AI Austria monthly: November'24 Update

An important call to action, a recap of our annual AAIC conference, new grant programs by AWS, community and partner events, new AI Landscapes for Carinthia and Vienna, and more...

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Nov 05, 2024

Trick or Treat … or EU Inc? Autumn kicked-off with an EU-wide initiative we fully support. And so should you.

🚀 Latest Developments

🇪🇺 Call to action: Petition for EU Inc 🚀

We are thrilled to support the EU Inc movement — an initiative to create a single, pan-European startup entity. Join us in urging European policymakers to seize this opportunity to establish a new entity that will drive growth, investment, and innovation across the continent.

EU Inc will:

Standardize investment processes to enable genuine pan-European investments.
Establish a unified employee stock options program to share startup success more widely.
Simplify cross-border operations, such as employment and capital flows.
Fully digitize the incorporation process, reducing it to just a few hours – entirely in English and online.

EU Inc has gained lots of momentum and is approaching 20.000 signatures, among them Paul Graham (Found of Y Combinator) and Patrick Collision (Founder and CEO of Stripe).

✍️ The time is now! Sign the petition today

🇪🇺 Event Recap: AAIC2024 🚀

Missed the highlights from AAIC 2024? Our recent Applied AI Conference brought together global experts to explore AI’s game-changing impact on industries and communities. From sustainability to smarter manufacturing, discover how AI is driving solutions for a better future. » Read the full recap or rewatch the event on our Youtube Channel

🗺️ New release: AI landscapes for two Austrian regions 🤖

The big annual update for AI Landscape Austria is just around the corner. To commemorate the AI Symposium in St.Veit and a masterclass at the Italian Tech Week, Clemens created two regional versions. Cut-off date was end of September, if you want to be featured in the next update and/or the annual landscape just fill out the form. » Check out the AI Landscape Carinthia and the AI Landscape Vienna

🌱 New grant programs: AI Adoption and AI Adoption Green, AI Green Start ☀️

The Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws) is offering funding for the “AI-Adoption” and “AI-Adoption: Green” initiatives, supporting companies in developing trustworthy AI solutions and preparing for EU AI regulations. “AI-Adoption: Green” focuses on AI-driven projects aimed at climate protection and adaptation. Eligible businesses, including start-ups and established firms across multiple sectors, can receive up to €150,000, with applications open from January 2 to February 28, 2025. aws will also host webinars detailing both programs on

8.11. 11:00 - 12:00 Link
6.12. 11:00 - 12:00 Link
17.1.2025 <ENGLISH> 11:00 - 12:00 Link
7.2.2025 11:00 - 12:00 Link
21.2.2025 Deep Dive Förderungsantrag: 11:00 - 12:00 Link

Interested? » more info and application details

⚙️ Event Recap: KI Stammtisch Kärnten

AI Austria co-hosted the Carinthia AI Stammtisch with Fraunhofer Austria’s KI4LIFE, celebrating five years of innovation. Local startups shared exciting AI use cases, followed by a dynamic exchange of ideas, best practices, and new connections. A big thank you to all speakers and co-organizers for an inspiring evening! » short event recap

🇫🇮🇦🇹 Event Recap: Finnish-Austrian Innovation Night: AI & XR

AI Austria and the Finnish Embassy in Vienna hosted the Finnish-Austrian Innovation Night, an event that highlighted the transformative potential of the industrial metaverse and AI. Held at the residence of Finland’s Ambassador Nina Vaskunlahti, this inspiring evening set the stage for AWE 2024 in Vienna, bringing together leading minds from both countries’ XR and AI ecosystems. » full recap

🌟 Recap of the Monthly Virtual GenAI Codeforce Meeting! 🌟

On September 16th, the GenAI Community held its monthly Codeforce meeting, uniting coders to discuss Generative AI developments:

🛠️ Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2: Attendees shared experiences, noting Copilot's benefits in daily tasks and areas for improvement.

