Big money keeps pouring into generative artificial intelligence, a sign of both the enthusiasm about its potential and the high costs of creating all those mega AI models.

This week’s hauls included $2.75 billion for Anthropic from Amazon, and both Scale AI and Cohere reportedly are getting hundreds of millions of dollars apiece. That’s on top of some big rounds for AI-powered and AI-powering companies such as Observe and Celestial AI.

One reason besides the general and probably overheated enthusiasm for all things gen AI is that AI models don’t come cheap, and we’re seeing a lot of them from the likes of Databricks, A21 Labs, SambaNova Systems, of course OpenAI and many more. Not to mention those expensive data centers to run them.

It almost feels anticlimactic, but fallen crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried looks like he may be in prison until his 50s, as he gets sentenced to 25 years for shenanigans at FTX — and his chances in an appeal look slim. SBF may be the biggest crypto scammer, but he won’t be the last.

John Furrier and Dave Vellante discussed this and other news on this week’s theCUBE Pod, available now on YouTube. And don’t miss Dave’s weekly deep dive, Breaking Analysis, out this weekend on theCUBE Research and SiliconANGLE.

Here’s this week’s big news:

AI competition and funding accelerate

A big-data analytics megacorn bids for generative AI leadership: Databricks open-sources its own large language model, DBRX Some note that it’s not really open-source, as Dave and John point out in the new CUBE Pod this week, since there are several big clauses, but it’s probably more open than, oh, say, OpenAI.

A few additional tidbits from a conversation with Databricks’ VP of generative AI Naveen Rao and comments from CEO Ali Ghodsi at a press briefing:

• No, it doesn’t perform as well as GPT-4, but Ghodsi says most enterprises are using GPT-3.5 because it’s 60 times cheaper than GPT-4.
• The big models such as OpenAI’s GPT series and Google’s Gemini are actually easier to build than the Mixture of Experts models Databricks and Mistral use because MoE models are much harder to train, Ghodsi said.
• Rao reckons AI models are “eight to nine orders of magnitude away from biology,” meaning matching the capabilities of the brain. He did the math, but I didn’t quite follow it. “This is a 30-year problem,” he said. “It’s not a 300-year problem.”
• GPT-5 will no doubt be impressive, Rao said, but “it’ll be more of the same. Is scaling going to get us to AGI? No.”

Another model that uses that Mixture of Experts method: AI21 Labs’ Jamba infuses Mamba to bring more context to transformer-based LLMs

Just a couple days later, AI chipmaker SambaNova Systems already claims it outperforms DBRX with its “Composition of Experts” model. 

And here’s an example of where the money’s all going: Report: Microsoft to build ‘Stargate’ supercomputer with millions of chips for OpenAI

Perhaps this is needed, but it’s far from certain this group will open up AI software: Report: UXL Foundation seeks to prepare alternative to Nvidia’s CUDA by year’s end

Intel launches new program to accelerate development of apps for AI PCs

As usual, the guys with the GPUs mostly ran the table: Nvidia and Intel set new standards for AI performance in MLPerf 4.0 benchmarks

Biden administration unveils new AI safeguard rules for federal use

More new fundings

Amazon doubles down on OpenAI’s main rival: Amazon invests $2.75B more in OpenAI competitor Anthropic

AI startups Scale AI and Cohere reportedly in talks to raise hundreds of millions

Observe nabs $115M for its AI-powered observability platform

Optical interconnect developer Celestial AI raises $175M in fresh funding

Hume AI raises $50M after building the most realistic generative AI chat experience yet

0G Labs raises $35M for modular blockchain storage for decentralized AI

MyShell raises $11M for blockchain-based decentralized AI agent platform

Activeloop raises $11M to grow its specialized tensor database for AI training and inference

AI decision-making startup RealSage raises $4M to transform real estate asset management

