How AI Is Already Transforming the News Business — from politico.com by Jack Shafer
An expert explains the promise and peril of artificial intelligence.

The early vibrations of AI have already been shaking the newsroom. One downside of the new technology surfaced at CNET and Sports Illustrated, where editors let AI run amok with disastrous results. Elsewhere in news media, AI is already writing headlines, managing paywalls to increase subscriptions, performing transcriptions, turning stories in audio feeds, discovering emerging stories, fact checking, copy editing and more.

Felix M. Simon, a doctoral candidate at Oxford, recently published a white paper about AI’s journalistic future that eclipses many early studies. Swinging a bat from a crouch that is neither doomer nor Utopian, Simon heralds both the downsides and promise of AI’s introduction into the newsroom and the publisher’s suite.

Unlike earlier technological revolutions, AI is poised to change the business at every level. It will become — if it already isn’t — the beginning of most story assignments and will become, for some, the new assignment editor. Used effectively, it promises to make news more accurate and timely. Used frivolously, it will spawn an ocean of spam. Wherever the production and distribution of news can be automated or made “smarter,” AI will surely step up. But the future has not yet been written, Simon counsels. AI in the newsroom will be only as bad or good as its developers and users make it.

Also see:

Artificial Intelligence in the News: How AI Retools, Rationalizes, and Reshapes Journalism and the Public Arena — from cjr.org by Felix Simon

TABLE OF CONTENTS



EMO: Emote Portrait Alive – Generating Expressive Portrait Videos with Audio2Video Diffusion Model under Weak Conditions — from humanaigc.github.io Linrui Tian, Qi Wang, Bang Zhang, and Liefeng Bo

We proposed EMO, an expressive audio-driven portrait-video generation framework. Input a single reference image and the vocal audio, e.g. talking and singing, our method can generate vocal avatar videos with expressive facial expressions, and various head poses, meanwhile, we can generate videos with any duration depending on the length of input video.


Adobe previews new cutting-edge generative AI tools for crafting and editing custom audio — from blog.adobe.com by the Adobe Research Team

New experimental work from Adobe Research is set to change how people create and edit custom audio and music. An early-stage generative AI music generation and editing tool, Project Music GenAI Control allows creators to generate music from text prompts, and then have fine-grained control to edit that audio for their precise needs.

“With Project Music GenAI Control, generative AI becomes your co-creator. It helps people craft music for their projects, whether they’re broadcasters, or podcasters, or anyone else who needs audio that’s just the right mood, tone, and length,” says Nicholas Bryan, Senior Research Scientist at Adobe Research and one of the creators of the technologies.


How AI copyright lawsuits could make the whole industry go extinct — from theverge.com by Nilay Patel
The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI is part of a broader, industry-shaking copyright challenge that could define the future of AI.

There’s a lot going on in the world of generative AI, but maybe the biggest is the increasing number of copyright lawsuits being filed against AI companies like OpenAI and Stability AI. So for this episode, we brought on Verge features editor Sarah Jeong, who’s a former lawyer just like me, and we’re going to talk about those cases and the main defense the AI companies are relying on in those copyright cases: an idea called fair use.


FCC officially declares AI-voiced robocalls illegal — from techcrunch.com by Devom Coldewey

The FCC’s war on robocalls has gained a new weapon in its arsenal with the declaration of AI-generated voices as “artificial” and therefore definitely against the law when used in automated calling scams. It may not stop the flood of fake Joe Bidens that will almost certainly trouble our phones this election season, but it won’t hurt, either.

The new rule, contemplated for months and telegraphed last week, isn’t actually a new rule — the FCC can’t just invent them with no due process. Robocalls are just a new term for something largely already prohibited under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act: artificial and pre-recorded messages being sent out willy-nilly to every number in the phone book (something that still existed when they drafted the law).


EIEIO…Chips Ahoy! — from dashmedia.co by Michael Moe, Brent Peus, and Owen Ritz


Here Come the AI Worms — from wired.com by Matt Burgess
Security researchers created an AI worm in a test environment that can automatically spread between generative AI agents—potentially stealing data and sending spam emails along the way.

