🤖 NVIDIA GTC (AI) Highlights

Update 2023-03-22

News

• TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to Testify Before Congress on Thursday Ahead of Potential Ban Over Privacy Concerns

• Spotify Unveils 350,000 Audio Book Titles in Canada

• FTC Expected to Take Action Against Amazon, Investigating Multiple Acquisitions and Practices

• Netflix Partners with Ubisoft, Super Evil Megacorp, and More to Release Over 40 Games in 2023

• Amazon Lays Off 9,000 Employees

• Netflix Ad-Supported Tier Attracts Over One Million Subscribers in the US Since Launch

• NVIDIA GTC 2023: Key Highlights Unveiled, Focusing on AI and Deep Learning Technologies

• Google Launches AI Chatbot with LaMDA, Guardrails to Keep Interactions Helpful

• Microsoft Launches Bing Image Creator with OpenAI's DALL-E and Knowledge Cards 2.0

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Big Tech

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to Testify Before Congress on Thursday Ahead of Potential Ban Over Privacy Concerns

TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before Congress on Thursday to make the case that TikTok is an important tool for American business and free speech, boasting an estimated 150 million monthly active US users.

• Lawmakers are debating aggressive bills to ban TikTok due to its Chinese ownership and concerns about confidential data and propaganda. Recent polls among US adults show a nation split on this issue along party lines.

• Responding to criticism about privacy issues, TikTok has introduced new paywall features for creators amid allegations of spying on reporters and overreaching by ByteDance engineers.

• Although there are risks from foreign ownership of tech companies, it is possible that discussions around the potential banning of TikTok may bring attention to the lack of federal privacy law in the United States and the hundreds of data brokers who sell user data.

Spotify Unveils 350,000 Audio Book Titles in Canada

Spotify announced the expansion of its audiobook service to Canada, bringing the total number of titles to 350,000.

• The company is avoiding app store in-app purchases due to commission payments and instead directs customers to a website for purchase.

• At launch, Spotify said audiobooks represent 6-7% of the book market and are growing by 20% year-over-year.

• Spotify recently debuted a revamp of their app to improve recommendations by way of TikTok-style feeds with audiobook clips.

• Most of the catalog is in English, and only slightly expanded the French selection before launch.

FTC Expected to Take Action Against Amazon, Investigating Multiple Acquisitions and Practices

The Biden Administration is expected to take action on at least three of its half-dozen investigations of Amazon, which could lead to litigation to rein in the company.

• FTC Chair Lina Khan has been spearheading the efforts against Amazon and is investigating the company's abuse of power within its online marketplace, potential consumer-privacy violations connected to its Ring cameras and Alexa digital assistant, and the $1.7 billion acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot.

• FTC staff are leaning towards suing to stop the iRobot deal; two open privacy investigations are also ongoing with results expected in coming months and a wide-ranging antitrust case targeting Amazon's retail operations, which could include bundling services through Prime and using competitor data.

• The agency is also conducting dark pattern probes and deceptive advertising probes into the "Amazon Choice" label.

• Additionally, FTC weighs whether to challenge Amazon's $8.5 billion purchase of MGM Studios and $3.9 billion purchase of One Medical for potentially anticompetitive behavior.

Netflix Partners with Ubisoft, Super Evil Megacorp, and More to Release Over 40 Games in 2023

With its partners, Netflix has announced plans to release 40 games this year and 70 in development.

• Ustwo's Monument Valley franchise will be coming to Netflix with all paid in-app purchases included.

• Netflix partnered with Ubisoft for Mighty Quest: Rogue Palace and Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, respectively, in April and January.

• Super Evil Megacorp is also developing an exclusive game based on an upcoming Netflix release.

• Cloud gaming is in the works for access to games on any Netflix device.

• Terra Nil from Free Lives and Highwater from Demagog Studio are two new launches this month and the next, respectively.

• The streaming service is building a portfolio of diverse games to appeal to different subscribers, both gamers and non-gamers alike.

Amazon Lays Off 9,000 Employees

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced an additional 9,000 layoffs across Amazon Web Services, human resources, advertising and Twitch live streaming.

This latest round of layoffs follows similar cuts from major tech companies such as Google and Meta. These reductions were triggered by the pandemic-induced economic bubble bursting and the need for increased efficiency.

Netflix Ad-Supported Tier Attracts Over One Million Subscribers in the US Since Launch

Over one million accounts have subscribed to Netflix's ad-supported tier in the US since its launch in November 2020. 19% of new signups opted for the $6.99 ad-supported tier in January 2021, according to analytics firm Antenna.

• Netflix is slowly gaining traction with this new revenue stream and is attracting new users rather than existing subscribers downgrading their plans.

• Ad-supported subscribers represent a small portion of Netflix's US 74 million strong base, though further growth could occur when password sharing is cracked down on more comprehensively.

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AI

Nvidia GTC 2023: Key Highlights Unveiled, Focusing on AI and Deep Learning Technologies

Nvidia Corp.'s GTC 2023 virtual conference has revealed several announcements. Here are some key highlights.

Nvidia cuLitho accelerates chip design production, with the potential for a 10x computational power increase.

• DGX Cloud enables hybrid cloud AI training with effortless scalability and sharing options.

• Medtronic partnership to develop GI Genius AI Assisted Colonoscopy System based on Holoscan platform.

• DGX H100, L4, and H100 NVL accelerators facilitate real-time AI inferencing.

• BlueField-3 DPU boosts workload performance up to 8x when offloaded from CPUs.

• Microsoft 365 integration of Omniverse Cloud enables metaverse app access.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered his GTC 2023 keynote, which focused on the growing demands of the modern digital world and the use of AI and deep learning technologies.

Jensen discussed ChatGPT, cuQuantum, cuOpt, Triton, CV-CUDA, VPF, cuLitho, Hopper H100 GPUs, AI Foundations (Picasso tool for image generation), BioNemo for drug research and prescription industry, Grace-Hopper solution with L4/L40/H100 NVLs for scaling up to large installations, Proteus robots trained in Isaac Sim.

Google Launches AI Chatbot with LaMDA, Guardrails to Keep Interactions Helpful

Google is opening up access to its Bard AI chatbot, making it available in the US and UK, with further expansions coming soon.

• The AI chatbot is powered by Google's LaMDA and can interact with users in natural language.

• A few key differences from Bing AI include a microphone symbol, enabling speech-to-text; buttons for thumbs up/down/refresh, "Google it" button; and an option to view other drafts.

• Google has issued a disclaimer that Bard may display inaccurate or offensive information that does not reflect its own views.

• The company is aware of the possibility of mistakes due to its learning from real-world biases and has implemented guardrails (e.g. capping dialogue exchanges) to help keep interactions helpful and on topic.

Microsoft Launches Bing Image Creator with OpenAI's DALL-E and Knowledge Cards 2.0

Microsoft has announced the launch of a new feature for Bing, bringing OpenAI's DALL-E generative image generator to the search engine. Dubbed "Bing Image Creator," the new feature will be available to users in Bing's Creative mode and Edge sidebar.

Microsoft has incorporated safeguards to limit the generation of potentially hazardous images and is working on optimizing multi-turn image creation in chats. The update is also bringing Visual Stories and Knowledge Cards 2.0 to Bing, which features AI-generated infographics, audio narration, and videos.