【TIMELINE】2023/09#1

On September 8th, Imbue, a startup building large-scale language models to power AI tools, raised $200 million from investors including Nvidia, reaching a valuation of over $1 billion (~73.3 billion RMB).

Speak, an English learning platform backed by the OpenAI Startup Fund, recently announced raising $16 million in a B-2 round led by angel investor Lachy Groom.

Recently, AI software provider Jiuzhang Cloud Ji completed a new round of strategic investment led by Huamin Equity Investment Fund Management.

Atomicwork announced raising $11 million in seed round funding to commercialize its Software-as-a-Service solutions.

Startup Gleen AI recently announced raising $4.9 million in funding to continue developing its anti-delusion data layer software for enterprises.

Sports fashion giant Adidas has announced a Web3 digital artist residency program, "Residency by Adidas."

ARK Invest's Cathie Wood wrote that the fusion of Bitcoin and AI could dramatically change company structures and drive explosive growth in productivity.

Monthly NFT transaction volume on Ethereum dropped to $407 million in August, a new low since June 2021.

Casio is working with Polygon Labs to launch its virtual G-SHOCK watches on the Polygon blockchain.

Google will allow NFT game advertising starting September 15, provided the ads do not involve gambling or promote gambling businesses.

Visa's blockchain head Cuy Sheffield said that despite various flaws, blockchain technology is growing ubiquitously.

On the morning of September 8, Ant Chain announced a Web3 brand, ZAN, aimed at offering a full stack of secure and trustworthy technology solutions for overseas markets.

Another block is issuing NFTs with royalties from Justin Bieber's single "Company."

JP Morgan is in the early stages of exploring blockchain-based digital deposit tokens to speed up cross-border payments and settlements.

According to Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily on September 6th, consumer-grade AR eyewear brand XREAL officially launched the XREAL Air 2 series in China, including two AR glasses, XREAL Air 2 and XREAL Air 2 Pro, priced from 2599 yuan. Specifically, XREAL Air 2 is the world's first to feature Sony's 0.55" Micro-OLED screen. On top of that, XREAL Air 2 Pro integrates electrochromic technology, allowing for manual adjustment of lens transparency to adapt to various lighting conditions. It is the world’s first mass-produced AR glasses with electrochromic technology.

According to Gyro Tech News, a user by the name of NWeedle recently posted that Nintendo is currently testing a VR glasses prototype. According to leaked information, the device is an accessory for the Switch 2 but can operate independently and features mixed-reality capabilities. The glasses are equipped with a Micro-LED screen, and Google is involved in some capacity. NWeedle further pointed out that the VR glasses use Raxium's Micro-LED technology, a company Google acquired last May.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, the usage and concerns surrounding ChatGPT are not as widespread as imagined. A mere 18% of Americans have employed ChatGPT. The most frequent users are males between the ages of 18 and 29 who have received a college education; even among them, the usage rate only ranges between 30 and 40%. Additionally, apprehensions about artificial intelligence are on the rise, with 47% of respondents stating that AI increases their worries rather than their excitement, compared to 31% last year.

OpenAI is projected to generate upwards of $1 billion in revenue within the coming year through the sale of AI software and computational capabilities. This expectation far exceeds the revenue forecasts previously disclosed to shareholders. Earlier this year, the company was valued at $27 billion when investors purchased shares from existing shareholders. Last year, before the monetization of ChatGPT, OpenAI generated a mere $28 million in revenue.

James Butterfill, the Research Director at CoinShares, anticipates hesitancy in the market in early September. He expects traders to waver between excitement over the potential approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF and concerns about whether the U.S. SEC will grant this approval. Despite a court ruling in favor of Grayscale on Wednesday, Butterfill indicates that this is unlikely to expedite the SEC's approval timeline, as appeals are still possible.

Elon Musk's social platform, X (Twitter), has recently revised its privacy policy, permitting X to utilize user-generated data to train its AI models. The new privacy policy will take effect on September 29th.

Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind and CEO of Inflection AI, revealed in an interview that OpenAI is discreetly training GPT-5. Within the next 18 months, Inflection AI’s models are expected to be 100 times larger than current leading models, and 1,000 times larger within the next three years.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the 2023 China International Intelligent Industry Expo, indicating that new technologies like the internet, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and blockchain are deeply evolving. This is accelerating the digital, intelligent, and green transformation of industries, robustly driving intelligent industries and the digital economy, and profoundly altering global resource allocation, industrial development models, and people's lifestyles.

Fabio Panetta, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), stated in a meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs that stablecoins issued by private companies, including PayPal, pose threats to financial stability and could even hinder healthy market competition. Panetta stated, "Private payment service providers, including PayPal, have no incentive to limit the usage or scope of stablecoins. On the contrary, their objective is to expand their customer base and market share."