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What Vinod Khosla says he’s “most worried about”

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Vinod Khosla is now more popular than ever. The Sun Microsystems co-founder became a outstanding investor — first at Kleiner Perkins and over the past 20 years at his enterprise capital firm Khosla ventures — has at all times been wanted by founders due to his sound advice and his company’s history, including bets on Stripe, Square, Affirm and DoorDash. But we’re risking $50 million OpenAI in 2019 – when it was unclear whether the team would achieve success on this scale – they put Khosla Ventures and Khosla himself within the highlight.

He’s having an important time. I met with Khosla in Toronto last week Collision conference and before our appearance on stage, he told me that he has been making public appearances several times per week recently – on stage, in podcasts, or in TV interviews. Asked if he was exhausted from his schedule – he flew to Toronto just hours before our meeting, for instance – he shrugged.

There are definitely things he prefers to discuss, and the art of creating deals isn’t certainly one of them. “Honestly, the investor side is much less interesting to me,” he said once I asked him about something I recently heard, which is that he hasn’t taken a dollar in management fees since founding Khosla Ventures, although it’s currently she has $18 billion in assets under management. (He confirmed this, but said it only applied to himself, not a corporate-wide policy.)

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He’s far more keen about the startup opportunities he sees in a landscape that is changing day-after-day with advances in artificial intelligence, so we talked about some areas of that white space. We also talked about what worries him most concerning the effects of artificial intelligence; FTC Chair Lina Khan; and why, in his opinion, “Europeans have thrown themselves out of leadership in any field of technology.”


First, we talked about Apple’s shiny recent cope with OpenAI, which allows Apple to integrate ChatGPT with Siri and its generative AI tools. Apple may strike similar deals with other AI models, including Meta, but obviously as an OpenAI investor, Khosla is bullish on this deal, which is the just one Apple has announced publicly yet.

Khosla called it a “validation” of OpenAI; in announcing its pact with OpenAI at a celeb developer conference, Apple “also expressed, I think, confidence in (OpenAI CEO) Sam (Altman) to lead (AI development) over the next five or 10 years,” Chosla said. “When a company like Apple commits to technology, it usually doesn’t change it the next year.”

As we have seen at TechCrunch, lots of Apple’s newest features are more likely to change into obsolete. I asked if any of Khosla’s portfolio corporations were affected. Part of me was wondering about Rabbit, whose AI-powered hardware device goals to be a form of AI assistant for users and is backed by Khosla Ventures.

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Asked whether Apple could make the device obsolete, Khosla suggested it’s more flexible than people imagine and might be utilized by businesses equivalent to hospitals, including emergency rooms. He put it in a growing range of things that may “watch what you do, see what you do and respond automatically.”

In fact, Khosla suggested that his team actively avoided anything that might change into “roadkill” as large language models like OpenAI proceed to advance. And he identified at the least one company that isn’t in his portfolio: Grammaticallywriting assistant startup that was valued at $13 billion by its backers not too way back.

“If you are coping with, say, grammar, it’s really a minor challenge in comparison with today’s model and Grammarly cannot sustain; this could never have been an app. It shows the necessity for this capability, but it would be a part of Word or Google Docs. It’s quite obvious. When we check with YC corporations or other corporations,” Khosla continued, “I can often say, ‘Half of those corporations shall be obsolete by the point the YC batch runs out.’

Khosla sees numerous opportunity in industries where expertise shall be almost free, although it isn’t clear to me how these corporations will sustainably earn cash (even after asking him). Think about tutoring and even oncology.

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Said Khosla: “Open AI or Google won’t build a chip designer (to have on your smartphone). OpenAI and Google won’t build a civil engineer. They are not going to create a primary care physician or a mental health therapist,” he said. “So there are such a lot of areas for (my founders). But they need to have a look at where the models are going next 12 months and five years from now and say, “We want to realize this potential.”

