By Douglas Heaven — MIT review — This time last year we did something reckless. In an industry where nothing stands still, we had a go at predicting the future. How did we do? Our four big bets for 2023 were that the next big thing in chatbots would be multimodal (check: the most powerful large language models out there, OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google DeepMind’s Gemini, work with text, images and audio); that policymakers would draw up tough new regulations (check: Biden’s executive order came out in October and the European Union’s AI Act was finally agreed in December); Big Tech would feel pressure from open-source startups (half right: the open-source boom continues, but AI companies like OpenAI and Google DeepMind still stole the limelight); and that AI would change big pharma for good (too soon to tell: the AI revolution in drug discovery is still in full swing, but the first drugs developed using AI are still some years from market).

Now we’re doing it again.

We decided to ignore the obvious. We know that large language models will continue to dominate. Regulators will grow bolder. AI’s problems—from bias to copyright to doomerism—will shape the agenda for researchers, regulators, and the public, not just in 2024 but for years to come. (Read more about our six big questions for generative AI here.) Instead, we’ve picked a few more specific trends. Here’s what to watch out for in 2024. (Come back next year and check how we did.)

Customized chatbots

By Brian Heater@bheate — techcrunch — r — MIT likens a new vibrating capsule to drinking a glass full of water prior to eating. Dieticians recommend the latter as a method for sending signals to your brain to simulate the sensation of being full. The researchers behind the new project further suggest it as a […]

By REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR — arabnews.com — DUBAI: As Saudi Arabia enters another busy event season, including grand city-based celebrations in Riyadh and Diriyah, a host of new entertainment ventures powered by new technology are opening up in the Kingdom. The latest move came in October when the Kingdom announced it was investing $55 million in HyperSpace, a three-year-old Saudi startup that designs digital theme parks within shopping centers. The funding came from Riyadh Season, a government-backed entertainment initiative under the Public Investment Fund, which provided most of the debt and equity raised by HyperSpace.

The other participants in the financing round included US-based Galaxy Interactive, Georgia SEGA Ventures and UK-headquartered Apis Venture Partners. “It’s really the world’s most innovative entertainment attraction,” Alexander Heller, the CEO of HyperSpace, told Arab News, adding: “It offers a completely new approach to location-based entertainment, as an attraction that is extremely innovative, built on technologies that already exist in the digital world and are being pulled into a physical front end for the first time.” Heller describes the attraction as like “TikTok and Fornite had a big physical baby.” He added: “It is part content creation arena and part physical video game. A park truly built on larger themes of content consumption, internet culture, and hype culture moving into a physical front-end entertainment space.”

HyperSpace features a mix of digital and physical entertainment, including gaming attractions, immersive theater experiences and interactive areas for content creation. The company opened its latest venue, House of Hype, in the capital city as part of the fourth edition of Riyadh Season, dubbed the world’s largest winter entertainment event. Bight and colorful phosphorescent lights greet guests, who enter several futuristically designed rooms in the new Riyadh House of Hype.

by Open AI :  — Aries: A year of growth and expansion. Aries natives can expect to experience positive changes in their career and personal life. They will have the opportunity to learn new skills and take on new challenges, which will help them grow both personally and professionally.

Taurus: A year of transformation and change. Taurus natives can expect to experience both positive and negative changes in their life. They may face some challenges, but these challenges will ultimately help them grow and transform into a better version of themselves.

Gemini: A year of self-discovery and personal growth. Gemini natives can expect to learn more about themselves and what they want out of life. They will have the opportunity to explore new interests and hobbies, which will help them grow and develop as individuals.

Cancer: A year of emotional healing and growth. Cancer natives can expect to work through some emotional issues and come out stronger on the other side. They will have the opportunity to heal old wounds and develop deeper connections with loved ones.

Leo: A year of creativity and self-expression. Leo natives can expect to tap into their creative side and express themselves in new and exciting ways. They will have the opportunity to explore new forms of self-expression, which will help them grow and develop as individuals.

by Emmy Lucas — Forbes Staff –– Job seekers are applying to more roles than years prior. Some say generative AI tools are to thank. Six months ago, Anshita Verma was sending out a handful of job applications a day. Now, the 26-year-old data scientist is sending out 10 to 15 daily, and she says it’s all thanks to artificial intelligence tools. “Instead of taking 30 minutes to fill out an application, it might take me 10,” says Verma. Plug-in AI browser tools that autofill the fields in job postings have greatly sped up the time she spends on applications, she says, letting her apply to more jobs more quickly.

Others are using generative AI programs like ChatGPT to create resumes and cover letters on demand that match the skills and qualifications of the job. Some are using job search automation tools such as LazyApply and SimplifyJobs to apply to jobs en masse. And AI tools such as Pyjama Jobs and Talentprise, which help candidates identify jobs their skill sets match, could also be boosting application rates. Experts say the tools are one reason, coupled with a cooler labor market and inflation, that employers are getting inundated with more applications. Workers in the U.S. and the U.K. are applying to about 15% more roles compared to a year ago, according to recent data from LinkedIn. “Job seekers are being more aggressive” compared to years past, says LinkedIn’s chief economist Karin Kimbrough, with AI helping people submit applications to more postings.

