With the development of digital art, automated image processing technology has received increasing attention. Recently, a research team from Tsinghua University and Tencent's ARC Lab proposed a novel image sequence coloring model called ColorFlow. This model aims to address the challenge of maintaining consistency in character and object identity while coloring black and white image sequences, fulfilling the practical needs of industries such as comics and animation. ColorFlow is a three-stage diffusion base framework that leverages contextual information by utilizing a reference image pool for black and white.

After 12 days of technical sharing livestream events, OpenAI released its next-generation inference model o3 on the final day. This is an upgrade following the earlier release of the o1 inference model. The o3 model series includes o3 and o3-mini, with o3-mini being a smaller, streamlined version fine-tuned for specific tasks. OpenAI stated that the o3 model could approach the realization of artificial general intelligence (AGI) under certain conditions, meaning artificial intelligence capable of performing any task that a human can accomplish.

OpenAI announced a major update during a technical sharing livestream, introducing a phone feature for ChatGPT and assigning a dedicated phone number 1-800. This update allows users in the U.S. to call this number and interact with ChatGPT using both old smartphones and traditional landlines, significantly lowering the usage barrier and expanding its application scope.

During the 2024 Volcano Engine FORCE Power Conference · Winter, Volcano Engine announced a brand new upgrade of the Doubao Large Model family, showcasing its latest advancements in the field of artificial intelligence. The daily tokens usage of the Doubao Large Model has exceeded 4 trillion, reflecting an increase of over 33 times since its release in May, demonstrating its widespread application and rapid growth in the industry.

On December 18th, at the Volcano Engine FORCE Power Conference, Volcano Engine President Tan Dai unveiled the new Doubao Visual Understanding Model. This model processes both text and image-related information simultaneously, providing more accurate answers. The new model excels in content recognition, understanding, and reasoning capabilities, featuring more nuanced visual description abilities, which brings stronger intelligent processing capabilities to enterprise users. Tan Dai revealed at the conference that the Doubao Visual Understanding Model has achieved significant technological breakthroughs and has also seen a dramatic reduction in pricing.

Colin Angle, co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, has announced his return to the robotics field by founding a new startup, Familiar Machines & Magic, focused on developing an innovative home health and wellness robot. According to the Boston Globe, this robot may take the form of an animal or 'pet', aiming to provide companionship to family members while assisting in health management. Familiar Machines & Magic

During a continuous 12-day live event, OpenAI released the O1 model API to developers on the 9th day and announced significant upgrades to the real-time API, supporting WebRTC technology. Starting from the release date, OpenAI will provide access to the O1 API for developers at usage level 5. Compared to the previous preview version, this updated O1 model API achieves a 60% reduction in thinking costs and adds advanced visual processing capabilities. Meanwhile, GPT-4o has improved in audio processing.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released its 2024 AI usage report, revealing that the number of AI application cases has increased by approximately 66% compared to last year. Steven Posnack, the HHS Deputy Chief Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and the Chief Deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, emphasized in the report that the department's AI use cases have risen from 163 to 271, noting that these cases are at various stages of development. The new figures include applications in operational maintenance, procurement, and development, along with 16 additional cases.

Beijing TuSimple Technology Co., Ltd. officially launched its first 'Image-to-Video' large model - 'Ruyi' on December 17, 2024, and has made the Ruyi-Mini-7B version open source for users to download from the huggingface platform. TuSimple was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Diego, California, focusing on the application of AI technology across various industries, including animation gaming and transportation.

Recently, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, alongside SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, announced a plan for SoftBank to invest $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years. This major investment is expected to focus on the development of artificial intelligence. Image source note: The image was generated by AI, with licensing provided by Midjourney. During the announcement, Trump stated that SoftBank's investment reflects tremendous confidence in America's future. He mentioned that since his election, many have expressed hopes to invest in...