Who Needs Humans when you have AI Companions?

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Explore our 2024 AI Deep Dive. How human relationships are evolving alongside AI companions. Plus, Meta steps into the search engine arena, and Africa’s fintech revolution gains momentum. Do you have an AI friend or companion? Share your thoughts in the comments. Dive in with us!

• 2024 Generative AI Deep Dive.
• Meta Developing Its Own AI Search Engine.
• African Fintech Startups Achieving Unicorn Status by Filling Banking Gaps.
• 🧰 AI Tools (Voice Cloning)
• 📰 News and Trends.

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2024 Generative AI Deep Dive.

The research by CB Insights breaks down key trends in generative AI, highlighting infrastructure demands, emerging models, and evolving applications.

Generative AI Infrastructure

• Energy Demands: AI data centers, like those using Nvidia H100 chips, consume energy equivalent to entire countries. This pushes demand for renewable and nuclear energy, with major investments in cooling tech and sustainable power.

• Data Scarcity: High-quality data for AI is running out, leading to a pivot towards synthetic datasets. OpenAI and others are increasingly training models on AI-generated data.
• Chip Shortages: Nvidia faces competition as Amazon, Google, and others develop proprietary chips to counter GPU shortages.

Foundation Models

• Multimodal AI: Models like Google’s Gemini Ultra set a new standard, integrating diverse inputs (text, video, audio). Many enterprises are expected to follow suit.
• Smaller Models: Efficient models like Meta’s Llama-2 are gaining traction, particularly in privacy-sensitive industries, due to their affordability and efficiency.
• Open Source Challenge: Open-source models are gaining momentum, threatening closed proprietary systems by offering lower costs and customizability.

Human-Machine Interactions

• AI Companions: AI companionship is rising, especially among Gen Z, contributing to reduced traditional relationships.

And…

• AI Hardware: Innovation in AI-driven devices could disrupt Apple’s iPhone dominance. Startups like Humane are leading the charge with AI-native wearables.

Generative AI Applications

• Boosting Productivity: AI copilots are transforming productivity in software development, healthcare, and legal sectors, cutting down on repetitive tasks.
• Cybersecurity: GenAI tools are simultaneously aiding cyber defenses and enabling new attacks, pushing security firms to adopt AI solutions.
• Journalism Disruption: AI is transforming news production, but AI search threatens traditional media traffic, prompting licensing deals between media and AI companies.

Meta’s AI Search Ambition

• Meta aims to compete with Google and Bing by developing its own AI search engine, reducing dependency on competitors, and entering the AI-powered search market.

Fintech Opportunities

• For fintechs, particularly in underbanked regions like Africa, generative AI presents a huge opportunity to bridge financial service gaps, improve customer experience, and drive financial inclusion. This aligns with AI’s broader push to address service accessibility globally.

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Meta Developing Its Own AI Search Engine.

Meta is creating its own web-crawling search engine to power responses for its AI chatbot, aiming to reduce its reliance on competitors like Google and Microsoft’s Bing. This move positions Meta to compete directly in the AI-driven search market, challenging established players by providing its own search data instead of depending on rivals. Shares of Google dropped 0.8% following the news, while Meta saw a slight gain of 0.3%.

🧰 AI Tools

Voice Cloning.

• Murf AI — User-friendly platform for quick, high-quality voiceovers, favored for commercial and marketing applications.
• iSpeech — A versatile solution for corporate applications with support for a wide array of languages and voices.
• Veritone Voice — Focuses on maintaining brand consistency with highly customizable voice cloning used in media and entertainment.
• Microsoft Azure Neural TTS — Scalable and highly customizable, ideal for integration into enterprise applications.

African Fintech Startups Achieving Unicorn Status by Filling Banking Gaps.

Google and other investors have put $110 million into Nigeria’s Moniepoint to scale digital payments and banking across Africa. Valued over $1 billion, Moniepoint aims to expand its integrated services for digital payments, banking, FX, and credit. With traditional banking underdeveloped in many regions, fintech like Moniepoint has a huge opportunity to drive financial inclusion for millions lacking access.

📰 AI News and Trends

• Apple Intelligence Launches as iOS 18’s AI Features Begin Rolling Out (TheVerge)
• Biden Administration Finalizes AI and Chip Investment Restrictions in China (Semafor)
• Universal Music Group Strikes Strategic Deal With “Ethical AI Music Company” Klay Vision (THR)
• Open-source AI must reveal its training data, per new OSI definition (TheVerge)

🌐 Other Tech news

• The Top 50 Creators of 2024, according to Forbes.
• Indonesia Makes iPhone 16 Use, Sale Illegal as Apple Fails to Invest in the Country (TechTimes)
• Bitcoin price is back above $70,000 for the first time in four months, with the ‘Uptober’ rally eventually happening and heading into November, which is also historically bullish (Bitcoinist)

👻Who Needs Humans when you have AI Companions? was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.