Mistral rolls out Mistral Large 2, Challenges Meta’s Llama 3.1

Here are the top trending news from the world of technology. News that every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.

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Mistral rolls out Mistral Large 2, Challenges Meta’s Llama 3.1

The AI race is getting intense by almost every passing day. Not even twenty hours have passed since Meta launched its new AI model Llama 3.1, French AI startup Mistral has responded by rolling out a new model Mistral Large 2. It boasts 123 billion parameters. Although it has lower number of parameters than Llama 3.1’s 405 billion, Mistral claims that it can still match up with the former’s performance in code generation, reasoning and mathematics. However, Mistral Large 2 comes with one important caveat. As of now, it comes with restriction on commercial and enterprise use. Mistral will offer separate licenses for these purposes.

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Stability AI steps up the game by rolling out ‘Stable Video 4D’

Stability AI has added a new video generation AI model to its growing catalogue with the launch of Stable Video 4D. What is unique about this new AI model is that it can transform a single object video into multiple novel-view videos from eight different angles. It efficiently captures the object’s movement and appurtenance from versatile angles and unseen perspectives, creating highly dynamic and realistic videos. It is built on Stability AI’s existing Stable Video Diffusion Model. It has the potential to be used in various applications including film & video production, gaming, virtual & augmented reality and product visualization. Overall, it seems that Stability AI has conquered a new frontier in AI video generation space with the launch of Stable Video 4D.

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AI powered summaries are coming to Bing Search Results

Microsoft is adding new AI feature to its Bing search engine by incorporating AI generated summaries directly into its search results. This can be a time saving feature as users can instantly grasp the main points without even clicking the websites’ links. Microsoft claimed that Bing’s AI algorithm has the capability to tailor summaries as per the search intent, which will ensure search accuracy. To ensure further accuracy and credibility, Bing will also display the links to websites from where the answers were sourced. This feature, however, will not be immediately accessible to all Bing users. It is currently being tested only on limited users and will be rolling out gradually.

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Reddit is blocking all search engines except ‘Google’

According to report from 404 media, Reddit has upped the ante in its crackdown on web crawlers and data scrappers. This means barring Google, no other major search engine including Bing and DuckDuckGo are able to display results on Reddit posts after using the ‘site:reddit.com’ post. Reddit may have taken this step due to its recent $60 Mn deal with Google that allows the latter to exclusively use Reddit’s content for training its AI model. The social media platform likely wants to protect its data being used by Google’s competitors and also to open to other monetization opportunities in the future. However, this is a controversial move and could lead to disputes Reddit and other mainstream search engines.

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Apple launches ‘Apple Maps’ on the web in Beta version

Apple Maps in taking a big step in a bid to challenge Google Maps with web integration. However, Apple Maps integration with web is still in beta version and its availability will vary by location and will currently be available only in English language. As of now, it offers all the standard features that are offered on Google Maps, this includes directions, guides, open hours, reviews and other useful information. The company is expected to add more features like ‘street view’ in the coming months. Overall, the web integration will open Apple’s mapping service to a wider audience and will open a new frontier where Google and Apple will be pitted against each other.