⚡️AI’s energy wars have begun

ALSO: The first AI diplomat

Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes

There’s enough money getting passed around in the AI industry to fund a country. Microsoft just added to that with a $10B deal, meanwhile Ukraine is releasing… a virtual AI diplomat. Plus learn how to use Midjourney’s latest and greatest features. Let’s get weird!

• ⚡️Microsoft signs the biggest energy deal ever.

• 😱The world’s first AI diplomat.

• 🎨Midjourney’s Web Version is Available + infinite styles.

• ❤️‍🩹Google reveals Med-Gemini for healthcare.

⚡️Microsoft signs the biggest energy deal ever

What happened: Microsoft just signed the largest clean energy deal for a corporation. And it’s entirely to prepare for AI data centers. Energy is among the concerns for data centers.

The details: 

• The deal invests over $10B into energy in order to prepare for AI-related energy demands.

• Microsoft will buy more than 10.5 GW of clean energy projects from Brookfield Asset Management and their assets between 2026 and 2030.

• The deal is primarily in the US and Europe, with potential expansions to other regions like India and East Asia.

• This is the largest single energy deal between two corporations.

To help you understand:

• Energy is one of the biggest hurdles to AI, as AI models require huge data centers which have massive energy requirements (literally equivalent to a small nation). These energy requirements will only grow with time.

• Nuclear energy might be the only way we could generate enough power for large AI data centers.

• Expect to see more massive energy deals made for data centers.

Why it matters: This is a ridiculous sum of money for a ridiculous amount of energy. But it’s also a sign of what’s to come. The years 2026 to 2030 hint that 2026 will be the year when AI is ready to take massive strides forward. And perhaps newer, better energy methods will develop by 2030?

As of market close May 04, 2024.

🗣️Sam Altman has been dropping hints about GPT’s next update. He spoke at an event you can watch here, and called GPT-4 “mildly embarrassing at best”, and said the company is dedicated to staying on course to create AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) regardless of how much money that takes.

💰Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, announced plans to invest over $2B in AI investments into South Asia. Including Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. This is expected to create job opportunities for over 200,000 skilled AI workers.

😯Ukraine unleashed the world’s first AI spokesperson

What happened: Meet Victoria Shi. She’s the Ukraine’s AI-powered virtual spokesperson for their foreign ministry. Welcome to the future, I guess.

The details:

• Victoria will make official statements on behalf of Ukraine’s foreign ministry.

• The statements will still be written and checked by real humans. They are NOT AI written.

• Victoria will try to act life-like with head and hand movements. Gotta nail the “uncanny” look.

• The reason for her creation was to save time and resources. They don’t say how much time or money.

• Victoria is modeled in face and voice by a real person, Rosalie Nombre.

Why it matters: I see this as being very unwise. There’s plenty that can go wrong here. Public perception, uncanny behavior and errors, and the general lack of a… human touch in a job that’s very much about the human touch. This can certainly be useful, but I have my doubts. I also have to ask how much money or time this is saving to be worth it.

Nonetheless, expect more countries to follow suite. This won’t the last time you hear about AI diplomats rearing their heads. What do you think about this?

🎨Midjourney’s Web Version is Available

Midjourney’s web application has been in testing for some while now. But prior to today, it was only available for specific heavy users. Everyone else had to make their images in Discord, which requires a lot of very specific text commands to control parameters.

The web app featured an easier-to-use interface, with sliders to control the aspect ratio and style features.

Now anyone with a paid subscription can access the web app.

Here’s how you can use the web version:

• Pay for a Premium Midjourney Subscription.

• Head to the Midjourney Discord.

• Make at least 100 images through the discord interface.

• Now you’ll have access to Midjourney’s official website.

• Type your prompts in the “Imagine” text box at the top of the screen!

In addition to the web app, Midjourney also added a “random” styles feature.

Here’s how to create infinite styles in Midjourney:

• Type any prompt you want.

• At the end type the exact phrase (without quotes): “--sref random”

• This must be typed on both the Discord and Web app versions.

• The images will be of a completely random style.

• Find one you want and use

• Click and drag that image into the “imagine” text box. Whatever you type will now use that image as a “style” reference.

Here’s me trying to get a random style for reference.

Now here’s the images I got for “a man in a coat” using the previous image as a style reference.

LOOK OUT

We’ll be releasing a starter guide with all the info you need to master making art in Midjourney soon. We’ll let you know right in the newsletter! 😉

❤️‍🩹Google reveals Med-Gemini for healthcare

What happened: Google just revealed Med-Gemini, an AI model made for the medical field. The new model uses existing architecture to assist in medical research and tasks, mostly behind-the-scenes tasks.

The details:

• Some of Med-Gemini’s tasks include medical diagnostics, treatment planning, and research synthesis.

• The biggest use case (right now) will be research-oriented. Developing new cures, treatments, and drugs.

• It also has new parts and features integrated in an attempt to make it safer and decrease the chance of inaccuracies.

• Early tests say Med-Gemini raises accuracy by over 90%. However it’ll need real field results to truly test its accuracy, rather than sponsored testing.

• There’s been a lot of concern about AI, which is a burgeoning, new, and untested technology trying to enter the medical field too quickly. While it’s debatable if it’s ready, there’s definitely a lot of money to be made.

Takeaway: Big AI really wants that medical money. But there’s serious benefits to this. One of the biggest areas AI could impact our lives is in medicine. Specicially in researching new drugs and cures. If there’s a cure for AIDS or Cancer, it’ll probably be found by AI. And that’s a very exciting prospect even for AI detractors.

💍 Basically just Elden Ring…

Source: Midjourney

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