Discover • Tech News

China's Solar Great Wall

China's "Solar Great Wall" is a massive project in Inner Mongolia that combines large-scale solar power generation with efforts to combat desertification. By 2030, it aims to produce 48 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. This initiative will help reduce carbon emissions, fight the spread of deserts, create jobs, and boost local economies through technological innovation.

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🚕 Anyone in Los Angeles Can Now Order a Robotaxi

Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by Alphabet, has expanded its robotaxi service in Los Angeles. The driverless ride-hailing service is now available to the public across an 80-square-mile area, ending a waitlist of 300,000 people. Anyone with the Waymo One app can now request a fully autonomous ride 24/7.

Waymo's current fleet provides over 100,000 rides each week. The service has garnered an impressive average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, with a remarkable 98% customer satisfaction rate.

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Altman Predicts AGI by 2025

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stirred the tech community with his prediction that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could be realized by 2025, a timeline that contrasts sharply with many experts who foresee AGI's arrival much later. Despite skepticism, Altman asserts that OpenAI is on track to achieve this ambitious goal, emphasizing ongoing advancements and substantial funding, while also suggesting that the initial societal impact of AGI might be minimal.

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🎸 The Beatles Make AI History with Grammy Nominations

The Beatles have made a groundbreaking return to the Grammy stage with their AI-enhanced song "Now and Then," earning nominations for Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance nearly 50 years after their breakup. This historic achievement, reported by Business Today and Moneycontrol, highlights the band's innovative use of AI technology to isolate John Lennon's vocals from a decades-old demo tape.

Listen to “Now and Then”

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📣 Hello everyone! Here’s the most exciting AI news from Week 45 of 2024 in our Sunday digest.

MAIN NEWS

🖼 Flux image generator update. The new Ultra and Raw modes allow you to create photorealistic detailed images in high resolution.

🌳 The story of Flux. How did the German startup Black Forest Labs create a competitor to DALL-E and Midjourney?

SAVE THIS — IT'S HELPFUL

🎸 All our manuals on working with audio, voice, and music using generative AI. The best from 2024.

TO READ

🐶 AI-powered collar helps you talk to your dog. Texas-based startup Personifi AI has introduced a gadget for cat and dog owners: a "talking" pet collar called Shazam Band.

🧪 Scientists teleport smells using AI. A new technology from Osmo startup will allow sending scents via the Internet, like music or pictures.

🚕 EHang Holdings has received permission to conduct test flights of their air taxi in several Chinese cities. The company's vice president, Dong Wan, tested the first model, EH216.

👩‍⚕️ How doctors use AI. According to a BMJ Health and Care Informatics survey, about 20% of therapists in the UK use artificial intelligence tools in their daily work.

📱 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims AGI is achievable with existing hardware, though many researchers believe it's still decades away.

TO WATCH

🎤 At TechCrunch Disrupt, actor and AI investor Ashton Kutcher explained why he invests in competitors and why we shouldn't fear the AI revolution.

Enjoy your Sunday 👍

🧬 South Africa Allows Human Genome Editing

South Africa has become the first country to allow scientists to modify human genes that can be passed down to future generations. This means doctors could potentially change an unborn baby's genes to prevent diseases or other conditions. While this is a major scientific breakthrough, many worry about safety risks and ethical concerns. Most other countries currently ban this type of gene editing in humans. The decision has started worldwide discussions about whether changing human genes that affect future generations should be allowed.

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🐾 Cloned Ferret's Historic Birth

A cloned black-footed ferret named Antonia just had two healthy babies at the Smithsonian's Zoo — the first time ever in the US! This is huge news for saving endangered species.

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🌲 Black Forest Labs has released Ultra and Raw modes for its text-to-image AI model Flux 1.1 [pro].

Ultra mode allows image generation at 4x higher resolution than the standard Flux 1.1 [pro] while maintaining prompt adherence and an impressive generation time of only 10 seconds per sample.

