😺 Reid meets REID AI!

PLUS: The Neuron is #4 in Technology on Apple Podcasts!

Welcome, humans.

A massive, massive thank you to everyone who’s supported the launch of our podcast, The Neuron: AI Explained. We’re now #4 in Technology on Apple Podcasts (& #1 in cover art)—not bad, eh?!

Don't miss our 3rd episode dropping tomorrow morning. Until then, you can enter to win our $500 Visa giveaway here!

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

Reid Hoffman created a digital replica of himself that’s jaw-dropping.
Accenture raked in $600M in AI bookings in Q2!
OpenAI is eyeing a partnership with Sam Altman’s other venture, Worldcoin.
We reveal 3 ways to access all your favorite chatbots in one spot.

ICYMI, yesterday’s pod: Rabbit’s trendy AI gadget, ChatGPT's new memory abilities, and a wild week in AI fundraising! (YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify)

Reid Hoffman talks with AI Reid Hoffman.

In AI, we’ve seen lots of efforts to recreate people.

Character.ai lets you talk to chatbots that mimic celebrities, like Elon Musk or Socrates.
ElevenLabs can replicate someone’s voice with sufficient audio samples.
DALL·E 3 has been used to generate AI images that look exactly like actual people.

Yesterday, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman put everything together with a digital replica named “REID AI” that was trained on decades of Reid’s books, speeches, and podcasts to look, talk, and sound just like… HIM!

It. Is. Astonishing.

There were tells that REID's AI twin wasn’t real (random hand gestures, many buzzwords, and worse hair), but unless you’re familiar with Reid’s voice and mannerisms and simply zoned out while watching the AI, you’d struggle to pinpoint it as fake.

REID AI, created by Hour One, showcases the most accurate facial expressions we’ve seen yet, and the REID AI actually does look a lot like Reid IRL.

Why it matters: As with any new AI technology, digital twins bring both positive and negative possibilities. But like Reid (& REID AI), we’re optimists.

One cool possibility with REID AI is to generate infinite versions of any speech or lecture Reid has given to suit various audiences (like children, non-technical employees, or Spanish speakers).
Or, rather than chatting with a Reid Hoffman bot on character.ai, you could interact with REID AI as if it were a real Zoom call, seeking advice on your startup, the future of humanity, or optimizing your LinkedIn profile (see Reid do this here!).

There are, of course, lots of things that could go wrong with this type of technology, as evidenced by a surge in deceptive AI deepfakes this year.

REID AI asked Reid about preventing misuse, who stressed the importance of establishing clear “rules of the road” for both individuals and public figures to protect their identity, privacy, and reputation.

And then there are the deeper, Black Mirror-type questions about whether AI replicas will keep people “alive” after they die.

TBH, we need more coffee before tackling this question today… give us some time to consult our therapists, and we'll circle back to you. :)

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Around the Horn.

Elon Musk’s xAI is reportedly close to raising $6B at a valuation of $18B from Sequoia and others.
According to a survey of 750 CIOs, 96% plan to boost their AI investment over the next year, yet 42% aren’t expecting any ROI within the next two years.
Nvidia is acquiring Run.ai and Deci, two Israeli startups that are making AI workloads more affordable.
OpenAI is considering a partnership with Worldcoin, a different venture from Sam Altman that involves digital identity (and yes, eye-scanning).
You can now use your voice to search and get answers on Perplexity Pro.
Accenture booked over $600M in AI consulting gigs in Q2.

Treats To Try.

If you're juggling multiple chatbots, check out these options to manage them all from one spot without toggling:

Poe—their latest feature lets you chat with multiple models in a single convo (costs $20/month).
TypingMind (requires your API key).
ChatbotUI—100% open-source tool that lets you chat with 80+ models.

Intelligent Insights.

AI vs. AI. Battle of the bots: Getting hired is hard work in the age of AI (link).
A morning with the Rabbit R1: a fun, funky, unfinished AI gadget (link).
AI Gives Enterprise Device Market Something to Be Excited About (link).
How I use generative AI in branding (link).
The Smartest Way to Use AI at Work (link).
The “it” in AI models is the dataset (link).
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have multimodal AI now (link).

Friday Faculty.

The Neuron is growing! We are looking for a hungry sales partnership lead to join us in building the world's #1 AI Media brand. If you're interested in working at the Neuron, please fill out this form.
300+ Machine Learning & AI roles at Microsoft Research (everywhere).
Executive Assistant to the CEO/Office Manager at Groq (Mountain View).
10+ software engineering positions at Adept AI (SF).
Brand Designer at Perplexity (SF).