Now, in a demonstration of the risks of connected, autonomous AI ecosystems, a group of researchers have created one of what they claim are the first generative AI worms—which can spread from one system to another, potentially stealing data or deploying malware in the process. “It basically means that now you have the ability to conduct or to perform a new kind of cyberattack that hasn’t been seen before,” says Ben Nassi, a Cornell Tech researcher behind the research.

 

Adobe previews new cutting-edge generative AI tools for crafting and editing custom audio — from blog.adobe.com by Adobe Research Team

New experimental work from Adobe Research is set to change how people create and edit custom audio and music. An early-stage generative AI music generation and editing tool, Project Music GenAI Control allows creators to generate music from text prompts, and then have fine-grained control to edit that audio for their precise needs.

 

Adobe Brings Conversational AI to Trillions of PDFs with the New AI Assistant in Reader and Acrobat — from news.adobe.com; via AI Secret

.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – [On 2/20/23], Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) introduced AI Assistant in beta, a new generative AI-powered conversational engine in Reader and Acrobat.

Simply open Reader or Acrobat and start working with the new capabilities, including:

  • AI Assistant: AI Assistant recommends questions based on a PDF’s content and answers questions about what’s in the document – all through an intuitive conversational interface.
  • Generative summary: Get a quick understanding of the content inside long documents with short overviews in easy-to-read formats.
  • Intelligent citations: Adobe’s custom attribution engine and proprietary AI generate citations so customers can easily verify the source of AI Assistant’s answers.
  • Easy navigation:
  • Formatted output:
  • Respect for customer data:  
  • Beyond PDF: Customers can use AI Assistant with all kinds of document formats (Word, PowerPoint, meeting transcripts, etc.)

Along these lines, also see:


5 ways Sora AI will change the creator economy and how to take advantage of that — from techthatmatters.beehiiv.com by Harsh Makadia

Essential skills to thrive with Sora AI
The realm of video editing isn’t about cutting and splicing.

A Video Editor should learn a diverse set of skills to earn money, such as:

  • Prompt Writing
  • Software Mastery
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Collaboration and communication skills
  • Creative storytelling and visual aesthetics

Invest in those skills that give you a competitive edge.


The text file that runs the internet — from theverge.com by David Pierce
For decades, robots.txt governed the behavior of web crawlers. But as unscrupulous AI companies seek out more and more data, the basic social contract of the web is falling apart. 


 

Conversational & Experiential: The New Duality of Learning — from learningguild.com by Markus Bernhardt

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The future of corporate learning and development (L&D) is being profoundly reshaped by the progress we are witnessing in artificial intelligence (AI). The increasing availability of new technologies and tools is causing L&D leaders and their teams to rethink their strategy and processes, and even their team structure. The resulting shift, already gaining momentum, will soon move us toward a future where learning experiences are deeply personal, interactive, and contextually rich.

The technological advancements at the forefront of this revolution:

  • Allow us to create high-quality content faster and at a fraction of the cost previously experienced.
  • Provide us with a range of new modalities of delivery, such as chat interfaces, as well as immersive and experiential simulations and games.
  • Enable us to transform learning and training more and more into a journey uniquely tailored to each individual’s learning path, strengths, weaknesses, and confidence levels.

We are already seeing signs of the immediate future—one where AI will adapt not only content but the entire learner experience, on-the-fly and aligned with the needs and requirements of the learner at a specific moment of need.


Harnessing AI in L&D: Reviewing 2023 & Imagining the Future — from learningguild.com by Juan Naranjo

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

AI-assisted design & development work: A dramatic shift
This prediction was right. There has been a seismic shift in instructional design, and the role is evolving toward content curation, editing, and resource orchestration. Critical thinking skills are becoming more important than ever to make sure that the final learning asset is accurate. All of this is happening thanks to AI tools like:

  • Adobe Firefly…
  • ChatGPT…
  • Another tool, one that isn’t usually part of the L&D ecosystem, is Microsoft’s Azure AI Services…

Early estimates indicate these improvements save between 30 percent and 60 percent of development time.

As a reminder, meta-learning, in this context, refers to tools that serve up experiences to learners based on their preferences, needs, and goals. It is the superstructure behind the content assets (e.g., programs, courses, articles, videos, etc.) that assembles everything into a coherent, and purposeful, body of knowledge for the users.

