The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 13, 2024, closed at 3,924.01 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 2.95% (or 112.59 basis points). Seventeen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.30% (Volkswagen AG) to 14.26% (Oracle). Eight RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.85%…
Copyleaks CEO: OpenAI’s o1 emergence could blur the lines between human researcher and AI assistant
The web is facing a deluge of AI-generated content, with an explosive 8,362% surge from November 2022 to March 2024, according to a study by Copyleaks. From Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, the volume of AI-detected content jumped 2,848% based on an analysis of more than a million web pages per period using data from…
This week in AI research: OpenAI’s valuation hits $150B as it unveils o1 model family
After nearly a year of rumors surrounding OpenAI’s “Q*” (later “Strawberry“) project and its potential for advanced reasoning, the company has finally unveiled its new “o1” AI models that mirror humans’ ability to think before speaking. These models allocate more processing power to reasoning before generating output, significantly improving accuracy on complex tasks across science,…
Apple’s AI gets mixed reviews ahead of formal launch
Reviews are in for a beta version of Apple’s AI, following its iPhone 16 announcement. And experts are less than impressed. Vox called the tech “magically mediocre” after testing a developer beta. While AI Supremacy described Apple Intelligence as “late, unfinished & clumsy.” Critics point out that many of the touted AI features are not…
OpenAI unveils ‘o1,’ a new AI model family that ‘thinks’ before responding
After a wave of media attention about rumored OpenAI models codenamed Strawberry and Orion, OpenAI has announced the launch of OpenAI o1, a new series of AI models designed to handle complex problems requiring advanced reasoning. According to an announcement from the company, the model family represents a significant leap forward from previous models in…
University of California transforms life science research procurement with Labviva
The University of California (UC) has selected Labviva, an AI-powered procurement platform, to enhance its life science research and procurement operations across all ten campuses. Initially deployed at UC San Diego in 2022, the platform went live at UC Merced in September 2024. This collaboration aims to streamline procurement processes for faculty, researchers, and staff,…
OpenAI’s ‘Strawberry’ AI: Is this the reasoning breakthrough we’ve been waiting for?
OpenAI is gearing up to launch its potentially reasoning-based and math-capable AI model codenamed “Strawberry,” according to a report from The Information. The release, which could come within the next two weeks, marks a significant step in OpenAI’s quest to develop more advanced AI systems. The initial release may be limited to a small group…
This week in R&D: BMW & Toyota’s hydrogen EV alliance, Moderna’s R&D spending scrutinized, and Nvidia’s AI data center investment
The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 6, 2024, closed at 3,811.42 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -3.99% (or -158.42 basis points). Two RDWI members gained value last week from 0.37% (Oracle) to 2.61% (Sanofi SA). Twenty-three RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.52%…
Decoding Lubrizol’s AI-driven beauty R&D
At Lubrizol, the quest for better skincare has taken a decidedly high-tech turn, culminating in the recent opening of a new Beauty Research Institute in Shanghai. This facility will serve as a global hub for in-vivo beauty testing. It will also aid the company in developing next-generation ingredients designed to cater to the specific needs…
Scientists explore intelligent biocomputing for neurological disease treatment
What if the combination of stem cell research, bioengineering and biocomputing could help patients with neurological damage? Researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the University of Southern California (USC) are embarking on a research initiative to explore that very possibility. With a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers…
Where Harris and Trump stand on the future of American science
[Adobe Stock] Updated on October 20, 2024 with new details The current Biden-Harris administration and potential Republican approaches offer different visions for the future of American science. While the Biden-Harris team emphasizes investments in climate change mitigation and clean energy, conservative approaches have historically focused on deregulation and achieving energy independence through traditional energy sources.…
Quantum Brilliance joins Oak Ridge National Lab to integrate quantum with HPC
Quantum Brilliance (QB), a company specializing in diamond-based quantum technology, has announced a collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop a platform that integrates quantum computing with high-performance computing (HPC). The project aims to explore the integration of QB’s quantum computing cluster into ORNL’s HPC systems. The collaboration seeks to improve the interaction…
This week in AI: Musk unveils world’s largest AI cluster, OpenAI eyes premium subscriptions
