Thank God, AI companies are finally turning to idol celebrity endorsements for marketing.

🆚Claude Android app arrives

⤵️Google AI Overviews visibility drops sharply

🏫Karpathy launches AI-native school

👊ByteDance makes AI its top strategic priority

📈Alibaba International's AI call volume doubles

🔠Baidu Netdisk launches AI English learning tool

💰Exa closes $17 million funding round

💹Vectara closes $25 million funding round

😎Karry Wang: face of Quark AI Search

Claude Android App Arrives

Anthropic has launched its Claude Android app, aiming to lure users away from ChatGPT. The Android release mirrors the iOS version that debuted in May, offering free access to Anthropic's AI model Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Users can upgrade through Anthropic's Pro and Team subscriptions for cross-device conversation syncing and real-time image analysis. The Claude Android app also includes real-time language translation — a feature Anthropic hopes will prove compelling enough to get people to open the app. Enterprise clients can additionally access their Claude accounts on mobile.

Despite Anthropic's claims of technical superiority for its AI models, the Claude iOS app has seen relatively muted market response compared to ChatGPT's install numbers. The Claude iOS app notched 157,000 global downloads in its first week, while ChatGPT's iOS app hit 480,000 installs in its first five days.

Google AI Overviews Visibility Drops Sharply

In May, Google rolled out AI Overviews in search — automatically scraping and summarizing web content so users could get quick answers, with the feature appearing on roughly 80% of search results.

Users reported bizarre, nonsensical recommendations from Google's AI. Google issued a statement pledging continued algorithmic improvements. After repeatedly generating erroneous content, Google AI Overviews now appear on just 7% of searches.

Starting in June, user-generated content sites like Reddit and Quora were barely cited by Google AI Overviews anymore. The presence of AI Overviews also dropped significantly for education, e-commerce, and entertainment queries.

Karpathy Launches AI-Native School

Five months after leaving OpenAI, AI luminary Karpathy announced Eureka Labs[1], an AI-native school focused at the intersection of AI and education. Eureka Labs represents the culmination of Karpathy's longtime passion for both fields, aiming to provide on-demand AI tutoring from scratch for all 8 billion people on Earth. From YouTube Rubik's cube tutorials to Stanford's CS231n course to his Zero-to-Hero AI series, Karpathy has continuously explored and innovated in AI education.

Eureka Labs' flagship course, LLM101n, opens with a Feynman quote and guides students through training their own AI and building AI teaching assistant-like tools. Spanning 17 chapters from basic language models to advanced deep learning topics, it covers the full process of building a functional web app. The course has earned 17.2k stars on GitHub and is an undergraduate-level program teaching students to build a storytelling AI large model.

ByteDance Makes AI Its Top Strategic Priority

ByteDance research scientist Zhou Daquan will speak at an AI technology forum in Singapore on "continuous high-dynamics long video generation solutions." The ByteDance team plans a broader technical sharing on July 19 covering its AI model work on long video and high-dynamics directions, particularly a Sora-like new video model. Internally, ByteDance has designated large AI models as a P0 — the highest priority level — for the entire group.

AI is the foundational technology most intimately connected to short video platforms. Kuaishou senior VP Gai Kun has emphasized that without AI technology, short video platform businesses simply wouldn't exist. The competition between ByteDance and Kuaishou in AI video models promises to drive technical innovation and richer video experiences for users.

Alibaba International's AI Call Volume Doubles

Since last November, AI Business's generative AI services across Alibaba International's AliExpress, Trendyol, Daraz, and other operations have doubled their call volume every two months. Currently, Alibaba International's AI services handle over 50 million daily calls.

The cross-border e-commerce sector has eagerly embraced AI technology, deploying it across precision marketing, intelligent customer service, AI image generation, and product information optimization. AI has helped the industry overcome cross-border language and cultural barriers as well as talent shortages, while improving operational efficiency and customer experience.

Baidu Netdisk Launches AI English Learning Tool

Baidu Netdisk has launched the world's first AI tool combining personal photos with English learning: "Panpan Words" (Panpan Danci). By integrating users' personal photos with contextual content, Panpan Words provides a familiar, practical English learning environment that tackles memorization and expression challenges.

Users can have words and contextual content presented through their photos, creating a familiar English environment that makes learning more engaging and effective. The tool offers personalized AI voice styles for a more vivid learning experience. Optimized learning algorithms provide personalized review plans, ensuring content precisely matches user needs. Image analysis technology combined with users' life scenes enhances practicality and relevance.

Exa Closes $17 Million Series A

Exa recently announced a $17 million Series A led by Lightspeed, with participation from Nvidia's venture arm NVentures and Y Combinator. Exa had previously raised $5 million in seed funding, bringing its total raised to $22 million.

Exa aims to provide efficient, accurate information retrieval services for AI platforms. The company is expected to use this round to accelerate R&D and go-to-market efforts for its AI search engine technology, delivering smarter, more precise search experiences for users.

Vectara Closes $25 Million Series A

Silicon Valley generative AI platform Vectara has closed a $25 million Series A led by FPV Ventures and Race Capital. Other investors include Alumni Ventures, WVV Capital, Samsung Next, Fusion Fund, Green Sands Equity, and Mack Ventures.

Vectara plans to use the funds to advance Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) technology, strengthen internal innovation, boost go-to-market resources, and expand into additional regions.

Founded in 2023 with Amr Awadallah as co-founder and CEO, Vectara provides an end-to-end generative AI platform focused on RAG technology. Through its RAG-as-a-Service model, Vectara enables enterprises of all sizes to deploy genuinely valuable use cases more efficiently. Vectara has also launched Mockingbird, a new large language model purpose-built for RAG applications, designed to reduce hallucinations and improve structured output quality while delivering reliable performance with low latency and cost efficiency.

Karry Wang: Face of Quark AI Search

Karry Wang has officially become the brand ambassador for Quark AI Search. This endorsement marks a turning point where AI companies are beginning to take traditional celebrity ambassador marketing seriously, hoping to capture greater market share in an increasingly competitive landscape.

As AI technology continues to develop and spread, celebrity ambassador strategies may become a trend beyond the crudest traffic-buying logic, further driving market acceptance and user stickiness for AI products.

Quark AI Search is an intelligent search engine using advanced AI technology to deliver more precise, convenient search services. Karry Wang's endorsement will undoubtedly bring massive brand exposure and user appeal to Quark AI Search. The collaboration promises to inject fresh energy into the AI industry while bringing users an even better intelligent search experience.

Only by walking the road can we escape limitations and attachments, letting all choices, explorations, guesses, and imaginations come alive.

— Yu Qiuyu, Cultural Journey

Editorial Team

Editor: Yuki

Design: Ivan

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References

[1] Eureka Labs: https://eurekalabs.ai/