“There’s a whole energy around AI right now, and if you have these tools that are going to help you craft that perfect message with personalized suggestions, it really gives you a little bit more confidence in applying.” It can also prompt job seekers to apply more broadly. “Not only are they applying to more jobs, they’re actually applying to jobs they normally wouldn’t apply to,” says Michelle Volberg, founder and CEO of recruiting firm Giledan 360. “AI is like LinkedIn’s ‘Easy Apply’ tool on steroids. It’s letting tech candidates apply to finance or healthcare roles if there’s some sort of overlap, or make their resume appear relevant when in reality it’s not.”

 by Shubham Sharma — venturebeat — 2023 was the year of generative AI. However, as every company moved to strengthen their AI strategy, they also realized the value of clean and high-quality data — circling back to the need for robust infrastructure into the mix. From Snowflake to Microsoft, data ecosystem vendors cashed on this opportunity and moved, sometimes even acquired notable players, to give their customers the ability to tap their data for various AI applications as well as implement various AI capabilities into their products.

These are VentureBeat’s top 5 data stories of 2023

1. Microsoft’s move to beat Amazon and Google in the cloud war

In May, Microsoft announced Fabric – an end-to-end, analytics platform that combines all the data and analytics tools organizations need, including Azure Synapse Analytics and Power BI, into a single unified product. We spoke with analysts to understand what makes this offering, which aims to unlock the potential of data and lay the foundation for AI, unique and might help Microsoft “leapfrog” Amazon and other cloud providers, such as Google. At least when it comes to serving large enterprise companies. “With all these capabilities coming together, Microsoft definitely has a slight advantage over the other hyperscalers at the moment,” Noel Yuhanna, an analyst at Forrester, told VentureBeat.

2. The rise of vector database, a new kind of database for AI era

With generative AI being the talking point for every business, Charles Xie, the CEO and founder of Zilliz, discussed the rise of vector databases, a new category of database management, and a paradigm shift for making use of the exponential volumes of unstructured data sitting untapped in object stores. Vector databases offer a mind-numbing new level of capability to search unstructured data in particular, but can tackle semi-structured and even structured data as well. Xie also talked about how companies should approach vector databases to target their respective use cases.

3. Databricks’ $1.3 billion acquisition of MosaicML

By Andrew Murfett, Editor at LinkedIn News — 2024 is shaping up as a make-or-break year for the driverless car industry. Companies that were hurtling toward expansion are watching the fallout from Cruise, GM’s driverless car arm, after several accidents prompted it to pause all driving operations. The public’s patience and the company’s margins for […]

The emergence of smart glasses is poised to be a pivotal moment in the mainstream adoption of the metaverse, particularly in 2024.

From VentureBeat, the metaverse, often misconstrued as a fading trend, actually holds significant promise, especially in the enterprise sector. This futuristic digital landscape offers vast potential for immersive experiences and interactive platforms. As technologies evolve, the metaverse is becoming more accessible and practical for business applications, suggesting a bright future in various industries.

Wareable, on the other hand, delves into the world of smart glasses, highlighting the evolution of these devices. Gone are the days of bulky, robotic designs reminiscent of 1990s desktop computers. Today’s smart glasses embody diversity and style, combining advanced AR technology with aesthetically pleasing designs. These glasses offer a range of functionalities, from basic notification mirroring to more complex AR capabilities. The integration of smart glasses in the metaverse, especially in 2024, is not only about the advancement in technology but also about the accessibility in terms of cost. The latest smart glasses have evolved significantly, both in style and affordability. These devices now come in diverse and aesthetically pleasing designs, moving away from the cumbersome, robotic look of earlier models. This evolution makes them more appealing for everyday use and a vital tool for interacting within the metaverse.

Moreover, the pricing of smart glasses has seen a considerable shift. While earlier iterations of AR glasses were often prohibitively expensive, usually in the thousands, the current market offers options that are much more budget-friendly, with prices in the hundreds. This price reduction is a game-changer, making these advanced gadgets accessible to a broader audience.

Crunchbase News by Gené Teare –– Funding to the unicorn class of companies — those private startups valued at $1 billion or more — has fallen dramatically in 2023, to around 25% of what it was in the 2021 market peak, an analysis of Crunchbase data shows. So perhaps it’s no surprise that investments by leading investors in unicorn companies have dropped precipitously in 2023. For this analysis, we look at the nine most active venture and growth investors globally who have racked up the most investments in unicorn companies since 2018. We found that investments are mostly in the single digits this year for the most active investors in this asset class. These nine invested in a total of 44 unicorn companies in 2023 — or 13% of all unicorn companies that raised funding in the private markets this year. In 2022, they invested in 213 companies, or around 28% of unicorns funded that year. In 2021, that number was 471 companies, or 30% of this asset class. This slowdown is an indication of just how much this investor class has shifted its aperture in the past year.

Looking back

For the three most active investors — growth stage investors Tiger Global, Coatue and the SoftBank Vision Fund — investment counts in 2021 were up almost 3x or greater from 2020, as these firms made bigger bets as the IPO market for technology stocks took off in 2021. For the multistage venture capital firms that were the most active — Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Index Ventures — along with growth investor Insight Partners, investment counts were closer to doubling in 2021 compared to 2020. These firms tended to invest earlier in companies and kept investing through the growth in venture markets. Sequoia Capital was the single firm on this active list of investors in unicorns that increased its investment pace, but did not double year over year from 2020 to 2021.

By Ruiqi Chen, Editor at LinkedIn News —  More and more parents are dipping into their nest eggs to support their adult children, and it could risk their retirements, Bloomberg reports. Roughly half of America’s young adults live with their parents, according to Harris Poll — a trend exacerbated by the pandemic, inflation and an […]