🤑 Alibaba's Billion Dollar Investment

Reading time: 5 minutes  

 Newsletter | News | Tools | Grow your Product  

Today we will discuss-

• 🚀 Alibaba’s Billion-Dollar Bet

• 🤯 AI to take over half of work activities by 2045

• ⚡AI industry may match Netherlands energy consumption

• 👩🏻‍🔧11 amazing AI tools you might not have heard of

All this and more - Let's dive in!

👩‍🍳What’s cooking in the newsroom?

🚀 Alibaba Backs Moonshot AI in a Billion-Dollar Bet on Generative AI

🌟 Spotlight on Innovation: Alibaba Group leads a $1 billion round in AI startup Moonshot AI, boosting its valuation to $2.5 billion. This positions Alibaba with tech giants like Tencent and Microsoft in the race for AI dominance.

🛠️ Moonshot AI's Trajectory: Launched in March 2023, Moonshot AI quickly emerged as a key player in the generative AI field, launching the Kimi chatbot and a platform for developers. This initiative is part of a broader ambition to compete globally with giants like OpenAI and Google. Alibaba's investment marks a strategic move to fuel innovation within the AI sector.

💡 Alibaba's Strategic Vision: Under the new leadership of Joseph Tsai and Eddie Wu, Alibaba is doubling down on its commitment to transformative technologies and a strategic reorganization. The company's commitment to AI is evident in its strategic investments and cloud unit's growth. They’re taking a page directly out of Microsoft’s playbook.

🔍 A Crowded Field: The AI sector is witnessing an influx of investments, with firms racing to capitalize on the technology's vast potential. Despite the competitive landscape and regulatory hurdles, Alibaba's bold move underscores its vision for a future where AI plays a central role in business and society.

🤯 AI automation could take over half of work activities by 2045: McKinsey

📻News - McKinsey & Company predicts that generative AI could automate half of all work activities by 2045. The report found that generative AI will likely have the biggest impact on customer service, marketing and sales, software engineering, and research and development roles.

Automation adoption is likely to be faster in developed economies because labor is expensive there. Businesses in these economies will see benefits such as lower costs and increased productivity.

👨‍💻What’s more? The generative AI market is projected to add between $2.6 and $4.4 trillion to the global economy annually by 2030, with a total market value of up to $15.7 trillion.

Generative AI has the potential to deliver an additional $200 to $340 billion in value to the banking sector each year if all potential use cases are implemented.

As per the report, businesses and governments can invest in education and training to help workers develop the skills they need for the jobs of the future. This includes providing training on new technologies, such as generative AI, as well as training on soft skills, such as problem-solving and creativity.

🔋 Study predicts AI industry could use as much energy as a small country by 2027

♨️News - A study has warned that by 2027, the artificial intelligence industry could use as much energy as a country equivalent to the size of the Netherlands.

The study conducted by a PhD candidate at the VU Amsterdam School of Business and Economics, relies on certain factors staying constant. These factors include the pace of AI expansion, the availability of AI chips, and servers consistently operating at maximum capacity.

🤔How was this conclusion made though? By taking into account that chip designer NVIDIA is expected to provide approximately 95% of the AI processing equipment needed by the industry and examining the expected number of these computers to be supplied by 2027, an estimate of the energy consumption of AI was calculated. This estimate ranged between 85-134 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually, which is comparable to the annual electricity consumption of countries like Argentina, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

🙄What do we know about AI's energy use? Popular chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard rely on data centers, which are large warehouses of computers that consume a lot of energy. To put this into perspective, a typical family home uses about 4 kW of power, while a single rack of AI equipment in a data center can use up to 80 kW. A single data center may contain hundreds or even thousands of these racks.

🙆🏻‍♀️ What else is happening?

• Update from yesterday: Microsoft’s investment was $16m in Mistral AI

• Inkitt - AI writer for best selling books raises $37m

• Former twitter engineers turn their attention to building an AI-powered news reader, Particle

• Photoroom (AI image editor) raises $43m at a $500m valuation

🎮AI-based games

• Black & White - It is a simulation game set in a fantasy world where you take on the role of a deity with the power to shape the land and influence the lives of its inhabitants. The game uses AI to give personality and autonomy to your followers and other creatures in the world.

• The SIMS series - A life simulation game that allows players to create and control virtual people, known as "Sims," and guide them through various aspects of their lives. AI manages various systems within the game, such as the progression of time, and the needs of the Sims.

👩🏼‍🚒Discover mind-blowing AI tools

1. Screenshot Coder - A tool that uses AI to convert screenshots into frontend code ($9.99/month)** 

2. SlidesPilot - An AI-powered tool that helps users create PowerPoint presentations quickly and easily ($15/month) 

3. Viroll - An AI-powered video editing tool that helps users create highlight clips from their videos (Free)

4. LogoPicture AI - An online tool that allows users to create optical illusion art with their logos ($9.9 one-time payment) 

5. RivalFlow - An AI-driven tool that helps improve existing content for better SEO rankings ($79/month) 

6. Misgif - An AI-powered tool that allows users to put themselves into their favorite GIFs using a single selfie (Free)

7. Chopcast - A tool that uses NLP technology to automatically identify key moments in long recordings ($12/month)

8. TurboSite - Allows users to effortlessly create beautiful landing pages without any design experience (Free, $9/month) 

9. Supermeme - An AI-powered meme generator that helps users create memes from any text ($9.9/ month) 

10. ChatGitHub - A helpful information assistant designed to answer questions about GitHub (Free)

11. Creative Fast AID - A tool that generates campaign ideas for NGOs and brands in minutes (Free) 

☺️AI life hacks

• Create a selfie caption - If you're struggling to come up with a caption for your selfie, ChatGPT can help. Just feed it some details about your photo and it will generate a caption that is short, trendy, and relevant to your picture. 

• Use AI as a gaming companion - Whether you're an avid gamer or a casual player, having a reliable gaming companion can make all the difference. Utilize AI chatbots, these LLM models can be your ultimate gaming sidekick, offering suggestions and tips to help you win.

• Get motivated using AI - Feeling nervous before a big event is normal. But instead of seeking advice from others, you can turn to ChatGPT for a personalized pre-event motivation strategy.

[The tool marked with ** is a sponsored feature.]