Why is everyone talking about strawberries?

Good morning! Let’s make this Thursday a little tastier with a side of fresh and crispy AI trends. 😋

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WHY IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT STRAWBERRIES? 🍓

Q: Why did the strawberry win the lottery?

A: It was berry lucky. 😆

What’s up? OpenAI is reportedly on the brink of launching an advanced AI model, initially known as Q* but now internally dubbed “Strawberry.”

What is Strawberry? The Strawberry model promises to outperform current AI systems by tackling problems and tasks that have previously been beyond the reach of AI. According to The Information, Strawberry can solve complex math problems it has never encountered, develop sophisticated marketing strategies, and even crack intricate word puzzles like the New York Times’ “Connections.” Impressively, Strawberry is said to have scored over 90% on the MATH benchmark, significantly surpassing the 53% scored by GPT-4 and the 76.6% achieved by GPT-4o.

What’s the significance? As OpenAI prepares for a possible fall release, all eyes are on whether Strawberry will truly revolutionize AI capabilities and provide us with the big leap in AI many have been looking for.

AMAZON TO LAUNCH “ALEXA PLUS” IN OCTOBER 🤖

Alexa is always listening … 👂

What’s up? With AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini gaining prominence, Amazon is working on a major overhaul of its Alexa voice assistant, called “Alexa Plus,” set for an October launch. The existing version will be rebranded as “Classic Alexa.”

What is Alexa Plus? Amazon’s internal documents suggest Alexa Plus will offer enhanced voice recognition, personalized interactions, and a “Smart Briefing” feature for AI-generated news summaries tailored to users’ preferences. The update also includes improved recipe assistance for those with dietary restrictions, a conversational shopping guide, and a controversial “Explore with Alexa 2.0,” allowing children to have moderated, back-and-forth conversations about any topic.

What’s the catch? Although the updated Alexa Plus will introduce several new AI-driven features, rumors suggest it will come with a subscription fee of up to $10 a month. This will certainly cause some controversy, but at the end of the day, large-scale AI systems are costly to run.

GOOGLE ROLLS OUT EXPERIMENTAL MODELS EN ROUTE TO GEMINI 2.0 👾

Google is like a submarine—don’t open too many windows, or you’re asking for trouble! 🫣

What’s new? Google has released a new variant of its Gemini 1.5 series: the Gemini 1.5 Flash-8B, a compact version offering enhanced performance. This experiential model was released alongside improved versions of Gemini 1.5 Flash and Gemini 1.5 Pro.

What are the improvements? The new Gemini 1.5 Flash-8B is a compact, high-speed model designed for rapid processing of diverse data types, including text and images. The refreshed Gemini 1.5 Pro excels in coding and handling intricate, multi-layered commands. And the enhanced Gemini 1.5 Flash shows notable improvements across various tasks in Google’s internal benchmarks.

Why is this important? Google is working towards the release of Gemini 2.0 and is understandably taking things slow by releasing these experimental models along the way. After image-creation disasters and AI Overview concerns have haunted its past, Google is taking on a new approach of more thoroughly testing models along the way instead of releasing final products full stop. This more cautious approach seems to be leading to solid results. On the Chatbot Arena leaderboard, for instance, the updated Gemini 1.5 Pro has surged to the second position, with Gemini 1.5 Flash climbing to sixth.

TASTE-TEST THURSDAY 🍽️

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