No Drama Llama 🦙🤖

👀 TLDR:

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the release of Meta’s new large language model, Llama 3. Meta has trumpeted this as its big challenge to OpenAI and Google, and that confidence seems to be warranted as Llama 3 rolls out across Meta’s family of apps, as well as a dedicated website for Meta AI. This week, we also bring news of Google giving us some much-needed interoperability on messaging platforms, Amazon Music launching an AI playlist generator, and Microsoft unveiling the video generator VASA-1. Our GPT of the Week will provide you with answers to legal questions, our Stat covers Netflix’s growing subscriber numbers thanks to the password sharing crackdown, and What’s dAppening gives you all the details on the Bitcoin halving.

What's Appening is brought to you by 3Advance, the product development team that eats, sleeps and breathes apps. Not diggin' the apps? You can opt-out below. Forwarding to a friend? Please do 🙏. They can subscribe here or just listen on Spotify. Our monthly video series can be found on YouTube 📺.

Our Top Take 🎬

🦙🤖 Meta – A Big Splash in the LLM Pool with Llama 3

Meta has released Llama 3, its next-generation LLM model, which it claims competes with the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google’s flagship models. Llama 3 actually consists of two models, Llama 3 8B and Llama 3 70B, with testing showing that Meta’s claims of a challenge are not without merit, although we note that Meta did not mention GPT-4 in its testing presentation 🧐. That said, Llama 3 is running on Groq’s AI chip, which has achieved up to 800 tokens per second (a token is the unit of language/text that generates the LLM’s response; 800 p/s is very, very fast). A key consideration is that Llama 3 is open source, something the company is also doing with Meta Quest OS. The open source strategy has tangible benefits, and Meta is not shy in flexing about the advantages over proprietary models, including how it fosters innovation and addresses issues like sourcing bias. On the consumer side, the important things to know are this: Meta is integrating Llama 3 through Meta AI (its chatbot) on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Meta AI will also launch on a standalone website alongside its image generator, IMAGINE. The website does suggest that Meta is aiming to rival ChatGPT, but the marketing of Meta AI seems to be aimed toward the Instagram-like lifestyle and aesthetics trend. Still, Llama 3 puts Meta firmly in the LLM arms race and, of course, puts AI directly in the hands of its 3 billion users worldwide. #MetaLlama Read more here.

🦾 GPT of the Week: AI Lawyer by StartupTechLaw.com.

This week’s Custom GPT is AI Lawyer by StartupTechLaw.com. The legal sector has long been cited as being ripe for disruption by generative AI, so this week we have picked out one of the most popular legal GPTs, AI Lawyer. The GPT has an enterprise and civil law focus, specializing in areas like intellectual property, NDAs, and bankruptcy. Of course, using the GPT does not constitute attorney-client privilege, so probably best not to confess any crimes😉. We like to think of it as a legal sounding-board, a handy tool for anyone simply curious about legal concepts while not wanting to fork out for an expensive formal consultation. Try it here.

Other Stories 🗞️

📺 Microsoft Unveils VASA to Generate Images to Video in Real Time. Microsoft has shown off the capabilities of its hugely-impressive VASA-1 generator, which uses a single image and audio to generate lifelike “talking faces”. Full breakdown here.

🤝 Google Integrates Slack and Teams messages with Chat. Finally! Google has answered our interoperability wishes by integrating cross-platform messages from Slack and Microsoft Teams into Google Chat. Details right here.

🎸 Amazon Says Hold My Beer to Spotify with AI Playlists. Anything you can do, I can do, err…much the same. Amazon Music has released Maestro (in beta), allowing users to make playlists with the help of AI. Full story here.

🏛️Presidential Hopeful Wants to Put US Budget on Blockchain. He’s not gonna win, right? But election candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr has proposed putting the entire US budget on blockchain, allowing taxpayers to see how their money is being spent. It’s certainly not his worst idea. See his reasoning here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 9.3M

📈📺 Netflix – Password Crackdown Seems to Work as Subscribers Surge

Netflix’s stock price is almost back to its 2021 pandemic-fueled peak after adding 9.3 million new subscribers in Q1 2024. The reason for the surge? Analysts say it is down to the crackdown on password sharing, forcing many of us to sign up for real. Interestingly, however, Netflix is soon going to stop reporting subscriber numbers, claiming that it is an outmoded way of judging the streaming platform’s success. #NetflixAndBill Read more here.

🕸️ What’s dAppening?

🪙🎁 Bitcoin – Halving Completed with Mining Rewards Reduced

You may have seen financial publications reporting on the Bitcoin “halving” over the weekend, but what exactly is it? Essentially, Bitcoin is programmed to reduce the block reward for miners every four years. Before the weekend, 6.25 Bitcoins were awarded to miners for every “block”, but now that reward is cut to 3.125. In four years (roughly), it will be reduced to 1.5625. The important thing to note is that fewer Bitcoins will land on exchanges, in theory making the token scarcer. These tokenomics, coupled with institutional buying, are now Bitcoin’s USP. But don’t take it for granted that the halving means the price will go up in perpetuity. #BitcoinHalving Read more here.

Meanwhile at 3Advance...

If you haven't had a chance to check out our quarterly review yet, now is the perfect time! It's filled with highlights from Q1, from the launch of Béné Tipping's new website to our newest client acquisitions and the exciting details of our upcoming podcast. We've covered a lot, and we're eager to share what we have in the works! Check it out!

📺 Check out the What’s Appening video series + Other Videos!

You can watch other videos and What’s Appening episodes on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or enjoy the bite-size ‘shorts’ on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, and then turn on notifications, so you’ll never miss out on what’s appening in tech. We appreciate you tuning in, and we’d love to hear your feedback. Just hit ‘Reply’!