TikTok may be building a Spotify killer. The new streaming app they just launched in 5 countries(Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia).
Here’s why it could be the first real challenger to Spotify’s global dominance.
First of all - the backdrop.
Spotify’s market share has fallen (36% in 2018 -> 30% in 2022), as geos like China (where they don’t operate) rise in prominence.
On the other hand, TikTok’s music industry impact continues to grow - and they already have the label relationships.
Users get three months of free usage, and then pay a subscription that’s a slight discount to Spotify.
The product itself, which is a standalone app, looks like a TikTok x Spotify hybrid.
You authenticate via TikTok, select favorite artists, and enter into a “For You” feed of 30 sec song previews.
You can like, comment on or share songs like on TikTok (and see others’ activity).
Here’s where it gets interesting…
Songs you favorite on TikTok are automatically saved for you in TikTok Music, and your friend list is ported over too.
Plus, the “For You” feed of personalized song recs can be trained on your activity in both apps!
Similar to Spotify, TikTok Music has curated playlists - with a heavy emphasis on what’s trending on TikTok.
But unlike Spotify, you can stream user-generated remixes that have gone viral, instead of having to hunt them down on SoundCloud.
TikTok has run this playbook before, with streaming apps purpose built for specific regions - most notably Resso in India (launched in 2020).
TikTok itself is banned in India, weakening the value prop of Resso.
However - the app quickly became a real challenger to Spotify!
IMO, the hardest part will be pulling users from streaming apps they are pretty happy with.
You can import a Spotify library, but the “mental” switching cost is still high!
Will the TikTok sync features + the power of ByteDance’s customization algo be enough?
Time will tell .
Here’s why it could be the first real challenger to Spotify’s global dominance.
First of all - the backdrop.
Spotify’s market share has fallen (36% in 2018 -> 30% in 2022), as geos like China (where they don’t operate) rise in prominence.
On the other hand, TikTok’s music industry impact continues to grow - and they already have the label relationships.
Users get three months of free usage, and then pay a subscription that’s a slight discount to Spotify.
The product itself, which is a standalone app, looks like a TikTok x Spotify hybrid.
You authenticate via TikTok, select favorite artists, and enter into a “For You” feed of 30 sec song previews.
You can like, comment on or share songs like on TikTok (and see others’ activity).
Here’s where it gets interesting…
Songs you favorite on TikTok are automatically saved for you in TikTok Music, and your friend list is ported over too.
Plus, the “For You” feed of personalized song recs can be trained on your activity in both apps!
Similar to Spotify, TikTok Music has curated playlists - with a heavy emphasis on what’s trending on TikTok.
But unlike Spotify, you can stream user-generated remixes that have gone viral, instead of having to hunt them down on SoundCloud.
TikTok has run this playbook before, with streaming apps purpose built for specific regions - most notably Resso in India (launched in 2020).
TikTok itself is banned in India, weakening the value prop of Resso.
However - the app quickly became a real challenger to Spotify!
IMO, the hardest part will be pulling users from streaming apps they are pretty happy with.
You can import a Spotify library, but the “mental” switching cost is still high!
Will the TikTok sync features + the power of ByteDance’s customization algo be enough?
Time will tell .
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The CEOs of Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm, told senior US officials, including the Secretaries of State and Commerce, to study the impact of export restrictions on China before launching new ones, as the controls risk harming US leadership of the industry.
And quotes Intel’s CEO: “Right now, China represents 25%-30% of semiconductor exports. If I have 20% or 30% less market, I need to build less factories,” and that there would be much less need for projects such as the fabs planned for Ohio.
And quotes Intel’s CEO: “Right now, China represents 25%-30% of semiconductor exports. If I have 20% or 30% less market, I need to build less factories,” and that there would be much less need for projects such as the fabs planned for Ohio.
Bloomberg.com
Chip CEOs Urge US to Study Impact of China Curbs and Take Pause
Leaders of the largest US chipmakers told Biden officials this week that the administration should study the impact of restrictions on exports to China and pause before implementing new ones, according to people familiar with their discussions.
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The future of brain-machine interfaces and AI
New patent by Apple published: EEG-integrated AirPods.
A wearable electronic device includes a housing, and an electrode carrier attached to the housing and having a nonplanar surface.
The wearable electronic device includes a set of electrodes, including electrodes positioned at different locations on the nonplanar surface. The wearable electronic device includes a sensor circuit and a switching circuit. The switching circuit is operable to electrically connect a number of different subsets of one or more electrodes in the set of electrodes to the sensor circuit.
