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• OpenAI vs Open AI 🧠

• Asteroids ☄️

• Trending Tools 🛠️ 

OpenAI vs Open AI 🧠

There’s OpenAI and then there’s Open AI. That tiny space difference between the words is extremely important. 

Today, we’re talking about Open AI, as in open-source AI and Meta is leading the charge on this front. They recently dropped Llama 3.1, a whopping 405B parameter model, making it the undisputed heavyweight champ of open-source AI.

While Big Tech and Big AI Foundation Model startups are locking up their models tighter than Fort Knox, Meta is throwing open the gates. So why is Zuck spending billions of dollars creating something only to then hand it out for free? 

Spoiler alert: It’s not all for altruism.

The Open Source Strategy

Well, Meta’s not exactly hosting a charity bake sale. By going the open-source route, Meta is aiming to make Llama the Linux/Android of the AI era.

Essentially, Meta wants everyone - from Big Tech competitors to startups to firms outside of tech - to use and rely on Llama’s open-source code to develop new tools and LLMs of their own. 

Zuck’s grand AI giveaway could be an ambition for emulating Google’s success with Android. Google purchased Android in 2005 and started giving its OS to mobile device makers. Over time, as the Android OS became more prominent and omnipresent, it added requirements for them to include apps like Google Search, Google Maps and Gmail.

As the number of Android handsets grew, more traffic flowed through those services, which Google was able to monetize through advertising. Google’s apps on Android essentially became portals to billions of users — and a new revenue stream.

Of course, such a bold strategy costs a pretty penny. Meta increased its guidance on capital expenditure for this year, saying it now plans to spend between $35-$40B, largely on AI investments. The company reportedly has 350,000 H100 GPUs worth ~$10B.

Show Me The Money

Now, how exactly does Meta plan to cash in on this altruistic AI giveaway?

1/ Business Messaging

One of the more near term opportunities for monetizing AI is building up business messaging, where companies pay Meta for generative AI such as services that support automated interactions with users and customers. 

Meta has already been ramping up WhatsApp in the US where it earns a bulk of their revenue through business messaging. 

2/ Ads

Ads are Meta’s bread and butter. Zuck said that a way generative AI could make money for Meta is by introducing ads or paid content into AI interactions. 

Although brands and companies paying for products to show up in generative AI results is not yet the standard for AI chatbots, Meta's entire business is effectively driven by selling digital advertising. 

3/ Selling access to AI models

Another way Meta can make money from AI is by selling access to models as they get larger. If Meta can successfully distribute Llama and become one of the de-facto foundation models, it can simply start charging for access to powerful and bigger models - a strategy similar to MistralAI.

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

Rivian's finances are taking a hit as it upgrades its R1 trucks, losing $1.4B in Q2 2024. However, a $5B lifeline from Volkswagen is on the horizon, as the two companies finalize a deal for a joint venture leveraging Rivian's tech. 🛻📉

Google has unveiled the Google TV Streamer, the new successor to the Chromecast. It boasts enhanced smart home capabilities and features a larger design to accommodate advanced connectivity options like Matter and Thread support. 📺🤖

⚒️ Trending Tools ⚒️

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