 

My Honest Review of AI Art Tools I Used In 2023 — from theaigirl.substack.com by Diana Dovgopol
Here’s what I think of every AI art tool I used in 2023.

Today, I want to give my honest review of every AI art tool I used and why I love/hate some of them. I’ll highlight the best features they have and how the impact they had on me as an AI artist.

Midjourney v4: The first AI art tool I loved
While Lensa had its moment and offered users the chance to turn their selfies into stylized AI art effortlessly, Midjourney v4 meant a world of new possibilities. You could create anything you wanted with a prompt!


Speaking of art and creativity, here are two other items to check out!

An Italian Basilica, Mountain, and the Moon Magically Align in an Extraordinary Photo — from thisiscolossal.com by Grace Ebert and Valerio Minato

***

 

The biggest things that happened in AI this year — from superhuman.ai by Zain Kahn

January:

  • Microsoft raises eyebrows with a huge $10 Billion investment in OpenAI.

February:

  • Meta launches Llama 2, their open-source rival to OpenAI’s models.
  • OpenAI announces ChatGPT Plus, a paid version of their chatbot.
  • Microsoft announces a new AI-powered Bing Search.

March:

  • OpenAI announces the powerful GPT-4 model, still considered to be the gold standard.
  • Midjourney releases V5, which brings AI-powered image generation one step closer to reality.
  • Microsoft launches Copilot for Microsoft 365.
  • Google launches Bard, its rival to ChatGPT.

…and more


AI 2023: A Year in Review — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
2023 developments in AI and a hint of what they are building toward

Some of the items that Stefan includes in his posting include:

  • ChatGPT and other language models that generate text.
  • Image generators.
  • Video generators.
  • AI models that that can read, hear, and speak.
  • AI models that can see.
  • Improving models.
  • “Multimodal” models.
  • Training on specific content.
  • Reasoning & planning.
  • …and several others

The Dictionary.com Word of the Year is “hallucinate.” — from content.dictionary.com by Nick Norlen and Grant Barrett; via The Rundown AI

hallucinate
[ huhloo-suh-neyt ]

verb
(of artificial intelligence) to produce false information contrary to the intent of the user and present it as if true and factual. Example: When chatbots hallucinate, the result is often not just inaccurate but completely fabricated.


Soon, every employee will be both AI builder and AI consumer — from zdnet.com by Joe McKendrick, via Robert Gibson on LinkedIn
“Standardized tools and platforms as well as advanced low- or no-code tech may enable all employees to become low-level engineers,” suggests a recent report.

The time could be ripe for a blurring of the lines between developers and end-users, a recent report out of Deloitte suggests. It makes more business sense to focus on bringing in citizen developers for ground-level programming, versus seeking superstar software engineers, the report’s authors argue, or — as they put it — “instead of transforming from a 1x to a 10x engineer, employees outside the tech division could be going from zero to one.”

Along these lines, see:

  • TECH TRENDS 2024 — from deloitte.com
    Six emerging technology trends demonstrate that in an age of generative machines, it’s more important than ever for organizations to maintain an integrated business strategy, a solid technology foundation, and a creative workforce.

UK Supreme Court rules AI is not an inventor — from theverge.com by Emilia David

The ruling follows a similar decision denying patent registrations naming AI as creators.

The UK Supreme Court ruled that AI cannot get patents, declaring it cannot be named as an inventor of new products because the law considers only humans or companies to be creators.


The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work — from nytimes.com by Michael M. Grynbaum and Ryan Mac

The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement on Wednesday, opening a new front in the increasingly intense legal battle over the unauthorized use of published work to train artificial intelligence technologies.

The suit does not include an exact monetary demand. But it says the defendants should be held responsible for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” related to the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.” It also calls for the companies to destroy any chatbot models and training data that use copyrighted material from The Times.

On this same topic, also see:


Apple’s iPhone Design Chief Enlisted by Jony Ive, Sam Altman to Work on AI Devices — from bloomberg.com by Mark Gurman (behind paywall)

  • Design executive Tang Tan is set to leave Apple in February
  • Tan will join Ive’s LoveFrom design studio, work on AI project

AI 2023: Chatbots Spark New Tools — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Jeather Cooper

ChatGPT and Other Chatbots
The arrival of ChatGPT sparked tons of new AI tools and changed the way we thought about using a chatbot in our daily lives.

Chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Bing Chat can help content creators by quickly generating ideas, outlines, drafts, and full pieces of content, allowing creators to produce more high-quality content in less time.

These AI tools boost efficiency and creativity in content production across formats like blog posts, social captions, newsletters, and more.


Microsoft’s next Surface laptops will reportedly be its first true ‘AI PCs’ — from theverge.com by Emma Roth
Next year’s Surface Laptop 6 and Surface Pro 10 will feature Arm and Intel options, according to Windows Central.

Microsoft is getting ready to upgrade its Surface lineup with new AI-enabled features, according to a report from Windows Central. Unnamed sources told the outlet the upcoming Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 will come with a next-gen neural processing unit (NPU), along with Intel and Arm-based options.


How one of the world’s oldest newspapers is using AI to reinvent journalism — from theguardian.com by Alexandra Topping
Berrow’s Worcester Journal is one of several papers owned by the UK’s second biggest regional news publisher to hire ‘AI-assisted’ reporters

With the AI-assisted reporter churning out bread and butter content, other reporters in the newsroom are freed up to go to court, meet a councillor for a coffee or attend a village fete, says the Worcester News editor, Stephanie Preece.

“AI can’t be at the scene of a crash, in court, in a council meeting, it can’t visit a grieving family or look somebody in the eye and tell that they’re lying. All it does is free up the reporters to do more of that,” she says. “Instead of shying away from it, or being scared of it, we are saying AI is here to stay – so how can we harness it?”



What to Expect in AI in 2024 — from hai.stanford.edu by
Seven Stanford HAI faculty and fellows predict the biggest stories for next year in artificial intelligence.

Topics include:

  • White Collar Work Shifts
  • Deepfake Proliferation
  • GPUs Shortage
  • More Helpful Agents
  • Hopes for U.S. Regulation
  • Asking Big Questions, Applying New Policies
  • Companies Will Navigate Complicated Regulations

Addendum on 1/2/24:


 

The rise of AI fake news is creating a ‘misinformation superspreader’ — from washingtonpost.com by Pranshu Verma
AI is making it easy for anyone to create propaganda outlets, producing content that can be hard to differentiate from real news

Artificial intelligence is automating the creation of fake news, spurring an explosion of web content mimicking factual articles that instead disseminates false information about elections, wars and natural disasters.

Since May, websites hosting AI-created false articles have increased by more than 1,000 percent, ballooning from 49 sites to more than 600, according to NewsGuard, an organization that tracks misinformation.

Historically, propaganda operations have relied on armies of low-paid workers or highly coordinated intelligence organizations to build sites that appear to be legitimate. But AI is making it easy for nearly anyone — whether they are part of a spy agency or just a teenager in their basement — to create these outlets, producing content that is at times hard to differentiate from real news.


AI, and everything else — from pitch.com by Benedict Evans


Chevy Chatbots Go Rogue — from
How a customer service chatbot made a splash on social media; write your holiday cards with AI

Their AI chatbot, designed to assist customers in their vehicle search, became a social media sensation for all the wrong reasons. One user even convinced the chatbot to agree to sell a 2024 Chevy Tahoe for just one dollar!

This story is exactly why AI implementation needs to be approached strategically. Learning to use AI, also means learning to build thinking of the guardrails and boundaries.

Here’s our tips.


Rite Aid used facial recognition on shoppers, fueling harassment, FTC says — from washingtonpost.com by Drew Harwell
A landmark settlement over the pharmacy chain’s use of the surveillance technology could raise further doubts about facial recognition’s use in stores, airports and other venues

The pharmacy chain Rite Aid misused facial recognition technology in a way that subjected shoppers to unfair searches and humiliation, the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday, part of a landmark settlement that could raise questions about the technology’s use in stores, airports and other venues nationwide.

But the chain’s “reckless” failure to adopt safeguards, coupled with the technology’s long history of inaccurate matches and racial biases, ultimately led store employees to falsely accuse shoppers of theft, leading to “embarrassment, harassment, and other harm” in front of their family members, co-workers and friends, the FTC said in a statement.


