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- Google Lays Off Entire Python Team!
Google Lays Off Entire Python Team!
+ Create personalized AI videos with just a selfie
Gina Acosta
May 06, 2024
Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,
After rounds of layoffs through 2023, Google is continuing to see additional cuts that have sparked backlash from affected employees and raised concerns about the future of employment in the tech industry.
Let's get into it!
Read Time: 2.5 min
Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI
Google Layoffs Continue By Firing The Entire Python Team
With help from AI, Randy Travis got his voice back
AI Tutorial: Create personalized AI videos with just a selfie
AI Tools to check out
The Latest in AI and Tech 💡
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AI News
Google Layoffs Continue By Firing The Entire Python Team
Google has laid off its entire Python team as part of a broader strategy to reduce expenses by hiring less expensive labor outside the United States.
Details:
Google plans to establish a new Python team in Munich, Germany.
Laid-off employees have expressed disappointment and sadness on social media, where the company has been facing considerable backlash.
In addition to Munich, Google plans to expand operations in cities like Bangalore, Mexico City, and Dublin.
The Python team is not the only casualty – Google has cut staff across other key teams like Flutter, Dart, and more.
The layoffs will allegedly allow the company to invest more heavily in areas such as artificial intelligence and to optimize its workforce according to current business needs.
AI MUSIC
With help from AI, Randy Travis got his voice back
Source: AP news
Country music legend Randy Travis has released his first new song in over a decade since suffering a devastating stroke in 2013.
Details:
In 2013, Travis was hospitalized with viral cardiomyopathy and suffered a stroke, resulting in aphasia that limits his ability to speak.
The ballad, titled "Where That Came From," features Travis’ iconic vocals, recreated using AI technology.
The AI model used was trained on 42 of Travis' isolated vocal recordings. Then, under the guidance of Travis and producer Kyle Lehning, singer James DuPre laid down the vocals, which were transformed into Travis' voice by the AI.
The song is available on YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming platforms.
While a heartwarming story, it raises questions about record labels potentially using AI to "resurrect" famous legacy artists' voices for new profits.
AI Tutorial
How to create personalized AI videos with just a selfie
Higgsfield’s new app called Diffuse can generate videos from text prompts and can use selfies to generate personalized clips featuring that person
Download the Diffuse app on iOS or Android
Choose a video template from their content library
Upload a selfie and wait a few minutes
Check your personalized video and share/download it.
AI Tools to check out
🛒 Cherry: AI product discovery and shopping assistant. Just take a pic or screenshot and find that must-have item or something strikingly similar.
🗣 Symbl: Generate actionable insights from unstructured live calls with an end-to-end real time AI platform.
🔥 Firebender: Helps sales teams discover their perfect leads in seconds.
🚀 Virabble: Repurpose any type of content into viral social media posts
💎 Gem: Delivers powerful automation and personalization to help talent teams find and hire the best talent faster.
The latest in AI and Tech
Tesla's latest 2024.14.3 software update purportedly includes code for an upcoming in-car voice assistant. While details are scarce, the assistant is expected to activate via a wake word, enabling always-on voice commands similar to smartphones. Tesla has not officially confirmed the new feature.
At Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders conference, CEO Warren Buffett voiced concerns about the risks of technology. He says AI ‘has enormous potential for good and enormous potential for harm.'
Elon Musk's social media platform X launched a feature that will summarise news events within the app using Grok. This new feature called ‘Stories’ will be available for Premium subscribers in the Explore tab.
Microsoft is developing a new, large-scale in-house AI language model, codenamed MAI-1, to compete with offerings from Google and OpenAI, according to a report by The Information. The project is being spearheaded by Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of Google's DeepMind and former CEO of AI startup Inflection, who recently joined Microsoft.
The footage showcases Optimus autonomously performing factory tasks, such as sorting battery cells. The video highlights the robot’s ability to do so autonomously, even fixing its own mistakes as it goes along.
That’s a wrap!
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Gina 👩🏻💻