💎 LLMs for Spreadsheets, 💊 IL-11's Longevity Promise, and 🤖 Negotiating with Chatbots
💎 LLMs for Spreadsheets, 💊 IL-11's Longevity Promise, and 🤖 Negotiating with Chatbots
Thomas's Innovation Wrap #87
Greetings,
Here’s your weekly wrap of technology, innovation, and finance news.
💎 Artificial Intelligence
Microsoft researchers published an exciting paper titled "SpreadsheetLLM: Encoding Spreadsheets for Large Language Models" (I know, I know, try to contain your excitement!). A few articles have labelled it a new AI model or a new LLM, but it's more accurately described as a novel method to convert spreadsheets into text that LLMs can better understand. Papers like this are interesting because they highlight that AI progress comes not only from creating more powerful models but also from devising clever ways to leverage existing ones.
But speaking of models, OpenAI introduced a new small AI model, GPT-4o-mini. Amazing. I had literally just switched Minotaur’s small model use from GPT-3.5 Turbo to Claude 3 Haiku for a 50% input token price saving the day before GPT-4o-mini came out with input token pricing 40% below Haiku, and from what I can tell from weekend testing, it’s higher quality than Claude 3 Haiku and GPT-3.5 Turbo. Price wars are great.
DeepL, a machine translation startup, has launched a new LLM specifically built for translation and editing that they claim outperforms Google Translate and ChatGPT.
Unlike general purpose models, the LLM doesn’t rely on the internet for training. Rather, it uses DeepL’s proprietary data, tailored for content creation and translation. Language experts also took part in the AI model’s training, tutoring it in terms of translation quality.
Nvidia and Mistral AI have jointly released Mistral-NeMo, a 12 billion parameter language model designed to run on standard business desktops.
Meta's Segment Anything project introduces an AI model for image segmentation that can outline any object in images or videos.
Moreover, SAM is trained on a diverse, high-quality dataset of over 1 billion masks (collected as part of this project), which enables it to generalize to new types of objects and images beyond what it observed during training.
Dr. Fei-Fei Li, the "godmother of AI", has launched an AI startup that has been valued at $1bn in less than four months. The startup focusing on human-like visual data processing for advanced reasoning.
Through her new company, Li is now working on creating spatial intelligence—a concept she delved into during an April TED Talk. “If we want to advance A.I. beyond its current capabilities, we want more than A.I. that can see and talk. We want A.I. that can do,” said Li during the talk. To illustrate the concept of spatial intelligence, she pointed to an image of a cat pushing over a glass. “In the last split second, your brain looked at the geometry of this glass, its place in 3D space, its relationship with the table, the cat and everything else, and you can predict what’s going to happen next,” she explained. “The urge to act is innate to all beings with spatial intelligence, which links perception with action.”
🧱 Advanced Materials
Diamonds might become a power grid's best friend. As the US grapples with surging electricity demand, researchers are betting on diamond semiconductors to revolutionise power electronics. These ultra-wide bandgap materials could handle higher voltages, currents, and temperatures than silicon, potentially solving major grid challenges.
"Diamond has fundamentally the best properties of any semiconductor material that we have," says Lars Voss at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
Argonne National Laboratory created AI-NERD, an AI-driven method for precise material "fingerprints". It combines X-ray techniques with machine learning to reveal hidden patterns in material structures, crucial for processing the vast amounts of complex data generated by next-generation scientific instruments, enabling deeper insights into material behaviour.
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have developed RoboFabric, a 3D-printed material that can stiffen on demand. Inspired by pangolin scales, this versatile fabric could be used in medical devices, soft robotics, and drone limbs. Prototypes include an elbow support that reduces muscle activity by 40% when lifting loads, and a wrist stabiliser for Parkinson's patients.
