Yann LeCun and Saining Xie release Cambrian-1 | ByteDance AI dev tool goes live | SoftBank to invest in Perplexity

🚀 Cambrian-1: A Vision-Centric MLLM Is Born

🆕 Figma AI Enters Free Public Beta

📌 Claude Launches Projects Feature

🌐 Google Translate Adds 110 New Languages

💡 ByteDance Dev Tool "Doubao MarsCode" Goes Live

🤖 iFlytek Spark V4.0 Arrives

🍏 Over 80 Million Monthly Users Watch AI Content on Bilibili

📈 SoftBank to Invest in Perplexity AI

💼 Etched Raises $120 Million in Series A

🌟 The Nasdaq 100 of the AI Era

Cambrian-1: A Vision-Centric MLLM Is Born

A team led by New York University professor Saining Xie and Yann LeCun has released Cambrian-1[1] — a vision-centric multimodal large language model (MLLM). Cambrian-1 puts visual representation learning front and center, filling a gap in how existing MLLMs approach visual component design and offering academia and industry an alternative path distinct from models like GPT-4o.

Professor Xie emphasized what sets Cambrian-1 apart, arguing that it's time to shift focus from simply scaling up models to strengthening visual representations. The model is built on five key pillars: visual representations, connector design, instruction-tuning data, instruction-tuning recipes, and benchmark evaluation — and it delivers strong results across multiple benchmarks.

The model is fully open-source, including model weights, code, datasets, and evaluation methods, providing new perspectives and tools for multimodal AI research.

Figma AI Enters Free Public Beta

Figma[2], the popular online design and collaboration platform, has officially launched its AI-powered version with major updates. These updates include a redesigned interface, generative AI tools, and built-in presentation design features, all aimed at delivering a smarter, more efficient design experience.

Breaking down Figma AI[3]'s new capabilities: visual search, AI-enhanced asset search, AI-powered text tools, content generation, background removal, rapid prototyping, automatic layer renaming, and more. Figma AI is free during the testing period; members can join directly through the Figma platform.

Claude Launches Projects Feature

Claude has rolled out "Projects," bringing GPTs-style custom chatbot services to its subscribers. For now, this feature is available exclusively to Pro and Team paid members.

The new tool lets members upload documents, code, and expert insights to build comprehensive knowledge bases, with custom instruction capabilities that effectively solve the cold-start problem of creating intelligent chatbots without background context. Additionally, Claude's "Artifacts" window enhances collaboration with custom chatbots, giving developers expanded code windows and real-time preview capabilities for complex coding tasks.

Google Translate Adds 110 New Languages

Google announced today that its translation service will add support for 110 new languages, powered by its PaLM 2 AI model. These languages include Afar, Cantonese, Manx, Nko, Punjabi (Shahmukhi), Tamazight (Amazigh), and Tok Pisin. Google noted that these newly added languages are spoken by over 614 million people, roughly 8% of the global population.

At WWDC, Apple announced it would add Hindi support to its Translate app. Compared to Google, however, Apple Translate supports just over 20 languages.

ByteDance Dev Tool "Doubao MarsCode" Goes Live

ByteDance's first AI development tool, "Doubao MarsCode"[4], has launched, free and open to domestic developers. Doubao MarsCode originated as a bottom-up internal startup project and comes in two product forms: a programming assistant and a Cloud IDE. It supports project Q&A, code completion, unit test generation, and bug fixing across three practical scenarios — feature development, bug fixing, and open-source project learning — to help developers boost productivity.

In a practical demo building a translation bot, developers could invoke the programming assistant to analyze requirements, familiarize themselves with code, write code, and debug — all with AI assistance. Unlike traditional code completion, "Doubao MarsCode" can automatically predict your next edit based on intent and recommend code accordingly.

iFlytek Spark V4.0 Arrives

iFlytek held its launch event for Spark V4.0 today, unveiling AI applications across healthcare, education, business, and other domains.

iFlytek Spark V4.0 was trained on "Feixing-1," the country's first homegrown 10,000-card compute cluster, with comprehensive upgrades to the foundational model's seven core capabilities.

iFlytek also introduced multiple new products and applications, including the "iFlytek Spark App/Desk," "Spark Intelligent Grading Machine," "iFlytek AI Learning Device," "iFlytek Xiaoyi App," and "Spark Enterprise Agent Platform," further expanding the Spark ecosystem's application scenarios.

Over 80 Million Monthly Users Watch AI Content on Bilibili

At Bilibili's 15th anniversary celebration, chairman and CEO Chen Rui delivered a speech revealing AI content consumption trends on the platform. In 2023, daily video views of AI-related content on Bilibili grew over 80% year-over-year, with more than 80 million users watching AI content each month. Among AI content consumers, 60% are Gen Z.

SoftBank to Invest in Perplexity AI

SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 announced an investment in US AI startup Perplexity AI, planning to invest $10–20 million at a $3 billion valuation.

This funding round totals $250 million, marking a significant valuation increase for Perplexity AI and placing it among the industry's more highly valued companies. The investment signals SoftBank's further expansion in the AI space. As an emerging company, Perplexity AI aims to use AI technology to deliver more intelligent and personalized search experiences.

Etched Raises $120 Million in Series A

AI chip startup Etched announced it has raised $120 million in Series A funding. Founded by two Harvard dropouts from Gen Z, Etched is developing a new AI chip called "Sohu."

The round was led by Primary Venture Partners and Positive Sum Ventures, with participation from institutional investors including Hummingbird, Fundomo, Fontinalis, Lightscape, Earthshot, Two Sigma Ventures, and Skybox Data Centers.

The Nasdaq 100 of the AI Era

A hidden gem of AI public goods: the AGIX Index. This is a carefully crafted tool for value cognition, built for proactive actors riding the AI wave, from the deeply open-source investment platform Shixiang Tech. The AGIX Index filters from thousands of top AI public companies down to 50 representative AI companies[5], adjusting its constituents and weightings as the industry evolves — helping proactive actors of the era navigate volatility and appreciate how AI value flows across sectors and segments.

Emotions are the foundation of rational decision-making, not noise in rational thought.

— Antonio Damasio, renowned neuroscientist

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References

[1] Cambrian-1: https://cambrian-mllm.github.io/

[2] Figma: https://www.figma.com/

[3] Figma AI: https://www.figma.com/blog/introducing-figma-ai/

[4] "Doubao MarsCode": https://www.marscode.cn/

[5] 50 Representative AI Companies: https://docs.qq.com/sheet/DS3hHaGRJQ1RQbGxO?tab=pdzgqp