Databricks has secured a massive $10 billion Series J funding round led by Thrive Capital, valuing the company at $62 billion, as it experiences rapid growth driven by AI demand. Databricks expects to cross $3 billion in revenue run rate and achieve positive free cash flow this quarter.
Google recently announced the release of an early version of its first 'reasoning' model, Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking. The model features text and image understanding and text outputs, and is now available via the Gemini API and in the Google AI Studio.
YouTube has launched a new setting that opts creators out of third party model training and enables them to choose whether they want all, some or no third-parties to train models using their content.
Google DeepMind recently unveiled Veo 2, a video generation model capable of outputting consistent and realistic minutes-long video clips in up to 4K resolution. Veo 2 is currently available through Google Labs' Video FX.
Mistral AI recently started receiving applications for its startup program, Mistralship. Ten selected applicants will benefit from La Plateforme credits, one-on-one support, and early access to models and products in the first six-month cohort. Applications close on January 5, 2025.
Google's advances in agentic AI and the Gemini 2.0 Flash launch; two startups working on transformer-based models alternatives closed funding rounds; Claude 3.5 Haiku is generally available; Reddit introduced its conversational AI; and more.
Meta has released an open-source neural watermarking model called Video Seal that embeds a robust, imperceptible watermark and optional message in videos. The model aims to address the limitations of existing video watermarking solutions and support responsible AI development.
Vivid Mind, a startup that has developed an AI-assisted voice test capable of detecting early-stage dementia with 90% accuracy, has raised $200,000 in pre-seed funding to continue testing and obtain regulatory approvals for its innovative diagnostic tool.
Anthropic has confirmed the new version of its smallest model, Claude 3.5 Haiku, is now available in the Claude web experience and mobile apps. First announced in October, Claude 3.5 Haiku is intended to deliver Claude 3 Opus' performance at Claude 3 Haiku's speed.
Google is expanding NotebookLM with a paid tier. The company also announced it will use the experimental Gemini 2.0 Flash to power NotebookLM, and that users can enjoy two new features: a redesigned workspace and the capability to interact with the hosts in an Audio Overview.
Cartesia, having raised $27 million in seed funding, is developing innovative AI architectures that enable more efficient, long-memory, and multi-modal intelligence with their breakthrough State Space Model (SSM) technology, exemplified by their hyper-realistic Sonic voice generation model.
Google introduced Project Mariner, an AI agent prototype that can autonomously browse the web alongside other experimental agents like coding AI agent Jules and agents that can act as gaming companions.