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☆ Nvidia's Marc Spieler Transforms Energy Sectors With Cutting-Edge AI
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Spieler, one of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List picks, is Nvidia's main envoy in the energy industry, including oil and gas, renewables, power generation, and utilities. He works with industry leaders to leverage Nvidia's AI tools to help improve efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and make power grids more resilient. He recently worked with the energy giant Shell to create a model to screen for carbon-capture sites. Spieler joined Nvidia in 2019 after nearly 14 years at Halliburton, where he most recently worked on acquisitions. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Spieler, Halliburton Organizations: Nvidia, Halliburton, Silicon Graphics, Hewlett Packard Enterprise

☆ Duolingo's AI-Driven Approach Is Redefining Language Learning
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Helen Li | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Luis von Ahn is the cofounder and CEO of Duolingo, a popular language-learning app with more than 31 million monthly active users. Von Ahn led the development of "Birdbrain", a machine learning model that estimates a user's language proficiency and then personalizes exercises. In 2023, Duolingo launched a new "Max" tier for its language-learning users. This year, Duolingo launched a Video Call feature where learners can practice talking in real time with an AI character. Von Ahn is a former computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the co-inventor of CAPTCHAs, the way to determine if a computer user is human.

Persons: Luis von Ahn, Von Ahn, Duolingo Organizations: Carnegie Mellon University

☆ Andrej Karpathy's Eureka Labs Aims to Personalize Education Through AI
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Karpathy is the founder and CEO of Eureka Labs, an education AI startup. He's known for his YouTube educational content on AI. Eureka Labs uses an AI teaching assistant to allow students to ask questions and get more of a customized experience than they would otherwise get from a series of recorded lessons. According to its website, the company's first product is an AI course titled LLM101n, which aims to teach students to develop AI models. Karpathy is a renowned AI researcher who has attracted an audience with over a million followers on X and 500,000 YouTube subscribers.

Persons: Karpathy Organizations: Eureka Labs, Stanford

☆ OpenAI Taps VP Lilian Weng to Lead Risk Management for AI Models
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Weng joined OpenAI in 2018 after working as a data scientist and software engineer at major Silicon Valley companies, including Meta (then Facebook), Dropbox, and Affirm. Weng, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, took over the preparedness team after its former leader Aleksander Madry was reassigned in July. It's part of a broader effort within the company to consolidate safety research under Weng, who also serves on the board's safety and security committee. As policymakers and consumers focus more attention on the security implications of high-powered AI models, Weng's role within the company is likely to become even more important. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Weng, OpenAI, Aleksander Madry Organizations: Meta, Facebook

☆ Google VP Amin Vahdat leads the company in innovating with AI chips
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

With its core business under threat, Google has spent the past two years pouring resources into building its own AI chips. In charge of those efforts is Vahdat, one of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List picks. Vahdat has been at the company for more than a decade and is today setting the direction for Google's silicon strategy. That also means working closely with Google DeepMind to take its breakthrough models and integrate them throughout Google's products, whether YouTube's creator tools or Google's search ads. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Vahdat Organizations: Google, Amazon, Microsoft

☆ DAIR's Alex Hanna Explores AI's Impact on Communities
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Monica Melton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Hanna is a former Google AI ethicist who worked alongside Timnit Gebru, who was fired from the tech giant after voicing concerns about its natural language processing tools. Hanna now oversees research at Gebru's Distributed AI Research Institute. Her work centers on communities most affected by AI. "So it increases that gigification and casualization of work." See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Hanna, Timnit Gebru, there's, Emily Bender Organizations: Research, University of Washington

☆ Garman Leads AWS As AI Competition in the Cloud Intensifies
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Amazon promoted Garman to be the CEO of Amazon Web Services this year, right as competition in cloud computing and AI intensified. Garman has nearly 20 years of experience across engineering and sales roles at the company. His deep understanding of the business helped shape AWS's early approach to generative AI and the creation of AI products, like Amazon Q and Bedrock. He also led the establishment of the AWS Generative AI innovation Center, designed to collaborate with customers and help them identify opportunities in AI. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Garman Organizations: Amazon, Amazon Web Services

☆ TSMC chips reportedly ended up at Huawei. It raises concerns about 'shadow networks' bypassing US sanctions.
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Huileng Tan | Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

TSMC halted shipments to a client after its chips were found in Huawei products, per reports. Min-yen Chiang, a researcher, told BI it raises the questions about a "shadow network" of chip supply. TSMC, Huawei, and the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comments. Related storiesA 'shadow network' of chipsThe report adds to US concerns that Huawei is potentially obtaining advanced chips despite being blacklisted since 2020. "This question is slightly different than whether Huawei got restricted chips from TSMC through illegal channels," she told GZERO Media, a subsidiary of the Eurasia Group.

