evaluate OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4o, in supporting lab tasks and employing its voice assistant technology to aid scientists. This new initiative is part of OpenAI’s broader efforts to showcase AI’s potential in healthcare and biotech, alongside recent partnerships with companies like Moderna and Color Health.
However, the rapid advancement of AI has sparked concerns about its potential misuse. Lawmakers and tech executives have expressed fears that AI could be used to develop bioweapons. Earlier tests by OpenAI indicated that GPT-4 posed only a slight risk of aiding in creating biological threats.
Erick LeBrun, a research scientist at Los Alamos, emphasised the importance of this partnership in understanding both the benefits and potential dangers of advanced AI. He highlighted the need for a framework to evaluate current and future AI models, particularly concerning biological threats.
A new survey reveals that China is at the forefront of adopting generative AI (GenAI), the technology that can generate images, text and video in response to prompts. Conducted by AI and analytics software company SAS and Coleman Parkes Research, it found that 83% of Chinese respondents are using generative AI.
When it comes to full implementation of GenAI technologies, the United States with 24% compared to China’s 19% and the United Kingdom’s 11%. The industries surveyed included banking, telecommunications, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and energy, with the two former showing the highest integration and use of generative AI.
OpenAI’s recent announcement to ban Chinese users from accessing ChatGPT is not expected to have drastic effects on use. Chinese alternatives like SenseTime and Baidu are expected to replace ChatGPT. SAS actually expects Chinese adoption to accelerate as competition lowers the cost of GenAI for businesses.
The SAS report also highlighted that China leads the world in continuous automated monitoring (CAM), which involves collecting and analysing user data, behaviour, and communications. Udo Sglavo, vice president of applied AI and modelling at SAS, noted that this raises concerns about privacy infringements. Despite regulation still being behind the implementation AI, companies are increasingly emphasising on their own privacy policies to accompany the rollout of their AI tools. OpenAI and Apple’s recent partnership will focus on AI privacy for the integration of ChatGPT into Siri.
Investments in AI startups soared to $24 billion in the last two months, more than doubling from the previous quarter, as reported by sources familiar with the matter. The surge reflects a growing interest in AI technology, making it the largest investment sector, followed by healthcare and biotech. Overall startup funding increased 16% to $79 billion in the last quarter, driven mainly by AI.
The success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has sparked a race to integrate the latest AI technology in various fields, including business productivity, healthcare, and manufacturing. However, investors and major tech firms caution that substantial returns from these investments are expected to materialise over the next few years.
Five out of six billion-dollar funding rounds were for AI companies during this period. Notable deals included Elon Musk’s xAI raising $6 billion and AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave securing $1.1 billion. In addition, the automated driving company Wayve and data preparation company Scale AI have attracted substantial investments. Cybersecurity firm Wiz, for example, raised a billion dollars in its latest funding round outside the AI sector.
Why does it matter?
Despite the recent increase, overall startup funding remains lower than in the past three years. Global funding dropped 5% to $147 billion in the year’s first half and remained flat compared to the latter half of 2023. The tight monetary policy in the US has also slowed the revival of initial public offerings (IPOs), a significant source of returns for institutional private market investors who typically invest in startups and sell shares during IPOs.
At the recent World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Chinese GPU developers seized the opportunity to showcase their products in Nvidia’s absence. Prominent companies such as Iluvatar Corex, Moore Threads, Enflame Technology, Sophgo, and Huawei’s Ascend were at the forefront, highlighting their advancements despite significant challenges in manufacturing and software ecosystems.
Enflame Technology emphasised the shift from foreign-dominated computing clusters to a mix of Chinese and foreign GPUs. The company, along with AI solutions firm Infinigence, is promoting compute resources that utilise a variety of chips from both Nvidia and Chinese manufacturers. However, US export restrictions have prevented Nvidia from selling its most advanced chips in China, and several Chinese firms, including Huawei, are struggling with manufacturing hurdles due to being blacklisted by the US.
Huawei’s booth was a major attraction, showcasing its Ascend 910B chips, which train numerous large language models in China. Meanwhile, Enflame presented its Cloudblazer T20 and T21 AI-training chips, benefiting from not being on the US trade blacklist, which allows it access to global foundries like TSMC.
Despite these efforts, Chinese GPUs still need to catch up with their global counterparts regarding performance. Nvidia remains a dominant player, with tailored chips for the Chinese market continuing to be popular. Nvidia is expected to deliver over 1 million H20 GPUs in China this year, generating $12 billion in sales. However, experts highlight that China’s in-house technology still needs to meet its substantial domestic AI demand.
Baidu’s driverless taxi service, Apollo Go, has quickly become popular in Wuhan, China, since its launch in August 2022, despite complaints from locals and taxi drivers. The service, operated by Baidu’s autonomous driving unit, has amassed a fleet of over 500 vehicles in the city of 13.7 million people. However, its success has prompted local taxi drivers to petition the municipal transport authority to restrict its use, citing job losses and declining income.
In a letter sent in late June, Wuhan Jianshe Automotive Passenger Transportation, a local taxi operator, reported that four of its 159 taxis had quit since April due to competition from the robotaxis. The company accused the autonomous vehicles of taking jobs away from grassroots drivers. Baidu did not respond to a request for comment, but the company mentioned in May that it had reported misinformation about Apollo Go on social media to the police, resulting in the arrest of more than ten suspects.
Despite years of financial losses, Baidu’s autonomous driving project is now aiming for profitability. Wang Yunpeng, head of Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group, expressed confidence in an internal letter in April. The company plans to expand Apollo Go’s fleet in Wuhan to 1,000 vehicles and aims to break even locally by the end of the year, according to Chen Zhuo, general manager of Baidu’s self-driving unit.
