Grok 3 Released, Receiving Widespread Praise: "Smartest AI on Earth"

⚡️ Headlines

🤖 AI

The New York Times adopts AI tools in the newsroom - The New York Times has approved AI tools that newsroom staff can use for editing copy, summarizing information, and coding. [The Verge].

LinkedIn Shares Insights Into the Use of AI in Marketing [Infographic] - LinkedIn has been exploring the impact of generative AI in marketing specifically, and how marketers view the rising influence of AI tools. [Social Media Today].

China's Baidu to make latest Ernie AI model open-source as competition heats up - Baidu announced plans to open-source its next-generation AI model, Ernie, by June 30, 2025, aiming to boost adoption amid rising competition from startups like DeepSeek. [Reuters].

Tencent Shares Jump as Company Integrates DeepSeek in WeChat - Tencent's stock surged 15% after integrating DeepSeek's AI model into its WeChat search, enhancing user experience and advertising revenue. [Bloomberg].

Mistral Saba - Mistral AI introduced Mistral Saba, a 24-billion-parameter model tailored for Middle Eastern and South Asian languages, offering accurate and culturally relevant AI applications. [Mistral AI].

How AI Can Protect Vital Pipelines and Cables Deep in the Ocean - AI is increasingly used to analyze and synthesize diverse data sources for navigating, mapping, and providing underwater defense. [The Wall Street Journal].

🦾 Emerging Tech

Chokepoint 2.0: An Investigation Promises the Truth About Crypto’s Biggest Conspiracy - An investigation begins into allegations that U.S. regulators conspired to cut the crypto industry out of the banking system, a theory known as Operation Chokepoint 2.0. [WIRED].

🤳 Social Media

Instagram Tests Comment Downvotes to Combat Negative Interactions - Instagram is testing a feature allowing users to downvote comments, aiming to reduce negative interactions and improve content relevance. [Social Media Today].

⚖ Legal

Bill to protect victims of deepfake 'revenge' porn passes US Senate - The U.S. Senate has passed a bill criminalizing the creation and distribution of non-consensual deepfake pornography, aiming to protect victims from exploitation. [Yahoo News].

South Korea Suspends Downloads of Chinese AI App DeepSeek Over Data Privacy Concerns - South Korea has temporarily suspended downloads of DeepSeek's AI app due to non-compliance with local data protection regulations. [PYMNTS].

Meta Is Ready to Bring Trump Into Play in Fight Against EU Rules - Meta's global policy director stated the company may seek President Trump's intervention against EU regulatory measures perceived as discriminatory. [Bloomberg].

🎱 Random

Google Calendar Malware Is on the Rise. Here's How To Stay Safe - Malicious actors are exploiting Google Calendar by embedding phishing links in event descriptions; users are advised to verify event sources and avoid clicking unfamiliar links. [WIRED].

🔌 Plug-Into-This

Musk's xAI unveils Grok-3 AI chatbot to rival ChatGPT, China's DeepSeek

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has introduced Grok-3, the latest version of its chatbot designed to compete with AI models from OpenAI and China's DeepSeek. Grok-3 is now accessible to Premium+ subscribers on Musk's social media platform, X, and through a new SuperGrok subscription tier on xAI's mobile app and Grok.com.

• Enhanced Performance: Grok-3 surpasses its predecessor, Grok-2, in performance, positioning xAI as a significant contender in the open-source large language model (LLM) arena.

• DeepSearch Introduction: xAI has launched DeepSearch, a reasoning-based chatbot that articulates its thought process, aiding in research, brainstorming, and data analysis tasks.

• Colossus Supercomputer: To support Grok-3's development, xAI utilizes Colossus, its supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee, claimed to be the largest globally, highlighting the company's substantial investment in data capacity.

🤖 xAI doesn’t usually get listed in the top AI companies but it may be time to start thinking of it alongside OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

Jeff Dean & Noam Shazeer – 25 years at Google: from PageRank to AGI

In a recent episode of the Dwarkesh Podcast, host Dwarkesh Patel interviews Jeff Dean, Google's Chief Scientist, and Noam Shazeer, a pivotal figure in AI architecture, discussing their 25-year tenure at Google and their contributions to transformative technologies.

• Early Innovations: Dean and Shazeer reflect on their initial projects, including foundational systems like MapReduce and BigTable, which revolutionized data processing and storage.

• Advancements in AI: The conversation delves into the development of the Transformer model and Mixture of Experts (MoE), highlighting their impact on natural language processing and machine learning.

• Pathways Vision: Dean shares insights into Google's Pathways project, aiming to create a unified AI system capable of handling diverse tasks, moving beyond traditional autoregressive models.

• Future Projections: Shazeer discusses ambitious goals, such as achieving a 100-fold increase in world GDP through AI advancements and deploying a million automated researchers within Google's infrastructure.

• Cultural Reflections: Both guests reminisce about the dynamic and innovative culture at Google, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and continuous learning in driving technological progress.

🔍 This discussion offers a comprehensive look into the evolution of AI at Google, providing valuable perspectives on past achievements and future aspirations in the field.

Google's AI Efforts Marred by Turf Disputes

Google's internal divisions are hindering its artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, with significant conflicts arising between teams and leadership over AI development strategies.

• Team Conflicts: The group behind NotebookLM has clashed with the Workspace division, leading to delays and integration issues.

• Structural Fragmentation: AI responsibilities are split between Google Cloud and DeepMind, creating further tensions and a lack of cohesive direction.

• Leadership Disputes: Disagreements among executives over AI priorities have resulted in inconsistent strategies and resource allocation.

• Employee Morale: Ongoing turf wars have negatively impacted employee morale, causing frustration and departures among key talent.

• Product Delays: Internal disputes have led to postponements in AI product rollouts, affecting Google's competitiveness in the AI market.

🤦‍♂️ Just when we may have been ready to conclude that Google had overtaken OpenAI in some regards, more news of internal rot gives pause and tempers those rosy outlooks.

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