In today’s newsletter:

• News - 💻 SoftBank First to Get NVIDIA Chips, Fast-Tracks Japan’s AI Dominance 🇯🇵

• Productivity - 📝 Text to Visuals in Seconds?

• Culture - 🗿 MIT Artist Turns A.I. Into Marble Masterpieces

💻 SoftBank First to Get NVIDIA Chips, Fast-Tracks Japan’s AI Dominance 🇯🇵

SoftBank just posted its biggest quarterly profit in two years, fueled by its AI-focused investments and strong gains in India’s booming stock market. Founder Masayoshi Son’s careful strategy shift towards AI paid off, with highlights including a $500 million investment in OpenAI and massive growth for chip designer Arm, which has seen its shares double this year. As a result, SoftBank shares have surged nearly two-thirds in the past year, giving the tech giant renewed momentum after a rough fiscal 2023.

On the cutting-edge side, SoftBank is teaming up with NVIDIA to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer and pioneer a breakthrough AI-5G telecom network, called AI-RAN. This innovative infrastructure could transform base stations from cost-heavy assets into revenue generators, allowing telcos to monetize unused network capacity. Through trials in Japan, the AI-RAN solution showed impressive results, supporting real-time AI inference for autonomous vehicles and robotics while reducing energy consumption by 40%. This partnership marks a major leap in combining AI and telecommunications, positioning SoftBank at the forefront of the next wave of AI-driven tech evolution.

🗞️ In Other News…

• OpenAI is set to launch "Operator," a new AI agent in January that can autonomously perform tasks like writing code or booking travel, marking a shift towards agentic AI tools capable of executing multi-step actions for users.

• Atomic Canyon is partnering with PG&E to deploy AI software at Diablo Canyon, California’s last nuclear power plant, to help manage aging infrastructure and streamline maintenance by analyzing decades of regulatory documents.

• OpenAI is unveiling a policy blueprint for U.S. AI infrastructure, proposing AI economic zones, a North American AI alliance, and enhanced energy and connectivity projects, aiming to collaborate with the new U.S. administration and counter China’s AI ambitions.

• Proprio’s Paradigm platform leverages AI to enhance surgery with personalized preoperative planning, real-time 3D visualizations using digital twins, and predictive analytics, significantly improving precision, guidance, and patient outcomes.

• Amazon Web Services is offering $110 million in free computing credits to researchers using its custom AI chip, Trainium, aiming to boost adoption and compete with Nvidia by allowing direct chip programming rather than relying on Nvidia’s Cuda software.

📝 Text to Visuals in Seconds?

Napkin AI is a new design tool that streamlines the process of creating visuals, making it a simple and speedy alternative to complex software like Adobe and Canva. By using AI, it instantly transforms text into compelling visuals, allowing users to choose from various styles like ladders, arrows, and funnels. Whether you’re making an infographic or a social media post, it’s all done in seconds, without the need for extensive design skills.

Currently in free beta, Napkin AI offers customizable templates and an option to start from scratch while still providing AI-generated layout suggestions. While its limited templates might require some tweaks, the tool shines when simplifying complex ideas and breaking down processes into engaging graphics. It’s an ideal choice for those who need quick, professional visuals without the hassle, and its share feature makes collaborating with colleagues a breeze.

🗿 MIT Artist Turns A.I. Into Marble Masterpieces

Alexander Reben, an M.I.T.-trained artist and technologist, took a playful approach during his three-month residency at OpenAI, using cutting-edge A.I. tools to blend the digital and physical worlds in unexpected ways. He turned A.I.-generated images into 3D marble sculptures and created a “conceptual camera” that transformed photos into absurd and witty outputs, like sunglasses labeled as “shady peepers.” Reben’s quirky inventions showcase how A.I. can be a fun and collaborative tool for artists, rather than a threat.

While OpenAI sees collaborations like Reben’s as a way to highlight creative possibilities, some artists remain skeptical, suspecting it’s a strategic move to placate concerns about copyright and artist compensation. Art lecturer Hugh Leeman appreciates Reben’s humorous, self-aware projects, which poke fun at both A.I. and his own use of the technology. As Reben’s work heads to art shows in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, the debate continues on whether A.I. will redefine creativity or simply offer artists a fresh set of tools to explore their craft.

VC Fundraising Rounds

• Alison.ai, specializing in creative AI for advertising, has raised $13.3 million in Seed funding. (11/13/24)

• Zeplyn, a startup focused on automating operational tasks for financial advisors, has announced a $3 million Seed funding round. (11/13/24)

• Auror, an Auckland-based company specializing in crime reporting and prevention software, has secured $82 million in a Series C funding round—one of the largest for a New Zealand startup—bringing its valuation to over $500 million. (11/12/24)

• Fastino, a new provider of foundation AI models, has launched with a suite of task-optimized language models that promise greater accuracy, speed, and safety than traditional LLMs, alongside announcing a $7 million pre-seed funding round. (11/12/24)

• Cogna, a UK-based startup, has raised $15 million to support its mission of automating enterprise software development. (11/11/24)

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