​AI Tech Circle​

Hey Reader!

Today is the last day of the year 2023. We all are targeting to have New Year resolutions for 2024, which is becoming so common norm that we do all the planning. After a few years, this planning is usually going in vain as very few are following up, and the rest all are going back to normal the way they have been living for the last few years.

New Year resolutions are becoming mundane rituals to follow and then get dragged with the routine issues. another thing I have observed is few influencers are scheduling goal-setting webinars/ live sessions. not sure what percentage of success rate they are getting however it is still a good initiative to inspire communities to aim and achieve personal and professional goals.

On 1st January 2023, I wrote this article on 'New Year Resolutions to Actions' and compared it to the last few years where I only achieved 30% of the goals. With this new technique of "Rather than making big promises and writing resolutions, you should begin with a small action." This year my achievement percentage went to 60-70% with the habit of converting big tasks to small actions.

for example, I am taking action every Saturday to write this newsletter and editing of my weekly podcast 'Open Tech Talks', which I have achieved in the last few months. I need to still work on a few areas to improve and that is where the resolutions to actions mantra will help me to achieve more during this year on personal, professional, financial, and health levels.

Over to you, to work on your year 2024's goal to bring you more prosperity. My prayer for every one of you is to get you to a completely new level of positivity and mastery.

Happy New Year!

Weekly News & Updates...

This week's new AI features and products are announced, fueling the technology revolution.

1. Meta’s 10 most inspiring AI research projects as reported by Meta​
   1. Segment Anything (SAM) A step toward the first foundation model for image segmentation. Details: https://bit.ly/3tyeJKu​
   2. DINOv2 The first method for training computer vision models that uses self-supervised learning to achieve results matching or exceeding industry standards. Details: https://bit.ly/3TGTEIb​
   3. Llama 2 The next generation of our open source large language model, available for free for research and commercial use. Details: https://bit.ly/3RY66C6
   4. Emu Video & Emu Edit Generative AI research for high quality, diffusion-based text-to-video generation & controlled image editing with text instructions. Details: https://bit.ly/3RZVZwU
   5. I -JEPA Self-supervised computer vision that learns to understand the world by predicting it. The first model based on a component of @ylecun's vision to make AI systems learn and reason like animals and humans. Details: https://bit.ly/3TA9oNk​
   6. Audiobox Our new foundation research model for audio generation. Details: https://bit.ly/47ib6pQ
   7. Brain decoding - toward real-time reconstruction of visual perception Using MEG, this AI system can decode the unfolding of visual representations in the brain with an unprecedented temporal resolution. Details: https://bit.ly/3vpgDNR
   8. Open Catalyst demo A service that allows researchers to accelerate work in material sciences by enabling them to simulate the reactivity of catalyst materials faster than existing computational methods. Details: https://bit.ly/3vphiij
   9. Seamless Communication A new family of AI translation models that preserve expression and deliver near-real time streaming translations. Details: https://bit.ly/3toBDE8​
   10. ImageBind The first AI model capable of binding data from six modalities at once. A breakthrough that brings machines one step closer to the human ability to bind together information from many different senses. Details: https://bit.ly/3NLUaBc​
2. ​Preparedness Framework from OpenAI, a living document (currently in beta) that details the technical and operational preparedness adopted to guide the safety of frontier model development. link to pdf document​

The Cloud: the backbone of the AI revolution

• Improving search relevancy powered by hybridization of semantic search and lexical search​
• Explain and customize cloud networking with Duet AI​
• Steering at the Frontier: Extending the Power of Prompting​
• Overcoming common contact center challenges with generative AI ​

Favorite Tip Of The Week:

Here’s my favorite resource of the week.

A successful generative AI model is defined by 3 fundamental criteria: 1 - Quality, 2 - Diversity, and 3 - Speed

read more on this topic over here​

Potential of AI

• ​Safari Across 5 Animal-Focused AI Initiatives during the year 2023 powered with GPUs, deep learning, and robotics technology to help conservationists to poaching threats, powering more sustainable aquaculture, and helping scientists monitor coral reef health.

Things to Know

• ​MusicLM: Generating Music From Text: a text-to-music model powered by AudioLM and MuLAN, which can make music from text, humming, images or video, and musical accompaniments to singing.

The Opportunity...

Podcast:

• This week's Open Tech Talks episode 122 'Mastering Managed Services: Making the Right Choice for Your Business with Dave Sobel'

Courses to attend:

• ​Introduction to Machine Learning, University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2023
• Book: Build a Large Language Model (from Scratch)​
• ​Large Language Model Course​

Events:

• ​CES 2024, Jan. 9-12, in Las Vegas, USA

Tech and Tools...

• ​A generalized information-seeking agent system with Large Language Models (LLMs)
• ​Facial Emotion Recognition AI
• ​Perplexity AI​

Data Sets...

• Open access to NASA’s collection of Earth science data for understanding and protecting our home planet
• Registry of Open Data on AWS​
• Open Data Sets repository from Oracle​

Other Technology News

Want to stay on the cutting edge?

Here’s what else is happening in Information Technology you should know about:

• ​IBM AI chief advises people who want a tech job in 2024 to learn the language and creative thinking skills you get with the liberal arts
• ​The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement

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That’s it!

As always, thanks for reading.

Hit reply and let me know what you found most helpful this week - I’d love to hear from you!

Until next week,

Kashif Manzoor

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The opinions expressed here are solely my own conjecture based on experience, practice, and observation. They do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans, or strategies of my current or previous employers or their clients/customers. The objective of this newsletter is to share and learn with the community.