Welcome to Daily Zaps, your regularly-scheduled dose of AI news ⚡️ 

Here’s what we got for ya today:

• 🐶 Using AI to decode a dog’s barks

• 🪑 Microsoft and Apple drop OpenAI board seats

• 🥇 Major VC firm building GPU stash to win deals

• 🤖 Anthropic launches prompt generator

Let’s get right into it!

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TECHNOLOGY

Using AI to decode a dog’s barks

Researchers from the University of Michigan are using AI to decode dog barks, aiming to distinguish if a dog feels playful or angry, and to identify its age, gender, and breed. By repurposing AI models trained on human speech, they achieved 70% accuracy in interpreting canine communication. This innovative approach leverages AI's success in understanding human speech to analyze animal vocalizations, despite the lack of extensive dog sound databases.

The study, involving 74 dogs of various breeds and ages, highlights potential advancements in animal welfare by improving how humans interpret and respond to dogs' emotional and physical needs. The findings were presented at an international conference, with collaboration from Mexico’s National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics Institute.

STARTUPS

Microsoft and Apple drop OpenAI board seats

Microsoft has relinquished its observer seat on OpenAI's board, just eight months after securing it, and Apple has also decided not to join the board. OpenAI confirmed the change following reports from Axios and the Financial Times. OpenAI spokesperson Steve Sharpe expressed gratitude to Microsoft and announced a new approach to engage strategic partners and investors through regular stakeholder meetings.

The changes come amid growing antitrust scrutiny over Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI, which includes a $10 billion investment making Microsoft the exclusive cloud partner for OpenAI. This partnership powers OpenAI's workloads and enhances Microsoft's AI-driven products and services.

VENTURE FUNDING

a16z is building GPU stash to win deals

Andreessen Horowitz has secured thousands of AI chips, including Nvidia H100 GPUs, to rent to its portfolio companies as part of an initiative called “oxygen.” This move aims to support startups in the generative AI space, which often struggle to access these premium chips. The firm plans to expand the initiative to over 20,000 GPUs, matching the scale used by Elon Musk’s xAI.

Andreessen Horowitz started providing access to its GPUs earlier this year in exchange for equity and discounted rental fees. This strategy highlights the firm’s aggressive investment in generative AI, totaling $1.3 billion across 19 companies over the past two years. The initiative has already benefited startups like Luma AI, which chose Andreessen Horowitz for its access to computing resources despite higher valuation offers from other VCs.

STARTUPS

Anthropic launches prompt generator

Building AI-powered applications requires high-quality prompts, which can be challenging to create. To simplify this process, Anthropic has enhanced its Console, allowing users to generate, test, and evaluate prompts more efficiently. The Console now includes features like automatic test case generation and output comparison to leverage Claude for optimal responses. Users can describe tasks to Claude, which then generates high-quality prompts.

The new Evaluate feature enables testing against real-world inputs, with options to auto-generate or manually add test cases. Users can refine prompts by comparing outputs and grading response quality, streamlining the development of effective AI applications. These features are available to all users in the Anthropic Console.

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