June 28, 2024 | Read Online

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0. Data and calendar

All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).

All times are ET.

Correction: We reported yesterday that Amazon's +4% to $2T market cap was based on no news. In fact, the rise was connected to the report that Amazon plans to launch a Temu-like store. h/t to our reader FD.

1. Google's open weights Gemma 2 nears Microsoft's Phi-3 on benchmarks

Google curiously didn't explicitly compare Gemma 2 with Phi-3 in their launch post:

Google.

Gemma 2 runs on a single NVIDIA H100.

Phi-3 continues to be the leading open weights small language model according to MMLU, having a 78.2 score

Microsoft.

TBD: Human comparisons between the 2 models.

2. Q1 GDP revised up from 1.3% to 1.4%

Reuters.

From 3.4% in Q4.
Durable goods orders: 0.1% MoM in May, vs -0.5% expected, from 0.2% in the prior month.
- Core: -0.1%, vs. 0.2%, from 0.4%.
UK GDP for Q1 updated from 0.6% to 0.7%.

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4. OpenAI announces CriticGPT, model to help human trainers spot mistakes during RLHF

Humans + CriticGPT provided more comprehensive critiques and hallucinated less often than just humans:

OpenAI.

OpenAI suggests this is a step towards "AI alignment," and we assume also into AI being able to recursively improve itself.

5. ChatGPT web visits +16% MoM, +96% YoY to 2.9B in June, expanding its lead over Gemini

Similarweb.

Looking at mobile apps, Character AI has almost the same number of U.S. DAUs as ChatGPT

Similarweb.

OpenAI's API revenue $1B+ (out of $3.4B total), ahead of Azure OpenAI.

6. Robotics startup funding set to grow in 2024

$4.2B invested YTD, vs. $6.8B in all of 2023:

Crunchbase.

7. 29% of Americans would consider buying EVs

Research Center.

8. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

Why do we disagree about AI risk? (Scott Alexander & Josh Rosenberg)

Fireside Chat with Nate Silver and Scott Alexander

Mark Zuckerberg on Creators, AI Studio, Neural Wristbands, Holographic Smart Glasses, Picasso & More

#53: What We Got Wrong—and Right—in a Year of More or Less

9. Other headlines

AI

Meta LLM Compiler launches.
Google partners with Moody's for financial data for AI.
SoftBank raises $1.9B in overseas bond sale for AI bets.
Andrew Ng plans $120M for next AI fund.
Hebbia raises $100M Series B for AI search.
Axelera raises $68M to build AI chips, rival NVIDIA.
Character AI now allows users to talk to AI bots over call.

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Tech

Vision Pro launches in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore.
Clay raises $46M at $500M, with participation from Sequoia.

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Tech & law

Chinese AI cloud firms limiting access due to U.S. curbs.
Uber's MA settlement demands $32.5/hour minimum wage.
TikTok ban requires extremely heavy burden, EFF tells Appeals Court.

Biotech

Prenuvo launches 10-year, 100K-patient study on whole-body MRI screening.
AgingBiotech's list of longevity therapeutics.
Lifestyle factors in late life linked to odds of becoming centenarian.

Crypto

Coinbase sues SEC, FDIC over attempts to cut crypto from banking.
Solana nears ATH in transactions after Blinks launch.
MegaLabs raises $20M for "real-time" blockchain.

U.S. politics

Trump, Biden debate leads Dems to discuss change of ticket.
Supreme Court sets Mon. as new opinion day for Trump immunity bid.
- OxyContin settlement ended by 5-4.
- SEC's use in-house judges curbed in fraud cases by 6-3.
- New emissions requirements blocked by 5-4.

World

Milei wins approval for economic reforms by 147-107.
Iran presidential elections today could elect reformist Pezeshkian.
Israel, Hezbollah inch closer to war.
Ukraine likely to receive Patriot systems from U.S., Israel.

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