Trending in Tech: Safely Scaling AI and Meta’s AI Video Generation

Oct 11

Emerging Tech Roundup — October 11

The Quantious team’s top picks for timely trending news in the tech world.

This week in tech: Google makes Gmail summaries more useful, Vera AI launches ‘AI Gateway’ to help companies safely scale AI, Google brings ads to AI Overviews search feature, OpenAI launches new ChatGPT interface for writing and coding, Meta announces AI-powered video generator, New tool revolutionizes marine renewable energy, and Facebook launches Gen Z-focused redesign.

Google is Making Gmail Summaries More Useful and Adding a ‘Happening Soon’ Tab

(Engadget, October 2)

Google is expanding Gmail's AI-driven summary cards to include purchases, events, bills, and travel — enhancing the existing package tracking feature. Additionally, a new "Happening Soon" section will display upcoming time-sensitive cards at the top of the inbox, with real-time updates for timely information like deliveries, event details, and travel reservations. The rollout begins gradually with purchase summary cards on Android and iOS, while the other categories and full integration across Gmail will be available in the coming months.

Vera AI Launches ‘AI Gateway’ to Help Companies Safely Scale AI Without The Risks

(Venture Beat, October 2)

Vera AI Inc. has launched its AI Gateway platform to help organizations implement AI technologies more safely and efficiently by offering customizable guardrails and model routing capabilities. The platform addresses last-mile challenges in AI deployment by acting as a layer between users and AI models, enforcing policies and optimizing costs. The company emphasizes that Vera’s platform provides scalable and repeatable solutions to accelerate time to production while maintaining ethical content management and responsible AI use.

Google Brings Ads to AI Overviews as it Expands AI’s Role in Search

(Tech Crunch, October 3)

Google is introducing ads to its AI Overviews, which are AI-generated summaries for certain search queries, and will add links to relevant web pages for some summaries. This move aims to retain users amidst rising competition from AI-based alternatives like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Perplexity. Google is making efforts to improve AI Overviews — including refining content accuracy and limiting answers on sensitive topics, with a commitment to making the feature more useful for users.

OpenAI Launches New ‘Canvas’ ChatGPT Interface Tailored to Writing and Coding Projects

(Engadget, October 4)

OpenAI has introduced "canvas," a new interface for ChatGPT that provides a separate workspace for writing and coding projects, where users can generate and directly edit content. Canvas is available in beta to ChatGPT Plus and Teams users, with Enterprise and Edu users gaining access next week. This move aligns with a trend among AI providers, like Anthropic's Artifacts and Cursor, to offer editable workspaces — allowing users to refine AI-generated content without starting over from scratch, thus enhancing the practical use of generative AI.

Meta Announces Movie Gen, an AI-Powered Video Generator

(The Verge, October 4)

Meta announced Movie Gen, a new AI-powered video generator that produces high-definition footage with sound. Movie Gen uses text inputs to generate new videos and edit existing footage or images. The announcement comes months after OpenAI’s unveiling of Sora, its text-to-video model.

US: New Tool Could Help Power 22 Million Homes with Marine Renewable Energy

(Interesting Engineering, October 4)

Researchers developed a groundbreaking tool called the Marine and Hydrokinetic Toolkit (MHKiT), which aims to support clean energy research from marine sources to power up to 22 million homes. MHKiT is designed to save time and money by evaluating new marine technologies and their performance in varying ocean conditions. This tool represents a significant step towards harnessing renewable energy from the sea efficiently and effectively.

Facebook Launches a Gen Z-Focused Redesign

(Tech Crunch, October 4)

Meta is making changes to Facebook to attract younger users by emphasizing local community information, entertainment, and Facebook Groups, aiming to compete with apps like TikTok. Announced at a Facebook IRL pop-up event in Austin, the redesign will focus on Facebook's entertainment options and practical features like local community involvement, particularly in disaster response and buy/sell groups. New features include a "Local" tab that aggregates content from Marketplace, Groups, and Events to provide information on nearby activities, local items for sale, and neighborhood recommendations, shifting Facebook's focus from social networking to community connection and entertainment.