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Today we cover key updates on AI, energy, and digital rights. Salesforce’s Agentforce 2.0 empowers enterprises to automate complex tasks with AI. Meanwhile, AI’s growing energy needs could strain North America’s power grid, with shortfalls expected by 2025. Apple faces legal action over conflict minerals, raising ethical concerns in the tech supply chain. CAA and YouTube are collaborating to help talent protect their digital likeness from deepfakes, setting new standards for the entertainment industry. But we have lots more… Lets dig in.

• Is NVIDIA’s New AI Kit the Best Xmas Gift for Tech Enthusiasts?

• Solve Your Biggest Challenges With AI.

• Our Deep Dives.

• Open AI Day 9 OF 12: A Day for Developers.

• 🧰 AI Tools

• 📰 News and Trends.

Is NVIDIA’s New AI Kit the Best Xmas Gift for Tech Enthusiasts?

NVIDIA just released a Super Developer Kit that may become a great Christmas gift for developers, students, and makers. The NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit is an affordable and powerful platform for developing generative AI applications on edge devices. Priced at $249, it provides a significant performance boost, delivering up to 67 TOPS of AI processing power, which is a 1.7X improvement over its predecessor. It supports popular AI models like vision transformers, large language models, and vision-language models, making it ideal for developers, students, and makers. The kit is also compatible with the existing Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit, which can be upgraded to "Super" with a simple software update. This platform is designed for AI-driven robotics, vision AI, and other edge applications.

What can you do with it:

• Develop and run generative AI models for robotics, vision AI, and multimodal agents.

• Experiment with large language models and vision transformers.

• Create AI-driven applications at the edge, such as robotics systems and IoT devices.

• Enhance generative AI applications without needing expensive hardware.

Pros:

• Affordable at $249, making it accessible to a wide audience.

• Significant performance improvement (67 TOPS) over previous models.

• Supports a wide range of popular AI models.

• Can be upgraded via software update for existing Jetson Orin Nano users.

• Compact and energy-efficient design (7W-25W power consumption).

Cons:

• Limited memory bandwidth (102 GB/s), which may affect very large-scale models or data-heavy tasks.

• May not be powerful enough for extremely complex AI applications compared to high-end systems.

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Quick and Deep Dives:

• Salesforce has launched Agentforce 2.0, a digital labor platform designed to enhance enterprise teams with autonomous AI agents capable of handling complex, multi-step tasks. Key features include a new library of pre-built skills, enhanced reasoning and data retrieval capabilities, and integration with Slack for seamless collaboration. With AI agents embedded in workflows, businesses can automate processes like sales, recruiting, customer support, and more. Companies such as Accenture, Indeed, and Finnair are already leveraging Agentforce to streamline operations and scale growth. Agentforce 2.0 will be available in stages, with full release in February 2025.

• The rising power demand for artificial intelligence could lead to blackouts in North America as the electricity grid struggles to keep up. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation predicts a 15% increase in demand over the next decade, compounded by the closure of coal plants and slow integration of renewable energy sources. This could lead to power shortfalls in some US areas by 2025. While Big Tech is exploring solutions, including nuclear power, NERC warns that demand will outpace new energy supplies.

• The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed criminal complaints against Apple in France and Belgium, accusing the company of using conflict minerals from the country in its products. Apple denies the allegations, stating it has instructed suppliers to stop sourcing minerals from both the DRC and neighboring Rwanda. The case highlights the challenges in the tech supply chain, where minerals like tungsten and tin are sourced from conflict zones, making it difficult to prevent “blood minerals” from entering legitimate markets.

• CAA and YouTube have partnered to help talent in Hollywood, sports, and the creator economy manage their AI likeness and swiftly remove unauthorized deepfakes. With public figures facing difficulties in removing deepfakes from social media, this collaboration offers tools to identify and take down videos using their likeness. The partnership could set a precedent for protecting creative work in the face of AI disruption. Over the coming months, YouTube will test AI identification tools for creators and may explore ways to help talent monetize their digital likeness. CAA is keen on managing AI as a positive force for talent, safeguarding their earnings and commissions.

Open AI Day 9 OF 12: A Day for Developers.

OpenAI's Day Nine event during the "12 Days" series focused on new updates for developers and startups using OpenAI's API. Key announcements included:

• O1 Model Launch: O1 is now available in the API with improved features, including function calling, structured outputs, developer messages, and a new reasoning parameter. These updates enhance AI model performance, especially in areas like customer support, financial analysis, and coding.

• Vision Inputs: O1 now supports vision inputs, enabling AI to analyze images for applications like manufacturing and science.

• Developer Features: The addition of developer messages lets developers control model behavior through instructions, while reasoning effort allows for optimization in time and costs depending on task complexity.

• Real-Time API Updates: OpenAI introduced WebRTC support for the Real-Time API, simplifying the integration process for real-time voice applications. This reduces the need for handling complexities like congestion control and audio capture.

• Preference Fine-Tuning: OpenAI unveiled preference fine-tuning, which optimizes models based on user preferences instead of exact inputs/outputs. This method improves performance in areas like customer support and content moderation.

• New SDKs and Developer Tools: New official SDKs for Go and Java were announced to improve developer experience, alongside updates to simplify login and API key generation.

These updates aim to make OpenAI's tools more accessible, efficient, and customizable for developers building AI-driven applications.

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📰 AI News and Trends

• xAI has made a version of Grok available for everyone (X)

• Google Turns to Renewable Energy and Grid Upgrades to Power AI Ambitions Amid Nuclear Focus (TC)

🌐 Other Tech news

• YouTube’s new auto-dubbing feature is now available for knowledge-focused content (TC)

• Grammarly acquires productivity startup Coda, brings on new CEO (TC)

• Databricks Raises $10B In 2024’s Largest Venture Funding Deal (CB)

• Honda and Nissan to Start Talks on Possible Merger (Bloomberg)

• Waymo is sending autonomous vehicles to Japan for first international tests (TheVerge)

• Bitcoin Sets Another All-Time High in Climb Toward $110,000 (Bloomberg)