The Latest From the Greatest: Google’s New LLMs and Adobe’s Generative AI
Emerging Tech Roundup — February 23
The Quantious team’s top picks for timely trending news in the tech world.
This week in tech: Premium Leisure Startup Beond Will Offer Apple Vision Pro To Passengers, Samsung Creates ‘Immersive Team’ for XR Headset Development, OpenAI Reaches $80 Billion Valuation In Venture Firm Deal, Adobe Acrobat Adds Generative AI to ‘Easily Chat with Documents’, HTC’s VIVE Focus 3 is Being Used in Space, Neuralink’s First Human Patient Able to Control Mouse Through Thinking, and Google Launches Two New Open LLMs.
Premium Leisure Startup Beond Will Offer Apple Vision Pro To Passengers
(Simple Flying, February 15)
Beond, a startup airline, is set to revolutionize the in-flight experience by offering Apple Vision Pro headsets to passengers on flights to the Maldives. Beond aims to transform the passenger experience with immersive VR content showcasing the best of Maldives, alongside traditional in-flight entertainment. This initiative marks Beond as the first airline to provide VR headsets to passengers, enhancing its commitment to delivering a premium travel experience and enticing travelers with the allure of resort destinations and activities in the Maldives.
Samsung Creates ‘Immersive Team’ for XR Headset Development
(IoT News, February 15)
Samsung has formed an “Immersive Team” within its Mobile Experience division to develop its inaugural extended reality (XR) headset, responding to the recent success of Apple’s Vision Pro. With a team of more than 100 members, Samsung is hastening development to unveil the headset alongside new Galaxy devices later this year, potentially leveraging eMagin microdisplays and Qualcomm processors for high-resolution graphics. Positioned to undercut Apple’s pricing, Samsung aims to assert itself as a key player in the spatial computing market, with its headset expected to offer full-color passthrough video, AI processing, Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, and seamless integration with Samsung’s ecosystem.
OpenAI Reaches $80 Billion Valuation In Venture Firm Deal, Report Says
(Forbes, February 16)
OpenAI has entered into a significant agreement with venture capital firm Thrive Capital, resulting in a valuation of $80 billion, marking a substantial increase from just nine months prior. This deal includes an existing share sale, led by Thrive, enabling employees to cash out their shares in the AI company. With this valuation, OpenAI now ranks as the third highest-valued tech startup globally, following TikTok’s ByteDance and SpaceX.
Adobe Acrobat Adds Generative AI to ‘Easily Chat with Documents’
(The Verge, February 20)
Adobe is introducing a new AI experience called “AI Assistant in Acrobat” to its PDF management software, promising to revolutionize digital document handling by facilitating easier navigation and comprehension of lengthy files. This “conversational engine” helps streamline tasks like research or report summarization by enabling users to interact with documents through chat, allowing for summarization, answering queries, and content recommendations. The AI Assistant works across supported document formats, upholds strict data security measures, and offers features like generating citations, creating clickable links, and formatting content, enhancing productivity for Acrobat users.
HTC’s VIVE Focus 3 is Being Used in Space
(XR Today, February 20)
HTC’s VIVE Focus 3 is being used aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to support astronauts’ physical and mental health during space missions. Teaming up with a FERGO exercise bike, the VR headset shares real-time, visual scenery and terrains that match the user’s physical output. Maintaining physical health is crucial in the environment on the ISS due to significant muscle and bone mass loss during extended space missions.
Neuralink’s First Human Patient Able to Control Mouse Through Thinking, Musk Says
(Reuters, February 21)
Neuralink founder Elon Musk announced that the first human implanted with a brain-chip from the startup has fully recovered, showcasing the ability to control a computer mouse through thought. Musk expressed optimism about the patient’s progress, emphasizing the absence of any adverse effects and the focus on maximizing mouse button clicks. This milestone follows the successful chip implantation last month, marking a significant step towards enabling individuals to control computer functions through brain-computer interface technology.
Google Launches Two New Open LLMs
(Tech Crunch, February 21)
Google has swiftly followed up on the release of its latest Gemini models with the introduction of Gemma, a new family of lightweight open-weight models. Aimed at commercial and research usage, these models offer state-of-the-art performance in dense decoder-only architecture. Alongside the Gemma models, Google is launching a responsible generative AI toolkit and a debugging tool to support safer AI applications.