 

Prompt engineering — from platform.openai.com

This guide shares strategies and tactics for getting better results from large language models (sometimes referred to as GPT models) like GPT-4. The methods described here can sometimes be deployed in combination for greater effect. We encourage experimentation to find the methods that work best for you.

Some of the examples demonstrated here currently work only with our most capable model, gpt-4. In general, if you find that a model fails at a task and a more capable model is available, it’s often worth trying again with the more capable model.

You can also explore example prompts which showcase what our models are capable of…


Preparedness — from openai.com

The study of frontier AI risks has fallen far short of what is possible and where we need to be. To address this gap and systematize our safety thinking, we are adopting the initial version of our Preparedness Framework. It describes OpenAI’s processes to track, evaluate, forecast, and protect against catastrophic risks posed by increasingly powerful models.


Every Major Tech Development From 2023 — from newsletter.thedailybite.co
The yearly tech round-up, Meta’s smart glasses upgrade, and more…

Here’s every major innovation from the last 365 days:

  • Microsoft: Launched additional OpenAI-powered features, including Copilot for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365, enhancing business functionalities like text summarization, tone adjustment in emails, data insights, and automatic presentation creation.
  • Google: Introduced Duet, akin to Microsoft’s Copilot, integrating Gen AI across Google Workspace for writing assistance and custom visual creation. Also debuted Generative AI Studio, enabling developers to craft AI apps, and unveiled Gemini & Bard, a new AI technology with impressive features.
  • Salesforce: …
  • Adobe: …
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS): …
  • IBM:  …
  • Nvidia:  …
  • OpenAI:  …
  • Meta (Facebook):
  • Tencent:
  • Baidu:

News in chatbots — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman & Pete Huang

Here’s what’s on the horizon:

  • Multimodal AI gets huge. Instead of just typing, more people will talk to AI, listen to it, create images, get visual feedback, create graphs, and more.
  • AI video gets really good. So far, AI videos have been cool-but-not-practical. They’re getting way better and we’re on the verge of seeing 100% AI-generated films, animations, and cartoons.
  • AI on our phones. Imagine Siri with the brains of ChatGPT-4 and the ambition of Alexa. TBD who pulls this off first!
  • GPT-5. ‘Nuff said.

20 Best AI Chatbots in 2024 — from eweek.com by Aminu Abdullahi
These leading AI chatbots use generative AI to offer a wide menu of functionality, from personalized customer service to improved information retrieval.

Top 20 Generative AI Chatbot Software: Comparison Chart
We compared the key features of the top generative AI chatbot software to help you determine the best option for your company…


What Google Gemini Teaches Us About Trust and The Future — from aiwithallie.beehiiv.com by Allie K. Miller
The AI demo may have been misleading, but it teaches us two huge lessons.

TL;DR (too long, didn’t read)

  1. We’re moving from ‘knowledge’ to ‘action’. 
    AI moving into proactive interventions.
  2. We’re getting more efficient. 
    Assume 2024 brings lower AI OpEx.
  3. It’s multi-modal from here on out. 
    Assume 2024 is multi-modal.
  4. There’s no one model to rule them all.
    Assume 2024 has more multi-model orchestration & delegation.

Stay curious, stay informed,
Allie


Chatbot Power Rankings — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman

Here’s our power rankings of the best chatbots for (non-technical) work:

1: ChatGPT-4Unquestionably the smartest, with the strongest writing, coding, and reasoning abilities.

T1: Gemini Ultra—In theory as powerful as GPT-4. We won’t know for sure until it’s released in 2024.

2: Claude 2Top choice for managing lengthy PDFs (handles ~75,000 words), and rarely hallucinates. Can be somewhat stiff.

3: PerplexityIdeal for real-time information. Upgrading to Pro grants access to both Claude-2 and GPT-4.

T4: PiThe most “human-like” chatbot, though integrating with business data can be challenging.

T4: Bing ChatDelivers GPT-4-esque responses, has internet access, and can generate images. Bad UX and doesn’t support PDFs.