We also talked about regulations. I noticed that Khosla had previously said that closed large language models like OpenAI needs to be protected, although there needs to be a regulatory framework around them. I wondered if this meant Khosla would perpetually eschew other “open source” AI.

Not in any respect, he said, noting that he’s a “huge fan” of open source. He said Sun was certainly one of the primary corporations to “leap into open source” and open source its file system. He also noted that Khosla Ventures was the earliest investor in GitLab, whose software invites people to work on code together.

However, he suggested that open source within the context of huge language models is a totally different matter. “The biggest risk we face with AI is China” and “the powerful Chinese AI” that competes with the “liberal values” of the United States, he said, adding that “we need to make sure China stays behind us.” . Otherwise, he warned, China will provide the remaining of the world with “free doctors and free oncologists” and in the method “export both the economic power of artificial intelligence and its political philosophy. “

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On stage, I discussed to Khosla my recent meeting with FTC Chair Lina Khan, who doesn’t imagine within the national champions model as a reason to coddle corporations like Google and OpenAI as they proceed to develop artificial intelligence.

Khan always hears from executives and investors who say that government intervention will lead the U.S. down a dangerous path. However, during my conversation, she argued that the United States has time and time again chosen the “competitive path,” which “has ultimately driven and catalysed lots of these breakthrough innovations and far of the extraordinary growth that our country has enjoyed, which has allowed us to sustain advantage within the international arena.

If you take a look at other countries which have as an alternative chosen this model of national champions,” Khan added on the time, “they have been left behind.”

However, I had barely mentioned Khan when Khosla became dismissive, calling her an “irrational human being” and accusing her of not understanding the business.

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“She shouldn’t be in this role,” Khosla said. “In every country and economic system, it is good to have antitrust laws. However, antitrust laws (that is) over-enforced or over-enforced are bad economic policy. The one thing the United States has over its European rivals is a much more rational business environment. This is why Europeans are no longer the leader in any field of technology; they have simply regulated themselves beyond artificial intelligence, all social media, and all internet startups.”

Of course, if some antitrust enforcement is sweet, but an excessive amount of isn’t good, the query is where to attract the road. At this point, before we parted, I discussed the “abundance” that Altman predicts shall be created by artificial intelligence. At certainly one of TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC events last 12 months, Altman said the “good argument” for artificial intelligence is “so incredibly good that you sound like a really crazy person when you start talking about it.”

Khosla said he believes the identical, but I actually have long wondered how society will enjoy all these advantages if regulators do not get more involved in the event of those corporations. After all, I told Khosla on stage, we now have already seen massive aggregation of wealth and power tied to an increasingly smaller group of corporations and other people. When is enough?

In this case, Khosla said the problem concerned him greatly. “I think in 25 years, when I’ll hopefully still be working. . . the need for work will mostly disappear.” Still, while AI should deliver “great abundance, great GDP growth, great productivity – all the things that economists measure,” he said, he worries “more than anything else” about “growing income disparities.” How can we (ensure) a good distribution of the advantages of AI?”

He has a sense where the breaking point could be. “If GDP growth (in the U.S.) increases from the current 2% – currently less than 1% in Europe – to 4%, 5%, 6%, we will have enough abundance to share the wealth and benefits.”

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Whether and the way this happens are, after all, even greater questions, and for all his brilliance, Khosla, a self-described techno optimist, did not have the reply. Instead, he thanked the audience for his or her time, then walked off the stage toward the dozen founders gathered within the wings, all hoping to maintain his ear so long as they might.


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PO clarous Director General Zoom also uses AI avatar during a quarterly connection

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Zoom CEO Eric Yuan

General directors at the moment are so immersed in artificial intelligence that they send their avatars to cope with quarterly connections from earnings as a substitute, a minimum of partly.

