$100 billion Supercomputers, AI FOMO And Angry Robots

A new study from GoDaddy finds 75% of entrepreneurs believe generative AI gives them an edge. But are they using that edge to its full potential? And are the other 25% simply ignoring AI, or too busy reading the news to work out what that edge might be? Don’t sit on the sidelines, get involved.

Today’s AI news brings countless updates that you could spend hours reading. But very few matter to your business. Here’s a roundup of today’s news and what it means for entrepreneurs and business owners, including the FOMO of tech giants, Microsoft and OpenAI’s plans for the future, and what kind of emotions robots may have.

What’s new in AI today? Key updates that affect your business.

Tech giants have AI FOMO, ploughing billions into startups

This week Amazon invested $2.75billion in AI startup Anthropic, marking its largest venture deal on record. Since Amazon announced this intention back in September, other tech giants have also been, “spending unprecedented sums of money to invest in artificial intelligence startups to avoid falling behind in the generative AI boom,” according to CNBC. No one wants to miss out.

Conveniently, Anthropic has committed to spend $4billion with Amazon Web Services (AWS) over the next five years. Sounds like a win-win for Amazon.

For entrepreneurs who can be as nimble as speedboats, not clunky cruiseship-like big tech entities who have to go through red tape, legislation and company politics, this marks opportunity. If you’re building in AI, make audacious asks of big companies. Ask for investment, suggest partnerships, impress them with speed. There are a finite number of companies that can afford to play in the market, but those that can are making big bets. Now is the time to approach them.

Microsoft and OpenAI plan a $100 billion supercomputer to power AI: reports

Microsoft and OpenAI are working on a $100 billion supercomputer “Stargate”, according to The Information, that could launch as soon as 2028. “We are always planning for the next generation of infrastructure innovations needed to continue pushing the frontier of AI capability,” a representative for Microsoft told Business Insider.

AI isn’t going anywhere. People are building for it to become the future and putting the infrastructure in place right now. If you’re building a business, but continuing to read but take no action based on what’s going on, consider that one day you might regret it, just as people regret not buying domain names in 1985, Bitcoin in 2012 and not starting a personal brand ten years ago.

OpenAI can recreate human voices, sharing with early testers

Last week OpenAI revealed it was testing Voice Engine, that can recreate a person’s voice from a 15-second recording, with groups of early trialists. Not only can it recreate a voice, it can translate it to multiple different languages. There’s no official release date because OpenAI is still trying to understand the potential dangers, including spread of misinformation and security issues that come with cloning someone’s voice.

Your business can expect the best and prepare for the worst. Think about how your voice, if cloned well, could create more content. If you’re good at writing, this is how your words effortlessly make a podcast. This is how you practice for keynotes or scale your sales efforts. To cover the dark side, warn your team and warn your parents. Explain that a voice that sounds like you may not be you. Have a safeword, set secret questions, take extra caution because the technology is about to actually get good.

AI models will have human-like empathy, admiration and calmness, among other emotions

New York-based Hume AI, led by former Google DeepMind AI researcher Alan Cowen, describes itself as the AI toolkit to measure, understand, and improve how technology affects human emotion. It just raised $50million in series B funding to test that hypothesis. Hume AI said its AI models (and accompanying API) go beyond simple emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, listing 53 different emotions that its AI is capable of detecting, including admiration, adoration, awe, and confusion.

Confused? It’s not just the robots. While it doesn’t matter to you that Hume raised money, it’s important that you understand what empathetic AI could do for your business. In the future there will be an AI version of you, engaging with people when you’re not around. Your business will have AI-generated sales assistants and customer support assistants in your business. Soon they will be able to deeply empathize with your customers.

Entrepreneurs hate AI-generated LinkedIn comments

“Can we all agree that AI Linkedin comments aren’t doing the job people think they are?” said Joe Glover, co-founder of The Marketing Meetup in this popular post on LinkedIn. “I’m optimistic about how AI can help folks and the industry,” added Glover. “But the magic is knowing when to apply the tech. And this… this ain’t it.”

If you’re using an AI tool to generate LinkedIn comments, think about how it makes you look when generic wording gets left across the internet under your name. Scrutinize the output, think about your personal brand, and consider an alternative. Or just prompt the tool better.

Business owners commenting on the LinkedIn post suggesting simply responding “🤖” to comments they suspect are AI-generated.

Don’t get left behind: stay ahead of AI news to keep growing

Play your cards right today and become an AI millionaire or billionaire. Even the words “millionaire” and “billionaire” have AI in them, there’s a huge clue. Discern the information that’s relevant and take action on it. Don’t concern yourself with the thousands of new AI tools that probably aren’t relevant to what you’re trying to do right now. Choose a few and double down. Reimagine your business to be AI first. Do your research and then take considered action.