T4: BardNow powered by Gemini Pro, offers internet access and answer verification. Tends to hallucinate more frequently.

and others…


Midjourney + ChatGPT = Amazing AI Art — from theaigirl.substack.com by Diana Dovgopol and the Pycoach
Turn ChatGPT into a powerful Midjourney prompt machine with basic and advanced formulas.


Make music with AI — from aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com re: Music FX


 

 

OpenAI Is Slowly Killing Prompt Engineering With The Latest ChatGPT and DALL-E Updates — from artificialcorner.substack.com by
ChatGPT and DALL-E 3 now do most of the prompting for us. Does this mean the end of prompt engineering?

Prompt engineering is a must-have skill that any AI enthusiast should have … at least until OpenAI released GPTs and DALL-E 3.

OpenAI doesn’t want to force users to learn prompt engineering to get the most out of its tools.

It seems OpenAI’s goal is to make its tools as easy to use as possible allowing even non-tech people to create outstanding AI images and tailored versions of ChatGPT without learning prompting techniques or coding.

AI can now generate prompts for us, but is this enough to kill prompt engineering? To answer this, let’s see how good are these AI-generated prompts.

From DSC:
I agree with several others that prompt engineering will be drastically altered…for the majority of us, I wouldn’t spend a lot of time becoming a Prompt Engineer.


.


 

9 Tips for Using AI for Learning (and Fun!) — from edutopia.org by Daniel Leonard; via Donna Norton on X/Twitter
These innovative, AI-driven activities will help you engage students across grade levels and subject areas.

Here are nine AI-based lesson ideas to try across different grade levels and subject areas.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

AI-generated Animated Drawing of artwork

Courtesy of Meta AI Research
A child’s drawing (left) and animations created with Animated Drawings.

.

1. Bring Student Drawings to Life: Young kids love to sketch, and AI can animate their sketches—and introduce them to the power of the technology in the process.

HIGH SCHOOL

8. Speak With AI in a Foreign Language: When learning a new language, students might feel self-conscious about making mistakes and avoid practicing as much as they should.


Though not necessarily about education, also see:

How I Use AI for Productivity — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
In this Wonder Tools audio post I share a dozen of my favorite AI tools

From DSC:
I like Jeremy’s mentioning the various tools that he used in making this audio post:

 

The Beatles’ final song is now streaming thanks to AI — from theverge.com by Chris Welch
Machine learning helped Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr turn an old John Lennon demo into what’s likely the band’s last collaborative effort.


Scientists excited by AI tool that grades severity of rare cancer — from bbc.com by Fergus Walsh

Artificial intelligence is nearly twice as good at grading the aggressiveness of a rare form of cancer from scans as the current method, a study suggests.

By recognising details invisible to the naked eye, AI was 82% accurate, compared with 44% for lab analysis.

Researchers from the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research say it could improve treatment and benefit thousands every year.

They are also excited by its potential for spotting other cancers early.


Microsoft unveils ‘LeMa’: A revolutionary AI learning method mirroring human problem solving — from venturebeat.com by Michael Nuñez

Researchers from Microsoft Research Asia, Peking University, and Xi’an Jiaotong University have developed a new technique to improve large language models’ (LLMs) ability to solve math problems by having them learn from their mistakes, akin to how humans learn.

The researchers have revealed a pioneering strategy, Learning from Mistakes (LeMa), which trains AI to correct its own mistakes, leading to enhanced reasoning abilities, according to a research paper published this week.

Also from Michael Nuñez at venturebeat.com, see:


GPTs for all, AzeemBot; conspiracy theorist AI; big tech vs. academia; reviving organs ++448 — from exponentialviewco by Azeem Azhar and Chantal Smith


Personalized A.I. Agents Are Here. Is the World Ready for Them? — from ytimes.com by Kevin Roose (behind a paywall)

You could think of the recent history of A.I. chatbots as having two distinct phases.

The first, which kicked off last year with the release of ChatGPT and continues to this day, consists mainly of chatbots capable of talking about things. Greek mythology, vegan recipes, Python scripts — you name the topic and ChatGPT and its ilk can generate some convincing (if occasionally generic or inaccurate) text about it.

