The Rebirth of Cool. The AI Gold Rush

Hi, AI Futurists!

The US is leading the AI economy, mainly thanks to Silicon Valley startups and the investment ecosystem. See the distribution of AI companies worldwide.

People, companies, and countries that embrace this new type of economy will lead the world and reap the benefits equally. As Jensen Huang once said: 'While some worry that AI may take their jobs, someone who is an expert in AI will.'

AI Shorts

The AI Era: Competing with Partners

Apple is in discussion with Google to use Gemini for its LLM solution. Bill Gates’ biggest regret is not acquiring Android. OpenAI is a product of NVIDIA GPU, yet Sam Altman made headlines with his global search for $7 trillion to produce its own AI chip. How does one even calculate the ROI on a $7 trillion investment?

In his interview with Lex Fridman, Sam Altman didn’t break it down, but he mentioned that everyone will be using many AI products, and becoming a part of this investment would mean that participants will dominate the new currency, compute.

Lex Fridman - Sam Altman Interview

Lex Fridman had a 2-hour (only) interview with the AI Man, Sam Altman, this past week. 

Some highlights included his nightmare weekend when he was fired (20 minutes), his $375 million nuclear fusion investment into Helion Energy, his relationship with Elon Musk, and the difference that GPT-5 (or the next version) will make vs GPT-4, and more.

Y-Combinator has a new podcast: Lightcone, which it also publishes on YouTube. 

The latest episode was about why the best founders in the world are moving to the Bay Area.

Why? The short answer is AI.

The AI moment of the GPT launch is the key reason. 

What was uncool? The pandemic made San Francisco uncool, combined with tech leaders and large tech companies such as Tesla and Oracle moving from the Bay Area, and people complaining about the danger in the streets as well as the homelessness issue became additional reasons.

There have been several AI winters in the last 50 years. GPT broke the pattern because it became the fastest-growing company in the world with 100 million active users within a month. Even OpenAI wasn’t expecting such overwhelming demand.

Therefore, the business and creation engine started rolling fast.

YC (Y Combinator, the biggest startup accelerator in the world) acted even more boldly and moved its HQ to Dog Patch, San Francisco, to a renovated shipyard. Here are Top 58 YC-funded AI companies in the Bay Area, along with their job posts. 35% of the YC-funded companies in 2023 were AI companies.

The Y Combinator application breakdown and guide from a YC-funded company cofounder.

Why People Move to the Bay Area

Tech Hub. People in the Bay Area are highly skilled in tech, and one has a higher chance of finding co-founders, co-workers, and hiring the most talented people.

Mindset. People are in the Bay Area to change the world. There is a popular belief that in other places in the world, you would start a business if it has already been done, whereas in the Bay Area, your startup would be funded if your idea hasn’t been tried before. Investors in Silicon Valley expect to invest in 10 companies and lose 9 of them but have a 1000-fold return from one of them.

No Hierarchy. You can be a 19-year-old college dropout with no former career background, and you can start a global tech company and become a billionaire as long as your product-market fit is there, and you have an open path for global growth.

Here is some key information for moving to the Bay Area.

• Gamma AI. (4.8* / 131) Gamma AI is AI-powered the content creation and presentation platform. Tailored for professionals, it streamlines workflows, improves presentations, and ensures data security.

• Adcreative. (4.4* / 1534) Adcreative is an AI tool that generates high-quality social media design and marketing copy, helping businesses create engaging and effective ads, offering up to 14x higher conversion rates. 

• Jasper. (4.7* / 1239) Jasper AI is a powerful AI-powered content generation platform designed to help businesses create tailored content for various marketing channels, such as blog posts, marketing copy, sales emails, SEO content, Facebook ads, and video scripts.

• Invideo. (4.6* / 153) Choose a topic, and let invideo AI take the reins. It crafts a script, forms scenes, incorporates voiceovers, and adjusts the video according to your instructions.

• Smartlead. (4.8* / 67) The AI Email Tool that Turns Cold Emails into Conversions. Smartlead AI Tool elevates sender reputation, automates warmups, and expands outreach effortlessly.

• Eleven Labs. (4.8* / 116) Eleven Labs excels in AI-driven voice cloning, setting the bar high for natural-sounding voices in 29 languages affordably for startups as well as entrepreneurs and large companies.

• Stanford students created Quiet-Star: Language models can teach themselves to think before speaking.

• The inside story of 8 Google employees inventing modern AI, Transformer Architecture.

• ThinkAny is the new LLM search engine.

• Why Warren Buffett doesn’t invest in NVIDIA.

• How Helion Energy nuclear fusion works (a documentary). The company was funded ($375M) by Sam Altman to power the AI future.

• AI-powered chapters for your videos. Engage more people.

• Learn history through HistoryGPT.

We are sharing the top AI stocks that we believe will yield the highest returns. These AI companies are already leading the industry and we anticipate they will continue to lead in the AI Age.

NVIDIA. The company announced its next-gen AI chips and ecosystem, Blackwell GPUs this past week at GTC. The second phase of multi-modality AI is commencing with a focus on Robotics, driven by NVIDIA technology, in what is projected to become a multi-trillion dollar industry.

TSMC. TSMC serves as the fab or foundry for nearly all AI chips from companies like NVIDIA and AMD. The company is currently constructing a $40 billion Arizona AI chip fab, positioning itself as the dominant AI chip manufacturer.

Tesla. Despite doubling its production every year, Tesla has seen a significant decline (50%+ from its peak) in its stock value. However, we believe Tesla will rebound dramatically, especially with anticipated developments such as FSD (Full Self-Driving), X (the Everything app, an all-encompassing app for cars featuring the Grok companion), and the Tesla Roadster. A keynote by Elon Musk by the year-end is expected to drive this rebound.

Apple. Apple experienced a decline in value as it didn’t invest in AI. Once the world's largest company, Apple was surpassed by Microsoft in value, partly due to its canceled Project Titan (EV project) and shifted focus to AI. We anticipate hearing much about AI during the WWDC event in June.

Microsoft. Microsoft's stock has surged 77% or $1.8 trillion since the launch of ChatGPT. With a mere $10 billion investment, they now own 49% of OpenAI, making Microsoft arguably the most AI-savvy company in the world. Recently, Microsoft launched Microsoft AI and appointed Mustafa Suleyman, former CEO of DeepMind and Inflection AI, as the CEO, along with all the execs of Inflection, in a strategic move.

What You Can Learn from the Small Book of Prompt Engineering

• The Birth of Prompt Engineering. Building efficient communication with AI systems for desired outcomes.

• Crucial AI Vocabulary. Exploring essential terms like LLM and NLP.

• Varied Prompting Methods. From N-Shot to Self-Consistency, diverse techniques examined.

• Effective Prompt Creation. Practical tips for clear, concise prompts.

• Income Potential. From freelancing to careers, opportunities in AI highlighted.

That's it for today. Hope we are expanding your AI Horizons a little every day.

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