Falcon Hunts 🦅
Falcon Hunts 🦅
Falcon 180B is here. It's overshadowing even Meta's LLaMA 2. Lazarus pulls off another heist. AI tunes are hitting the charts. Pinterest's new AI is like the best stylist ever. JPMorgan's token plans.
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Enter Falcon 180B.
An open-source AI giant that’s giving industry behemoths Meta and Google a run for their money. With its 180-billion parameter count, this model outdoes even the impressive LLaMA 2 from Meta.
Who's Behind It?: Falcon 180B is the brainchild of the Hugging Face AI community. And guess what?
It’s open-source and available for everyone on Hugging Face Hub.
This AI monster is based on innovations like multi-query attention. Trained on 3.5 trillion tokens, it’s the lengthiest single-epoch pre-training for an open-source model so far.
How Big Are We Talking? Falcon 180B has parameters that are 2.5 times bigger than Meta's LLaMA 2. Just to give you an idea, LLaMA 2 was like the LeBron James of open-source language models till Falcon swooped in.
Performance Notes: Falcon 180B isn’t just about big numbers. It’s leading the charts in performance too. When tested against various benchmarks, it even gave Google’s PaLM-2 Large model a tough challenge. While comparing with ChatGPT, it outshines the free version but sits a tad below the premium “plus” version. Not bad for an open-source model, right?
Training Dynamics: Creating Falcon 180B was no small feat. Its training encompassed a mind-boggling 3.5 trillion tokens from TII’s RefinedWeb dataset. The process harnessed the power of up to 4096 GPUs simultaneously, accruing about 7 million GPU hours on Amazon SageMaker. This intense computational effort underscores the lengths taken to sculpt this marvel.
Data Composition: The diversity in Falcon 180B's data sources sets it apart. The majority, around 85%, is sourced from RefinedWeb, a web-based dataset. The remaining 15% is a mosaic of curated content - from casual conversations and technical papers to a sprinkle of coding data. This rich tapestry of information equips Falcon 180B with a versatile knowledge base, ready to tackle a vast array of natural language processing tasks.
Accessibility and Ethics: The potency of Falcon 180B is now within arm's reach of the global community. You can mingle with Falcon 180B over at the Hugging Face Hub's Falcon Chat VIP (Demo) Lounge. But with great power comes great responsibility. Recognising the potential ramifications of misuse, the model’s deployment is bound by stringent conditions. Commercial applications, in particular, face tight restrictions, especially regarding "hosting use". Such measures ensure that the colossal capabilities of Falcon 180B are harnessed ethically, forestalling potential misuse.
What's Next? The AI world doesn’t rest. With techniques like LoRAs and Nvidia’s Perfusion coming into play, training large AI models is becoming more efficient than ever. Falcon 180B’s availability on Hugging Face means the AI community can play, tweak, and enhance it even further.
Google Protects
Google will require political ads on its platforms to disclose if they use artificial intelligence (AI) to create images and audio. The change is in response to the increasing use of tools that produce synthetic content and aims to prevent the spread of disinformation during election campaigns. Labels such as "this image does not depict real events" or "this video content was synthetically generated" will be used to flag ads containing synthetic content. Google already prohibits the manipulation of digital media to deceive or mislead people about politics, and requires political ads to disclose who paid for them.
Microsoft's AI Assurance
Microsoft has announced that it will pay legal damages on behalf of customers using its artificial intelligence (AI) products if they are sued for copyright infringement. The company will assume responsibility for any claims raised by third parties as long as customers use the built-in content filters and guardrails. This move comes as concerns have been raised about the ability of generative AI to create content without referencing its original authors. Microsoft has heavily invested in AI and incorporated it into various products, including cloud services and enterprise software.
Microsoft is also partnering with Paige to build the world's largest AI model for detecting cancer. The model, which is training on billions of images, aims to help pathologists diagnose both common and rare cancers.
TTD Number 🔢
$41 million
North Korea’s notorious hacker group, the Lazarus Group, has been named by the FBI as the perpetrators behind another big million heist.
Quick Facts 📌
Target: Crypto casino Stake, which has backing from the celebrity, Drake.
FBI's Findings: The FBI linked North Korea’s hacker group, the Lazarus Group, to a $41 million theft from Stake. Stolen assets were traced across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain networks.
Previous Exploits: The group has a notorious track record, previously stealing $100 million from Atomic Wallet and $60 million from Aplhapo and CoinsPaid.
Tornado Cash Connection: Lazarus Group's actions have implicated coin-mixing protocol Tornado Cash, which was sanctioned for allegedly aiding in laundering $7 billion in cryptocurrency.
