In a talk from the cutting edge of technology, OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman explores the underlying design principles of ChatGPT and demos some mind-blowing, unreleased plug-ins for the chatbot that sent shockwaves across the world. After the talk, head of TED Chris Anderson joins Brockman to dig into the timeline of ChatGPT’s development and get Brockman’s take on the risks, raised by many in the tech industry and beyond, of releasing such a powerful tool into the world.


Also relevant/see:


 




AutoGPT is the next big thing in AI— from therundown.ai by Rowan Cheung

Excerpt:

AutoGPT has been making waves on the internet recently, trending on both GitHub and Twitter. If you thought ChatGPT was crazy, AutoGPT is about to blow your mind.

AutoGPT creates AI “agents” that operate automatically on their own and complete tasks for you. In case you’ve missed our previous issues covering it, here’s a quick rundown:

    • It’s open-sourced [code]
    • It works by chaining together LLM “thoughts”
    • It has internet access, long-term and short-term memory, access to popular websites, and file storage

.



From DSC:
I want to highlight that paper from Stanford, as I’ve seen it cited several times recently:.

Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior -- a paper from Stanford from April 2023


From DSC:
And for a rather fun idea/application of these emerging technologies, see:

  • Quick Prompt: Kitchen Design — from linusekenstam.substack.com by Linus Ekenstam
    Midjourney Prompt. Create elegant kitchen photos using this starting prompt. Make it your own, experiment, add, remove and tinker to create new ideas.

…which made me wonder how we might use these techs in the development of new learning spaces (or in renovating current learning spaces).


From DSC:
On a much different — but still potential — note, also see:

A.I. could lead to a ‘nuclear-level catastrophe’ according to a third of researchers, a new Stanford report finds — from fortune.com by Tristan Bove

Excerpt:

Many experts in A.I. and computer science say the technology is likely a watershed moment for human society. But 36% don’t mean that as a positive, warning that decisions made by A.I. could lead to “nuclear-level catastrophe,” according to researchers surveyed in an annual report on the technology by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered A.I., published earlier this month.


 
 

The above Tweet links to:

Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter — from futureoflife.org
We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.



However, the letter has since received heavy backlash, as there seems to be no verification in signing it. Yann LeCun from Meta denied signing the letter and completely disagreed with the premise. (source)


In Sudden Alarm, Tech Doyens Call for a Pause on ChatGPT — from wired.com by Will Knight (behind paywall)
Tech luminaries, renowned scientists, and Elon Musk warn of an “out-of-control race” to develop and deploy ever-more-powerful AI systems.


 


Also relevant/see:

We have moved from Human Teachers and Human Learners, as a diad to AI Teachers and AI Learners as a tetrad.


 

Nvidia will bring AI to every industry, says CEO Jensen Huang in GTC keynote: ‘We are at the iPhone moment of AI’ — from venturebeat.com by Sharon Goldman

Excerpt:

As Nvidia’s annual GTC conference gets underway, founder and CEO Jensen Huang, in his characteristic leather jacket and standing in front of a vertical green wall at Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara, California, delivered a highly-anticipated keynote that focused almost entirely on AI. His presentation announced partnerships with Google, Microsoft and Oracle, among others, to bring new AI, simulation and collaboration capabilities to “every industry.”

Introducing Mozilla.ai: Investing in trustworthy AI — from blog.mozilla.org by Mark Surman
We’re committing $30M to build Mozilla.ai: A startup — and a community — building a trustworthy, independent, and open-source AI ecosystem.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

We’re only three months into 2023, and it’s already clear what one of the biggest stories of the year is: AI. AI has seized the public’s attention like Netscape did in 1994, and the iPhone did in 2007.

New tools like Stable Diffusion and the just-released GPT-4 are reshaping not just how we think about the internet, but also communication and creativity and society at large. Meanwhile, relatively older AI tools like the recommendation engines that power YouTube, TikTok and other social apps are growing even more powerful — and continuing to influence billions of lives.

This new wave of AI has generated excitement, but also significant apprehension. We aren’t just wondering What’s possible? and How can people benefit? We’re also wondering What could go wrong? and How can we address it? Two decades of social media, smartphones and their consequences have made us leery.    