💻 Chips and Computing
TSMC capitalised on the AI boom with Q2 net profit jumping 36%. High-performance computing now accounts for 52% of its net revenue, up from 44% a year ago, driven by AI chip demand. CEO C.C. Wei introduced "Wafer Foundry 2.0" on the earnings call, which either signals TSMC’s expansion into broader semiconductor activities or is a market-expanding way to say, “look, we’re not a monopoly!”
"At this time, we would like to expand our original definition of foundry industry to Foundry 2.0, which also includes packaging, testing, mask making, and others and all IDM, excluding memory manufacturing," said C.C. Wei, chief executive and chairman of TSMC at the company's earnings call with analysts and investors. "We believe this new definition better reflects TSMC's expanding addressable market opportunities in the future."
The Biden administration is considering tighter restrictions on AI chip exports to China, while also investing in domestic production. GlobalWafers secured up to $400 million in CHIPS Act funding for building 300mm wafer facilities in Texas and Missouri.
Samsung acquired British AI startup Oxford Semantic Technologies, while Aston University researchers achieved a new data transmission record of 402 terabits per second through standard optical fibre.
🤖 Robotics
Researchers are giving robots a mental edge to match their physical prowess. A team from UC Berkeley, University of Warsaw, and Stanford has developed "Embodied Chain-of-Thought" (ECoT) reasoning, enabling robots to reason about tasks and their environment before acting – like giving them a moment to think before they leap.
💊 Health
In “let’s live forever” news, blocking the inflammatory molecule IL-11 was found to extend mice lifespans by over 20%, while improving muscle strength and metabolism. Professor Stuart Cook calls the findings "very exciting", as the treatment also significantly reduced cancer deaths in the animals.
"These findings are very exciting. The treated mice had fewer cancers, and were free from the usual signs of ageing and frailty, but we also saw reduced muscle wasting and improvement in muscle strength. In other words, the old mice receiving anti-IL11 (treatment) were healthier."
Roche's experimental once-daily pill, CT-996, showed promising results for weight loss, with patients losing an average of 6.1% body weight in just four weeks.
Medical device innovation continues with a pacemaker-like implant to automatically reverse opioid overdoses, a novel method to generate craniofacial cartilage from stem cells, and an implantable microphone for cochlear implants (is this a future disruptor for Cochlear in Australia?). A study in Nature found that action video games could help children at risk of dyslexia improve word processing. Lastly, a new health screening tool uses infrared light and machine learning to detect multiple conditions from a single drop of blood.
🌞 Renewables
Akaysha Energy secured $650 million for NSW’s largest four-hour battery system, while Tesla signed a $2.5-3.5 billion Megapack contract in California.
New Scientist reports that China has developed a meltdown-proof large-scale nuclear reactor, marking a breakthrough in nuclear safety.
"Up to now, every commercial reactor except HTR-PM has had an emergency core cooling system," says Dong. "However, due to the inherent safety, there is no emergency core cooling system in the HTR-PM plant."
SunCable received key environmental approvals for a 10 GW solar farm to power Darwin and Singapore, while New York began its largest offshore wind farm.
New Scientist showcased photos of ITER, the €20-billion international nuclear fusion experiment in France, revealing its massive scale and complex components while noting its delayed start to 2035.
This is pretty cool: University of South Australia researchers developed a new refrigeration system that could reduce supermarket and hospital annual refrigeration energy consumption by 19%. Meanwhile, Montana Technologies created a novel dehumidifier that could drastically reduce energy used for air conditioning.
Google is backing Again, a Danish startup using bacteria to turn CO2 into valuable chemicals. Bloom Energy, a fuel cell technology company, partnered to power an AI data centre highlighted the intersection of clean energy and advanced computing needs.
⚙️ Mobility
German eVTOL manufacturer Lilium secured a potentially multi-million dollar deal with Saudia Group for up to 100 aircraft. In Canada, FLO is planned 1,900 Ultra EV chargers nationwide, while Starbucks and Mercedes-Benz partnered to install 400kW fast-chargers at 100 coffee shops, offering a jolt for both cars and customers.
