🤖 OpenAI's Upcoming ChatGPT Builder: Revolutionary Upgrade for Custom Chatbots?

Hello, digital world explorers!

Mark your calendars; this November 6th brings you the crème de la crème of tech news. Check out what’s leading our agenda:

• Ad Blocker Backlash - Global uninstall wave hits YouTube.

• Musk's Luxury Listing - Handle Marketplace debuts at a premium.

• Starlink Profits - Earnings trigger IPO rumors.

• Startup Crisis - The funding famine forces sales.

• OpenAI's New Frontier - A transformative update to ChatGPT builder.

• Beijing Beats Nvidia - A new AI speed benchmark is set.

• Exclusive Chatbot - Musk's xAI introduces Grok.

• Chip Comparison - M3 Pro's edge over M2 analyzed.

• Mitek's Outlook (Investment case) - A tech stock with hidden potential.

• and more…

Embark on today's tech expedition with us. We're dissecting the big stories that matter.

Spotlight*

First Disruption to Smartphones in 15 Years🤳

Tech Startup With Traction: Turn your phone from a cost to an income source. Intriguing idea, isn't it? This is why, we have our eyes on the launch of Mode Mobile’s Pre-IPO Offering. It’s the latest in a series of impressive raises among smartphone innovators, likely spurred by Apple’s recent $3+ trillion valuation.

Mode saw 150x revenue growth from 2019 to 2022, a leap that has made them one of America’s fastest growing companies. Mode is on a mission to disrupt the entire industry with their "EarnPhone," a budget smartphone that’s helped consumers earn and save $150M+ for activities like listening to music, playing games, and ... even charging their devices?!

Over 11,000 investors already acquired shares — and with only days remaining prior to their bonus tier closing, allocations are limited.

📈 Claim Exclusive 110% Bonus: $0.16/Share*

*Disclosure: Please read the offering circular at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation CF Offering.

_*Sponsored

Tech Companies

YouTube's Ad Blocker War Sparks Global Unrest, Drives Massive Uninstalls (3-minute read)

Following YouTube's enforcement of its policy prohibiting ad blockers, hundreds of thousands of users globally have uninstalled their ad blocker apps, as reported by various ad-blocking companies. However, this led to a surge in new installs as users attempted to switch blockers. A significant 90% of users uninstalling Ghostery's ad-blocker cited YouTube’s policy shift as the cause. Owed to the policy enforcement, Ghostery use grew by 30% on Microsoft Edge, and AdGuard experienced a rise in paid subscriptions.

Elon Musk's X Unleashes Handle Marketplace At Eyebrow-Raising $50,000 (5-minute read)

Elon Musk's social media platform has initiated the sale of unused user handles. The initiative, managed by the @Handle team within the company, offers solicitations to potential buyers, requesting a flat rate of $50,000 to buy an account. This follows Musk's previous statements about liberating inactive handles reportedly taken by bots and trolls. Despite this new venture, X's current policy states that inactive usernames will not be released.

Starlink Breaks Even, Sparks IPO Speculation: Musk's Next Big Move? (7-minute read)

Elon Musk's satellite operator, Starlink, has ceased losing money and is now breaking even, generating speculation about a potential future IPO. Musk has, however, faced criticism over Starlink's usage in the Ukraine war and was recently decried by the Israeli government for offering its services in Gaza.

Startup Scene

Startups Face Extinction: Late-stage Funding Drought Drives Sell-offs (10-minute read)

Startups are experiencing longer gaps between funding rounds, with the average wait time now reaching approximately three years. VC funding has plummeted to its lowest since 2018 at $36.7 billion in Q3, the smallest quarterly total shown in over five years. Consequently, the funding landscape has turned grim as startups struggle to raise capital, forcing many to close their operations and sell their main assets.

AI Corner

OpenAI's Upcoming ChatGPT Builder: Revolutionary Upgrade for Custom Chatbots? (5-minute read)

A significant update to OpenAI's ChatGPT, including a 'GPT Builder' feature, has reportedly leaked ahead of the firm's inaugural developer conference. Leaked details suggest the feature will allow users to create custom chatbots with options to determine their bot's language, tone, and style, adjust capabilities such as web browsing and image generation, and add custom actions. A pending marketplace is also expected for users to share and browse bots, combined with an enterprise "Team" subscription plan.

