Welcome to Eye on AI, with AI reporter Sharon Goldman. On this version…a TikTok-like AI video app that’s constructed for Gen Z…Challenges renting San Francisco residences throughout the AI growth…TSMC revenue surges 39% to hit one more file on AI chip demand…Spotify companions with Sony, Common, Warner and extra to develop AI music merchandise.
Demi Guo, the 26-year-old founding father of AI video firm Pika, holds levels in arithmetic and laptop science. However she’s additionally at all times had a artistic streak, together with writing poetry, and he or she loves exhibiting off on social media with picture and video instruments.
That’s why she dropped out of her Stanford Ph.D program and co-founded Pika in April 2023 with aspiring animator and fellow Ph.D pupil Chenlin Meng. Simply as AI video firms like Runway had been beginning to get sizzling, the duo, after experimenting with making long-form generative AI movies, determined to create an easier-to-use AI video generator—sparking curiosity from high Silicon Valley buyers like Nat Friedman.
Now, has Pika has raised about $135 million at a $470 million valuation and boasts 14.5 million customers throughout a number of artistic apps. It not too long ago launched a brand new TikTok-like AI video app, additionally known as Pika, that’s already trending, and final week it debuted a brand new characteristic in that app known as Predictive Video. Not like different video instruments which require lengthy prompts to generate good outcomes, Predictive Video permits customers to add a selfie and say one thing easy, like “make me a rock star,” or “I’m giving a TED Talk,” or “make me sing in Japanese”; the software then infers your intent, delivering a whole video with a script, music and dance strikes, background, lighting, and digicam angles and visible results.
As a substitute of simply producing a standalone video clip, Pika can anticipate movement and interplay, producing a form of blended actuality by permitting customers to weave themselves or real-world components into AI-generated scenes—one thing that historically would take important animation abilities and manufacturing time.
All of it’s tailored for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, cohorts which have grown up on short-form video and makes use of on-line platforms to specific themselves and share their ideas, Guo defined. “Most nonprofessionals will never try to create a film using generative AI, but lots of people like to make short videos,” she mentioned. “It’s really about self-expression.”
That, she insists, is the alternative of what has grow to be a catch-all software for AI video: Slop. There could also be synthetic content material at scale, however Pika is supposed to, mockingly, use generative AI to assist folks get extra actual, she says.
“We really believe it is not meaningless content,” she emphasised. “It’s about self-expression, the personality is actually real behind it. So a person who is funny will post funny videos, or a person that is very egocentric will post egocentric videos.” Some folks like to make use of one visible impact, or create a video that captures a vibe or a temper, or just use the software to do what they want they may do in actual life, she added.
“It helps you achieve that in some sense,” she mentioned. “Maybe you are a really bad singer, but in AI, you can sing very well, like a pop star.”
Pika is stepping right into a aggressive panorama dominated by giants like OpenAI’s Sora and Meta’s new Vibes, however it’s carving out a really completely different area of interest. Sora is targeted on cinematic, photorealistic text-to-video technology, and Vibes is about bringing AI-generated video feeds into Meta’s huge ecosystem. However Pika positions itself nearer to the ground-level habits of Gen Z and Gen Alpha: It’s much less about polished productions at scale, and extra about emotion, creativity and interplay for on a regular basis storytelling.
FORTUNE ON AI
Don’t worry the AI bubble, it’s about to unlock an $8 trillion alternative based on Goldman Sachs – by Jim Edwards
BlackRock’s $40 billion deal highlights the unstoppable AI knowledge heart gold rush, as CEO Larry Fink pushes again on AI bubble fears – by Sharon Goldman
Wish to construct your individual chatbot for $100? A glimpse into AI’s small, low cost, DIY future – by Sharon Goldman
Amazon is planning a brand new wave of layoffs, sources say – by Jason Del Rey
AI IN THE NEWS
Challenges renting San Francisco residences throughout the AI growth. In response to the New York Instances, a surge of AI start-ups is reshaping San Francisco’s housing market, driving up demand and costs and intensifying competitors for residences. After his firm Cluely raised $5.3 million, 22-year-old founder Roy Lee leased eight luxurious residences simply steps from the workplace to foster a “frat house” work tradition—emblematic of how tech corporations are reshaping metropolis residing. Fueled by progress from firms like OpenAI and Anthropic, San Francisco rents have risen 6% prior to now 12 months, greater than double New York Metropolis’s price, with neighborhoods close to A.I. hubs like Mission Bay seeing 13% spikes. The scramble for housing has led renters to tour dozens of models, face same-day rejections, and even convey money to viewings, elevating new considerations about affordability and displacement in one in every of America’s most costly cities.
TSMC revenue surges 39% to beat estimates and hit one more file on AI chip demand. CNBC reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) posted file third-quarter outcomes as surging demand for synthetic intelligence chips fueled a 39.1% bounce in revenue from a 12 months earlier, beating analyst estimates. Income climbed 30.3% to NT$989.92 billion ($33.1 billion), whereas web earnings rose to NT$452.3 billion. CEO C.C. Wei mentioned rising shopper adoption of AI fashions is strengthening the corporate’s conviction within the “AI megatrend,” prompting TSMC to boost its 2025 income progress forecast to the mid-30% vary and enhance deliberate capability investments to not less than $40 billion. Excessive-performance computing, together with AI and 5G chips, accounted for 57% of income, and superior 7-nanometer-and-smaller chips made up 74% of wafer gross sales, underscoring TSMC’s central position in supplying cutting-edge processors to shoppers like Nvidia and Apple.
Spotify companions with Sony, Common, Warner and extra to develop AI music merchandise. Selection reported that Spotify is teaming up with main music business gamers—together with Sony, Common, Warner, Merlin, and Consider—to develop “responsible” AI merchandise geared toward empowering artists and songwriters, marking one of many first large-scale collaborations between streaming and music rights holders on AI. As a part of a broader push to speculate closely in AI analysis and product improvement, Spotify plans to construct a generative AI lab and product crew targeted on 4 key objectives: creating instruments by way of up-front agreements with labels and publishers; permitting artists and rights holders to decide in to generative music applied sciences; opening new income streams; and strengthening artist-fan connections. The initiative displays a rising effort throughout the music business to form how AI is built-in into artistic and business practices.
AI CALENDAR
Oct. 21-22: TedAI San Francisco.
Nov. 10-13: Net Summit, Lisbon.
Nov. 26-27: World AI Congress, London.
Dec. 2-7: NeurIPS, San Diego
Dec. 8-9: Fortune Brainstorm AI San Francisco. Apply to attend right here.
EYE ON AI NUMBERS
26%
That is what number of Individuals are conversant in AI psychological well being instruments, based on a brand new YouGov survey that highlights simply how far such instruments should go to win over the general public. A mere 11% say they’d think about using one, and belief is even decrease—simply 8% say they belief AI on this area, whereas 40% explicitly don’t. The highest causes for skepticism: considerations about lack of human nuance (53%), dangerous or inaccurate recommendation (50%), and knowledge privateness (49%). And regardless of the flood of startups and funding in AI remedy apps, solely 4% of Individuals have ever tried one.
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