Google Gemini Update & New AI Tools, New AI Mixtral 8x22B, Microsoft New AI Features & More!

Google has long been a leader in the realm of cloud technology, and in recent years the tech behemoth has dedicated significant resources to expanding its cloud business. This expansion has involved enhancing their tools and computing infrastructure, empowering others to build and transform their own businesses. The impact of these efforts is clear with their cloud business achieving a $36 billion annual revenue run rate in the last quarter, marking a five fold increase over the past five years. One key driver behind this growth is Google's deep investment in AI. Google has long believed that AI is the next big thing in technology, set to revolutionize how companies operate. By investing heavily in AI infrastructure and models, Google has positioned itself at the forefront of the AI platform shift. Today, a significant portion of AI startups and nearly all AI unicorns are using Google Cloud, which which underscores Google's influence in this sector. This week at Cloud Next, Google's showcase for new technology, Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google Cloud, shared several exciting updates. They are launching Gemini 1.5 Pro into public preview for their cloud customers and developers. This model is particularly powerful with its breakthrough in long context understanding. Able to process 1 million tokens of information, this capability opens up new avenues for businesses to innovate with AI. For example, generation Gemini's ability to handle multiple types of data, audio, video, text, code and more means. A gaming company could now provide detailed video analyses of players performances with improvement tips. An insurance company could streamline the claims process by combining video, images and text into comprehensive incident reports. Google is also releasing a new version of its open model Gemma to assist with code generation and other coding needs, which promises to simplify many tasks for developers. The infrastructure supporting these Advances is Google's AI hypercomputer, which combines TPUs, GPUs, AI software and more to offer unmatched performance and cost efficiency for training and running models. Leading AI companies and many Google Cloud clients are already taking advantage of this powerful setup. Furthermore, Google has introduced an array of new AI tools to help customers code more efficiently and safeguard their digital environments against threats. They've upgraded Gemini Code Assist to generate and test code better, and introduced Gemini and Threat Intelligence to provide deeper insights into cybersecurity threats using natural language processing. Generative AI features are also making their way into Google workspace, enhancing tools used by millions across Gmail, Docs and other applications. They're also launching Google Vids, a new video creation app that complements the existing suite of productivity tools across various industries from automotive with Mercedes Benz, enhancing customer service and website experiences experiences to Uber using AI to boost employee productivity. Google's AI is making significant impacts. Their partnership with Palo Alto network since 2018 continues to evolve, tackling complex security challenges with AI driven solutions that give security teams a real time edge against attackers. Now, following the updates and innovations at Google Cloud, Google has confirmed a significant AI security update aimed at protecting Gmail and Google Drive users. This update is especially crucial given the sheer volume of users, over 3 billion, who rely on these services for communication and data storage. Google has recognized a growing threat in cybersecurity, specifically through the increasing sophistication of phishing attacks facilitated by generative AI. To combat this, Google has developed custom large language models that are exceptionally adept at detecting and neutralizing spam and phishing attempts. These LLMs have been trained on a wide array of malicious content to enhance their ability to recognize similar threats in real time. Deployed Initially in late 2023, these LLMs have started showing substantial results. The effectiveness of these models is evident in the numbers. There has been a 20% increase in blocked spam in Gmail and a 1000% increase in the amount of user reported spam that is reviewed daily. Additionally, the response time to new spam and phishing attacks in Drive has improved by 90%. While the use of AI in digital security often raises privacy concerns, the AI powered defenses that Google has developed are proving to be extraordinarily effective. They're catching twice as much malware as typical antivirus and security products, and have managed to block 99.9% of spam. Such impressive results really underline Google's dedication to safeguarding user data and enhancing the overall security of its digital environment. Additionally, Google is rolling out a new AI security feature for Google Workspace users. This innovative tool is crafted to automatically identify and secure sensitive information within files, a task that many users currently handle manually. The aim of this AI tool is to detect concealed, sensitive data and suggest ways to protect it, enabling users to apply these protections quickly and easily with just a few clicks. Priced at $10 per user per month, this new security feature can be included in most workspace plans, offering an extra layer of safety without the hassle. These security enhancements are a part of Google's broader strategy to integrate AI into their products and services effectively. By doing so, the company not only improves the functionality and safety of its offerings, but also sets a standard for the responsible and beneficial use of AI in enhancing digital security. Alright now, as Google continues to advance its AI capabilities and reshape how businesses leverage technology for progress and efficiency, other companies in the AI space are also making significant strides among these Paris based Mistral AI has made a notable splash with the release of its latest large language model, Mistral 8x22B. This model is setting new benchmarks in the industry, positioning Mistral AI as a formidable player alongside giants like OpenAI and Google. The model is touted as one of the most powerful open source AI models to date, expected to outperform its predecessor Mixtral 8x7B and even rival well known models like OpenAI's GPT 3.5 and Meta's Llama 2. With a 65,000 token context window and a staggering parameter size of up to 176 billion, the new model offers unprecedented capabilities in processing and referencing text. Simultaneously, this makes it a highly potent tool for a variety of complex tasks. Founded by researchers from Google and Meta, Mistral AI focuses on building open source models that are accessible to anyone. In an unusual move, they made Mixtral 8x22B available through a torrent link on X and later on AI community platforms like Hugging Face and Together AI. Here, users can retrain and refine the model for more specialized tasks, enhancing its versatility and application in real world scenarios. The architecture of this new model is particularly innovative, employing a sparse mixture of experts. Design this design allows the model to perform efficient computation and deliver high performance across a wide range of tasks by using a fraction of its total parameters for each token. This approach not only boosts its efficiency, but also keeps operational costs and latency in check. Mistral AI's launch of Mixtral 8x22B comes at a time when the competition in the AI field is fierce, with rivals like OpenAI and Google also unveiling their latest advancements. Google, for example, recently made its Advanced Gemini Pro 1.5 LLM generally available, offering developers significant capabilities with free access to certain features. Despite the competitive landscape, the release of Mixtral 8x22B marks a significant milestone for open source generative AI. It opens up new possibilities for researchers, developers and enthusiasts to explore advanced AI technologies without the barriers of high costs and limited access to typically associated with large AI models. The model is available under a permissive Apache 2.0 license, further emphasizing Mistral AI's commitment to open source principles. The AI community has responded positively to Mistral AI's new model, with many expressing hope that it will bring significant advancements in fields such as customer service, drug discovery and climate modeling. However, as with any powerful technology, there are concerns about the potential potential for misuse. Given the open nature of Mistral AI's models, this presents challenges in ensuring that such technologies are used responsibly and ethically in the future. Alright. Microsoft is also stepping up its AI game by adding new AI tools to its PowerToys utilities. One notable addition is the Advanced Paste module, which marks a significant move in integrating AI into this popular tool suite. The details are still limited, but anticipation is growing as the Build 2024 conference approaches where Microsoft will host a session titled PowerToys Advanced Paste with Local AI. This session is set to showcase how AI backed APIs and on device machine learning models are used to power this new feature. This integration of AI into PowerToys indicates Microsoft's ongoing commitment to innovating with AI, suggesting more AI driven enhancements could be on the way. As Microsoft prepares to unveil more at BUILD 2024 taking place from May 21 to 23 in Seattle and online, the tech community is keen to see how these advancements will elevate the functionality and user experience of PowerToys. Alright, don't forget to hit that subscribe button for more updates. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you in the next one.