In Melbourne, Alphabet's Wing and Doordash will launch drone food delivery, servicing a 7km radius around Eastland Shopping Centre and reaching approximately 250,000 people.
🛰️ Space
The University of Western Australia's TeraNet project has achieved a significant breakthrough in space communications by successfully receiving last signals from a German satellite, potentially revolutionising space-to-Earth communications.
This breakthrough paves the way for a 1,000-fold increase in communication bandwidth between space and Earth.
Blue Origin is preparing to enter the reusable rocket arena, testing the landing mechanism for its New Glenn rocket. The 320-foot behemoth is scheduled for its maiden launch no earlier than September 29, with plans to support Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite constellation.
💲 Finance
Bank of America is investing $4 billion in AI and new tech this year, with CEO Brian Moynihan seeing AI enhance customer interactions beyond mere cost-saving. Their AI adviser is already serving up millions of insights to financial advisers, as banks race to become the smartest robot in the room.
"AI has moved from cost savings ideas to enhancing the quality of our customer interactions," Moynihan said in a call with analysts.
Californian PE firm Riverwood Capital invested $105 million in Australian construction software maker HammerTech. Sea Ltd and YTL Digital Capital are set to launch their digital bank in Malaysia by year's end.
Google-backed GitLab is exploring a potential sale, with cloud monitoring firm Datadog apparently among interested parties. With an $8.5 billion market value, GitLab could be the next big tech acquisition target.
"GitLab has long been viewed as an attractive acquisition candidate, in our view. While we sense that investors view AWS or Google Cloud as more obvious buyout candidates, we are positive on a potential tie-up between GitLab and Datadog," Needham analyst Mike Cikos wrote in a note on Wednesday.
Meta is eyeing a stake in Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica as it pushes into smart glasses.
Yandex, now rebranded as Nebius Group, is pivoting towards becoming a major AI infrastructure provider in Europe after selling its Russian business. The company is planning a share buyback and aims to use its $2.5 billion cash reserves to develop four key projects, with a focus on AI infrastructure.
"We are a different company now," Arkady Volozh, the Dutch-registered technology firm's founder and chief, said in an interview from Amsterdam. "We hope that investors will want to go with us in the new direction, but those who don't should be able to leave."
🛍️ Ecommerce
Amazon launched Rufus, a generative AI shopping assistant, to all US customers. This chatbot helps with orders, item comparisons, and specific product questions like "What's the difference between gas and wood-fired pizza ovens?" Amazon also integrating AI to improve clothing fit and reduce packaging.
TikTok partnered with Eventbrite for in-app ticket sales.
UK online grocer Ocado reported narrowing losses and growth in its technology business. The company's success stems from a combination of grocery delivery and selling warehouse robots to other retailers.
X user George McGowan posted about his experience negotiating with a chatbot. The tech is provided by Nibble.
⚡ Other Snippets
Texas A&M University developed a pocket-sized Raman spectrometer that identifies unknown substances using a smartphone camera and laser, applicable in food safety and pathogen detection.
Meteorologists are combining traditional tornado chasing with cutting-edge technology like drones, AI, and supercomputer simulations to better understand and predict these devastating storms. This multidisciplinary approach is helping to improve tornado warning systems and adapt to changing climate patterns.
There's a tremendous amount of data out there. There's more and more growing all the time. We put up new satellite systems. We've got crowd-sensing systems that are out there, data that's coming and streaming in, and it's overloading. It's overloading the forecasters. It's overloading anybody who's trying to make a decision. And AI is perfect for trying to sift through all of that data and try to identify the most important parts of it and help you make your decisions.
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Have a great week,
Thomas
About Thomas Rice
Thomas Rice co-founded Minotaur Capital, a technology-driven, AI-led global equities fund, and is based in Sydney, Australia. He can be found on the platform-formerly-known-as-Twitter at @thomasrice_au.