☘️ The Bulletin #49: Transparency in Generative AI, Top Celebs in VC, and a Record-Breaking Year for Clean Investments
In this week's bulletin, we cover a fantastic (and mildly suspicious) first step in AI transparency, celebrities trying their hand at VC, and a good year for cleantech!
🧠 Milestone in AI Transparency
With the unveiling of their updated large language model (LLM), Anthropic isn’t just revolutionizing technology – they’re rewriting the rulebook on transparency.✍️ Anthropic, an AI company, has released its newest version of Claude, its LLM. Claude 3 sets new records in popular tests used to assess the effectiveness of these models, illustrating the advancements made in the generative AI space.
In addition to introducing its newest model, Anthropic also shared insights into Claude 3’s system prompts, through Amanda Askell, a philosopher working on AI alignment at the company. These prompts are special messages used to steer the behavior of the model and provide insight into its intended use.
Anthropic is currently the only major LLM developer to share its system prompt, marking a shift in consumer transparency. People are welcoming of this transparency as issues of bias have arisen in the generative AI space.🫣 The way the model is trained, the data it is trained on, and the objectives set for the model's optimization all can impact the outputs of an LLM.
Despite this positive outlook, the release of the system prompt is only a small step in really demystifying how these models work.✨ Some even argue that the transparency is a calculated attempt at Anthropic being able to shift responsibility for bias onto its users.🙅 By sharing the intent of the model, Anthropic demonstrates that their model aims to eliminate biases, yet other factors in the model’s production can still introduce bias.
The release of Claude 3 and the system prompt showcase an ever-changing and ever-competitive generative AI landscape. Despite critiques suggesting an ulterior motive, the democratization of the system prompt signals a promising stride toward a more transparent and accountable technological landscape.
🎥 Celebs in VC
Former 49ers quarterback and legend Joe Montana retired his career in 1994 with a whopping 4 Super Bowl rings to his name. However, in the last decade, Montana has started a new gig in VC – switching up from scoring touchdowns (🏈) to scoring unicorns (🦄)!
In a recent analysis done by CB Insights, ranking top celebrity investors, Joe Montana happens to make more investments than any other celebrity, all while minting unicorns left and right. Since 2020, Montana’s VC has invested in 10 unicorns, including Airbyte, Pipe, and Whatnot.
In a close second, actor Ashton Kutcher has invested in 5 companies that have reached unicorn status. Joe Montana and Ashton Kitcher are joined on the celeb VC rankings by The Chainsmokers, Jay-Z, Kevin Durant, and Mindy Kaling.🎞️ Although an eclectic mix of celebrities with not much in common besides their fame, they all tend to invest in consumer-facing brands and media-adjacent businesses.
The ranking included below takes into account total dealmaking activity, the number of unicorns in the portfolio, and exits.
♻️ 2023 Report on Clean Investment
As the world races towards sustainability, the 2023 clean investment landscape unveils a compelling narrative of growth, innovation, and pivotal shifts in consumer choice. This past week, the US Clean Investment Monitor (CIM) published its yearly round-up on 2023 – touting a whopping $239 billion in clean investment.💸 This is a 38% increase from 2022, shattering yet another US record. One notable subset is emerging climate tech solutions, which experienced a tenfold increase, securing $4.3 billion of the total investment. 📈
The CIM categorizes investments into three sectors: manufacturing, energy and industry, and retail. Manufacturing covers the construction and expansion of factories, with energy and industry focusing on the expansion of clean energy production and related activities. The retail sector involves the purchase of generation and storage technologies.
During the past two years, the manufacturing segment saw a 210% increase in investment compared to the previous two years. This includes manufacturing facilities in the solar, wind, batteries, and EV space.🏭
In the ‘energy and industry’ category, companies announced $250 billion in new investments during the same period, marking a 55% increase from the past two years.⚡ While solar energy continues to lead this segment, emerging technologies such as clean hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel are also seeing significant growth.✈️
As for the retail segment, in 2023, American businesses and households invested $118 billion in clean products, marking a shift in consumer outlook on sustainability. Areas of investment include EVs, heat pumps, and energy storage systems.🔋 California saw the highest retail investment in EV vehicles and infrastructure, driven by the state government’s plan to end the sale of gas vehicles by 2035. ❌⛽
That’s it for this week, feel free to email me at abigail_gonzalez@brown.edu with any inquiries!
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