DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ AI CEO says people's obsession with reaching artificial general intelligence is 'about creating God'
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Mistral's CEO Arthur Mensch said the obsession with creating general AI is about "creating God." The AI CEO doesn't believe Elon Musk and Sam Altman's predictions that AI will surpass human intelligence. AdvertisementMistral's founder and CEO Arthur Mensch doesn't believe in god — and therefore, he doesn't believe in artificial general intelligence. Artificial general intelligence, also referred to as AGI, is a level of AI that will outperform humans. Mensch said he felt uncomfortable with Silicon Valley's religious fascination with general AI.

Persons: Arthur Mensch, doesn't, Elon Musk, Sam Altman's, Mensch, —, Arthur Mensch doesn't, Mistral, I'm, Sam Altman, Anthony Levandowski, Donald Trump, Levandowski, It's Organizations: Service, The New York Times, Elon, Pollen, Microsoft, Google, Union, Intelligence, Big Tech Locations: Paris, Europe, Levandowski, France, United States, China

☆ Europe’s A.I. ‘Champion’ Sets Sights on Tech Giants in U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Liz Alderman | Adam Satariano | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Arthur Mensch, tall and lean with a flop of unkempt hair, arrived for a speech last month at a sprawling tech hub in Paris wearing jeans and carrying a bicycle helmet. Mr. Mensch, 31, is the chief executive and a founder of Mistral, considered by many to be one of the most promising challengers to OpenAI and Google. revolution, the French government has singled out Mistral as its best hope to create a standard-bearer, and has lobbied European Union policymakers to help ensure the firm’s success. should not be dominated by tech giants, like Microsoft and Google, that might forge global standards at odds with the culture and politics of other countries. At stake is the bigger question of which artificial intelligence models will wind up influencing the world, and how they should be regulated.

Persons: Arthur Mensch, Mensch, ” Matt Clifford, Europe scrambles Organizations: Mistral, Google, European Union, Microsoft Locations: Paris, United States, China, France, British, Europe

☆ Jensen Huang is about to give AI believers a glimpse of the future
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewThere's a running gag that Jensen Huang is to AI fanboys what Taylor Swift is to Swifties. Nvidia's GTC event, starting on Monday, should answer that. AdvertisementMatt Bryson, an analyst at Wedbush, expects Nvidia to lift the lid on the B100, the next-generation version of its H100 GPU. Can AI models eventually reason? Of course, industry watchers will look for any sign that the Nvidia and AI mania might be about to slow down.

Persons: —, Jensen Huang, Taylor Swift, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, hasn't, Bojan Tunguz, Huang, Matt Bryson, Blackwell, It'll, Zuckerberg, he'll, JOSH EDELSON, Brad Lightcap, Arthur Mensch, Christian Szegedy, Elon Musk's, Aidan Gomez, Stanford's Fei, Fei Li, Wedbush's Bryson Organizations: Service, Nvidia, GPU Technology Conference, Business, Apple, Tech, Meta, Microsoft, Google, AMD Locations: San, Woodstock

☆ SAG Awards 2024: Winners list
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Alli Rosenbloom | Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Saturday night’s winners were familiar to those who have been following awards season, as actors from “The Bear,” “Oppenheimer” and “Beef” took home statuettes as expected. Alan Ruck, center, and the cast of "Succession" photographed during the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards in Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 24. The cast of “Succession” led the nominations among the television categories with five – nabbing the top honor for best ensemble. “Oppenheimer” reigned victorious with three of those awards, while “Barbie” was shut out. This is the first SAG Awards since last year’s prolonged actors’ strike in Hollywood – a fact that was brought up several times throughout the evening – and is also the last major entertainment awards event before next month’s Oscars ceremony.

Persons: ” “ Oppenheimer, ”, Lily Gladstone, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “, Idris Elba, Billie Eilish, Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera, Robert Downey Jr, Fran Drescher, Jennifer Aniston, Barbra Streisand, ” Bradley Cooper, Alan Ruck, Robert Gauthier, Streisand, Wears, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt –, Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, David Cronenberg, “ Barbie ”, “ Oppenheimer ”, ’, Bradley Cooper, “ Maestro ” Colman Domingo, “ Rustin ” Paul Giamatti, ” Cillian Murphy, “ Oppenheimer, Jeffrey Wright, Annette Bening, Carey Mulligan, “ Maestro ” Margot Robbie, “ Barbie, Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer, Matt Winkelmeyer, Sterling K, Brown, ” Willem Dafoe, Robert De Niro, Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, Penélope Cruz, “ Ferrari, Jodie Foster, Matt Bomer, Jon Hamm, David Oyelowo, Bass Reeves, Tony Shalhoub, Mr, Monk’s, Steven Yeun, Painkiller ” Kathryn Hahn, Brie Larson, Bel, Ali Wong, Brian Cox, Billy Crudup, Kieran Culkin, Matthew Macfadyen, Pedro Pascal, Elizabeth Debicki, Bella Ramsey, Keri Russell, Sarah Snook, Brett Goldstein, “ Ted Lasso, Bill Hader, “ Barry ” Ebon Moss, Bachrach, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Allen White, Alex Borstein, Maisel, Rachel Brosnahan, Maisel ” Quinta Brunson, “ Abbott, Hannah Waddingham, “ Ted Lasso ” Ayo Edebiri, Frazer Harrison, Abbott, ” “ Barry ”, Ted Lasso ”, Indiana Jones, John Wick Organizations: CNN, Actors Guild, Auditorium, Netflix, SAG, Los Angeles Times, Jewish, “, Getty, Guardians Locations: Los Angeles, “, America, Brooklyn, Europe, Hollywood