That ability is impressive, and frequently useful, but it is really just a prelude to the second phase: artificial intelligence that can actually do things. Very soon, tech companies tell us, A.I. “agents” will be able to send emails and schedule meetings for us, book restaurant reservations and plane tickets, and handle complex tasks like “negotiate a raise with my boss” or “buy Christmas presents for all my family members.”


From DSC:
Very cool!


Nvidia Stock Jumps After Unveiling of Next Major AI Chip. It’s Bad News for Rivals. — from barrons.com

On Monday, Nvidia (ticker: NVDA) announced its new H200 Tensor Core GPU. The chip incorporates 141 gigabytes of memory and offers up to 60% to 90% performance improvements versus its current H100 model when used for inference, or generating answers from popular AI models.

From DSC:
The exponential curve seems to be continuing — 60% to 90% performance improvements is a huge boost in performance.

Also relevant/see:


The 5 Best GPTs for Work — from the AI Exchange

Custom GPTs are exploding, and we wanted to highlight our top 5 that we’ve seen so far:

 

Adobe revealed 4 new AI heavy hitters — from aivalley.com

  1. Project Stardust
  2. Project Primrose
  3. Project Poseable
  4. Project Dub Dub Dub


Adobe is working on generative AI video manipulation — from theverge.com by Umar Shakir
The company revealed Project Fast Fill, a new way to remove people, add objects, and replace colors in videos using generative AI and text-prompt interactions.

Adobe is showing off a new generative fill feature, Project Fast Fill, that can easily add or remove objects in videos with the power of AI. It’s one of several new, wild, experimental AI features announced today at the company’s MAX conference. Project Fast Fill has the ability to swap in clothing accessories on people in motion or remove tourists from the background of a landscape pan.



 

WHAT WAS GARY MARCUS THINKING, IN THAT INTERVIEW WITH GEOFF HINTON? — from linkedin.com by Stephen Downes

Background (emphasis DSC): 60 Minutes did an interview with ‘the Godfather of AI’, Geoffrey Hinton. In response, Gary Marcus wrote a column in which he inserted his own set of responses into the transcript, as though he were a panel participant. Neat idea. So, of course, I’m stealing it, and in what follows, I insert my own comments as I join the 60 Minutes panel with Geoffrey Hinton and Gary Marcus.

Usually I put everyone else’s text in italics, but for this post I’ll put it all in normal font, to keep the format consistent.

Godfather of Artificial Intelligence Geoffrey Hinton on the promise, risks of advanced AI


OpenAI’s Revenue Skyrockets to $1.3 Billion Annualized Rate — from maginative.com by Chris McKay
This means the company is generating over $100 million per month—a 30% increase from just this past summer.

OpenAI, the company behind the viral conversational AI ChatGPT, is experiencing explosive revenue growth. The Information reports that CEO Sam Altman told the staff this week that OpenAI’s revenue is now crossing $1.3 billion on an annualized basis. This means the company is generating over $100 million per month—a 30% increase from just this past summer.

Since the launch of a paid version of ChatGPT in February, OpenAI’s financial growth has been nothing short of meteoric. Additionally, in August, the company announced the launch of ChatGPT Enterprise, a commercial version of its popular conversational AI chatbot aimed at business users.

For comparison, OpenAI’s total revenue for all of 2022 was just $28 million. The launch of ChatGPT has turbocharged OpenAI’s business, positioning it as a bellwether for demand for generative AI.



From 10/13:


New ways to get inspired with generative AI in Search — from blog.google
We’re testing new ways to get more done right from Search, like the ability to generate imagery with AI or creating the first draft of something you need to write.

 



Adobe video-AI announcements for IBC — from provideocoalition.com by Rich Young

For the IBC 2023 conference, Adobe announced new AI and 3D features to Creative Cloud video tools, including Premiere Pro Enhance Speech for faster dialog cleanup, and filler word detection and removal in Text-Based Editing. There’s also new AI-based rotoscoping and a true 3D workspace in the After Effects beta, as well as new camera-to-cloud integrations and advanced storage options in Frame.io.

Though not really about AI, you might also be interested in this posting:


Airt AI Art Generator (Review) — from hongkiat.com
Turn your creative ideas into masterpieces using Airt’s AI iPad app.

