AI Weekly News Update: 02/24/2025

AI Strategist News: Navigating the transformative world of AI for your business

Author

Layla Hecker
February 24, 2025

Table of Contents

This Week’s News

Did xAI lie about Grok 3's benchmarks? | TechCrunch

OpenAI researchers accused xAI about publishing misleading Grok 3 benchmarks. The truth is a little more nuanced.

techcrunch.com/2025/02/22/did-xai-lie-about-grok-3s-benchmarks

Grok resets the AI race

Can Elon Musk dethrone ChatGPT?

www.theverge.com/command-line-newsletter/617780/grok-3-elon-musk-ai-race-chatgpt

AI cracks superbug problem in two days that took scientists years

The lead researcher has told the BBC he was so astounded he assumed his computer had been hacked.

www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyz6e9edy3o

Accelerating scientific breakthroughs with an AI co-scientist

We introduce AI co-scientist, a multi-agent AI system built with Gemini 2.0 as a virtual scientific collaborator to help scientists generate novel hypotheses and research proposals, and to accelerate the clock speed of scientific and biomedical discoveries.

research.google/blog/accelerating-scientific-breakthroughs-with-an-ai-co-scientist

Business Use Cases

AI Agents Are Everywhere…and Nowhere

Tech vendors like OpenAI and Microsoft are banking on business readiness to use the autonomous AI bots, but companies aren’t so sure.

www.wsj.com/articles/ai-agents-are-everywhereand-nowhere-87e38703

While 61% of attendees at the summit said they’re experimenting with AI agents, 21% said they’re not using them at all. And, their most pressing concern around the technology is a lack of reliability, the poll found.

  • 29% of summit attendees cited security as their top concern.

  • Businesses fear missing out on the AI revolution but often struggle to find practical applications.

If Big Tech is spending this to prepare for what’s coming, what should you be doing?

Source: Company’s Earnings Reports, FT

AI in Cars: 200+ Applications of GenAI, CV, ML, across the Value Chain, from Design to EVs and ADAS

How 200+ automotive players like Tesla, GM, BMW, NIO, and Mobileye use AI

www.einnews.com/pr_news/788092895/ai-in-cars-200-applications-of-genai-cv-ml-across-the-value-chain-from-design-to-evs-and-adas

Tools I’ve found

If you are a game designer…Check this out. Microsoft Muse: AI-Powered Game Creator

Advancing game ideation with Muse: the first World and Human Action Model (WHAM)

Today Nature published Microsoft’s research detailing our WHAM, an AI model that generates video game visuals & controller actions. We are releasing the model weights, sample data, & WHAM Demonstrator on Azure AI Foundry, enabling researchers to build on the work.

www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/introducing-muse-our-first-generative-ai-model-designed-for-gameplay-ideation

Explore Your Possibilities with Career Dreamer - Grow with Google

Discover your dream career with Career Dreamer. An AI-powered tool to help you uncover career potential and analyze your skills to suggest new career paths!

grow.google/career-dreamer

Fiverr Go | AI-Powered Tools to Amplify Human Talent

Fiverr Go blends AI with freelance talent, letting you generate custom images, copy, and audio instantly—fine-tuned by experts. Try it today for free!

www.fiverr.com/go

Scientific Breakthroughs

AI is accelerating protein discovery

Meet BioEmu-1 from Microsoft Research. This deep learning model can generate thousands of protein structures per hour, unlocking new possibilities for protein scientists and drug discovery and research.

www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/exploring-the-structural-changes-driving-protein-function-with-bioemu-1

Massive Foundation Model for Biomolecular Sciences Now Available via NVIDIA BioNeMo

Evo 2, a powerful biomolecular AI model, provides insights into DNA, RNA and proteins across diverse species.

blogs.nvidia.com/blog/evo-2-biomolecular-ai

Funding AI

Together AI notches $3.3 billion valuation after General Catalyst-led fundraising

Together AI said on Thursday it has raised $305 million in its latest funding round, which more than doubled the artificial-intelligence startup's valuation from last year.

www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/together-ai-notches-33-billion-valuation-after-latest-fundraising-2025-02-20

Lambda Raises $480M to Expand AI Cloud Platform

Lambda announced today it has raised $480 million Series D to expand its cloud platform, delight developers and put AI in everyone’s hands.

lambdalabs.com/blog/lambda-raises-480m-to-expand-ai-cloud-platform

AI health-care startup OpenEvidence raises funding from Sequoia at $1 billion valuation

The new $75 million cash injection values OpenEvidence at $1 billion, the two companies told CNBC. 

www.cnbc.com/2025/02/19/ai-startup-openevidence-secures-sequoia-funding-1-billion-valuation.html

Miscellaneous and Cool

Pika AI: Pikaswaps [Ultimate Reality Switch-Up]

Pikaswaps by Pika Labs is an AI-powered video inpainting tool that lets you seamlessly modify and replace objects in videos. Transform footage using text prompts or reference images for stunning, realistic edits.

pikartai.com/pikaswaps

Helix: A Vision-Language-Action Model for Generalist Humanoid Control

Figure was founded with the ambition to change the world.

www.figure.ai/news/helix

They did always say… the cockroaches will survive anything.

Scientists Develop “Cyborg Cockroaches” to Take On Dangerous, Life-Saving Missions

Scientists are turning cockroaches into biohybrid explorers, blending nature with technology in unexpected ways. These tiny cyborgs can crawl through disaster zones where robots fail. Equipped with lightweight electronics, they navigate tight spaces with surprising efficiency.

dailygalaxy.com/2025/02/scientists-develop-cyborg-cockroaches-to-take-on-dangerous-life-saving-missions