New patent by Apple published: EEG-integrated AirPods.
A wearable electronic device includes a housing, and an electrode carrier attached to the housing and having a nonplanar surface.
The wearable electronic device includes a set of electrodes, including electrodes positioned at different locations on the nonplanar surface. The wearable electronic device includes a sensor circuit and a switching circuit. The switching circuit is operable to electrically connect a number of different subsets of one or more electrodes in the set of electrodes to the sensor circuit.
Worldcoin is now LIVE
Creators Sam Altman & Alex Blania's experiment in crypto-enabled universal basic income launched.
Creators Sam Altman & Alex Blania's experiment in crypto-enabled universal basic income launched.
YouTube
Worldcoin’s Sam Altman & Alex Blania on Crypto's Most Ambitious Project
Disclaimer: This episode was recorded on May 14th, 2023
David is joined by Worldcoin Co-Founders, Alex Blania and Sam Altman. Alex is Worldcoin’s CEO and Sam is CEO of OpenAI. Both Co-founded Worldcoin in 2020.
Worldcoin is one of the most ambitious crypto…
David is joined by Worldcoin Co-Founders, Alex Blania and Sam Altman. Alex is Worldcoin’s CEO and Sam is CEO of OpenAI. Both Co-founded Worldcoin in 2020.
Worldcoin is one of the most ambitious crypto…
Excellent article about diffusion models
Favorite part is about the link to RNNs: “Diffusion models present a way to train deep RNNs without backpropagating through the recurrence at all, yielding a much more scalable training procedure.”
Favorite part is about the link to RNNs: “Diffusion models present a way to train deep RNNs without backpropagating through the recurrence at all, yielding a much more scalable training procedure.”
Sander Dieleman
Perspectives on diffusion
Perspectives on diffusion, or how diffusion models are autoencoders, deep latent variable models, score function predictors, reverse SDE solvers, flow-based models, RNNs, and autoregressive models, all at once!
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Tencent is on a roll. Second acquisition in a month, after a very long paus.
Chinese technology titan Tencent is set to become the majority shareholder in Techland, the Polish studio behind the popular Dying Light franchise.
The move was announced by Techland’s founder and CEO, Paweł Marchewka, who also confirmed that Techland will retain full ownership of its intellectual properties and creative independence despite the share acquisition.
Chinese technology titan Tencent is set to become the majority shareholder in Techland, the Polish studio behind the popular Dying Light franchise.
The move was announced by Techland’s founder and CEO, Paweł Marchewka, who also confirmed that Techland will retain full ownership of its intellectual properties and creative independence despite the share acquisition.
VitalConnect remote and in-hospital wearable biosensor technology company, raised over $30M in Series F funding
The company intends to use the funds to grow its remote cardiac monitoring business while advancing key partnerships with the hospital systems in the United States to provide remote patient monitoring in an in-patient setting.
The company intends to use the funds to grow its remote cardiac monitoring business while advancing key partnerships with the hospital systems in the United States to provide remote patient monitoring in an in-patient setting.
FinSMEs
VitalConnect Secures Over $30M in Series F Financing
VitalConnect, a San Jose, CA-based remote and in-hospital wearable biosensor technology company, raised over $30M in Series F funding
Siemens to invest €1 billion in Germany and create blueprint for industrial metaverse in Nuremberg metropolitan region.
www.zdf.de
Milliardenschweres Siemens-Investment
Der Technologiekonzern will eine Milliarde Euro in Deutschland investieren. Erlangen soll zum Zentrum des "industriellen Metaverse" werden.
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All about AI, Web 3.0, BCI
Cerebras sells $100 million AI supercomputer, plans eight more G42 and Cerebras have partnered to build a significant AI supercomputer, Condor Galaxy 1, to be built this year in nearby Santa Clara, based on Cerebras hardware. Condor Galaxy 1, which will consist…
Cerebras Introduced BTLM-3B-8K: an open, state-of-the art 3B parameter model with 7B level performance.
When quantized, it fits in as little as 3GB of memory. It runs on iPhone, Google Pixel, even Raspberry Pi. BTLM goes live on Bittensor later this week.
When quantized, it fits in as little as 3GB of memory. It runs on iPhone, Google Pixel, even Raspberry Pi. BTLM goes live on Bittensor later this week.
www.cerebras.ai
BTLM-3B-8K: 7B Performance in a 3 Billion Parameter Model - Cerebras
Cerebras and Opentensor introduce a new standard for compact large language models
Journee_iCommerce_eBook__1690276703.pdf
11.2 MB
The age of immersive commerce is here.
