You know that feeling when you wake up at 3 AM and your mind decides the race is ON? The biggest AI stories this week read as if AI is having a 3 AM moment. 

🍎 What is Apple up to? First, they ditch cars for robots, and now all these not-so-secret-negotiations? We’re watching you, Tim Cook! 

🏆 Can Saudi Arabia really turn all that oil money into AI gold? Are they the real AI Superpower? 

🇨🇳  Or is it China? How is their SenseNova 5.0 so good? What else are they working on? And what are they doing with all that TikTok data? 

🧀 Is AI-enhanced vegan blue cheese even cheese? Cheese is having an existential crisis...what's next?!

🗣️ AI voice cloning is good! A little too good…what have I done? 

Slow down, AI. You’re going to glitch out. 

Of course, Apple is weighing its AI options. And Saudi Arabia’s ambition to diversify its economy was always the strategy. And are you really surprised by China? Check out this chart with the number of AI patents granted annually.

As for voice cloning…that will need some scrutiny. But if the past year is any indication, tools will emerge to help suss out the real from the fake – like this promising one “created by Cleanlab, an AI startup spun out of a quantum computing lab at MIT…designed to give high-stakes users a clearer sense of how trustworthy [large language models] are.” 

AI isn’t going away but it's not a pandora’s box of doom. We’ll continue to innovate and adjust as humans have always done – after the wheel, typewriters, the internet, etc.  

There will always be silly innovations like an AI app that generates sounds inspired by a can of Coca-Cola or an AI button for your mouse. But the rapid advances in AI hold promise.  

📷 This “poetry camera” — while maybe not useful to everyone – demonstrates the power and potential of multimodal capabilities.

🕶️ Speaking of multimodal, Ray Ban’s smart glasses are getting smarter. While AI wearables still have a ways to go, the possibilities are exciting.

🍠 Scientists are experimenting with using hyperspectral imaging (which collects data across the electromagnetic spectrum) to sort produce. With this kind of data, you could use an image of a sweet potato and determine the firmness, soluble solid content, and dry matter content – all of which help determine overall taste. The high-level takeaway? Vision AI is getting better and continues to show practical value in helping farmers increase harvest yields.

So while the headlines may hint at stories of an AI race or war or frenzy or hype — we’re staying focused on offering solutions that provide practical value. We’re listening to folks like Ali Ghodsi, chief executive of Databricks, a data warehouse and analysis company who, this week, told the New York Times, “It doesn’t matter how cool it is what you do — does it have business viability?” 

The business value of computer vision is clear. With its ability to deliver real-time visual data, workers are more productive and operations run more efficiently. From retail stores to sprawling mines to crowded manufacturing facilities, Vision AI provides unprecedented visibility into processes to make immediate, impactful decisions. 

It can even monitor dark closets and underneath beds so you can get a good night’s sleep. 😴