☆ I was able to keep my office romance a secret for 2 years. We've now been married for over a decade.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Shana Westlake | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I was in the office alone on a Saturday, muddling through, when Paul walked in. Staggered shifts meant we rarely arrived together, and by the end of the night, everyone was too exhausted to notice when we left in the same car. Late-night games meant some shifts didn't end until very early in the morning. That fight confirmed that our relationship was strong enough to survive shift work. Nearly 18 years later, I have no regrets about my office romance.

Persons: hoots, they'd, we'd, Paul, Facetime, Alex, Evi Organizations: Service, MLB, Boston, American League, Business, Major League Baseball, schmoozing Locations: Cleveland

☆ After closed door OpenAI drama, open source AI backed by Nvidia, Eric Schmidt, could emerge winner
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Rebecca Fannin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The Hugging Face website on a laptop arranged in New York, US, on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. "We should encourage all companies to build on disruption-proof AI technology that only open source can offer." To be clear, big bets made on open source AI pre-date last Friday when news first broke of Sam Altman's removal as OpenAI CEO, and those bets include an open source AI model controlled by one dominant tech company, Meta Platforms ' Llama. Open source and AI governanceFormer Google CEO Eric Schmidt is behind Mistral AI, another open source rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT. A third open source AI startup, Poolside AI, recently pulled in $126 million co-led by French telecom and internet billionaire Xavier Niel and U.S. VC firm Felicis Ventures.

Persons: Gabby Jones, Eric Schmidt, Sam Altman, Microsoft —, Mike Gualtieri, Forrester, Marc Benioff, Delip Rao, Sam Altman's, Thomas Wolf, We've, Wolf, Linus Torvalds, Paul Drews, OpenAI's, Arthur Mensch, Mistral, Xavier Niel Organizations: Nvidia, Bloomberg, Getty Images Tech, Salesforce, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Twitter, Google, Meta, IBM, Intel, Sequoia Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Mistral, alums, Lightspeed Venture Partners, French, . VC, Felicis Ventures Locations: New York, France

☆ Opinion | Learning to Become Openhearted
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Charles GoldbergNewtown Square, Pa.To the Editor:Kudos to David Brooks’s extraordinary lesson on being human. The only missing element was the power of humor, particularly when it is directed at oneself. Burdened by a debilitating stutter in my youth, I learned to laugh at it and myself. I found that self-deprecating jokes disarmed those inclined to ridicule me and invited in the compassionate. Armed with Mr. Brooks’s advice, I will try to devote my remaining years to listening, and speaking, with a human ear.

Persons: David Brooks, Brooks, “, Joe Posnanski, ”, Charles Goldberg, David Brooks’s, Tom Wilcox Boca, Robert Judkins Organizations: Concord Academy, Baltimore Community Foundation Locations: Pa, Tom Wilcox Boca Grande, Fla, Tenn

Mistral, a tiny AI startup that aims to be Europe's answer to OpenAI, is in discussions to raise a major round of funding that could push its valuation above $2 billion. Its cofounders are in talks with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to raise further funds, seven sources familiar with proceedings told Insider. Mistral is set to raise around $400 million at a valuation of at least $2 billion, which could rise to as high as $2.5 billion, three sources said. The deal is not yet finalized and the round size, valuation figures, and participants could still change. Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Mistral, Abstract Ventures, and Bezos Expeditions did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, Catalyst, Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample, Timothée Lacroix, Jeff Bezos, Xavier Niel Organizations: Mistral, Meta, DeepMind, Bezos Expeditions, Amazon, Catalyst, Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners Locations: Paris

☆ Under the Leather Jackets: Anxiety, Bravado and the Keys to TV Stardom
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Henry Alford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Winkler’s affective shortcomings throw his social anxiety and bouts of verbal diarrhea into high relief. But, Hollywood being Hollywood, when the film came out Winkler was asked to do press. As my former boss might have written, VTEBNLPBI (very tidy ending, but no less powerful because of it). John Stamos, he of “Full House” and “E.R.” and Broadway, takes longer to warm to on the page. Stamos is blessed with some of Winkler’s candor — he admits to having had two nose jobs and having gone to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Persons: Paul McCartney, Winkler, chattering, Neil Simon’s, Simon, “, ”, —, Barry ” —, John Stamos, candor —, John Organizations: Hollywood, Anonymous

☆ Richard E. Grant Fights Grief With ‘A Pocketful of Happiness’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Amy Bloom | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One is Joan Washington, whom we get to know as passionate and commanding, a great teacher, a wonderful mother, a smartass and a woman who understood and loved her husband, deeply. To be clear, I make no complaints about her, and neither Grant nor I criticize anything she does in this book. It is not her fault that Richard E. Grant has adored her since he wrote her a fan letter when he was 14. I could have done without all of that, because, like Richard E. Grant, I just wanted more of the feisty, unvarnished, irritable, generous, wise, unimpressed Joan Washington. Amy Bloom’s most recent books are “Flower Girl” and “In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss.”A POCKETFUL OF HAPPINESS | By Richard E. Grant | 336 pp.

