Microsoft released .NET 8 with cloud and AI enhancements

📰 Quick News 📰

🖥️ Microsoft introduced .NET 8 with performance upgrades, AI integration, and enhanced cloud-native support. The update includes full-stack Blazor, mobile app updates with .NET MAUI, and is a long-term support version for more extended stability.

📜 Notion has rolled out a Q&A feature which lets users ask an AI to find and retrieve information from their notes and databases; it's an executive assistant in digital form. Priced ~$8/m, it aims to streamline the search and usage of data within Notion's platform, accounted for the varying permissions among different users.

🌦️ DeepMind’s newest AI is revolutionizing weather forecasting with models that predict near-term rain, 10-day forecasts, and even century-long climate patterns, impacting daily decisions and long-term planning.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 A six-member board at OpenAI is charged with deciding when the firm has reached Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). AGI refers to a system better than humans at most economically valuable work. This decision could have significant implications for licensing agreements, specifically impacting Microsoft’s involvement.

📉 Michael Burry, the investor known for anticipating the housing market crash, has now placed bets against semiconductor stocks such as Nvidia, signaling skepticism in the industry. After closing his bets against broader indexes, Burry's latest SEC filing reveals a put against an ETF that includes Nvidia.

🎥 The 1stAI Machine, created by 1stAve Machine/SGX, is an AI-powered device for video editing that could change how movies are made, requiring no cameras or traditional film equipment and controlled by dials and screens.

👓 In virtual reality meetings, AI can compromise privacy by analyzing subtle hand gestures to figure out what a user is typing, potentially leading to password theft and data breaches.

📚 Nerd section 📚

🕸️ Getting Started with Claude 2 API: Learn about Anthropic's conversational AI assistant, Claude 2, which boasts improved performance, response length, and availability.

🌐 Web section 🌐 

So here (but not in the email version) we're adding AI-related stories that may be slightly less attention-grabbing, but still could move the needle in specific sectors and fields.

💸 Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has invested in Civitai, a community-driven AI content platform. Civitai has quickly grown to 3 million registered users, while implementing a system to manage the use of artists' work. The company looks to commercialize AI-generated content and battle non-consensual image use issues.

💰 Airbnb's purchase of Gameplanner.AI, founded by a Siri co-creator, for under $200 million, signals a push towards using AI to offer tailored travel recommendations to its users. 

🤝🏻 Dell and Hugging Face have joined forces to assist companies in adopting language AI technology straightforwardly and securely. This collaboration will offer resources to ease the integration of these advanced AI tools into business operations, focusing on protecting proprietary information and simplifying the otherwise complex deployment process.

🎓 Coursera's new offering, "Generative AI for Everyone" by Andrew Ng, attracted 43,000 learners in its first week, indicating high demand for understanding Generative AI, its applications, and the benefits of certification in this emerging tech field.

📃 A study found AI-generated white faces look more human than actual people's faces, often fooling individuals into thinking they're interacting with another human, raising concerns about misuse in cybercrime and the need for diverse representation to prevent bias.

💵 Businesses are heavily investing in traditional AI, with an 18% share of cloud expenses, while generative AI's potential has not yet translated into significant enterprise spending, staying below 1%. Expected to transform a wide range of industries, generative AI faces skepticism and operational hurdles that prevent higher investment, even though some early adopters are realizing notable benefits in data utilization and workflow automation.

💔 A new AI tool predicts the 10-year risk of heart attacks, potentially saving lives by alerting those at risk. Cardiovascular diseases are responsible for a staggering 17.9 million deaths annually, with heart attacks and strokes comprising the majority. This new AI tool stands to provide individuals a critical window to intervene and take necessary steps towards heart health, potentially lowering the number of premature deaths worldwide.

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