Where’s ETF?🚨
SEC should approve a Bitcoin ETF to gain more control over crypto exchange👇🏻
TTD AI📍
TikTok's AI Hitmaker
A TikTok user known as Ghostwriter created an AI-generated song called "Heart on My Sleeve" that went viral, mimicking the vocal styles of Drake and The Weeknd.
The song has now been submitted for Grammy Awards consideration in two categories. Despite legal threats and being pulled from streaming platforms, the song is eligible for the awards because Ghostwriter wrote the lyrics. The CEO of the Recording Academy confirmed that songs created with AI tools can be eligible for awards as long as they have human contributions. Ghostwriter has also released a new AI-assisted track called "Whiplash" and is advocating for the future of AI in music.
Salena Gomez was a bit scared too:
AI Tokens are a Little Sad
Despite the hype surrounding AI-inspired tokens in the crypto market, their market cap has been declining. Interest in AI-affiliated tokens has remained flat, with the total interest for five top AI tokens dropping from $170 million to $60 million. The decline is attributed to a shift in global risk appetite, particularly concerns related to China's alleged economic slowdown. However, some projects like Fetch.ai and Ocean Protocol have gained traction, with Fetch.ai experiencing a 90% surge in open interest. Despite the challenging macroeconomic scenario, the most innovative projects are expected to attract capital in the near future.
Pinterest's AI Tool For All Body Types
Pinterest has introduced an AI-powered tool to promote body type inclusivity on its platform. The tool uses artificial intelligence to recognise diverse body types, taking into account factors like shape, size, and form. It responds to search inquiries by generating specific image results tailored to different body types.
Pinterest collaborated with creators and experts, including the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance and model Tess Holliday, to enhance body representation on the platform. The company believes that "inspiration begins with inclusion" and aims to develop more inclusive experiences within its mobile app. Additionally, Pinterest is launching its Creator Inclusion Fund to support historically marginalised creators.
TTD Coinbase 🧿
Coinbase, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, is setting its sights on international expansion. Amidst regulatory challenges in the US, the exchange has identified countries with clearer crypto regulations to be its primary focus.
Target Markets: Based on a recent blog post the exchange has earmarked the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Singapore, and Australia as primary targets for near-term expansion.
According to Coinbase, these nations are creating well-defined crypto regulations, a stark contrast to the US This clear regulatory environment makes it feasible for Coinbase to strengthen and expand its operations by acquiring necessary licenses and establishing solid footholds.
Coinbase expressed concerns over the US government's approach to crypto regulations. Instead of establishing clear new rules, the US is opting to enforce existing ones, sidelining itself from influencing the rapidly evolving crypto sphere.
A Bold Declaration: In spite of facing legal action in the US from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Coinbase made it clear it won't stay passive just because its home country is. Their mission? Update the global financial system to provide more economic freedom and opportunity.
Go Broad, Go Deep: Coinbase's global approach, termed "Go Broad, Go Deep," involves partnering with both global and local banks and payment providers. This is to ensure they can facilitate easy fiat-crypto conversions and remain compliant with regulations. As part of their strategy, they're also set to ramp up lobbying efforts, especially in the EU, leading up to the upcoming elections. Their G20 focus seems primarily on Brazil, which will chair the organisation in 2024.
TTD HelloCrypto 👋🏻
Bloomberg says that JPMorgan is gearing up to roll out a blockchain-based solution for quick cross-border transactions. But, this won't be up and running until the regulatory honchos in the US give it their blessing.
Deposit Tokens: JPMorgan's newest brainchild, the deposit token, is on its way. Aimed initially at corporate clients, this token is designed to turbocharge payments and settlements. Deposit tokens are unique in that they're birthed on the blockchain by depository institutions, symbolising a deposit stance. This stands in stark contrast to your regular stablecoins, which are typically the offspring of private, non-banking entities.
JPM Coin vs. Deposit Token: JPM Coin (Remember?) is for in-house transactions, letting corporate clientele shuffle dollars and euros within the bank. This new deposit token, however, is all about broader horizons, enabling transactions with other banks. Plus, it's versatile, accommodating various settlement types on the blockchain, including tokenised securities trade-offs.
Both the JPM Coin and the new deposit token will undergo rigorous Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-fraud checks. The deposit token even had a trial run last year under Project Guardian, an initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
TTD Surfer 🏄
Grab, a prominent ride-hailing app in Southeast Asia, has entered the Web3 services realm.
Ryan Salame, a former executive at FTX, has pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges and could forfeit $1.5 billion.
The UK's FCA has warned crypto firms to comply with marketing rules by October 2023 but stated that they could have until January 2024 to implement certain changes.
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