The AI salary boom, AI controlling your dreams, new AI scams, and more!

The February 2, 2024 intelligist newsletter

Author

Joaquin Bueno
February 02, 2024

Greetings, intelligists!

In this today’s edition, we have lined up the following headlines for you:

  • EU Antitrust Chief Warns Against AI Dominance by American Tech Giants

  • Google's AI Image Generator Now Available to the Public (With Safeguards)

  • Insights into AI Salaries at Top Companies

  • An AI Headband That Wants to Control Your Dreams

  • Scam Alert: Mother Becomes the Victim of an $11k Scam

  • Nvidia's New China-Focused AI Chip Set to Be Sold at a Similar Price to Huawei's

Enjoy today’s newsletter, and remember to share it with a friend if you think they might be interested!

EU antitrust chief warns against AI dominance by American tech giants

The EU's top competition and digital affairs official, Margrethe Vestager, has warned against the dominance of American tech giants in the AI market.

Vestager emphasized the importance of keeping the market open and ensuring choice, expressing concerns about being overshadowed by American AI companies.

The dominance of AI by US-based companies has been only slightly offset by European competition. The most notable rival to the Americans is France’s Mistral, whose open-source model has been impressive (I can personally attest). Meanwhile, Hugging Face, the main hub for open-source AI distribution, was founded by French nationals but has since expanded and rooted in the United States.

American tech companies have produced concern worldwide due to their immense influence and grasp on consumers. Giants such as Meta and Google have extraordinarily vast amounts of data on their billions of combined users.

In the past, concerns over data privacy led to the EU passing the seminal General Data Protection Regulation law, or GDPR, which has placed strict norms on how companies collect and store data. In late 2023, EU leaders vowed to create similar AI-related regulations, though they have yet to be implemented.

Google's AI image generator now available to the public (with safeguards)

Not wanting to be left in the dust, Google has launched its AI image generator, Imagen 2, to the public.

The tech giant has released this feature in limited markets while implementing measures to prevent the generation of harmful content. Furthermore, any generated images will be watermarked with SynthID so that their AI status is known.

In November, OpenAI took a big step by integrating Dall-E, its own image generation platform, with ChatGPT. Time will tell if Google’s Imagen can compete with the more established text-to-image platforms.

Insights into AI salaries at top companies

A Business Insider report has provided some stunning insights into the salaries offered by top companies in the AI industry. It details the compensation packages of various roles at leading AI firms, shedding light on the competitive nature of AI talent acquisition.

It’s no secret that the AI sector is booming, attracting talent from big tech firms with competitive salaries. Databricks, for instance, offers positions ranging from Backend Engineers at $134,992 to Principal Software Engineers at $285,500.

OpenAI, known for its consumer AI market dominance, pays its Member of Product Staff $135,990. Coreweave, a cloud provider leveraging GPUs for AI, pays Senior Infrastructure Engineers up to $230,000.

These figures highlight the lucrative opportunities within the AI field, reflecting the high demand for specialized skills in this rapidly evolving industry.

An AI headband that wants to control your dreams

An AI headband that claims to control dreams is under development.

The device is designed to influence the content of dreams, potentially opening up new possibilities in sleep research and technology.

Startup Prophetic is touting its Halo device as a tool to induce lucid dreaming. Within this dream state, the company claims, users can control their dreamworld completely. They claim the device does this by stimulating the wearer's prefrontal cortex.

Scam alert: Mother becomes the victim of an $11k scam

An Australian was scammed out of $11,000 after receiving texts that appeared to be from her daughter.

The woman claims the texts were written in her daughter’s style and closely imitated how she normally writes, including word choices.

AI has made it possible to generate text and even voice based on the style of a real person. AI-powered scammers can use public social media posts to train generative AI platforms that produce texts, voice recordings, and even videos. They can then use this to scam unsuspecting victims.

In this case, the mother received these messages from the impersonator posing as her daughter in a desperate situation and asking for money.

The incident serves as a reminder to remain vigilant against increasingly sophisticated scams. This is especially true when it comes to verifying unexpected requests for money from family members.

If you receive any such texts or calls, try independently getting in touch with the person who is purportedly asking for money. Another idea is talking to your family members and establishing “code words” or other mechanisms to verify their identity.

Nvidia's new China-focused AI chip set to be sold at a similar price to Huawei's

Nvidia is set to release a China-focused AI chip at a price similar to Huawei's, aiming to compete in the Chinese market.

This is an interesting development considering that Nvidia has been enjoying a massive boom, with stock prices soaring and demand for its products at all-time high levels.

While China is not considered to be a global AI entrepreneurship leader, the nation has the technological infrastructure to take advantage of it. China already makes the majority of the world’s high-end electronics, and Nvidia wants to pounce on that market as it expands. There is no question that China is a fundamental player and that Chinese-made hardware is critical for the AI sector.