The SEC Newgate AI Weekly

Welcome to the latest edition of AI Weekly. It has been a busy week, full of notable developments and advancements in the AI industry:

A Nobel endeavour?

There is no Nobel Prize for computer science but judges awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics to AI pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton to mark decades of work which paved the way for the technology that underpins much of the industry.

Hinton made the headlines last year when he voiced concerns about misinformation, electoral impact and the potential for huge disruption to the jobs market. His interview with BBC Economics Editor Faisal Islam earlier this year is a must-watch

Give me a reason

Google has developed a reasoning technology in its latest challenge to OpenAI, whose o1 model marks a significant step forward in the race to mimic the human ability of reasoning, according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg.

This should offer encouragement to investors concerned that ChatGPT will pose a threat to the concept of search engines, but Google’s understandable caution over maintaining consumer trust and its reputation for accuracy mean that OpenAI, who tend to rush new products to market, can appear to be ahead of the curve.

Meta

Meta unveiled Movie Gen, a set of AI models that promise up to 16 seconds via text prompting with synchronised audio. The videos can be generated from text only or based on a static image. But what really sets it apart from competitors such as OpenAI’s Sora or LumaLabs’ Dream Machine is the editing suite which offers “precise video editing – from styles and transitions to fine-grained edits”.

Examples displayed on the Meta website show video edited to change a person’s clothes or remove and replace backgrounds. Unfortunately, Meta talks only of a “potential future release” at this stage, but it’s one to watch.

Quote of the week

Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton on the potential impact of AI: “I think it will have a huge influence. It will be comparable with the Industrial Revolution. But instead of exceeding people in physical strength, it’s going to exceed people in the intellectual ability.”