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Hey AI team! We’re back with a new edition of Five Minute AI this Tuesday ⏰

On today’s menu:

• The new iPhone 16 brings in generative AI for a richer user experience

•  Autonomous AI agents build complex civilizations in a virtual world

• An AI generates an infinite Super Mario Bros without a traditional game engine

• AlphaProteo designs custom proteins to speed up medical research

Ready? Let’s go...

TERM OF THE DAY

AI agent

An AI agent is an autonomous artificial intelligence system designed to carry out specific tasks without constant human intervention. It can perceive its environment, make decisions, act on them, and adapt based on the results. These agents can self-correct, learn from experience, and collaborate with other agents to reach complex goals. The aim of developing them is to create AI that is more independent and efficient, with the potential to revolutionize fields like scientific research, software development, and complex problem-solving.

TOP STORY

📱 iPhone 16: Artificial intelligence in the palm of your hand

The iPhone 16 has just been unveiled by Apple, and it promises to revolutionize the way we interact with our smartphones through deep integration of artificial intelligence. Called “Apple Intelligence,” this new feature taps the power of the new A18 chip to deliver a user experience unlike anything before.

Image from Apple.com

Details:

• Writing tools: Email rewriting, custom emoji creation, easier text editing.

• Priority management: Smart summaries of emails and notifications.

• Apple Intelligence: Built-in generative AI that personalizes the user experience.

• Upgraded Siri: Better natural language understanding and context-aware actions.

• Supercharged A18: New chip optimized for AI, boosting performance and power efficiency.

• 48MP Fusion camera: Two optical-quality cameras in one, plus a new ultra wide for macro shots.

• Camera Control button: Quick access to photo/video features and visual intelligence.

Why I’m bringing this up:

Even though the keynote may have felt a bit underwhelming, the iPhone 16 still marks a turning point for AI on smartphones. The hardware upgrades look modest, but the real potential could show up with iOS 18. Apple is clearly betting on artificial intelligence to redefine how we interact with our devices. By building its own models while opening up to third-party tools, the company with the apple logo is aiming for a more intuitive, personalized experience. The real revolution may well happen on the software side, promising to subtly but profoundly change how we use our phones every day. Let’s keep an eye on Apple’s next announcements; there could be a surprise in store.

🍎 Apple shakes up health with new features

Apple has just announced major health innovations for the Apple Watch and AirPods Pro 2. These new features aim to improve sleep tracking and hearing health, reaching billions of people around the world.

Details:

• The Apple Watch introduces sleep apnea notifications thanks to a new breathing disturbances metric

• AirPods Pro 2 deliver a complete hearing health experience with:

  • Active hearing protection

  • A clinical-grade hearing test

  • An over-the-counter hearing aid feature

• A built-in hearing test of about 5 minutes will let you personalize your settings

• The hearing aid feature will be available to people 18 and older with mild to moderate hearing loss

• These features will roll out in fall 2024 in more than 100 countries, including the United States, Germany and Japan

Why I’m bringing this up:

These advances show how technology can make a real difference to our health day to day. By turning mainstream earbuds into accessible hearing aids, Apple could help break down the financial and social barriers that keep many people from getting the hearing support they need. It’s one more step toward preventive, personalized health management built into the devices we use every day.

🌐 Autonomous AI agents form virtual civilizations

The company Altera has just hit a remarkable milestone in artificial intelligence with its Project Sid. For the first time, more than 1,000 autonomous AI agents worked together in a Minecraft world, developing their own economy, culture, religion and government.

Details:

• Altera’s AI agents are truly autonomous, able to run for hours or days without human intervention.

• They collaborate to reach goals that individual agents couldn’t, like setting up trading hubs, democracies and religions.

• These agents are programmed with motivations to support humans and can express their thoughts and feelings.

• While Minecraft is used here, Altera’s agents are versatile and can adapt to other applications and platforms.

Why I’m bringing this up

This breakthrough could transform how we tackle complex societal problems. By simulating and testing solutions in virtual environments before rolling them out in the real world, we could gain in efficiency and understanding. Autonomous AI agents open up exciting new possibilities for research and social innovation.

LEARN TO MASTER AI

🖋️ Supercharge your cover letter with AI

AI can be a valuable ally when it comes to writing a compelling cover letter. Here’s how to get the most out of it:

1. Pick your AI assistant: Go with ChatGPT (GPT-4) or Claude (Claude 3 Sonnet) for the best results.

2. Gather your materials:

   • Your resume as a PDF

   • The link to the job posting (if available)

   • Information about the company and the role

3. Use the right prompt:

   For a specific job posting:
   “Write a cover letter based on my resume for this position: [link]. Company: [name], website: [link]. Include: introduction, skills, fit for the role, conclusion.”

   For an unsolicited application:
   “Write a cover letter based on my resume for [company]. Website: [link]. Include: introduction, skills, potential contribution, conclusion.”

4. Refine the result: Generate several versions and tailor them to reflect your own unique style.

This method gets you a solid foundation for your letter fast. Feel free to tweak the content so it fits your profile and the company’s expectations perfectly.