🤖 Multi-Agent Systems and Supervised Architectures: Insights were shared on how multi-agent systems enhance decision-making through integration with supervised architectures. » full recap

Join future discussions with AI Austria: aiaustria.com/genai-community!

Events & Workshops

🤝 2 Workshops by Fraunhofer Austria KI4LIFE

Online Workshop „AIAct und Trustworthiness“

Curious about latest developments in AI and EU regulations? This online workshop on 28 November 2024 at 16:00 provides a comprehensive overview of the AI Act and the challenges in developing trustworthy AI solutions. Fraunhofer experts will explain how to prepare your company and employees for these new requirements and which ethical aspects to consider. Develop trustworthy AI solutions that meet European standards! No prior knowledge is required, and the workshop is open to anyone interested in the AI Act. » registration

Workshop „Beyond ChatGPT - Sprachmodelle verstehen und ideal anwenden“

Effective prompting and AI technologies are not just a trend but key topics for the future. Our workshop on 3 December 2024 in Klagenfurt will show you how to work efficiently with language models and uncover what’s behind the hype. With our practical tips and tricks, you'll learn how to optimally implement language models in your company. We’ll cover the technical fundamentals and show you what to keep in mind when using these tools. No prior knowledge is required, and with a ChatGPT account, we can get started right away together. » registration

🎟️ Last Call: Discount for Moving Forward Conference 2024

Don’t miss out—join us on November 14 in Vienna to explore AI, innovation, and future skills with top experts. Keynotes, workshops, and an exclusive study on AI’s impact in Austria await. Use code “MFAIA” for a 20% discount. » register here

✨ Generative AI News ✨

🔥 OpenAI has introduced a new search feature in ChatGPT, allowing users to get real-time answers with direct links to relevant web sources. With this feature, ChatGPT can search the internet based on user queries. The goal is to combine ChatGPT's conversational abilities with the vast resources of the web, enhancing the user experience.

🔥 Apple has introduced its Apple Intelligence suite, a collection of AI tools now accessible to select iPhone users. These features include notification summaries, message-writing assistance, and an updated Siri interface. Currently, they are only available on the latest models—iPhone 16, iPhone 15 Pro, and Pro Max.

🔥 A common challenge with large language models (LLMs) is their tendency to produce inaccurate or nonsensical outputs, often referred to as "hallucinations." While many studies have examined these errors from a user perspective, new research by scientists at Technion, Google Research, and Apple delves into the internal mechanisms of LLMs, uncovering that these models may have a more profound grasp of truthfulness than previously believed.

🔥 Microsoft has unveiled a suite of autonomous AI agents for its Dynamics 365 platform, heightening its competition with Salesforce in the enterprise AI space. The company plans to introduce ten new autonomous agents aimed at enhancing the capabilities of sales, service, finance, and supply chain teams.

🎨 Stable Diffusion: Stability AI has introduced Stable Diffusion 3.5, a new generation of image-generation models optimized for consumer hardware. The Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large model boasts 8 billion parameters for high-quality 1 Megapixel images, while the Large Turbo version speeds up image generation with just four inference steps. Additionally, the more compact Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium model, featuring 2.5 billion parameters, offers flexible resolution options from 0.25 to 2 Megapixels, excelling in both prompt adherence and image quality, all under a licensing model that supports non-commercial and small business uses.

🌏 Asia spotlight

Nvidia and Peking University researchers introduced EdgeRunner, a new model for high-quality detailed 3D mesh generation.

Chinese startup MiniMax’s Hailuo AI launched a new image-to-video feature, alongside new style controls and enhanced processing and control.

Chinese researchers unveiled Pyramid Flow, a new open-source AI video generation model capable of creating high-quality, 10-second clips using a new ‘pyramidal flow matching’ technique.

ByteDance fired an intern who planted malicious code in AI models yet denies rumors of massive financial losses.