Deepfake videos are getting insanely good

Hello AI lovers! Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

👉 ByteDance stuns the world with its new AI video generator

👉 CSU offers ChatGPT Edu to half a million students

👉 Hugging Face built an open-source version of OpenAI's “Deep Research” tool

and many more!

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Read time: 4.9 minutes

What’s going on: ByteDance, the TikTok parent company, has introduced a groundbreaking AI video generator called “OmniHuman-1” that can turn a single photograph into a realistic video of a person speaking, singing, or moving naturally. OmniHuman-1 generates full-body videos where the individuals are shown gesturing and moving in synchronization with their speech, offering a more dynamic and realistic portrayal. (See examples + read their research article)

What does it mean: The introduction of this technology comes at a time when there's fierce competition in AI video generation among tech giants like Google (Veo 2), Meta (Movie Gen), Microsoft (VASA-1), and OpenAI (Sora). OmniHuman-1 has the potential to revolutionize content creation for entertainment, educational purposes, and even daily communication.

More details:

• This model was trained on over 18,700 hours of human video data, utilizing an innovative approach that integrates multiple types of inputs such as text, audio, and body movements which significantly reduces data wastage during training.

• The method they have used which is known as "omni-conditions" training, allows the AI to learn from a much larger and varied dataset than before.

• This engine outperforms existing systems in quality benchmarks.

What’s going on: The California State University (CSU) has partnered with OpenAI to launch the largest deployment of AI in higher education to date. CSU is offering access to the newly developed tool, ChatGPT Edu, to nearly 500,000 students across 23 campuses along with tens of thousands of faculty and staff members.

What does it mean: This move is not just about providing access to technology; it's about reshaping the educational landscape to meet the demands of an increasingly AI-driven economy. Faculty will receive training to enhance their teaching methodologies and research capabilities with AI applications. Additionally, CSU plans to offer AI-focused apprenticeships in partnership with industry leaders, aiming to prepare students for the workforce directly.

More details:

• The initiative is spearheaded by the recently formed AI Workforce Acceleration Board, which includes collaboration with industry giants like Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and others.

• The goal is to align AI training programs with industry needs, thereby creating a pipeline of graduates equipped with AI skills.

• This collaboration is expected to significantly impact California's AI sector, which, despite being home to many top AI companies, has a workforce that largely consists of international talent.

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🔍 Google aims to transform its Search into a more AI-driven assistant by 2025, integrating features like Project Astra for real-time understanding and Gemini Deep Research for automated research reports.

💰 European AI startups raised $8 billion in funding in 2024. This metric is most likely going to grow rapidly, because most of the AI startups in Europe are in their early-stages and will require massive funding in the future.

🤝 OpenAI has announced a strategic partnership with South Korea's Kakao to expand its AI services in Asia, following a significant joint venture deal with Japan's SoftBank.

📈 Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has praised the work of DeepSeek but is significantly increasing its AI investment to $75 billion for 2025

🤗 Hugging Face researchers have developed an open-source version of OpenAI's Deep Research tool, which uses the proprietary o1 model alongside an open-source agentic framework (Check it out here).

📄 Adobe has upgraded its Acrobat AI Assistant with new contract intelligence capabilities to simplify understanding and managing complex legal documents.

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