Welcome to the newest edition of ID Tech’s AI Update. Here’s the latest big news on the shifting landscape of AI and identity technology:
The White House has issued three executive orders aimed at further securing US dominance in the AI race. One of the orders fast-tracks permitting for large data centers, while another establishes a program, led by the Departments of Commerce and State, aimed at exporting American-made AI tech to strategic allies. The third is ostensibly meant to require ideological neutrality from AI vendors seeking federal contracts.
Intel has scrapped key AI investments in Europe, with new CEO Lip‑Bu Tan cancelling contracts for a €30 billion “Silicon Junction” semiconductor plant in Magdeburg and a planned chip‑packaging plant in Poland. Tan called previous investments “unwise and excessive” with respect to demand, and said that capacity will now depend on customer volume commitments.
Google parent Alphabet reported a 14 percent jump in Q2 revenues, rocketing past Wall Street expectations thanks to AI-fuelled demand across its YouTube, Cloud services, Search, and its Gemini generative AI platform. CFO Anat Ashkenazi also raised eyebrows by boosting this year’s capex target from $75 billion to $85 billion, citing robust demand for AI products.
It’s not all W’s for Google’s AI efforts these days, however: Microsoft has reportedly poached top Google DeepMind talent. Over the past six months, Microsoft is thought to have snagged 24 researchers, engineers and product leads, with the latest being Gemini engineering chief Amar Subramanya, who is now VP of AI under Microsoft AI CEO (and DeepMind co‑founder) Mustafa Suleyman.
Amazon is acquiring Bee, a San Francisco startup making a $50 wrist‑worn “personal AI” that records everything it hears so that users can get searchable logs, to‑do lists, and daily summaries. For Amazon it’s a quick way to reboot wearables after the failed Halo band and, more importantly, to seed Alexa‑plus‑Gemini‑class models with a whole bunch of real‑world conversational data, possibly including some very personal and private stuff.
China’s Unitree is now actually selling a humanoid robot that can run around, do cartwheels, and even perform a bit of shadow-boxing. Preorders for the Unitree R1 are now open and priced at ¥39,999 (about $5,900), with units expected to ship in September of this year. Meanwhile Unitree has filed pre‑IPO paperwork with China’s CSRC, aiming to go public in Q4 of this year.
Runway’s generative AI content is now actually being used in Netflix productions, according to a Bloomberg report. Netflix has made no official comment, but Co‑CEO Ted Sarandos said on a Q2 earnings call that a collapsing building sequence in the show El Eternauta featured effects generated with Runway, noting that the production’s visual effects team was able to produce the footage “remarkably fast.”
The chatbot’s take: Me conquistaste desde que dijiste hola.
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By Alex Perala
