A Look at Major Developments and Multi-Industry Transformations in AI

In today's era of rapid technological development, the field of AI is constantly emerging with remarkable achievements and changes.

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xAI successfully built the world's largest AI training cluster, Colossus, in just 122 days. xAI's Colossus, which consists of 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, is the world's most powerful AI training system, with a computing power far exceeding that of any other cluster in the world. xAI's creation of Colossus marks the beginning of a new phase in the construction of AI training systems. And the xAI team plans to double its size to 200,000 GPUs in the coming months, including 50,000 of the latest H200 models. This remarkable achievement was made possible by xAI's close collaboration with NVIDIA and a wide range of partners. Musk took to social media to praise the xAI team for their outstanding work, and to thank NVIDIA and our vendors. xAI's research in artificial general intelligence will be greatly enhanced by the availability of Colossus, which will have a significant impact on the AI industry as a whole.

MiniMax released its first text-to-video generation model, Video-01, which supports 1280x720 resolution and 25 fps video generation with virtual camera control. Currently limited to 6 seconds, but expected to expand to 10 seconds in the future, MiniMax says Video-01 outperforms Runway, though details of the model architecture and training data are not yet available. In addition, MiniMax plans to update the video generator on a regular basis, and in the future it will support features such as image input, text + image to generate video, and so on. Yan emphasized that MiniMax's current focus is on making the technology widely available rather than commercializing it. Compared to OpenAI's Sora, the videos generated by Video-01 are close to the industry's level of quality and detail, although there is still a gap. miniMax was founded at the end of 2021, and previously received $600 million in Series B funding led by Alibaba, with a post-investment valuation of more than $2.5 billion. The company also offers large language models and speech synthesis models.

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ByteDance is actively pursuing a record $9.5 billion Asian-dollar corporate loan. According to overseas media reports, ByteDance is in talks with banks about the synchronized loan, which is designed to pay off existing debt and fund overseas expansion. The loan would set a new high for overseas lending in China's tech, media and telecoms sectors, and signals a return to the syndicated loan market for Chinese tech companies after many challenges. Citi, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are acting as coordinators for the deal, which is being approved for participation by a host of banks in a bid to strengthen their relationship with one of China's fastest-growing companies. Lenders remain confident in ByteHop's strong financial performance, despite a possible U.S. government ban on TikTok. The privately held company is said to be growing its profits by around 60% year-on-year in 2023, well ahead of Alibaba and Tencent. The loan also comes at a competitive interest rate, with a spread of about 85 basis points on the 3-year portion and 90 basis points on the 5-year portion. The record loan will boost offshore financing for Chinese TMT companies to at least $17 billion this year. This trend suggests that the industry could be at a major turning point after regulatory pressure eases and the industry consolidation ends.

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In Silicon Valley tech circles, Paul Graham's “founder model” for running a company has become a hot topic. At a recent YC event, Airbnb founder Brian Chesky gave an impressive talk that resonated strongly with successful founders. The topic of the talk centered around the inapplicability of traditional company management styles to startup growth. Chesky shared the story of Airbnb's rapid growth and its ultimate success by rejecting outside advice to “hire good people and give them space” and instead learning from the management style of Apple founder Steve Jobs. In his article, Paul Graham points out that Chesky's experience is not an isolated case, and that many founders have been forced to move away from the management model of professional managers to find a management style that better suits their company. According to Graham, the founder model and the manager model are two very different ways of managing a company, with the former being more suitable for founders to be fully involved in all aspects of the company, while the latter emphasizes the autonomy of functional departments. Currently, research on the founder model is still in its infancy, but there have been a number of successful cases showing that this approach can be more effective in promoting company development. In the future, with a better understanding of the founder model, founders will be able to manage their companies in a more focused way and achieve greater success.

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Joshua Lu, Investment Partner at A16Z, said that artificial intelligence has begun to revolutionize the video game industry and that Discord is the future of gaming. In his two years at a16z, Lu has seen first-hand how AI technology and emerging distribution platforms are revolutionizing the gaming industry. As the head of Speedrun, a16z's game gas pedal, Lu has observed that half of the participating companies in the last three gas pedals have focused on AI technology, ranging from AI-generated game storylines to AI-created 3D avatars. He believes that AI is expected to dramatically reduce game development costs and cycles, allowing even small studios to produce high-quality game content. Lu is also optimistic about the future of social game development on Discord, seeing it as a new opportunity for game developers to stand out. Several companies have already transitioned in the Speedrun gas pedal to focus on building games on Discord. Overall, AI technology and emerging distribution channels are reshaping the landscape of the gaming industry, presenting unprecedented opportunities for gaming innovation.

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Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike was hit with a massive lawsuit over a faulty software update. on July 19, CrowdStrike released a flawed content update for Windows that crippled more than 8 million Microsoft Windows computers around the globe, severely impacting a variety of industries, including aerospace, finance, and healthcare. The incident resulted in significant financial losses and reputational damage. Delta Air Lines has retained prominent attorney David Boies to pursue a claim against CrowdStrike for up to $500 million, and CrowdStrike shareholders have filed a class action lawsuit against the company, alleging that the company misleadingly represented on an investor call that the software update had been adequately tested. CrowdStrike's stock price fell 32 percent in the 12 days after the incident, and its market capitalization evaporated by $25 billion. CrowdStrike denied the allegations and said it would mount a full defense.

Elon Musk's Starlink also faces a tough legal challenge in Brazil after social media platform X was banned there. Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the freezing of Starlink's financial assets in Brazil for failing to comply with directives regarding social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. De Moraes required X to appoint local legal representation or risk deactivation, a requirement that X failed to comply with within the required timeframe, resulting in a partial blockade of its services in Brazil, an order that Starlink vehemently objected to, claiming that it was based on an unwarranted finding of liability and did not afford it the due process guarantees it deserved. Musk criticized de Moraes' actions on social media, calling him a “thug pretending to be a judge”. Despite the financial freeze, Starlink has said it will continue to provide free internet service to Brazilian customers until the issue is resolved. The incident has not only had an impact on Starlink's operations, but has also sparked a broader debate about freedom of expression and social media regulation. Brazil is facing upcoming municipal elections, where a large amount of disinformation is expected to spread.

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In Q2 2024, Honor achieved a major breakthrough, overtaking Samsung to become the largest folding phone brand in Western Europe. This shift was driven by a massive 455% year-over-year surge in global folding phone shipments, with the Magic V2's ultra-thin design (less than 10mm thick when folded) a key driver of growth. According to Counterpoint Research, global foldable phone shipments are up 48 percent year-over-year, and Western Europe is becoming a key battleground for brands, with Honor, Samsung, Motorola, OPPO, OnePlus, and Google all competing fiercely for market share.

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South Korean police recently launched an investigation into Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform, on suspicion of “abetting” the distribution of deeply fake pornographic content. South Korean society has been outraged by digital pornography involving women, especially since some college students have created illegal chat rooms on Telegram to share deeply fake pornographic material of their classmates. According to a report by the National Police Agency of Korea, police have received 88 complaints about deepfake pornography in the past week and have locked up 24 suspects. South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol said that the crime of deepfake pornography must be completely eradicated, calling for stronger legal measures to combat such behavior. The launch of the investigation is also linked to the arrest in France of Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who faces multiple charges for failing to effectively curb extreme and illegal content on the platform. In addition, South Korea's media regulator has asked social media companies to actively cooperate in removing and blocking relevant content and to work with French authorities to address Telegram-related issues.

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