From accelerating drug discovery to automating patent searches, AI is popping up in a growing number of R&D contexts. Two of the top stories this week had a direct NVIDIA connection — first, Elon Musk’s announced what he terms the world’s largest GPU cluster, featuring 100,000 of its H100 GPUs, designed to power his new…
This week in R&D: IBM shuts down China R&D, AI data centers boom, and asteroid defense take center stage
The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending August 30, 2024 closed at 3,969.84 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 0.57% (or 22.41 basis points). Seventeen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.08% (Microsoft) to 7.30% (Intel). Eight RDWI members lost value last week from -0.12% (Stellantis NV)…
New tool accelerates computer simulations across scientific disciplines
Sandia National Laboratories and Brown University researchers have developed a new method to accelerate computer simulations, significantly speeding up research across various scientific fields. It was recently published in the journal npj Computational Materials and presents a universal approach to enhancing the performance of virtually any type of simulation — from researching drugs to sending…
Robots run the lab, biologists design the experiments
Parallel Bio’s head of technology shares a vision for faster, cheaper, and better biological research with human organoids. Ari Gesher, Parallel Bio’s new head of technology, may be new to biotech, but that’s not stopping him from thinking big about disrupting the status quo in biological research. The biotech startup is betting on automation and…
Google: AI is more profound than fire and a key to the future of life science R&D
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has often highlighted the transformative impact of AI, stating that it’s a “more profound” tool than the human discoveries of fire or electricity. Shweta Maniar, Global Director of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Google, echoed this sentiment in a recent interview. AI’s applications in the life sciences are broad, and the…
Think it’s just tech? Layoffs up in several R&D-heavy industries
Apple, Dell, Intel… the tech layoff headlines keep coming. But don’t think for a second it’s just Silicon Valley feeling the pinch. A closer look reveals a surge in job cuts across multiple R&D-heavy industries. Tesla cut 14,000 workers in April 2024 (10% of its workforce). Other transportation companies making cuts include electric vehicle (EV)…
Coming soon to a computer near you — genAI that is actually good at math?
While the mathematical capabilities of large language models such as ChatGPT are steadily improving, math is clearly not their forté. Not only is it extremely computationally efficient to ask such a model a math question, it isn’t all that hard to find word problems that trip up even the latest LLMs — like ‘how many…
This week in R&D: AMD puts R&D centers in Taiwan cities, Northvolt relocates battery operations to its Sweden R&D center
The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending August 23, 2024, closed at 3,947.43 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 1.78% (or 68.94 basis points). Twenty-two RDWI members gained value last week from 0.11% (Meta Platforms) to 7.23% (Ford Motor). Three RDWI members lost value the previous week from…
Meta’s Sapiens vision models bring 3D analysis of humans to the “wild”
“Facebook’s parent Meta AI has unveiled Sapiens, a family of high-performance vision models designed to excel in ‘in-the-wild’ environments, overcoming the limitations of traditional models often confined to controlled studio settings. The family of models focuses on ‘four fundamental human-centric vision tasks,’ as the arXiv paper on the tech noted. Those include 2D pose estimation,…
AI’s expanding role in mpox research spans digital staining to skin lesion classification
A more deadly strain of mpox is spreading across Africa, with more than 17,000 suspected cases and a death toll already surpassing last year’s total. With the more severe Clade I variant driving the uptick, mpox continues to pose a significant threat to global health with the World Health Organization (WHO) classifying it as…
Slip and slide into reinforcement learning with the Frozen Lake challenge
Remember when DeepBlue mastered chess and AlphaGo conquered the game of Go, the board game with more moves than particles in the known universe? Or what about when cars learned to drive themselves? Reinforcement learning (RL) plays an essential role in each of these examples. RL is having a significant impact on R&D across an…
AMD’s $4.9B move to rival NVIDIA in graphs
In August 2024, AMD made a significant move to challenge NVIDIA’s dominance in the AI chip market with the acquisition of ZT Systems, a cloud architecture solution provider, for $4.9 billion. This acquisition, projected to close in the first half of 2025, is part of AMD’s strategy to bolster its position in the AI infrastructure…
This week in R&D: Eli Lilly opens large R&D center in Boston, Cisco cuts 5,900 jobs
The R&D World Index (RDWI) was up 2.91% with Cisco leading at 8.78%, in spite of its lay-off announcement. In the week ending August 16, the index closed at 3878.49 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 2.91% (or 109.53 basis points). Twenty-one RDWI members gained value last week from 0.95%…