After AI Avatar CEO CEO appeared on the investor’s conversation firstly of this week, the final director of Zoom Eric Yuan also followed them, also Using his avatar for preliminary comments. Yuan implemented his non -standard avatar via Zoom Clips, an asynchronous company video tool.

“I am proud that I am one of the first general directors who used the avatar in a call for earnings,” he said – or fairly his avatar. “This is just one example of how Zoom shifts the limits of communication and cooperation. At the same time, we know that trust and security are necessary. We take seriously the content generated AI and build strong security to prevent improper use, protect the user’s identity and ensure that avatars are used responsibly.”

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Yuan has long been in favor of using avatars at meetings and previously said that the corporate goals to create Digital user twins. He just isn’t alone on this vision; The CEO of transcript -powered AI, apparently, trains its own avatar Share the load.

Meanwhile, Zoom said he was doing it Avatar non -standard function available To all users this week.

(Tagstranslat) meetings AI

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The next large Openai plant will not be worn: Report

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Sam Altman speaks onstage during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2024.

Opeli pushed generative artificial intelligence into public consciousness. Now it might probably develop a very different variety of AI device.

According to WSJ reportThe general director of Opeli, Altman himself, told employees on Wednesday that one other large product of the corporate would not be worn. Instead, it will be compact, without the screen of the device, fully aware of the user’s environment. Small enough to sit down on the desk or slot in your pocket, Altman described it each as a “third device” next to MacBook Pro and iPhone, in addition to “Comrade AI” integrated with on a regular basis life.

The preview took place after the OpenAI announced that he was purchased by IO, a startup founded last 12 months by the previous Apple Joni Ive designer, in a capital agreement value $ 6.5 billion. I will take a key creative and design role at Openai.

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Altman reportedly told employees that the acquisition can ultimately add 1 trillion USD to the corporate conveyorsWearing devices or glasses that got other outfits.

Altman reportedly also emphasized to the staff that the key would be crucial to stop the copying of competitors before starting. As it seems, the recording of his comments leaked to the journal, asking questions on how much he can trust his team and the way rather more he will be able to reveal.

(Tagstotransate) devices

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The latest model AI Google Gemma can work on phones

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It grows “open” AI Google, Gemma, grows.

While Google I/O 2025 On Tuesday, Google removed Gemma 3N compresses, a model designed for “liquid” on phones, laptops and tablets. According to Google, available in a preview starting on Tuesday, Gemma 3N can support sound, text, paintings and flicks.

Models efficient enough to operate in offline mode and without the necessity to calculate within the cloud have gained popularity within the AI ​​community lately. They will not be only cheaper to make use of than large models, but they keep privacy, eliminating the necessity to send data to a distant data center.

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During the speech to I/O product manager, Gemma Gus Martins said that GEMMA 3N can work on devices with lower than 2 GB of RAM. “Gemma 3N shares the same architecture as Gemini Nano, and is also designed for incredible performance,” he added.

In addition to Gemma 3N, Google releases Medgemma through the AI ​​developer foundation program. According to Medgemma, it’s essentially the most talented model to research text and health -related images.

“Medgemma (IS) OUR (…) A collection of open models to understand the text and multimodal image (health),” said Martins. “Medgemma works great in various imaging and text applications, thanks to which developers (…) could adapt the models to their own health applications.”

Also on the horizon there may be SignGEMMA, an open model for signaling sign language right into a spoken language. Google claims that Signgemma will allow programmers to create recent applications and integration for users of deaf and hard.

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“SIGNGEMMA is a new family of models trained to translate sign language into a spoken text, but preferably in the American sign and English,” said Martins. “This is the most talented model of understanding sign language in history and we are looking forward to you-programmers, deaf and hard communities-to take this base and build with it.”

It is value noting that Gemma has been criticized for non -standard, non -standard license conditions, which in accordance with some developers adopted models with a dangerous proposal. However, this didn’t discourage programmers from downloading Gemma models tens of tens of millions of times.

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(Tagstransate) gemma

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