ChatGPT plugins — from openai.com

Excerpt:

Users have been asking for plugins since we launched ChatGPT (and many developers are experimenting with similar ideas) because they unlock a vast range of possible use cases. We’re starting with a small set of users and are planning to gradually roll out larger-scale access as we learn more (for plugin developers, ChatGPT users, and after an alpha period, API users who would like to integrate plugins into their products). We’re excited to build a community shaping the future of the human–AI interaction paradigm.



Bots like ChatGPT aren’t sentient. Why do we insist on making them seem like they are? — from cbc.ca by Matt Meuse
‘There’s no secret homunculus inside the system that’s understanding what you’re talking about’

Excerpt:

LLMs like ChatGPT are trained on massive troves of text, which they use to assemble responses to questions by analyzing and predicting what words could most plausibly come next based on the context of other words. One way to think of it, as Marcus has memorably described it, is “auto-complete on steroids.”

Marcus says it’s important to understand that even though the results sound human, these systems don’t “understand” the words or the concepts behind them in any meaningful way. But because the results are so convincing, that can be easy to forget.

“We’re doing a kind of anthropomorphization … where we’re attributing some kind of animacy and life and intelligence there that isn’t really,” he said.


10 gifts we unboxed at Canva Create — from canva.com
Earlier this week we dropped 10 unopened gifts onto the Canva homepage of 125 million people across the globe. Today, we unwrapped them on the stage at Canva Create.


Google Bard Plagiarized Our Article, Then Apologized When Caught — from tomshardware.com by Avram Piltch
The chatbot implied that it had conducted its own CPU tests.

 

Planning for AGI and beyond — from OpenAI.org by Sam Altman

Excerpt:

There are several things we think are important to do now to prepare for AGI.

First, as we create successively more powerful systems, we want to deploy them and gain experience with operating them in the real world. We believe this is the best way to carefully steward AGI into existence—a gradual transition to a world with AGI is better than a sudden one. We expect powerful AI to make the rate of progress in the world much faster, and we think it’s better to adjust to this incrementally.

A gradual transition gives people, policymakers, and institutions time to understand what’s happening, personally experience the benefits and downsides of these systems, adapt our economy, and to put regulation in place. It also allows for society and AI to co-evolve, and for people collectively to figure out what they want while the stakes are relatively low.

*AGI stands for Artificial General Intelligence

 

College Inside - a biweekly newsletter about the future of postsecondary education in prisons

The future of computer programming in prison – College Inside; written by Open Campus national reporter Charlotte West.
A biweekly newsletter about the future of postsecondary education in prisons.

Excerpt:

Participant Leonard Bishop hadn’t touched technology in the 17 years he served in the federal system prior to transferring to the D.C. Jail in 2018. When he first got a tablet, he said it took him a few days to figure out how to navigate through it, but then “I couldn’t put it down.”

Bishop said he was surprised by how easy it was to learn the skills he needed to earn the AWS certification. “It helps you transition back into society, especially for someone who has been gone so long,” he said.


Also relevant/see:

This AWS Cloud certification program opens new paths for inmates — from amazon.com; with thanks to Paul Fain for this resource
A jail-based program aims to expand career opportunities through cloud-skills training.

Excerpt:

Julian Blair knew nothing about cloud computing when he became incarcerated in a Washington, D.C. jail more than two years ago.

“I’d never done anything with a computer besides video games, typing papers in college, and downloading music on an iPad,” said Blair.

Now, after three months of work with an educational program led by APDS and Amazon Web Services (AWS) inside the jail, Blair and 10 other residents at the facility have successfully passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam.


 

From DSC:
Below are several months’ worth of labor market updates from Handshake’s blog — with thanks to Paul Fain for this resource.

February 2023 Early Talent Labor Market Update — from joinhandshake.com/blog/
Demand for tech talent outside of coastal states

Key takeaways

  • Tech hubs no longer? Traditional tech hubs like California and New York are seeing fewer entry-level job openings for technical talent and less interest from students.
  • A rising tech diaspora: States in other parts of the country, like Iowa (+10.9%) and Maryland (+5.1%), are emerging as locations with more job postings for technical roles—at the same time, students have demonstrated interest in applying to opportunities in those states.
  • New hubs for tech talent: Students are demonstrating greater openness to a wider array of geographic locations for tech roles with large increases in applications per job in states like Oklahoma (4.8x), Arizona (2.3x), and Oregon (2.7x).

January 2023 Early Talent Labor Market Updates — from joinhandshake.com/blog/
Employers still have strong demand for entry-level technical talent.