Journee's ebook on iCommerce is great. Summary:
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
1. GenZ equates to 1/3 of the global population
2. Combined purchasing power of $740B+
3. 5 hours daily in immersive experiences
4. 60% of metaverse users are GenZ
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲?
- Missing link from the current commerce equation
- Gamification of commerce grows commerce
- Virtual stores via digital avatars
- Digital collectibles are another
𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀
→ Fashion brands are creating virtual realms
→ Digital architecture allows multi-creation
→ Auto brands can configure new models
→ Tourism can overlay new dimensions
Journee's ebook on iCommerce is great. Summary:
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
1. GenZ equates to 1/3 of the global population
2. Combined purchasing power of $740B+
3. 5 hours daily in immersive experiences
4. 60% of metaverse users are GenZ
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲?
- Missing link from the current commerce equation
- Gamification of commerce grows commerce
- Virtual stores via digital avatars
- Digital collectibles are another
𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀
→ Fashion brands are creating virtual realms
→ Digital architecture allows multi-creation
→ Auto brands can configure new models
→ Tourism can overlay new dimensions
A few trends that we see at AI startup events in SF and Palo Alto:
1. Computer vision being on a few roadmaps as this is how AI (GenAI) will see and connect with the world.
2. Numerous enterprise AI startups are collating disparate data sources for analysis and predictive modeling.
3. Niche use cases of AI for consumer productivity for every type of persona, some are clinching proprietary data as a moat.
4. LLM APIs are already table stakes, advanced teams don’t want to get commoditized, “GPT wrappers” are already out of style.
5. Many companies are being built by moonlighting employees who are on salary at FAANG companies, seek Angel round.
6. Some founders realize a scalable business model is also needed to win: network effects, viral effects, data effects, and more.
7. VCs are forming networks and informing each other on which startup shows potential and which are growing.
8. Most believe there is a very short window to be in front of this market: 12-36 months depending on the sector.
9. SF is the capital of AI; it looks like Palo Alto may be the second city in the region; we should know by Fall.
1. Computer vision being on a few roadmaps as this is how AI (GenAI) will see and connect with the world.
2. Numerous enterprise AI startups are collating disparate data sources for analysis and predictive modeling.
3. Niche use cases of AI for consumer productivity for every type of persona, some are clinching proprietary data as a moat.
4. LLM APIs are already table stakes, advanced teams don’t want to get commoditized, “GPT wrappers” are already out of style.
5. Many companies are being built by moonlighting employees who are on salary at FAANG companies, seek Angel round.
6. Some founders realize a scalable business model is also needed to win: network effects, viral effects, data effects, and more.
7. VCs are forming networks and informing each other on which startup shows potential and which are growing.
8. Most believe there is a very short window to be in front of this market: 12-36 months depending on the sector.
9. SF is the capital of AI; it looks like Palo Alto may be the second city in the region; we should know by Fall.
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What could Samsung eventually do with mixed reality when the platform is announced?
Unlike Apple’s Vision Pro, it could integrate with phones.
Samsung, Google and Qualcomm also have some sort of mixed reality platform in the works. Samsung made a drive-by announcement of it at its winter Unpacked event. It was again mentioned briefly at Google's I/O developer conference. But we really don't know much more right now other than these three companies are collaborating on it.
Going by the last mention of it at Google I/O, more information is expected by the end of the year. Will Samsung mention more at its next Unpacked event this week? It's unclear, but even if it is invoked, expect an aura of mystery to continue.
Unlike Apple’s Vision Pro, it could integrate with phones.
Samsung, Google and Qualcomm also have some sort of mixed reality platform in the works. Samsung made a drive-by announcement of it at its winter Unpacked event. It was again mentioned briefly at Google's I/O developer conference. But we really don't know much more right now other than these three companies are collaborating on it.
Going by the last mention of it at Google I/O, more information is expected by the end of the year. Will Samsung mention more at its next Unpacked event this week? It's unclear, but even if it is invoked, expect an aura of mystery to continue.
CNET
Samsung's Mixed Reality May Differ From Apple in One Big Way
Samsung, Google and Qualcomm's mixed reality platform is still in development and mostly remains a big mystery. But its mobile focus could give it a unique edge.
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Melbourne's Monash University has received $403,000 in federal funding for merging human brain cells with AI.
The project involves growing 800,000 brain cells on silicon chips and teaching them goal-directed tasks.
Current AI technology struggles with acquiring new skills and suffers from "catastrophic forgetting."
The researchers aim to develop AI machines that replicate the lifelong learning capacity of human brains.
