AI Beat Newsletter: Catch the recording of AAIA Charlotte Chapter’s “IP in the Age of AI” webinar, AAIA - Mia AI partnership, Memphis Chapter President Spotlight: Chris Grayson, and this week’s handpicked stories/reports: China’s Autonomous Agent, Manus, Google’s DeepMind to power physical robots, how real-world businesses are transforming with AI

In today’s newsletter:

• Recent and upcoming chapter events and other events of note

• AAIA news, chapter updates, member news

• Recent AI news stories that caught our (and Perplexity AI’s!) eye

• Become an AAIA member

AAIA Chapter events and other events of note:

• Charlotte, NC, USA Chapter online event: Navigating the IP Frontier: Intellectual Property in the Age of AI:” watch the webinar recording

• India Chapter event, The Future of AI In ERP System:” watch the webinar recording

• Save the date:

  • AAIA Global Online Event

    • Tuesday, April 8, 2025; details to follow

  • STACKxDays AI and XR developer conference

    • October 28-30, 2025

    • UC San Diego Park & Market

    • Learn more

• Sign up for the (free) 5-Day Gen AI Intensive Course with Google (Kaggle)

  • “It’s a 5-day online course on March 31 - April 4 designed to help developers dive deep into the basics of the technologies and techniques behind Generative AI (Gen AI). Created by a team of Google’s ML researchers and engineers, this program includes both conceptual in-depth analyses and hands-on coding examples so you can tackle new Gen AI projects with confidence.”

• View the complete AAIA Events calendar

• Have an event you would like to share with AAIA members? Email details to: [email protected].

AAIA news, Chapters updates, member news:

• AAIA and Mia AI partnership: AAIA and Mia AI join forces to advance AI education, adoption, and innovation on a global scale

  • AAIA member benefit: Get 15% off a MIA Membership; email [email protected] to receive your discount code

  • As AI continues to reshape industries, it’s more critical than ever to equip individuals and businesses with the skills and resources to harness its potential responsibly.

    Both organizations share a deep commitment to bridging the AI knowledge gap, driving real-world AI applications, and fostering an inclusive AI-powered future. Together, we will create new opportunities for professionals at all levels—whether they’re just starting their AI journey or looking to implement cutting-edge AI solutions within their organizations.

    By combining Mia AI’s expertise in AI education, skill development, and community-building with AAIA’s leadership in applied AI adoption and industry transformation, this partnership will empower a global network of AI leaders. Through joint initiatives, we aim to expand access to AI upskilling, facilitate meaningful collaborations, and champion responsible AI integration across industries.

    Stay tuned as we roll out impactful programs designed to shape the future of AI!

  • AAIA member benefit: Get 15% off a MIA Membership; email [email protected] to receive your discount code

  

  AAIA Memphis Chapter President Chris Grayson

• Introducing AAIA Memphis Chapter President Chris Grayson

  • A Memphis native returning home, Grayson spent nearly 20 years in New York’s advertising industry, servicing technology accounts and premium brands. His award-winning creative work includes campaigns for Intel (Euro/Havas) and Nikon (McCann), as well as leading creative for the brand launches of M&M’s Premiums (Grey) and Bud Light Platinum (Translation). While at Ogilvy, he launched GigantiCo, a blog covering AR, VR, and wearable tech. Transitioning to tech-startup marketing, he helped launch Telepathy smart glasses and an eponymous jewelry tech label. In events, he founded TEDxSiliconAlley – once the second-largest non-university TEDx – and has played various roles in AWE since its inception, including the curation of three exhibitions of vintage and contemporary VR & AR headsets, most recently in Long Beach in 2024. His writing appears in trade publications, and his insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, VOGUE Business, and beyond.

  • Why I am excited to be an AAIA Chapter President: The Memphis economy is highly concentrated around two industries both at the forefront of applied artificial intelligence: 1. The Medical Industry: Tennessee is the second largest medical devices exporter in America, most of which is concentrated in Memphis; and 2. Transportation & Logistics (where the largest air-freight hub in America—FedEx—intersects with the CN Rail’s Memphis Super Terminal, the largest rail-freight & trucking intermodal crossing of the Mississippi River, itself the artery of the largest water tributary system in the world). Memphis is now the home to xAI Colossus, the world’s largest AI Supercluster, and the brain behind Grok.

  • What I hope to accomplish in the upcoming year in my Chapter: I intend to leverage the international exposure that xAI / Grok bring to Memphis, to the benefits of these local industries. Memphis already out-competes much larger cities in medical research & device manufacturing; and Memphis already out-competes most of the world as an international distribution hub. So while our AAIA Chapter is open for all local businesses, it makes strategic sense to focus our efforts on these industries. I’m also already engaging with trade schools to leverage Agentic AI (+AR) towards rapid training and up-skilling in the trades, and hope to have pilot projects in place soon.
    

AI in business and the enterprise news:

Here’s news that caught our and Perplexity’s attention as notable stories over the last week:

• China’s Autonomous Agent, Manus, Changes Everything (Forbes, March 8, 2025)

  • “...Manus represents something entirely different — it is not just another model. It is an autonomous agent, an AI system that thinks, plans and executes tasks independently, capable of navigating the real world as seamlessly as a human intern with an unlimited attention span.”

  • Introducing Manus: The General AI Agent introduction video

• Google’s DeepMind says it will use AI models to power physical robots (CNBC, March 12, 2025)

  • “The company on Wednesday debuted two new AI models, Gemini Robotics and Gemini Robotics-ER (extended reasoning). They both run on Gemini 2.0, which Google calls its “most capable” AI to date. Gemini Robotics goes beyond outputs like text and images, where generative AI has thrived to date, and into physical action commands to control robots.”

• Cohere targets global enterprises with new highly multilingual Command A model requiring only 2 GPUs (VentureBeat, March 13, 2025)

  • “Canadian AI startup Cohere — cofounded by one of the authors of the original transformer paper that kickstarted the large language model (LLM) revolution back in 2017 — today unveiled Command A, its latest generative AI model designed for enterprise applications.”

• Introducing Gemma 3: The most capable model you can run on a single GPU or TPU (Google, March 12, 2025)

  • “Today, we're introducing Gemma 3, a collection of lightweight, state-of-the-art open models built from the same research and technology that powers our Gemini 2.0 models. These are our most advanced, portable and responsibly developed open models yet. They are designed to run fast, directly on devices — from phones and laptops to workstations — helping developers create AI applications, wherever people need them.”

• OpenAI exec reveals the tech giant’s ‘biggest challenge’ right now (CNBC, March 13, 2025)

  • “...“the biggest challenge right now is ... converting that enthusiasm into real-life production-ready use case,” he said. “The gap is AI fluency — to know how to turn these concepts into actual business products.””

• How real-world businesses are transforming with AI — with more than 140 new stories (Microsoft, March 10, 2025)

  • “As today’s platform shift to AI continues to gain momentum, Microsoft is working to understand just how organizations can drive lasting business value. We recently commissioned a study with IDC, The Business Opportunity of AI, to uncover new insights around business value and help guide organizations on their journey of AI transformation. The study found that for every $1 organizations invest in generative AI, they’re realizing an average of $3.70 in return — and uncovered insights about the future potential of AI to reshape business processes and drive change across industries.”

Have a newsworthy story or industry report/insight to share with AAIA members and community? Email details to [email protected].