Beijing's Analog AI Circuit Surpasses Nvidia's Speed by 3000 Times (3-minute read)

Researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing have developed a nearly completely analog circuit called ACCEL, which surpasses traditional AI circuits in processing speed. Using optical, analog processing of image data, ACCEL can perform 74.8 quadrillion operations per second per watt of power, with each image processed in an average of 72 nanoseconds. ACCEL's energy consumption is 4,200 times more efficient than Nvidia's A100.

Canva Streamlines Operations with ChatGPT Enterprise, Saving Hours on Tasks (7-minute read)

Graphic design platform Canva has seen substantial productivity gains from using ChatGPT Enterprise -- a business-oriented model from OpenAI. The adoption of the AI chatbot has facilitated faster coding, quick document summarization, and even helped save hours in the development of Canva's own AI products suite, Magic Studio. However, limitations still exist for tasks associated with accounting and large data analysis due to access restrictions.

Musk's xAI to Launch Grok Chatbot for X Premium+ Subscribers (3-minute read)

Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, plans to release its 'Grok' chatbot to X Premium+ subscribers once it exits beta. Grok, proposed as a contender to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, offers real-time info access via the X platform, a noted advantage over competitors. Currently, there's no set timeline for Grok's beta exit.

Insights & Analysis

AI Boosts Knowledge Worker Output by 12.2%: New Study Reveals (28-minute read)

A Harvard and Boston Consulting Group study found that AI significantly boosted productivity and quality of work among consultants. The study found, with use of AI, consultants completed 12.2% more tasks, 25.1% more quickly, and with 40% higher quality. Interestingly, tasks beyond the capabilities of AI resulted in a 19% drop in successful completions. The study also discovered two distinct human-AI integration approaches: "Centaurs," who delegate tasks between themselves and AI, and "Cyborgs," who integrate their workflow with AI.

Llama vs ChatGPT: Why Open Source AI Holds the Future, Tech Leaders Assert (20-minute read)

Meta's large language model, Llama, and its successors, have sparked the largest AI story of 2023. Unlike OpenAI's ChatGPT, Llama is the first major free 'open source' LLM, creating a surge in open source AI and generating thousands of derivatives. Experts believe open source AI models like Llama will offer the most significant long-term impact on the AI landscape.

Apps & Gadgets

Unverified Results: M3 Pro Chip Only Marginally Outperforms M2 Pro (7-minute read)

Apple's newly released M3 Pro chip only offers a marginal improvement in performance over the previous M2 Pro chip, according to unverified Geekbench 6 results. While the M3 Pro reportedly possesses a 14% higher single-core performance, multi-core performance shows just a 6% increase. Despite using TSMC's 3nm process, the limited number of high-performance cores in the M3 Pro has diminished performance gains.

Tech investment ideas

Mitek Systems (MITK): Poised for Long-Term Growth and Margin Expansion, Undervalued Stock Offers High Upside (Seeking Alpha)

Mitek Systems offers a digital identity validation platform used by businesses to verify and authenticate customers. The platform applies biometric checks, validates proof of address, and analyzes geolocation and digital footprint. It also offers biometric authentication software, a mobile check deposit platform, and a check fraud detection system. Their solution provides security, accuracy, and convenience to businesses and their customers globally.

_{Ticker: MITK | Price: 10.59 | Price target: 18.9 (78%) | Timeframe: 12-24 months}

_{🔒 Cybersecurity |} 🚀 _{Growth Potential |} 📈 _{Bullish idea}

Financials

Mitek's revenues have grown rapidly, with a compounded annual growth of 28.8% from FY2013 to FY2022. The company has achieved an EBIT margin slightly above ten percent in most years and has the potential for a significantly larger EBIT margin.

Valuation

Mitek trades at a forward EV/S of 2.8, 32% below the five-year average of 4.1. The analyst's DCF model estimates a fair value of $18.90 for the stock, 78% above the current price.

Moats

• Scale Economics: High. Mitek has achieved stable growth, and its gross margin of 86.7% indicates strong economies of scale. It implies that operational efficiencies allow for high profitability as revenues increase.

• Network Effects: Mid. Mitek benefits from network effects as more institutions utilize its platforms, increasing the value for new adopters. It has high-profile customers like PayPal, Airbnb, and MasterCard, which validates its service quality and can attract other potential customers.

• Switching Costs: High. Once institutions integrate with Mitek's platform, switching to a different system can incur significant cost, time, and risk, thus creating a high barrier to client exit.

• Intangible assets: High. Mitek's proprietary identity validation technology and platform (MiVIP and MiPass) gives it unique capabilities and competitive advantage.