Amazon's new AI can purchase products on your behalf

Hi everyone! Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

👉 Amazon can now shop and purchase products on your behalf

👉 Midjourney launched a new smart image generation model

👉 Intel and TSMC are forming a joint venture

and many more!

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Read time: 5 minutes

What’s going on: Midjourney, a pioneer in AI image generation, has launched its first new model in nearly a year, named V7. This release follows a week after OpenAI’s viral Ghibli-style image generator debuted in ChatGPT, though Midjourney’s V7 isn’t tailored for that aesthetic.

What does it mean: This new image generation engine focuses on delivering high-quality, coherent images with improved texture and detail, excelling at interpreting text prompts and rendering complex elements like hands and objects. CEO David Holz calls it a “totally different architecture,” built from scratch to enhance image quality and prompt comprehension, marking a significant leap from prior models.

More details:

• To use V7, users must first rate around 200 images to create a personalization profile, a step that tunes the model to individual tastes and is enabled by default. Once set up, the model can be toggled on Midjourney’s website or Discord chatbot.

• Midjourney V7 comes in two modes: Turbo, which is pricier but faster, and Relax, a more economical option.

• A new Draft Mode, powered by Turbo, generates images 10 times faster at half the cost, though with lower quality that can be refined later. Features like upscaling and retexturing aren’t yet available but are promised within two months as the alpha phase progresses.

• Interested in the details? Read Midjourney official update.

What’s going on: Amazon has introduced a new AI shopping agent called "Buy for Me," aimed at purchasing items from third-party websites for users. This feature, powered by Amazon’s Nova AI models and Anthropic’s Claude, steps in when Amazon’s own inventory lacks what a customer wants, allowing the agent to browse external sites, select products, and complete transactions using the user’s stored billing and shipping details, all within the Amazon Shopping app.

What does it mean: This is a practical and smart move to keep users in Amazon’s ecosystem even when it can’t directly fulfill their needs, though it requires trust in the AI to avoid errors like over-ordering or picking the wrong items. The agent operates with encrypted billing to maintain privacy, meaning Amazon doesn’t see what’s bought outside its platform, unlike some competitors’ approaches where users manually input payment details or rely on prepaid cards.

More details:

• Returns or issues are handled by the third-party sites, not Amazon, shifting some responsibility off the company.

• This new feature aligns with a broader industry trend. OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity have similar agents, but Amazon’s version leverages its existing dominance in e-commerce to potentially capture more sales.

• Testing is limited to a fraction of users for now, with no set timeline for wider release.

• Interested in the details? Read Amazon’s official announcement.

🤝 Intel and TSMC are forming a joint venture where TSMC will take a 20% stake by sharing chipmaking practices and training Intel employees.

💰 Runway, a generative AI startup specializing in video generation tools, raised $308 million to advance AI research, expand its film and animation studio, and develop innovative models like Gen-4 for consistent video generation, achieving a valuation of $3 billion.

OpenAI's newly launched 4o-image-generation feature in ChatGPT has gone viral, enabling over 130 million users to create more than 700 million images in a week, but the surge in demand has overwhelmed its infrastructure, causing temporary service limitations.

🔐 Google is launching new Gemini AI models at an increasing rate but has not published safety reports for its latest releases, raising concerns about prioritizing speed over transparency.

🐌 Microsoft is slowing down its data center projects globally due to concerns about over-expansion and potential construction challenges, despite earlier plans to invest heavily in AI data centers.

🚀 Cognition, the company behind the viral AI programming tool Devin, has launched a new, lower-cost pay-as-you-go plan after initially launching with a $500 per month subscription, aiming to attract more users despite concerns about the tool's ability to handle complex coding tasks. Try Devin yourself.

👨‍💻 OpenAI made its first cybersecurity investment by co-leading a $43 million Series A funding round in Adaptive Security, a startup that simulates AI-generated hacks to train employees to spot threats, as AI tools have made social engineering hacks easier and more prevalent.

📘 Amazon is launching a new AI-powered "Recaps" feature for Kindle users in the US to provide summaries of previous books in a series, allowing readers to refresh their memory of plot points and character arcs before starting a new installment.

AI + Personalized advice

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