In today’s newsletter:

• News - ⚡ AI Data Centers Now Guzzle More Power Than Cities

• Culture - ✝️🤖 AI Jesus Is Here: 1,000 Confessions and Counting

⚡ AI Data Centers Now Guzzle More Power Than Cities

Data centers powering AI and cloud computing are becoming energy-hungry giants, with some campuses projected to use more electricity than entire cities or even U.S. states. The race to dominate AI is driving developers to build massive facilities requiring up to a gigawatt of power—enough to supply 1.8 million people. While renewable energy is preferred, it's not enough to meet the growing demand. Natural gas and even nuclear energy are stepping in to keep these centers running, but this reliance could slow progress toward sustainability goals.

Finding suitable land and power for these mega-campuses is also a growing challenge. Developers are looking beyond traditional hubs like Virginia to places like Arizona and Texas, where energy resources and regulations are more flexible. The push for reliable power has made nuclear an attractive option for some tech giants, but for now, natural gas remains the go-to. While the industry hopes renewables and better efficiency will reduce gas reliance over time, these data center expansions are temporarily complicating emissions targets.

🗞️ In Other News…

• Alibaba's Marco-o1, a new Large Reasoning Model, advances open-ended AI problem-solving by integrating techniques like Chain-of-Thought fine-tuning, Monte Carlo Tree Search, and dynamic reasoning strategies to excel in both structured and nuanced tasks.

• Uber plans to invest over $10 million in Pony.ai's IPO, potentially collaborate on projects outside the U.S., and expand its use of autonomous driving technology, as the self-driving sector faces both transformative potential and ongoing regulatory and technological challenges.

• MIT researchers have developed a more efficient reinforcement learning algorithm called Model-Based Transfer Learning (MBTL), which strategically selects tasks to train AI systems, significantly reducing training costs and improving performance for complex, variable problems like traffic control.

• Google Gemini’s new "memory" feature allows subscribers with Gemini Advanced access to save personal details, such as interests, work, and hobbies, to tailor responses. Users can view, edit, or delete this data via the "Saved Info" page, similar to OpenAI's Memory feature in ChatGPT Plus.

• Apple plans a major AI upgrade for Siri, called “LLM Siri,” to enable more conversational, natural interactions using Apple’s AI models. The assistant will handle advanced tasks, interact with third-party apps, summarize text, and gain screen context awareness, with full deployment expected by spring 2026.

✝️🤖 AI Jesus Is Here: 1,000 Confessions and Counting

A church in Austria has taken a bold step into the future by introducing an AI-powered "Jesus" chatbot as part of an experimental project called "Deus in Machina." Installed in a confessional booth, this digital Jesus, trained on theological texts and fluent in 100 languages, engaged over 1,000 people during its two-month trial. Surprisingly, two-thirds of users described their chats as a "spiritual experience," leaving the church's theologian, Marco Schmid, intrigued by the public's thirst for such interactions.

While reactions ranged from inspired to skeptical, the AI managed to avoid any major theological missteps—a rarity for language models. The project wasn’t meant to replace traditional confession but to explore how technology could offer an approachable way to discuss faith. Though Schmid doesn’t see AI Jesus becoming a permanent fixture, he believes it taps into a genuine desire for people to "listen to what Jesus would say" in a modern context.

VC Fundraising Rounds

• Lightning AI, a New York City-based developer of the PyTorch Lightning framework, secured $50 million in funding. (11/21/24)

• Wordware, a San Francisco-based startup aiming to simplify programming AI agents by enabling users to write in plain English, has announced securing $30 million in seed funding. (11/21/24)

• xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, has announced to investors that it raised $5 billion in funding, boosting its valuation to $50 billion—over twice its worth from a few months prior. (11/20/24)

• Federato, an AI-driven underwriting platform for insurance, announced that it has raised a total of $80 million, including its recent Series C funding round. (11/20/24)

• Cyera, a leading company in data security, has secured $300 million in Series D funding, bolstering its swift expansion and solidifying its leadership in the $23.68 billion data security industry. (11/20/24)

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