Persons: Joan Washington, ” Olivia, Grant, Barbra Streisand, Richard E, ”, —, Amy Bloom’s, Simon Organizations: Schuster

☆ AI investment is booming. How much is hype?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The investment into Mistral AI is just one of many this year by venture capitalists jostling for a seat aboard the AI rocketship. In the first six months of 2023, they plowed $15.2 billion into generative AI companies globally, according to Pitchbook data. The bulk of this sum comes from Microsoft (MSFT)’s $10 billion investment, announced in January, in OpenAI, the developer of popular generative AI chatbot ChatGPT. But even excluding Microsoft’s bumper deal, the value of VC investments in generative AI was up by almost 58% compared with the same period in 2022. “Buying a ‘dot-ai’ domain, and claiming to be an AI company… doesn’t really make you an AI company,” Jacobs told CNN.

Persons: Antoine Moyroud, wasn’t, ”, Arthur Mensch, Nathan Laine, hasn’t, ” Mostaque, jostling, Moyroud, ’, ’ “, “, ” Moyroud, It’s, Jaap Arriens, Goldman Sachs, Stocks, Mike Reynolds, Reynolds, —, “ It’s, ” Reynolds, ” Jordan Jacobs, … doesn’t, ” Jacobs Organizations: London CNN, Lightspeed Venture Partners, CNN, Mistral, Viva Tech, Bloomberg, Getty, Stability, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, Nasdaq, Cisco, Radical Ventures Locations: French, Paris, California, OpenAI, —, Toronto

☆ France's Mistral AI raises 105 mln euros shortly after being set up
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Sudip Kar-Gupta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The fund-raising highlights the rapid growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) sector as well as Europe's desire to create rivals to Silicon Valley companies such as Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI and Google's (GOOGL.O) DeepMind. Paris-based Mistral AI was set up by former Meta (META.O) and Google artificial intelligence researchers Timothee Lacroix, Guillaume Lample and Arthur Mensch. Mistral AI's fund-raising was led by international venture capital fund Lightspeed Venture Partners. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is also a shareholder in Mistral AI. "Bravo to the start-up Mistral AI which has raised 105 million euros just a month after its creation: a record!"

Persons: Schmidt, Xavier Niel, Rodolphe Saade, Timothee Lacroix, Guillaume Lample, Arthur Mensch, Mensch, Mistral, Eric Schmidt, Jean, Noel Barrot, Bravo, Sudip Kar, David Evans, Leslie Adler Organizations: Lightspeed Venture Partners, Microsoft, Meta, JCDecaux, Italy's Exor Ventures, Mistral, Paris, Twitter, Thomson Locations: PARIS, Silicon, DeepMind, Paris, France, Europe, New York , California, London

☆ Rep. George Santos, who claimed he was a Jew to get elected, appeared to mock and imitate Jewish people, new audio shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rep. George Santos mocked Jewish people in his district, a new audio clip shows. Santos notoriously lied about being Jewish while on the campaign trail. The congressman continued talking about the Jewish people he was elected to represent saying, "Then they go on to the next thing. Santos, who is Catholic, later backpedaled and claimed that he used to describe himself as "Jew-ish" as a party joke. Along with the clip of him appearing to mock Jewish people, MSNBC shared multiple other audio clips from Santos' interview with Zeff.

☆ Ex-Facebook and DeepMind employees in talks to raise sizable initial funding round to build OpenAI rival
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A French startup that wants to be Europe's answer to OpenAI is in talks to raise an initial funding round. The secretive new project, named Mistral, was founded by two AI research scientists. Mistral, a secretive new startup pitched as Europe's answer to OpenAI, is in discussions to raise a substantive funding round, sources say. London-based generative AI startup Synthesia is in talks to raise a major round while ElevenLabs raised at a $100 million valuation last month. It's also widened the race for AI supremacy with Google launching its own AI assistant, Bard, to compete with OpenAI.

☆ Bob Born, the ‘Father of Peeps,’ has died
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Ira “Bob” Born, known as the “Father of Peeps,” died on Sunday. Just Born Quality Confections, the Pennsylvania-based company that makes various candies, including the chick-shaped marshmallows, confirmed Born’s death in a statement. That helped him earn the nickname “Father of Peeps.”Originally created for Easter, Peeps makes themed candy for other holidays, too, including Valentine’s Day and Halloween. His father, Sam, a Russian immigrant, founded Just Born a year prior. Ross Born told the Lehigh Valley News said his father was a “real mensch,” adding that he was a “kind person, he was generous with his talents, sharing his abilities.”“The candy business was kind of catchy … it was interesting to him,” Ross Born told the newspaper.

Search resuls for: "Mensch"

15 mentions found