Meta is forging its own path in the AI race as Microsoft and Google chase proprietary search and enterprise offerings.

Amid an overall rosy earnings report last week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered more details on how the company sees its role in the race around generative AI. The quarterly call comes on the heels of Meta’s release earlier this month of the latest version of its large language model, Llama 2, as an open-source alternative to ChatGPT.

Meta posted solid Q2 numbers for its core ad business, with overall revenue growth of 11% YoY, giving Zuckerberg more leeway to continue pursuing longer-term goals, like integrating generative AI, as well as money-losing metaverse ambitions.

Keep reading here.—PK

Bricks and mortar. Employees. Shoplifting. Retail has been stuck in the 19th century.

But VenHub’s autonomous smart stores are changing the game. And you can reap the rewards of their disruption by being one of their earliest shareholders.

The company is pioneering a 24/7, robotic smart store that takes 98% less time to build and has 5x more profit potential than a traditional store.

That explains their $44.8m in pre-orders from business owners.

These robo-shops are ready to post up in malls, pharmacies, and more. So don’t miss this limited-time opportunity.

Become a VenHub investor by Aug. 24 to join the retail revolution.

Self-driving cars are a common sight on the streets of San Francisco, and a hot-button topic in local discourse around public safety and surveillance. But public officials in the Bay Area are far from the only stakeholders grappling with how to regulate the emerging autonomous vehicle industry without stymieing growth.

On the opposite coast, lawmakers in the House Energy and Commerce Committee are dusting the cobwebs off the Self Drive Act, a piece of proposed legislation that was first introduced in 2017, when it was passed by the House but stalled in a Senate committee.

Though its author, Ohio Republican Bob Latta, reintroduced it in 2021, the bill never made it to committee. Now, a discussion draft of the legislation is back on the table in the House, alongside a draft proposal to amend Title 49 (the collection of laws governing the transportation industry) to require new safety standards for autonomous vehicles.

Committee members this week heard from witnesses on the need for federal regulation and the potential impact of a fully developed self-driving industry, including testimony from National Federation of the Blind president Mark Riccobono, who noted the independence that AVs can offer “blind and disabled Americans.”

But in opening statements, testimony, and questioning, one common concern emerged: China.

Keep reading here.—MA

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

We come up with ideas that will impact the future of education, conduct experiments, and then bring to life what works to drive engagement and learning outcomes for K–12 students.

What’s the most compelling tech project you’ve worked on, and why?

The most recent project I worked on at Carnegie Learning, MATHstream, which was just released this year, brings together some amazing technologies in innovative new ways. We even won an EdTech Breakthrough Award for Adaptive Learning Solution of the Year. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the most talented rockstar math teachers (who are also social media influencers) to bring this amazing system that combines education and engagement to life.

What technologies are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?

I’m most optimistic about the ongoing growth of machine learning and artificial intelligence and its application in creating smarter and smarter recommendation engines that allow students to get the targeted help and/or acceleration that they deserve.

Keep reading here.

Stat: 62.51 degrees Fahrenheit. That was the global average temperature in July through the 23rd, making it the hottest month ever, Morning Brew wrote, citing data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization.

Quote: “The idea that the Entity can hack into basically any electronic system—that it can listen and see everything happening in the world and learn from it—is pretty ridiculous. None of the current AI technologies can do this autonomously.”—Alex Hanna, director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute, in a Q&A with the Washington Post about the realisticness of the AI in the new Mission: Impossible

Read: I looked into Sam Altman’s Orb and all I got was this lousy crypto (Wired)

Robo-shops are coming: VenHub’s 24/7 autonomous stores are revolutionizing retail. Invest in VenHub by Aug. 24.*

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