AI Austria monthly: September'24 Update

Recap State of AI and AI Stammtisch Tirol, CTAs from the European Commission, new training programs from Fraunhofer, upcoming events, jobs and more...

Matthias Grabner

Ting Wasner-Lian

, and

Clemens Wasner

Sep 04, 2024

Learn more about past and upcoming events, how to make your voice heard in upcoming genAI regulation.

🚀 Latest Developments

🇪🇺 Event Recap: State of AI 🚀

Our annual summer event “State of AI - Part 8: Europe: Stagnate or Accelerate” took place on Aug 26th. This year’s edition put focus on the future of entrepreneurship and competitiveness in Europe - not just from an AI perspective but taking legal and regulatory conditions into account, which affects startups and investors alike. » For a full recap read our website or rewatch the entire event on our Youtube channel.

🚀 AI Stammtisch Tirol – A Gstandener Kickoff!

We’re proud to announce that our first AI Stammtisch in Tirol, co-hosted with Austria Wirtschaftsservice, had a solid kickoff in the cozy Tiroler Stubn at MK Illumination. The event gathered a great mix of AI enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, and innovators, creating a space where ideas flowed and practical AI use cases were shared. This strong start not only highlighted the vibrant AI community in Tirol but also set the stage for future meetups. We’re excited to keep the momentum going—stay tuned for upcoming events! » short event recap

🐦‍🔥 AAIC - Applied AI Conference 2024

We are happy to announce this year’s edition of our AAIC event series. Together with WKO Aussenwirtschaft we will host the AAIC2024 on October 17th in Vienna. Since 2018, our conferences have attracted more than 10.000 visitors from 100+ countries. Rewatch some of our past events on the AAIC YouTube channel. This year’s conference will showcase AI applications across different verticals, as well as offer a platform for b2b connections. » Save your spot now!

✈️ All Aboard: EXPEDITION KI 3.0 – Your AI Journey Starts Here!

AI Austria is thrilled to partner this year with EXPEDITION KI. Join us on October 15 - 16 at the Vienna Airport Conference & Innovation Center for an event designed to kickstart your AI journey.

As partners of the event we’re offering you an exclusive €200 discount with the code AIAUSTRIAMEMBERKI. Don’t miss out—secure your spot and take off with us! » Register now!

🚀 Unleash your potential with Fraunhofer Austria KI4LIFE training programs!

The Fraunhofer Austria Innovation Center KI4LIFE offers a variety of training opportunities in the fields of digitalization, visualization, and artificial intelligence. Workshops or day events are led by experienced instructors and are aimed at individuals in leadership or specialized positions. In small groups of up to twelve participants, we create an optimal learning environment. Take advantage of our early bird discount of 10% when you register six weeks before the course starts. Our brand-new workshop "Beyond ChatGPT: Understanding and Applying Language Models" will be held on 10/22/2024 in Klagenfurt. More workshops on AI, time series, and data visualization await your participation! » info and registration KI4LIFE training programs.

🌉 Partner offer: Executive Silicon Valley Learning Journey

Join our Executive Silicon Valley Learning Journey in order to master AI, IoT, smart manufacturing and hands-on implementation. Not an innovation safari, but a program individually curated with exclusively selected startups. You'll gain cutting-edge insights and find the right AI solutions for your challenges. » more info Learning-Journey-Silicon Valley-June 2024 (10).pdf

🎥 Austrian AI Pioneers Launch lipsyncer.ai

After their success with the Canva app, Austrian GenAI developer Lalama introduces lipsyncer.ai, a tool designed for creators. This platform enables users to synchronize lip movements for any character, from real people to anime, using audio and video inputs in high-definition quality. It's a practical solution for anyone looking to add professional lip-syncing to their video content » try it out https://www.lipsyncer.ai/

🚀 Join the Conversation: Shaping the Future of General-Purpose AI

The European AI Office has launched a Multi-stakeholder Consultation to develop the first General-Purpose AI Code of Practice under the AI Act. This is a crucial opportunity for all stakeholders to help define the rules and guidelines that will govern general-purpose AI models.