The ultimate goal is to replace traditional in silico computing with biological neural networks.
The project involves growing 800,000 brain cells on silicon chips and teaching them goal-directed tasks.
Current AI technology struggles with acquiring new skills and suffers from "catastrophic forgetting."
The researchers aim to develop AI machines that replicate the lifelong learning capacity of human brains.
The ultimate goal is to replace traditional in silico computing with biological neural networks.
Fox News
Australian DishBrain researchers receive more than $400K to merge AI with human brain cells
Researchers in southern Australia have recently been granted more than $403,000 in funding to merge human brain cells with artificial intelligence technology.
DeepMind Introduced AdA: an AI agent that can adapt to solve new problems as quickly as humans
In a 3D virtual world, it learned to solve tasks within minutes such as combining objects in novel ways and cooperating with others.
In a 3D virtual world, it learned to solve tasks within minutes such as combining objects in novel ways and cooperating with others.
Google
Home
Foundation models have shown impressive adaptation and scalability in supervised and self-supervised learning problems, but so far these successes have not fully translated to reinforcement learning (RL). In this work, we demonstrate that training an RL agent…
UNESCO_Unveiling_the_Neurotech_Landscape_1690375168.pdf
4.8 MB
A new UNESCO report analyzes the emerging field of neurotech, covering its developments, identifying key actors and highlighting new trends.
Key takeaway:
Unequal access to this new technology is an already present risk: for instance, just six countries have filed almost 90% of the neurotechnology patents registered with leading intellectual property offices worldwide.
In this situation, ethical guardrails are needed, so that threats to humanrights and dignity are properly addressed, and that the development of neurotechnology benefits everyone. And, for these guardrails to be truly effective, they must be global in scope – because a fragmented approach to this fast-evolving technology is doomed to fail.
Key takeaway:
Unequal access to this new technology is an already present risk: for instance, just six countries have filed almost 90% of the neurotechnology patents registered with leading intellectual property offices worldwide.
In this situation, ethical guardrails are needed, so that threats to humanrights and dignity are properly addressed, and that the development of neurotechnology benefits everyone. And, for these guardrails to be truly effective, they must be global in scope – because a fragmented approach to this fast-evolving technology is doomed to fail.
Cohere announced the expansion of collaboration with AWS Cloud to extend the availability of foundational AI models to Amazon Bedrock – a fully managed service that makes pre-trained foundation models accessible via an API.
Context by Cohere
Cohere Brings its Enterprise AI Offering to Amazon Bedrock
Today, Cohere announced the expansion of its collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) to extend the availability of its foundational AI models to Amazon Bedrock. The move brings Cohere’s industry-leading enterprise AI technology to Amazon Bedrock–a…
The birth of a new large-scale effort to weave AI, biology, chemistry and drug discovery together.
Valence x Recursion driving what you might call DeepMind/OpenAI for bio+chem
Valence Labs a semi-autonomous research engine within Recursion Pharma, dedicated to advancing the frontier of deep learning in drugdiscovery.
They are committing up to $1 million to advance the next generation of academic machine learning research and talent through scholarships, fellowships and more.
Valence x Recursion driving what you might call DeepMind/OpenAI for bio+chem
Valence Labs a semi-autonomous research engine within Recursion Pharma, dedicated to advancing the frontier of deep learning in drugdiscovery.
They are committing up to $1 million to advance the next generation of academic machine learning research and talent through scholarships, fellowships and more.
Valencelabs
Valence Labs | Our Story
Valence Labs is a semi-autonomous research and productization engine within Recursion dedicated to advancing the frontier of deep learning in drug discovery.
TSMC opened its 1st ever dedicated R&D center in Hsinchu
It will keep most of its cutting edge R&D in Taiwan and that the center underscores its commitment to Taiwan even as it expand overseas.
The new R&D center is close to TSMC's HQ, covers 300,000 sq. meters (42 soccer fields) and will eventually house over 7,000 engineers, adding development of 2nm, 1.4nm, other pioneering technologies, will be conducted at the new center.
It will keep most of its cutting edge R&D in Taiwan and that the center underscores its commitment to Taiwan even as it expand overseas.
The new R&D center is close to TSMC's HQ, covers 300,000 sq. meters (42 soccer fields) and will eventually house over 7,000 engineers, adding development of 2nm, 1.4nm, other pioneering technologies, will be conducted at the new center.
Nikkei Asia
TSMC opens first dedicated R&D center in Taiwan
Chipmaker says it is committed to domestic market despite expanding overseas
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