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  • 🤖 Microsoft Invests $1.5 Billion in Abu Dhabi-Based AI Firm

🤖 Microsoft Invests $1.5 Billion in Abu Dhabi-Based AI Firm

PLUS: Google’s Finance Team Layoffs, InstantMesh Generates 3D Objects in Seconds?!

Welcome back AI enthusiasts!

In today’s AI Report:

  • 💵Microsoft Invests $1.5 Billion in Abu Dhabi-Based AI Firm

  • 🧯Google’s Finance Team Layoffs

  • 🧊InstantMesh Generates 3D Objects in Seconds?!

  • 🛠5 Trending Tools

  • 💰Venture Capital Updates

  • 💼Who’s Hiring?

Read Time: 3 minutes

🗞RECENT NEWS

MICROSOFT

💵Microsoft Invests $1.5 Billion in Abu Dhabi-Based AI Firm

Image Source: Valeriano DiDomenico/World Economic Forum

Microsoft announced a strategic investment in G42 to co-innovate and deliver advanced AI solutions with Microsoft Azure for industries and markets across the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.

Key Details:
  • Microsoft will invest $1.5 billion in G42 for a minority stake in the company, and Brad Smith, Microsoft Vice Chair and President, will join G42’s board of directors.

  • The deal reportedly required negotiations with the Biden administration due to G42’s ties with the Chinese Community Party (CCP).

  • Earlier this year, the CCP sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo calling for the inclusion of G42 on the Entity List, which would bar the Abu Dhabi-based company from accessing U.S. technologies.

  • Microsoft’s investment in G42 signals the company’s U.S. alliance in the “Tech Cold War.”

Why It’s Important:
  • As the United Arab Emirates (UAE) balances foreign relationships with the U.S. and China, G42 has inevitably become a proxy in the technology rivalry between the two superpowers.

  • The deal between Microsoft and G42 represents an uncommon case involving overt backing from their respective governments. This “commercial partnership is backed by assurances from the U.S. and UAE governments through a binding agreement to ensure the secure, trusted, and responsible development and deployment of AI.”

🩺 PULSE CHECK

How will this deal impact the “Tech Cold War?”

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GOOGLE

🧯Google’s Finance Team Layoffs

Image Source: GES Photo/Public Domain

Alphabet’s Google is implementing company-wide layoffs within the finance and real estate divisions to streamline efficiency and reallocate resources to AI initiatives.

Key Details:
  • Google’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ruth Porat explained that the company is restructuring the finance and real estate divisions through layoffs and relocations to funnel resources toward AI investments.

  • “The technology sector is in the midst of a tremendous platform shift with AI,” Porat stated in the email sent to finance division employees. “As a company, this means we have the opportunity to make more helpful products for billions of users, but we must make tough decisions, including aligning with our highest priorities.”

  • The restructuring will emphasize developing “hubs” for more centralized operations in Bangalore, IN; Mexico City, MX; Chicago, IL; Atlanta, GA; and San Francisco, CA.

  • In January 2023, Google eliminated 12,000 jobs, or roughly 6% of the full-time workforce, in central engineering, hardware, and advertising positions.

Why It’s Important:
  • Google CEO Sundar Pichai informed employees that they should expect more job cuts. These cuts are targeted at improving operational efficiency and amplifying the company’s human-centric tasks.

  • Simply put, Google is attempting to save time and money by automating and optimizing routine tasks to improve operational efficiencies. Now, skilled employees can redirect their time to higher-value work.

AI RESEARCH

🧊InstantMesh Generates 3D Objects in Seconds?!

Tencent’s researchers developed InstantMesh, an open-source AI model that transforms images into detailed 3D objects in seconds.

InstantMesh leverages a feed-forward framework (i.e., information flows in one direction like an assembly line) for instant 3D mesh generation from a single image.

InstantMesh also relies on a specialized module called FlexiCubes to apply geometric data points like depth, surface, shapes, curves, or meshes to images.

🛠TRENDING TOOLS

🎨FaceMod offers effortless online content creation with face-swapping and editing tools.

🗣InterviewWithAI uses AI to land your dream job.

🪴Healax helps students proactively tackle stress and anxiety.

💨SuperWhisper converts speech to text with speed and accuracy.

📔Collato is a smart notetaker for busy people.

🔮Browse our always Up-To-Date AI Tools Database.

💰VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

  • Rivos raises over $250M to target the data analytics and GenAI markets.

  • Gridbeyond secures a $55M Series C to connect the energy grid with smart energy expansion.

  • Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) raises $7.2B for AI startups.

💼WHO’S HIRING?

  • Loop (San Francisco, CA): Software Engineer Intern, Full-Stack, Summer 2024

  • AMD (Santa Clara, CA): Graduate Software Engineering Co-op/Intern, Fall 2024

  • Amazon (Westborough, MA): Business Intelligence Engineer (BEI), Robotics Storage Technology, Fall 2024

  • Golden Hippo (Remote): Email Automation Assistant, New Grad

  • Anthropic (San Francisco, CA): Software Engineer, Anthropic Labs

🤖PROMPT OF THE DAY

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📒FINAL NOTE

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