The Raw option is designed to make photorealistic images. The developers ensure that Raw mode significantly increases diversity in portraits and enhances the realism of nature images.

🔴 Flux 1.1 [ultra] is already available on @GPT4Telegrambot. You can use it in the Midjourney / Flux bundle.

First Wooden Satellite Launched

As reported by Reuters and CNBC, the world's first wooden satellite, LignoSat, was launched into space on November 5, 2024, as part of a groundbreaking experiment to test timber as a potential material for future space exploration and habitation.

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Hybrid Plant-Animal Cells

According to New Atlas, Japanese researchers have developed "planimal cells" by integrating chloroplasts from algae into hamster cells, a pioneering advancement in cellular biology that could revolutionize tissue engineering, sustainable biotechnology, and novel applications by enabling solar-powered animal cells with enhanced photosynthetic capabilities.

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MIT's Robot Learning Breakthrough

MIT researchers have developed a novel training method for robots inspired by large language models, combining diverse data sources to enhance learning and adaptability across various tasks. As reported by TechCrunch, this approach aims to overcome the limitations of traditional imitation learning by utilizing a more comprehensive dataset, potentially revolutionizing the way robots acquire new skills.

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AGI With Current Hardware

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made a bold claim during a recent Reddit AMA, stating that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is "achievable with current hardware," sparking debate among AI experts and enthusiasts about the timeline and feasibility of reaching this milestone. While Altman's optimistic projection aligns with some industry leaders' views, it contrasts sharply with more conservative estimates from other researchers who believe AGI may still be decades away.

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Starship In-Orbit Refueling Test

SpaceX is gearing up for a groundbreaking demonstration of in-space refueling technology, with plans to transfer propellant between two orbiting Starships as early as March 2025, according to NASA officials. This critical milestone will pave the way for future lunar missions and represents a significant step towards SpaceX's ambitious goal of enabling long-duration space travel.

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📣 Hello, everyone! Here’s the most exciting AI news from Week 44 of 2024 in our Sunday digest.

MAIN NEWS

📱 OpenAI has launched AI-powered search. ChatGPT can now answer real-time questions about world news, stock quotes, sports scores, and weather.

BOT UPDATE

🎬 Kling on @GPT4Telegrambot. Generate unique videos on Telegram based on your text prompt, an image, or two frames.

SAVE THIS — IT'S HELPFUL

🥇 Recraft V3 — a new model that has risen to first place in the Text to Image Arena, surpassing Flux and Midjourney.

🔈 ElevenLabs has introduced Voice Design — a feature that allows users to create unique AI voices based on textual descriptions.

TO READ

🔘 Neuralink is developing an implant to restore vision, even for people without eyes or optic nerves.

😎 "Sense" smart glasses use AI to recognize emotions, count calories, and assess health and lifestyle.

📱 Meta has released NotebookLlama, an open-source alternative to Google's NotebookLM. It turns text documents into AI-generated podcasts.

🎹 Roli Airwave is an AI device that teaches piano from scratch or helps musicians improve their skills.

TO WATCH

🤖 "Where the Robots Grow": AiMation Studios released the first feature-length animated film made entirely with AI tools.

📱 A new selection of TED talks exploring how artists view AI’s role in art.

Enjoy your Sunday 👍

📱 OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Search

OpenAI unveiled an AI-powered web search within ChatGPT. It can display world news, stock quotes, weather updates, and sports scores in real time. This is possible through partnerships with The Associated Press, Financial Times, Le Monde, Time, and other global media.

OpenAI is now entering serious competition with major players like Microsoft — which integrates AI elements into Bing — the AI-driven search engine Perplexity, and, of course, the industry giant Google.

ℹ️ Try our web search bot based on Perplexity: @GPT4AgentsBot

Which one will you be using?

🔥 — ChatGPT Search
❤️ — Google
🤓 — Perplexity