Persons: Chiang, —, TSMC, John Moolenaar, Moolenaar, Kate Leaman, Leaman, JW Kuo, Xiaomeng Lu, Lu Organizations: Huawei, Service, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Huawei Technologies, AFP, Bloomberg, Chinese Communist Party, CCP, BIS, Commerce Department, US Commerce Department, Apple, Nvidia, Export, US Commerce, agency's Bureau of Industry, Security, Eurasia Group, GZERO Media Locations: Taipei

☆ Sasha Luccioni tracks data about AI's impact on the environment
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Monica Melton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

As Luccioni shows me a digital map that tabulates real-time data on electricity consumption and carbon intensity, she explains it's her "favorite website." Her enthusiasm carries over into her role as AI & Climate Lead at Hugging Face, where Luccioni collects actionable data on AI's environmental impact. Luccioni codeveloped and regularly contributes to CodeCarbon, a program that helps developers estimate emissions and energy use from running AI models. "Where the energy is coming from is really the biggest impact on emissions," Luccioni said. "You have to define specific data sets and specific hardware to compare these models."

Persons: it's, Luccioni, ChatGPT Organizations: Nvidia, Google, Meta, Organisation for Economic Co, Energy, EPA

☆ Elon Musk's XAI Member Jimmy Ba Redefines AI With Deep Neural Networks
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Monica Melton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Within Elon Musk's xAI, Ba chips away at the big, nebulous goal to "understand the true nature of the universe." Ba, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, has a background in deep neural networks, a type of artificial-intelligence model consisting of a layered network of artificial neurons that mimic pathways in the human brain. He was also a research fellow at Meta, where he focused on understanding how "attention-based" neural networks behaved. "One day there will be humanlike learning machines capable of understanding our cultural norms and the nuances in our human values. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Elon Musk's, He's, Geoffrey Hinton, Ba Organizations: Elon, University of Toronto, Meta

☆ BRICS' new declaration shows Russia's war still can't get the international backing that Moscow wants
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

BRICS' Kazan Declaration on Wednesday contained 134 points — and only one discussed the Ukraine war. It shows that Russia still has trouble getting friendly countries on board with the war, per the ISW. AdvertisementOver two dozen world leaders at this year's BRICS summit ended Wednesday's talks with the Kazan Declaration, a 134-point summary of their agreements. "The Kazan Declaration notably only mentioned Russia's war in Ukraine once," the Washington-based think tank wrote. The declaration "demonstrated that Russia has not yet secured the international support nor created the alternative security structure that the Kremlin desires," ISW added.

Persons: BRICS, —, Vladimir Putin, ISW, Huileng Tan, Putin Organizations: UN, Service, United Nations, Kyiv, South Sudanese, Mastercard Locations: Kazan, Ukraine, Russia, China, Washington, Nazi, Moscow, Brazil, India, Syria, Tel, Lebanon, Gaza, Republic, Tatarstan

☆ Bayesian Health CEO Suchi Saria Leads Healthcare Data Revolution
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Saria, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, directs the machine learning and healthcare lab at Johns Hopkins University and is the founder and CEO of the AI startup Bayesian Health. Related storiesSaria has continued to research healthcare AI at Johns Hopkins. For her work in healthcare AI, the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2018. In 2022, Saria cofounded the Coalition for Health AI, which brings federal agencies and healthcare organizations to discuss best practices for using healthcare AI. She also helped the National Academy of Medicine develop its code of conduct for AI deployment, released earlier this year.

Persons: Saria, Barack Obama, Andreessen Horowitz, Oracle's Cerner, It's, Johns, She's, — she's Organizations: Johns Hopkins University, Stanford, Bayesian, Nature Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Northwell, Johns Hopkins, Economic, Global, Coalition for Health, National Academy of Medicine

☆ Adeel Khan's MagicSchool AI Empowers Teachers With AI Tools
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Helen Li | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Khan founded MagicSchool AI, an AI-assistant program catering to teachers. Costing teachers about $100 a year each, MagicSchool applies generative AI to classroom-specific tasks such as developing worksheets, creating multiple-choice test questions, or adapting texts and outreach for students with specific needs. Khan previously worked as a Teach for America fellow and later was the founding principal at DSST: Conservatory Green High School in Denver. MagicSchool says more than 3 million educators and 5,000 schools and districts worldwide use its product. It plans to soon roll out separate tools meant to help students to develop AI literacy.

