📢🚀 Apple Intelligence Arrives Next Week with iOS 18.1 Update

Welcome to AI Box, your weekly source for the latest developments in AI technology and applications.

Today's AI News lineup: 🥊

• 📢🚀 Apple Intelligence Arrives Next Week with iOS 18.1 Update

• 💻 Highlight Spins Out of Medal, Raises $10M for AI Assistant

• 🚀 Perplexity Eyes $500M Funding at $8B Valuation

📢🚀 Apple Intelligence Arrives Next Week with iOS 18.1 Update

Apple's new AI platform, Apple Intelligence, will be publicly available next week as part of the iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 updates. The platform features integrated tools for writing assistance, image editing, article summarization, and a redesigned Siri experience with typing input. The initial rollout will be limited to devices with newer hardware, including the iPhone 15 Pro models, iPhone 16 series, A17 Pro iPads, and Macs with M1 chips or newer. After updating their software, users will need to opt in to access Apple Intelligence and join a waitlist, which is primarily for managing server capacity. Most users should be approved within a few hours, as some features require off-device processing.

💻 Highlight Spins Out of Medal, Raises $10M for AI Assistant

Highlight, initially developed by Medal, has been spun off into a separate entity, securing $10 million in funding led by General Catalyst, with Valor, SV Angel, and Conviction Embed also participating. The desktop AI assistant, designed for cross-platform use, leverages large language models to interact with on-screen content, transcribe meetings, and perform various tasks like summarizing or highlighting text. The app aims to build community-driven automation, allowing users to create and share custom actions. While currently free, Highlight plans to introduce a pricing model based on word count processed by the assistant.

 🚀 Perplexity Eyes $500M Funding at $8B Valuation

AI search engine Perplexity is reportedly seeking to raise $500 million at an $8 billion valuation, more than doubling its prior $3 billion valuation after SoftBank’s summer investment. The platform handles 15 million daily queries and earns around $50 million annually through its chatbot-style search interface. Despite facing legal challenges from news publishers over web scraping, CEO Aravind Srinivas aims to collaborate rather than antagonize. The fundraising news comes after OpenAI’s recent $6.6 billion raise at a $157 billion valuation, highlighting the intense competition in the AI search space.

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