Over the past couple of years, Nvidia, by far the largest AI chipmaker, has ramped up its investments in startups that propel it deeper into the AI space.
Nvidia isn’t the only AI chipmaker investing in startups. Its rivals — Intel, AMD and Arm — are too. Here’s to what extent.
With an emphasis on AI-first strategy and improving Google Cloud databases’ capability to support GenAI applications, Google announced developments in the integration of generative AI with databases.
AWS offers a broad range of services for vector database requirements, including Amazon OpenSearch Service, Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible Edition, Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL, Amazon Neptune ML, and Amazon MemoryDB for Redis. AWS emphasizes the operationalization of embedding models, making application development more productive through features like data management, fault tolerance, and critical security features. AWS’s strategy focuses on simplifying the scaling and operationalization of AI-powered applications, providing developers with the tools to innovate and create unique experiences powered by vector search.
Azure takes a similar approach by offering vector database extensions to existing databases. This strategy aims to avoid the extra cost and complexity of moving data to a separate database, keeping vector embeddings and original data together for better data consistency, scale, and performance. Azure Cosmos DB and Azure PostgreSQL Server are positioned as services that support these vector database extensions. Azure’s approach emphasizes the integration of vector search capabilities directly alongside other application data, providing a seamless experience for developers.
Google’s move towards native support for vector storage in existing databases simplifies building enterprise GenAI applications relying on data stored in the cloud. The integration with LangChain is a smart move, enabling developers to instantly take advantage of the new capabilities.
Punyo is a soft robot designed to improve whole-body manipulation research by employing its arms and chest.
Toyota seems to be diving into more than just cars.
Toyota developed Punyo, a soft robot with capabilities that amplify, rather than replace people, helps lift heavy objects or move furniture.
Check out Sanctuary AI’s Pheonix humanoid robot sorting items with grace and speed.
Following hot on the heels of Tesla’s Optimus and Figure 1 videos released recently, another humanoid robotics firm, Sanctuary AI, released the latest developments in its bot–the Pheonix.
Sanctuary AI’s Pheonix can now move things around a table just like a human being. Check it out for yourself.
Fast and cheap for AI inference (responding to chat prompts with very low latency at very high speeds.)
Discussing how it works, benchmarks, how it compares to other AI accelerators and the future outlook!
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The effort to give robots AI brains is revealing big practical challenges—and bigger ethical concerns.
Alan Thompson is an AI expert who is closely tracking progress to AGI.
His definition is:
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a machine capable of understanding the world as well as—or better than—any human, in practically every field, including the ability to interact with the world via physical embodiment.
Understanding Neuromorphic Engineering.
Neuromorphic Engineering draws inspiration from the human brain’s architecture and functioning, aiming to create electronic systems that mimic the brain’s ability to process information in a parallel, energy-efficient, and adaptable manner. Unlike traditional computing, which relies on sequential processing, neuromorphic systems leverage neural networks to enable faster and more efficient computation.
Mimicking the Human Brain.
Kurihara, Y., Takahashi, T. & Osu, R. The topology of interpersonal neural network in weak social ties. Sci Rep 14, 4,961 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-55495-7
You’ve seen a ton of videos of humanoid robots – but this one feels different. It’s Sanctuary’s Phoenix bot, with “the world’s best robot hands,” working totally autonomously at near-human speeds – much faster than Tesla’s or Figure’s robots.
Canadian company Sanctuary AI has been accelerating its own progress toward general-purpose humanoids, using teleoperation to show Phoenix how to do things, and letting it go away and figure out more in simulation.
Phoenix is an odd duck in this space, in that the Sanctuary team hasn’t got it up and walking yet, deciding to let others figure that bit out so its team can focus on the nitty gritty of work behaviors. Thus, it sits on a decidedly unsexy wheeled platform, but it has some of the most finely-tuned and human-like hands out of anything we’ve ever seen.