Persons: Khan, MagicSchool Organizations: America, Green High School Locations: DSST, Denver

☆ OSTP director Arati Prabhakar shapes AI policy in Biden administration
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Rosalie Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Prabhakar, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, has headed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy since 2022. In her role, she advises President Joe Biden on science and technology with a particular focus on AI's risks and benefits. Previously, she was the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and was the first woman to lead the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She also founded the nonprofit Actuate, which manages research to solve societal challenges. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Prabhakar, Joe Biden Organizations: White, Office of Science, Technology, Defense, Research Projects Agency, National Institute of Standards, Research, US Venture Partners

☆ A payments startup hoping to take on Stripe and Square just raised $75 million with this pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Finix is a startup that works with merchants so they can accept and manage payments. On Thursday, it raised a $75 million Series C that included Lightspeed Ventures and Acrew Capital. AdvertisementSome of the industry's biggest fintech investors just backed an up-and-coming payments startup challenging Stripe and Square. The San Francisco-based startup raised $75 million in a Series C funding round, the company announced Thursday. AdvertisementFinix processes billions of dollars every month for tens of thousands of merchants, Serna said.

Persons: —, Richie Serna, Finix, Serna, " Serna Organizations: Lightspeed Ventures, Acrew, Service, Acrew Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners Locations: San Francisco, Finix's, Serna

☆ Anandkumar Transitions From Nvidia to CalTech to Advance AI Climate Research
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Helen Li | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Anandkumar, a former senior director of Nvidia's AI research, left the private sector last year to return full time to academia at CalTech, where she serves as a Bren professor in the computing and mathematical sciences department. Her lab focuses on tensors, which can help solve higher-order problems in AI, such as simulating fluids. She helped build an AI-based weather model and made it available as open source. She hopes that by figuring out how AI can better simulate the physical world, researchers can more accurately predict and alleviate the climate crisis. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Organizations: CalTech

☆ How Benjamin Huynh Is Using AI to Advance Justice
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Monica Melton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Huynh is using AI to try to advance justice. A recent study he led, for instance, found several biases within the California environmental-protection agency's tools for allocating billions in funds to communities experiencing the most adverse health effects related to climate change. "I'm just one person, but the vision there was to democratize the ability to not just conduct audits of algorithms and AI to be something that anyone can do and not just a professor like me," Huynh told Business Insider. Huynh's work as an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University's department of environmental health touches on several disciplines including, healthcare, environmental justice, and social justice. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Huynh Organizations: Johns Hopkins Locations: California

☆ Why some CEOs are afraid of publicly criticizing Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It may be driven by fears of retribution from Trump and what a second term would bring. AdvertisementBoth Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have won support from America's business titans and CEOs. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that both JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Microsoft founder Bill Gates support Harris, but won't say so publicly. On the flipside, it's also possible that there are pro-Trump CEOs who don't want to alienate liberal customers and employees. In an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman suggested that there's a well of silent Trump support among CEOs.

Persons: Jamie Dimon, Bill Gates, Kamala Harris —, Trump, —, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Harris, Gates, didn't, Dimon, he's, hasn't, John Deere, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, They're, … Trump, Sonnenfeld, Joe Evangelisti, it's, Bill Ackman, Bill, Ackman, Mark Cuban, there's Organizations: Service, New York Times, Microsoft, Times, Yale School of Management, Leadership, Republican, JPMorgan, Trump Locations: Mexico, That's

☆ Srini Venkatesan Is Using AI to Create PayPal Personalization Features
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Venkatesan, the executive vice president and chief technology officer of PayPal, is in charge of the payment company's new AI-driven personalization products. In this role, Venkatesan uses PayPal's 200 petabytes of transaction data to help small businesses and large enterprises sell more products and to help save money for consumers. Before joining PayPal in June, Venkatesan was EVP of the Walmart US Omni Platforms and Tech organization, where he helped use AI to blur the lines between offline and online shopping. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Venkatesan Organizations: PayPal, Walmart, Omni, Tech