To dig deeper, check out this detailed guide on writing cover letters with AI.

WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS

🎮 AI creates an infinite Super Mario Bros

Last week, I told you about an AI that could recreate DOOM without a graphics engine. Today, it’s Super Mario Bros’ turn to enter the age of artificial intelligence!

Researchers have just built MarioVGG, an AI system that can generate an infinite version of Super Mario Bros, entirely through video and without a traditional game engine.

Details:

• MarioVGG, a text-to-video AI model, generates an endlessly playable Super Mario Bros game without a traditional game engine

• The AI was trained on gameplay footage using a single consumer graphics card in just 48 hours

• The system simulates game physics, reproduces character movements and even creates new levels on demand

Why I’m bringing this up:

This breakthrough opens up fascinating possibilities for the video game industry. Down the road, anyone might be able to create custom, interactive games just by describing them to an AI. MarioVGG shows how artificial intelligence could democratize game creation and deliver potentially endless gaming experiences. We’re only at the very beginning, but this technology hints at a future where the line between players and game creators gradually fades.

🧬 AlphaProteo: AI in the service of biology and health

Image generated with Ideogram 2.0

Google DeepMind has just unveiled AlphaProteo, an innovative artificial intelligence system that could revolutionize biology and health research.

Details:

• AlphaProteo can design custom proteins that bind to specific molecular targets

• The system is 3 to 300 times better than current methods at creating strong-binding proteins

• The AI successfully designed binders for 7 out of 8 targets, including cancer-related proteins

• Independent tests showed that some AlphaProteo designs could stop SARS-CoV-2 from infecting cells

Why I’m bringing this up:

AlphaProteo represents a significant step forward in biomedical research. This technology could dramatically speed up drug discovery, cutting years of lab work down to a few weeks. It paves the way for more targeted treatments against viruses, cancer and a range of diseases, potentially with fewer side effects. Over time, this could mean major savings in R&D and, above all, getting innovative treatments to patients faster. AlphaProteo is a perfect example of how AI can be a powerful tool for human health and well-being.

THE LATEST TRENDING TOOLS

💡 THE TOOLS:

• 🤖 Altera PlayLabs lets you create and interact with AI agents online, opening up new ways to explore and experiment with artificial intelligence.

• 📚 QWiser turns your course notes into interactive study material, offering a modern, engaging approach to learning.

• 🖼️ Storydoc lets you create interactive presentations that grab your audience’s attention and boost the impact of your message.

• ⏱️ timeMaster helps you manage your time efficiently with privacy-friendly tracking, so you can analyze your work habits and improve your productivity (affiliate link if you’re interested in the tool).

• ✍️ LanguageTool is a multilingual proofreader that checks the grammar and spelling of your writing in many languages, helping you produce quality content.

• 🔍 You.com bills itself as an AI research agent that delivers personalized recommendations, making your online searches more relevant and efficient.

IN THE NEWS

• OpenAI is reportedly considering premium subscriptions of up to $2,000 a month for its advanced AI models like Strawberry and Orion, potentially offering superior capabilities to users willing to pay up.

• Tesla plans to launch its AI-powered self-driving technology in China and Europe in early 2025, pending regulatory approval, marking a major step in the feature’s international expansion.

• Anthropic unveiled Claude Enterprise, a business version of its AI going up against ChatGPT Enterprise, with perks like a bigger context window and GitHub integration, while guaranteeing the confidentiality of companies’ source code.

• A Samsung executive reportedly revealed the specs of GPT-5 at SEMICON Taiwan, including 3.5 trillion parameters and 7,000 B100 GPUs for its compute, hinting at serious power for this upcoming AI model.

• Microsoft announced it is extending Copilot+ features to new laptops starting in November, expanding its AI capabilities beyond ARM-based devices.

• You.com raised $50 million to focus on building AI productivity agents that can handle complex queries, moving away from general-purpose AI search.

YOUR DAILY DOSE OF CONTENT

1/ Enigmatic shows us a music video made entirely with AI, from the sound to the visuals. I’ll let you check it out (1 min).

I created an AI music video using Udio for the music, Ideogram to generate the images, which I then fed into Lumalabs and Runway to create the motion. Finally, I edited the video in Adobe Premiere.

2:52 PM • Sep 4, 2024

208 Likes   30 Retweets  

2/ A video to help you understand Europe’s AI regulations (12 min).

Is AI about to be banned in Europe?

3/ Picking up on the video right above, here’s an image about the launch of the new iPhone 16, packed with AI tech that we unfortunately won’t get in Europe, at least for now.

The people who claimed the ‘EU version of iOS is the most fun version of iOS’ are awful quiet today

8:44 PM • Sep 9, 2024

23.4K Likes   1.53K Retweets  

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY

Thanks for reading the work of our team of relentless purr-fectionists 😼

💡 To help me improve, or to pitch new ideas or partnerships → [email protected] or @mattioo81

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– Mathieu