The Airt AI Generator app makes it easy to create art on your iPad. You can pick an art style and a model to make your artwork. It’s simple enough for anyone to use, but it doesn’t have many options for customizing your art.

Even with these limitations, it’s a good starting point for people who want to try making art with AI. Here are the good and bad points we found.

Pros:

  • User-Friendly: The app is simple and easy to use, making it accessible for users of all skill levels.

Cons:

  • Limited Advanced Features: The app lacks options for customization, such as altering image ratios, seeds, and other settings.

 

Accenture announces jaw-dropping $3 billion investment in AI — from venturebeat.com by Carl Franzen; via Superhuman

Excerpt:

The generative AI announcements are coming fast and furious these days, but among the biggest in terms of sheer dollar commitments just landed: Accenture, the global professional services and consulting giant, today announced it will invest $3 billion (with a “b”!) in AI over the next three years in building out its team of AI professionals and AI-focused solutions for its clients.

“There is unprecedented interest in all areas of AI, and the substantial investment we are making in our Data & AI practice will help our clients move from interest to action to value, and in a responsible way with clear business cases,” said Julie Sweet, Accenture’s chairwoman and CEO.

Also related/see:

Artificial intelligence creates 40,000 new roles at Accenture — from computerweekly.com by Karl Flinders
Accenture is planning to add thousands of AI experts to its workforce as part of a $3bn investment in its data and artificial intelligence practice

Why leaders need to evolve alongside generative AI — from fastcompany.com by Kelsey Behringer
Even if you’re not an educator, you should not be sitting on the sidelines watching the generative AI conversation being had around you—hop in.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Leaders should be careful to watch and support education right now. At the end of the day, the students sitting in K-12 and college classrooms are going to be future CPAs, lawyers, writers, and teachers. If you are parenting a child, you have skin in the game. If you use professional services, you have skin in the game. When it comes to education, we all have skin in the game.

Students need to master fundamental skills like editing, questioning, researching, and verifying claims before they can use generative AI exceptionally well.

GenAI & Education: Enhancement, not Replacement — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philipa Hardman
How to co-exist in the age of automation

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

[On 6/15/23, I joined] colleagues from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Stanford, Harvard and other others at the first meeting of the GenAI Summit. Our shared goal [was] to help to educate universities & schools in Europe about the impact of Generative AI on their work.

how can we effectively communicate to education professionals that generative AI will enhance their work rather than replace them?

A recent controlled study found that ChatGPT can help professionals increase their efficiency in routine tasks by ~35%. If we keep in mind that the productivity gains brought by the steam engine in the nineteenth century was ~25%, this is huge.

As educators, we should embrace the power of ChatGPT to automate the repetitive tasks which we’ve been distracted by for decades. Lesson planning, content creation, assessment design, grading and feedback – generative AI can help us to do all of these things faster than ever before, freeing us up to focus on where we bring most value for our students.

Google, one of AI’s biggest backers, warns own staff about chatbots — from reuters.com by Jeffrey Dastin and Anna Tong

Excerpt:

SAN FRANCISCO, June 15 (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) is cautioning employees about how they use chatbots, including its own Bard, at the same time as it markets the program around the world, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Google parent has advised employees not to enter its confidential materials into AI chatbots, the people said and the company confirmed, citing long-standing policy on safeguarding information.

The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier — from mckinsey.com
Generative AI’s impact on productivity could add trillions of dollars in value to the global economy—and the era is just beginning.



Preparing for the Classrooms and Workplaces of the Future: Generative AI in edX — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush
A Q&A with Anant Agarwal


Adobe Firefly for the Enterprise — Dream Bigger with Adobe Firefly.
Dream it, type it, see it with Firefly, our creative generative AI engine. Now in Photoshop (beta), Illustrator, Adobe Express, and on the web.


Apple Vision Pro, Higher Education and the Next 10 Years — from insidehighered.com by Joshua Kim
How this technology will play out in our world over the next decade.



Zoom can now give you AI summaries of the meetings you’ve missed — from theverge.com by Emma Roth


Mercedes-Benz Is Adding ChatGPT to Cars for AI Voice Commands — from decrypt.co by Jason Nelson; via Superhuman
The luxury automaker is set to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot into its Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) feature in the U.S.


 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian