AI Austria monthly: January'24 Update
Year in review, new Austrian AI landscape, AI Austria goes TV, new book release & much more
Hello 2024! We are back and wish you a happy new year. To get you started off with a full picture, we take a brief halt to look back on 2023 and will get you set up for a rocket start this January 2024.
🚀 Latest Developments
📈 AI Austria - Year in review
2023 was an amazing year for our community!
📺Our YouTube channel, where we recently streamed the “Economics of AI conference”, accumulated more than 3000+ watched hours and 10.000 views.
✉️ This newsletter has been growing constantly, with subscribers hailing from all political parties, C-levels and founders.
🧮 We expanded our board, now consisting of Jeannette Gorzala Stefan Engl Stefan Schmidhofer Matthias Grabner Andreas Windisch and chair Clemens Wasner
🇪🇺 In May we became a founding organization of the EAIF - European AI Forum. Combined we represent over 2.000+ members which makes us the largest European AI organisation, consisting of members like SMEs, corporates, organisations and individual experts in the field of AI. With Jeannette Gorzala, AI Austria is also fielding a Vice President.
📜 We provided feedback on the EC's draft of the world's first legal framework for AI, the EU AI Act, led by our CLO Jeannette Gorzala
✨We are happy about all the progress in the use and advancement of AI in Austria and are excited about what this year will bring! We thank you - all our partners, collaborators, and followers who have made all of this possible! We wish you a Happy New Year and an AI-powered 2024!
🇦🇹 Austria AI Landscape 2023 released
For this years edition some big changes were introduced. For better visibility the AI landscape is now hosted on a dedicated page, where it’s easier to find the latest edition, as well as access historic versions.
Curation was done by Clemens Wasner, in cooperation with EnliteAI, AI Austria and Michael Katzlberger from 3LIOT for the genAI section. Last but not least, courtesy of Andreas M. Keck from beamr. brand consulting studio we finally have a logo. head over to the new landing page for » full analysis and add new entries.
🎭 AI Austria goes TV ✨
Our very own Andreas Windisch was interviewed by ORF Steiermark for their year-end special, discussing the implications and advancements of AI.
The questions on many people’s minds discussed in this look-back:
💼 AI’s role in job creation and reduction
📈 The fast-paced technological progress of AI
👴 Generational perspectives - are all coming along with the developments or not?
No better way to communicate new technologies than by emotions – thus, we made a special contribution to this interview and let an AI avatar of a very meaningful person for Styria join the conversation: Archduke John of Austria (1792-1859). Check out the interview here:
🤖 Political Agreement on the AI Act
In marathon negotiations from 6 to 9 December, a provisional political agreement was reached on the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). 🤝 Currently, techical meetings have already resumet to finalize the legislative text, due at the end of January 2024. The provisions of the AI Act will enter into force gradually, until the Act will be fully enforceable in 2026.
Key Highlights of the Provisional Agreement:
Scope and Definitions 🛡️
🔹AI system definition aligned with OECD standards.
🔹Exclusions: military, defense, non-professional use.
Classification of AI Systems 📊
🔹Stricter rules for high-risk AI systems.
🔹Bans on harmful practices.
🔹Law enforcement exceptions with safeguards.
Governance and Enforcement 🏛️
🔹Creation of an AI Office overseeing advanced models.
🔹Scientific panel and advisory forum for stakeholder input.
Penalties 💸
🔹Fines tied to global annual turnover
🔹Caps for SMEs and start-ups.
Transparency and Fundamental Rights 🌐
🔹Fundamental rights impact assessments for high-risk AI systems.
🔹Registration in the EU database.
Innovation Support 🏗️
🔹Modification of measures supporting innovation
🔹AI regulatory sandboxes
🔹Provision for real-world testing of AI systems.
We are all keen to receive the final text of the first global comprehensive artificial intelligence legislation to dive into the details. Our Jeannette Gorzala sat town with TrendingTopics to discuss the details of the public information so far and its implications for startups and entrepreneurs. Tune in to the podcast [in German] to get up to speed in 2024.
📣 Call for proposal: Vienna Research Groups for Young Investigators
Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) is looking forward to innovative proposals by high-potential researchers who want to contribute to our vision to strengthen WU in the area of AI by taking part in the current call of the Vienna Young Research Group grant by Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) in Information and Communication Technologies!!!!
Successful proposals will receive an extremely attractive tenure-track funding package and career path (up to associate and potentially, up to full professorship)! Pre-proposals due: 14 January 2024
Full Proposals due: 19 March 2024
» Further info and application
📚 Book release
The new “Introduction to Digital Humanism” is out and » freely available online
Edited by seven experts in digital humanism it addresses the philosophical, cultural, technological, historical, social, and economic aspects of digital technology. Several chapters address AI, its ethical and large-scale aspects.
The AI expert Stuart Russel says: "Humanists must play a leading role in helping humanity coexist successfully with increasingly powerful technology. Reading this supremely fascinating collection is the best way I know of to prepare for that task."
💶 aws: Funding Green AI Innovation and AI Knowledge Growth
Starting January 1, 2024, Austria's AWS is rolling out three new programs to help with AI projects that are good for the environment. The "AI Unternehmen und Wachstum" project is all about supporting safe and trustworthy AI. If you're using AI for the first time, you can get up to EUR 15,000 with "AI-Start: Green". For bigger, more creative AI plans, "AI-Adoption" and its green version offer up to EUR 150,000. Plus, there's the "AI-Wissen" program to help you learn more about AI. All this is to make using AI faster, smarter, and better for the planet. » Read more here
🇭🇰 Global Incubator Network bringing Austrian AI Startups to Hongkong!
Applications for "Go Hong Kong 2024" open on January 15! Are you an Austrian AI startup beyond the proof-of-concept and seed stage, established in the last 7 years, with at least a seed-stage investment? Do you have a unique product or solution, a working prototype/MVP, and a proven business model with clients and revenue? Are you interested in connecting with key stakeholders and expanding internationally, especially in the Greater Bay Area/Asia? If yes, this program is tailor-made for you! See more here.
✨ Generative AI News ✨
New Prompt Structure and Enhanced Imagery: Midjourney v6 is here! Longer prompts, better coherence, and text features: Midjourney is releasing v6, the latest version of its AI image generator.
The European Union is examining Microsoft's $13 billion investment in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. The European Commission, which serves as the executive branch of the EU, is investigating whether this financial involvement warrants a review under the EU's merger regulations.
GPT Store is being launched for ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise users. This allows you to access a variety of highly regarded and beneficial GPTs. Explore by visiting chat.openai.com/gpts
Nvidia has introduced a new line of graphics cards designed specifically for operating generative AI programs on personal computers. These GeForce RTX 40 Super series cards are being promoted as consumer-grade graphics processors, ideal for "AI PCs." This new class of laptops and desktops is tailored to efficiently run AI applications on the device itself, rather than relying on cloud-based solutions.
Microsoft is introducing a specialized "Copilot" button on the keyboards of select new Windows 11 computers. This button, designed to activate Microsoft's AI-assistant instantly with a single press, is being touted as "the most substantial update to the Windows PC keyboard in almost thirty years."
A source has disclosed that Apple plans to integrate generative AI into Siri to enhance conversational fluidity and individual user customization. According to the leaker, Apple intends to unveil this revamped version of Siri at the Worldwide Developer Conference in June 2024. This revelation aligns with a Bloomberg article stating that Apple is working on AI advancements to create a more intelligent Siri, potentially set for release in 2024.
💡 Asia spotlight
Tsinghua University's UltraChat Dataset: A major advancement in AI conversational capabilities, Tsinghua University's NLP Lab introduced the UltraChat dataset. This large-scale, multi-round dialogue dataset is set to significantly enhance the depth and sophistication of AI conversations.
Animate-Anyone: A new Image-to-Video synthesis for character/person animation by researchers from Alibaba Group. » more
Singapore's IMDA, AI Singapore, and A*STAR launched a $52.3 million AI initiative. The National Multimodal LLM Program aims to develop regional language AI models to address the gap vs Western-centric AI models. » more
Samsung has a smart fridge in the works that includes some interesting AI features, including an internal camera that can identify individual food items and a connected app that can suggest recipes based what you have in stock. » more
Chinese tech company Baidu said on 28th December 2023 its ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence product, Ernie bot (“Wenxinyiyan” in Mandarin Chinese), has surpassed 100 million users. In November, Baidu started charging about $8 per month for its most advanced version of Ernie bot. » more
Indian AI startup Sarvam, just five months old, has raised $41M for GenAI solutions, focusing on Indian languages and voice interfaces. » more
📆 Upcoming Events
12.1. AI in Medicine – Vision – Reality – Legal Aspects
12.1. aws Digitalisierung | Online Infohour - English
16.1. Fostering Democracy in the Age of AI
29.1. KI & datengetriebene Geschäftsmodelle Training
1.2. - 2.2. 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈. 𝐃𝐢𝐞 𝐤𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐑(𝐞)𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. (M/O/T)
For more information on upcoming events head over to our community calendar.
🧑💻 Featured Jobs
Once a month we feature selected openings from our job board in this section.
Technical Co-Founder: Senior Machine Learning/Computer Vision Specialist at Play tracks
Senior Data Scientist (m/w/d) and Senior Data Engineer (m/w/d) at Alexander Thamm Austria
Office Management & Assistance (16hrs) at enliteAI
Artificial Intelligence Engineer (f/m/d) at Trever
Check out further listings at our Job Board