Key Dates to Remember:

• Submit your insights by: Tuesday, 10 September 2024

• Express interest in the drafting process by: Sunday, 25 August 2024

Your input will play a vital role in the creation of the Code of Practice, focusing on transparency, copyright, risk assessment, and more. This is your chance to ensure that the AI we develop is trustworthy and aligned with European values.

Whether you’re an AI model provider, industry organization, civil society member, academic expert, or other stakeholder, your voice matters!

🇪🇺 Take part in the DeployAI survey - for a future European AI-on-Demand platform for SME

By participating in this survey, you will help us understand the needs of AI start-ups and SMEs and contribute to the creation of the AI-on-Demand platform, designed specifically to meet those needs.

This platform will be a comprehensive AI platform for both industry and the public sector, emphasizing trust, ethics, and transparency. This platform will be vendor-independent, ensuring fair and democratic access to cutting-edge AI technologies developed in Europe, including Generative AI and Large Language Models, and enabling innovation at large scale.

The platform will also grant access to an interactive landscape of solution providers, a marketplace for AI solutions and a connection hub for accessing services provided by third parties, AI resources, expertise and more.

To share your insights, please follow this link to the survey ➡️ DeployAI SME and AI Start-up Survey. We kindly invite you to complete the survey within 2 weeks.

This survey is part of the DeployAI project under the European Commission's Digital Europe program. » Discover more about DeployAI here

Partner Events

🎞️ Exploring "Eternal You": AI and Digital Immortality

Mark your calendars for September 10th! Our partners at the OSCE and the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs invite you to an insightful evening exploring the intersection of AI and digital immortality with a screening of "Eternal You" and an expert panel discussion. » Register now to secure your spot at Top Kino in Vienna.

✨ Generative AI News ✨

MidJourney's AI image generator is now open to everyone via its official website, expanding access to its text-to-image capabilities. Read more.

Meta's open-source Llama AI models are being utilized by a wide range of users, from large companies like Amazon and Google to smaller businesses, banks like Morgan Stanley, and even individual developers, underscoring Meta's broad influence in the AI space. Read more.

Cursor, a popular AI coding tool among developers, has raised $60 million in Series A funding, achieving a $400 million valuation. Supported by a16z and Thrive Capital, Cursor is emerging as a strong competitor to GitHub Copilot. Read more.

Flux is a powerful sota AI model for generating images from text, and with ControlNet, users can now fine-tune specific aspects like poses and composition. For a demo, watch Austrian YouTuber Olivio Sarikas here.

Recommended reading: Carys Craig's paper on copyright and AI cautions against using copyright law to regulate AI, arguing it could stifle innovation and mainly benefit large corporations. The paper suggests alternative legal tools may be better suited to address AI's impacts. Read more.

🌏 Asia spotlight

New Chinese text-to-video model: HailuoAI has introduced a Chinese text-to-video model, offering impressive video generation from text. The service is currently free to use and only in chinese yet. For more, visit HailuoAI.

ByteDance launches Jimeng AI video app, joining OpenAI's Sora rivals. TikTok parent enters the text-to-video market with subscriptions starting at 69 yuan monthly.

2024 World Robot Conference in Beijing showcases 27 Chinese-designed humanoid robots, with Tesla’s Optimus as the sole foreign competitor.

China’s Cixin Technology unveiled the Cixin P1, a new 6nm Arm-based 12-core AI chip for PCs, capable of 45 TOPS (trillion operations per second) and compatible with multiple operating systems.

Tencent joined a $300+ million funding round for Chinese AI startup Moonshot, valuing the company at $3.3 billion, as competition intensifies in China’s AI sector.

Alibaba released Qwen2-Math, a specialized AI model series that outperforms GPT-4o in mathematical problem-solving capabilities.