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🧠 Pinecone raises $100M for vector database

🧠 Pinecone raises $100M for vector database

PLUS: Have Stanford researchers revolutionized AI?

Alan Buxbaum & Alex Valaitis
May 01, 2023

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Happy Monday and welcome back to Big Brain.

This past weekend I went to visit family in Dallas. During the ~7 hours of driving I made it a point to call 4 of my friends and convince them to start using ChatGPT.

I hope you’re doing the same with your network!

Today's AI spotlights:

Pinecone raises $100M for vector database🌲
Have Stanford researchers revolutionized AI? 🔬
Congress ensures separation of nukes and AI 💥

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🌲 PINECONE RAISES $100M FOR VECTOR DATABASE

Are we in an AI bubble?

It’s too early to say for sure, but one thing we do know is that some of the recent investments have been INSANE!

The latest fundraising headline comes courtesy of Pinecone which secured a $100M Series B at a $750M valuation.

Pinecone launched a vector database in 2021. Vectors are how sentences are represented within Large Language Models (LLMs).

It would be very inefficient to store/index all of the text in an LLM, but vectors make it easier.

Assuming vector databases will continue to play a big role in the AI tech stack moving forward, this valuation could be justified.

But don’t just take my word for it, lead investor a16z published a full post on the company:

📰 Read the a16z blog on Pinecone

🔬 HAVE STANFORD RESEARCHERS JUST REVOLUTIONIZED AI?

Ever had a good time at the bar ruined after receiving the check?

Well, that's what building and operating an LLM can be like.

Luckily, the folks at Stanford have been busy...

Introducing EVAPORATE: a groundbreaking approach that reduces language model inference costs by 110 times!

So how does prototype system do it?

EVAPORATE does this in two ways:

It extracts values directly from documents
It synthesizes code that allows for a much more efficient extraction process.

Overall, this optimizes performance without sacrificing accuracy.

What does the first part of that mean?

Huge freakin savings. 🤑

This, plus greater energy-efficiency, could mean broader adoption for LLMs across industries.

📰 Read the Full Article Here

💥 CONGRESS ENSURES SEPARATION OF NUKES AND AI

When it comes to security, redundancies are a key part of success.

Now imagine an AI system with access to nuclear weapons; doesn't sound very redundant, does it?

Luckily, US legislators introduced a new bill that aims to ban the use of AI systems for autonomous nuclear weapon launches.

The bill highlights the risks of AI-triggered accidental nuclear warfare. Some possible causes could be due to misinterpretations or miscommunications.

This is why the legislation aims to ensure human control over critical decisions.

Sure, us humans have our security vulnerabilities as well...

But for now, it's probably best that we keep our hands on the steering wheel.

📰 Read the Full Article Here