TikTok ban in the US 🚫

Good Morning! Welcome to another edition of Lightway.

Here’s everything you need to know to start your week:

→ TikTok ban in the US
→ Apple’s new open source AI models
→ xAI close to raising $6B
→ Alphabet’s first ever dividend, Apple cuts production of Vision Pro, and more Tech & AI news.

Reading time in 5 minutes.

Highlights of the week

US Gov to TikTok: Sell in 365 days or face ban in the US

The U.S. Senate passed a bill concerning TikTok’s ownership and later signed into law by President Biden. Here are the key details:

• Legislation: The bill mandates ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to sell the app within a year or face a ban in the U.S.

• National Security Concerns: This move stems from bipartisan concerns over national security risks due to TikTok's Chinese ownership.

• Bipartisan Support: The legislation, part of a larger national security package, passed with strong bipartisan support, with a Senate vote of 79-18.

TikTok is gearing up to fight back on the grounds of free speech and first amendment (Read More)

Apple releases open source AI models

Apple released OpenELM AI models along with CoreNet library, both accessible on GitHub and the HuggingFace. Here's what makes them stand out:

• CoreNet Library: This toolkit supports deep learning tasks like object detection and semantic segmentation.

• OpenELM Models: Utilizing CoreNet, OpenELM includes models with different parameters (270M, 450M, 1.1B, and 3B). These models employ a unique layer-wise scaling strategy in their transformer architectures, optimizing accuracy and efficiency.

• Performance and Efficiency: better performance with fewer parameters. For instance the 1 billion parameter model surpasses similar models in accuracy while using fewer resources.

• Open Source: Along with the AI model, Apple also released essential tools and data like training logs and pre-training configurations.

With upcoming launch of iOS 18, Apple is expected to unveil new AI models that are capable of running locally on Apple devices. (read more)

xAI close to raising $6 billion

Elon Musk's new AI venture, xAI, is currently seeking significant investment, and here's what we know:

• $6 billion: Initially, xAI aimed to raise $3 billion at a $15 billion valuation, but now is close to raising $6 billion with an $18 billion pre-money valuation.

• 25% Stake: The funding round would grant investors a 25% stake in xAI.

• Investor Interest: Key venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital and Future Ventures participating in the funding round.

xAI is 10 months old startup with some of the top performing AI models in the industry (read more)

 Tech Roundup

→ Alphabet Dividend and Buyback: Google’s parent company announces first ever dividend at 20 cents per share, beginning June 17, along with $70 billion buyback (link)

→ New AI training method mitigates the 'lost-in-the-middle' problem that plagues LLMs. (link)

→ Robots: Tesla plans to sell a humanoid robot named 'Optimus' by 2025. (link)

→ End of Call Centers?: Generative AI could end the need for call centers within a year (link)

→ Snapchat bounces back with 21% increase in stock after a new Ads system grew revenue by 21% (link)

→ Vision Pro: Apple reduces production of Vision Pro due to low demand (link)

→ Non Compete Agreements: FTC votes to ban most noncompete agreements nationwide, a common practice among big tech corporations. (link)

→ Microsoft AI: Microsoft launched Phi-3 Mini, a small AI model with 3.8 billion parameters, aimed at running locally on phones and laptops(link)

→ Tesla cuts price of its 'Full Self Driving' system by a third, down to $8,000 (link)

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