🚀 New AGI Lab in Town

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Hey innovators! ☀️ As the race for AGI heats up and AI platforms are reshaping industries, it feels like we’re living in a sci-fi movie. Today, we’re diving into bold new labs, AI scams, and the latest in tech wizardry. Let’s caffeinate those neurons and get started!

🚀 Move Over, OpenAI – There's a New AGI Lab in Town

François Chollet, the mastermind behind Keras and former Google researcher, is taking a swing at the AGI game with his new venture, Ndea. And he's not doing it alone – Zapier founder Mike Knoop is along for the ride.

What's cooking?

• Think deep learning meets program synthesis (fancy!)

• Aiming for AI that learns as efficiently as humans

• Building what they're calling a "factory for rapid scientific advancement"

Why it's spicy: Chollet's been a vocal critic of the "throw more data at it" approach to AI. Now he's putting his money where his mouth is, potentially reshaping the race to AGI. With Ilya Sutskever's SSI also in the mix, the AGI race is starting to look like a proper party. 🎉

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🤖 Microsoft Says "Copilot for All!" (Kind of)

Microsoft just dropped Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – basically the free version of their AI assistant with some pay-as-you-go perks.

The breakdown:

• Free access to GPT-4 powered chat

• Pay-per-use AI agents ($0.01 per message or $200/25k messages monthly)

• Web knowledge + file analysis included

• Image and code generation capabilities

Between the lines: This is Microsoft's answer to Google's Gemini making eyes at their enterprise customers. The secret sauce? Those agentic capabilities that let you automate tasks. Smooth move, Microsoft. 😏

🎥 Luma Labs Just Made AI Videos Even More Mind-Bending

Luma Labs dropped Ray 2, and folks, this isn't your grandmother's AI video model.

The cool stuff:

• 10-second video clips from text prompts

• 10x more computing power than the previous version

• Freakishly realistic physics and motion

• Coming soon to their Dream Machine platform

Why it matters: Remember when Veo 2 dropped during the holidays and everyone lost their minds? Well, Luma just said "hold my beer." The race for longer, more coherent AI videos is heating up faster than a GPU running DALL-E. 🔥

😬 The $855K Brad Pitt Catfish Saga

In what might be the most expensive case of celebrity catfishing ever, a French woman got scammed out of $855,000 by fake AI Brad Pitt. Yes, you read that right.

The wild ride:

• Scammers posed as Pitt's mother on Instagram

• Used AI-generated photos and messages

• Convinced the victim Pitt needed cancer treatment money

• Story went viral, mockery ensued, TV network pulled interview

The bigger picture: While it's easy to joke about, this highlights a scary truth about AI scams. When deepfakes get this convincing, anyone could be vulnerable. 😨

🗞️ Quick Bytes

• 💸 Synthesia raises $180M: The Nvidia-backed AI video platform hit a $2.1B valuation.

• 🧠 Transformer2 debuts: Sakana AI’s model dynamically adjusts pathways for top-notch efficiency.

• 📰 Google teams with AP: Real-time news integration arrives in Gemini AI.

• 🏢 OpenAI backs local news: Four new AI-integrated newsrooms get OpenAI funding.

• 🔒 Cisco’s AI Defense: New tools fight unauthorized AI tampering and data leaks.

• 🇺🇸 TikTok drama unfolds: Despite a looming US ban, TikTok plans to stay and adapt.

• 💻 Google adjusts pricing: While removing Gemini fees, Workspace plans now cost $2 more per user/month.

• 🤯 FBI fights PlugX malware: 4,200 US computers were hacked by the FBI to remove malware linked to Chinese actors.

• 📢 AI agents on Reddit: A startup deploying AI for Reddit ads raises questions about online authenticity.

• 📊 AI agents on the rise: Accenture predicts AI agents will dominate enterprise systems by 2030.

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💡What else are we reading and seeing?

• She Is in Love With ChatGPT 

• Deepseek: The Quiet Giant Leading China's AI Race

• Designing for developers means designing for LLMs too

• The Downfall of India's Hot Startup Is Wiping Out US Debtholders

• Replit CEO on AI breakthroughs: ‘We don't care about professional coders anymore'

• Startup necromancy: Dead Google Apps domains can be compromised by new owners

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💡 Final Byte

From cutting-edge AGI labs to AI-powered scams, the tech world isn’t slowing down. Remember, knowledge is power—stay informed, stay secure, and keep dreaming big!

Thanks for reading Not So Artificial! Got feedback or a story we should cover? Drop us a line. Catch you tomorrow! 🚀