Foundational nabs $8M to help developers fix data quality issues faster

FLock.io raises $6M for decentralized blockchain AI training platform

And more new AI-powered models and services

OpenAI details Voice Engine speech generation AI

Zoom adds collaboration platform and expands AI support

Neo4j, Microsoft add graph features to Azure AI services

​​Cisco adds new AI features to Webex Contact Center, including agent burn-out detection

HPE integrates custom AI models into Aruba Networking Central

Vectara adds anti-hallucination features to its generative AI service

Lightning AI debuts source-to-source Thunder compiler to accelerate AI training

Five9’s new GenAI Studio simplifies generative AI model customization for contact centers

Oracle NetSuite expands gen AI features across its product line

Modular open-sources its Mojo AI programming language’s core components

Analysis from theCUBE Research’s Shelly Kramer on a sleeper company: Grammarly’s strategic suggestions launch signals the company is far more than an editing solution 

New York City will introduce controversial AI gun detection technology amid subway crime crisis

Around the cloud, enterprise and data center

Blue Yonder to acquire One Network Enterprises for $839M to create multi-enterprise supply chain ecosystem

Samsung co-leads $60M funding round for chip interconnect startup Eliyan

AI decision-making startup RealSage raises $4M to transform real estate asset management

Canva acquires Adobe rival Serif to expand its graphic design software portfolio

AWS brings third-party apps, no-code chat experiences, AI-powered contact summaries to Amazon Connect

Kyndryl’s Gretchen Tinnerman on industry trends, solving for customer challenges, and sustainability

Avaya simplifies its product names and aligns with Zoom

Firecell raises $7.2M to build 5G solutions for industrial applications

Cyber beat: Gen AI dangers

Shelly Kramer on Four generative AI cyber risks that keep CISOs up at night — and how to combat them

Cisco report reveals only 3% of organizations globally are fully prepared for cyberthreats

Cloud cybersecurity firm Coro raises $100M to strengthen protection for smaller firms

Cloud data privacy solutions provider Skyflow raises $30M to enhance data privacy vaults

Zafran launches with $30M+ to speed up vulnerability remediation

Bedrock Security raises $10M to enhance big data security with AI-based reasoning

Sprocket Security raises $8M to enhance cybersecurity penetration testing platform

US and UK announce sanctions against Chinese cyber espionage group APT 31

Newly detailed ‘Tycoon 2FA’ phishing kit bypasses multifactor authentication

Google reports significant surge in zero-day vulnerabilities in 2023

Sophisticated software supply chain attack hits Top.gg, compromises GitHub accounts

New solution from Nametag targets AI-generated deepfake security threats

Elsewhere around tech: The EU gets serious on antitrust

EU begins investigating Meta, Apple and Google under new tech law

Apple to host WWDC 2024 on June 10-14, with AI features and more coming

Governor of Oregon signs popular right-to-repair bill into law

DroneUp unveils platform for last-mile autonomous drone delivery

Viam, a cloud-based platform for smart machines and robotics, raises $45M

Circular.co raises $10.5M to facilitate recycling at large scale

TheCUBE Research’s Bob Laliberte visited Cisco’s innovative offices in New York: How to make your office a magnet to attract employees

Comings and goings

Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years for defrauding FTX users and investors

Emad Mostaque resigns as CEO of troubled generative AI startup Stability AI

Google Cloud named Matt Renner president of its Global Field Organization, replacing Adaire Fox-Martin, who recently became CEO of Equinix.

Vast Data appointed longtime NetApp exec Rick Scurfield its new chief revenue officer.

Eyal Dagan, head of Cisco Systems’ Common Hardware Group since 2020, is new EVP of strategic projects, working with CEO Chuck Robbins. Martin Lund, Microsoft’s former corporate VP of Azure for Operators, is new EVP of the Common Hardware Group.

Microsoft is bringing together Windows and Surface into one group under Pavan Davuluri.

What’s next

Coming up in a little over a week: Google Cloud Next. SiliconANGLE, theCUBE and theCUBE Research will all be there onsite in Las Vegas April 9-11 to cover all the news and conversations around Mandalay Bay.

Image: SiliconANGLE/Google Gemini