☆ Google DeepMind's Matthieu Lorrain Innovates Where Media and AI Meet
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Lorrain serves as creative lead at Google's AI research division, DeepMind. He helps the company apply its AI technologies to different parts of the media world, including recently introducing its video-generation tool Veo to YouTube shorts and collaborating with creators such as Donald Glover and The Weeknd on generative-AI projects. He has worked on computer-vision projects for Marvel's "Avengers" and Netflix's "Stranger Things," among other partnerships with major media brands. Lorrain also taught a class on AI and filmmaking as a guest lecturer at Columbia University this year. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Lorrain, Donald Glover Organizations: DeepMind, Columbia University

☆ OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki leads AI project Strawberry
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Pachocki, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, joined OpenAI in 2017 after completing a doctorate in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He was promoted to the company's chief scientist in May following the departure of its cofounder Ilya Sutskever. Pachocki had already been working closely with Sutskever on some of OpenAI's most ambitious projects including an advanced-reasoning model known as Q* and later renamed Strawberry. Even before officially taking on the mantle of chief scientist, Pachocki had already emerged as a guiding force behind OpenAI's research efforts. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Ilya Sutskever, Pachocki, Sam Altman Organizations: Carnegie Mellon University

☆ Groq CEO Jonathan Ross reveals strategy to lead AI chip market
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

While many AI companies have focused on training large language models, Groq seeks to make them run as fast as possible using chips it developed called LPUs, or language processing units. The gambit is that as AI models get better, inference — the part where the AI makes decisions or answers questions — will demand more computing power than training will, positioning Groq to reap the rewards. Groq's special (and tightly patented) sauce is its specialized chip design says Ross. Dean asked Ross's team to design a chip based on a specific type of integrated circuit they were using, and the result was Google's first tensor processing unit, a chip designed specifically for AI. Watching the AlphaGo program land a complex "shoulder hit" move on its opponent was validation for Ross that faster inference meant better, smarter AI.

Persons: Groq, Ross, —, Google's, Jeff Dean, Dean, Ross's, Lee Sedol Organizations: Rivals, Nvidia, Google

☆ Elizabeth Kelly, AI Safety Institute Director, Sets AI Safety Standards
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Rosalie Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Kelly directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology's recently created US AI Safety Institute, a group of top computer scientists and ethicists tasked with studying and addressing AI risks, particularly in relation to areas of national security, civil rights, and general public safety. It's expected to introduce testing standards for AI developers to make sure their systems are safe. Kelly, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, helped shape President Joe Biden's technology policy and assisted in drafting his executive order last year that focused on issues related to AI safety. Before that, Kelly was a special assistant to the president of the National Economic Council, where she led efforts in technology policy, including in AI. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Kelly, Joe Biden's Organizations: National Institute of Standards, Safety Institute, National Economic Council, Capital

☆ Crosby Leads Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Microsoft for AI Training Data
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Crosby, a partner at Susman Godfrey, is the lead attorney for The New York Times in its closely watched suit against OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming the Times' articles were used to train chatbots that compete with the newspaper. Nationally recognized for his work in IP and tech, Crosby has said he hopes the suit establishes that copyright holders must give permission and be paid for using their works to create AI products, especially ones that compete with journalism. "Nobody wins if AI consumes the livelihoods of creators whose original works make AI possible in the first place," he told Business Insider. OpenAI has called the suit without merit. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Crosby, Susman Godfrey, OpenAI Organizations: The New York Times, OpenAI, Microsoft

☆ Reddit Ad Targeting Gets Boost From Memorable AI Acquisition
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Reddit acquired Memorable AI in August in a deal that valued the startup at just under $40 million, including performance-based earnouts. Memorable AI uses AI models to predict which images and videos will catch users' attention and encourage them to engage with an ad. Acevedo, a Memorable AI cofounder who had been the startup's CEO, now leads product for Reddit's new ads media intelligence team, which combines data on creative performance with the company's advertising AI models. Fosco, a fellow cofounder who had been Memorable AI's chief technology officer, leads engineering in the ads intelligence team. "The acquisition of Memorable AI, coupled with its focus on creative effectiveness, now gives Reddit the missing piece to continue improving performance for our advertisers," Fosco said.

Persons: Reddit, Acevedo, Fosco Organizations: Unilever, Mars, MIT

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