Key takeaways
2022 was a difficult year for workers in tech, as the industry was hit hard by hiring freezes and layoffs. Despite an overall slowdown in tech sector hiring, there are several bright spots in the technical labor market that should give early talent reason for optimism.

  • Tech industry is still investing in (tech) talent
  • Software and computer tech jobs outside of tech industry
  • Tech, but not in software

December 2022 Early Talent Labor Market Updates — from joinhandshake.com/blog/
Part-time jobs falling year over year with retail leading the way

Key takeaways

  1. Demand for early talent to fill part-time roles has dropped compared to earlier this year, and part-time jobs saw the largest year-over-year decrease (-32%) in job postings on the platform, when compared to full-time and internships.
  2. Notably employers who are still creating new jobs have been hiring more for full-time roles and internships with job postings per employer up 1% and 7% respectively.
  3. The retail industry, which relies on part-time workers through the holiday season, has seen the greatest year-over-year decrease in part-time job postings that were listed between October and November with a drop of 51%
 

ChatGPT sets record for fastest-growing user base – analyst note — from reuters.com by Krystal Hu

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Feb 1 (Reuters) – ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI, is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study on Wednesday.

The report, citing data from analytics firm Similarweb, said an average of about 13 million unique visitors had used ChatGPT per day in January, more than double the levels of December.

“In 20 years following the internet space, we cannot recall a faster ramp in a consumer internet app,” UBS analysts wrote in the note.


From DSC:
This reminds me of the current exponential pace of change that we are experiencing…

..and how we struggle with that kind of pace.

 

Radar Trends to Watch: February 2023 — from oreilly.com by Mike Loukides
Developments in Data, Programming, Security, and More

Excerpt:

One application for ChatGPT is writing documentation for developers, and providing a conversational search engine for the documentation and code. Writing internal documentation is an often omitted part of any software project.

DoNotPay has developed an AI “lawyer” that is helping a defendant make arguments in court. The lawyer runs on a cell phone, through which it hears the proceedings. It tells the defendant what to say through Bluetooth earbuds. DoNotPay’s CEO notes that this is illegal in almost all courtrooms. (After receiving threats from bar associations, DoNotPay has abandoned this trial.)

Matter, a standard for smart home connectivity, appears to be gaining momentum. Among other things, it allows devices to interact with a common controller, rather than an app (and possibly a hub) for each device.

 

Canary in the coal mine for coding bootcamps? — from theview.substack.com by gordonmacrae; with thanks to Mr. Ryan Craig for this resource

Excerpt:

If you run a software development bootcamp, a recent Burning Glass institute report should keep you awake at night.

The report, titled How Skills Are Disrupting Work, looks at a decade of labor market analysis and identifies how digital skill training and credentials have responded to new jobs.

Three trends stuck out to me:

  • The most future-proof skills aren’t technical
  • Demand for software development is in decline
  • One in eight postings feature just four skill sets

These three trends should sound a warning for software development bootcamps, in particular. Let’s see why, and how you can prepare to face the coming challenges.


Also relevant/see:

Issue #14: Trends in Bootcamps — from theview.substack.com by gordonmacrae

Excerpt:

Further consolidation of smaller providers seems likely to continue in 2023. A number of VC-backed providers will run out of money.

A lot of bootcamps will be available cheaply for any larger providers, or management companies. Growth will continue to be an option in the Middle East, as funding doesn’t look like drying up any time soon. And look for the larger bootcamps to expand into hire-train-deploy, apprenticeships or licensing.

As Alberto pointed out this week, it’s hard for bootcamps to sustain the growth trajectory VC’s expect. But there are other options available.


 

9 ways ChatGPT saves me hours of work every day, and why you’ll never outcompete those who use AI effectively. — from linkedin.com by Santiago Valdarrama

Excerpts:

A list for those who write code:

  1. Explaining code…
  2. Improve existing code…
  3. Rewriting code using the correct style…
  4. Rewriting code using idiomatic constructs…
  5. Simplifying code…
  6. Writing test cases…
  7. Exploring alternatives…
  8. Writing documentation…
  9. Tracking down bugs…

Also relevant/see:

A Chat With Dead Legends & 3 Forecasts: The Return of Socratic Method, Assertive Falsehoods, & What’s Investable? — from implications.com by Scott Belsky
A rare “Cambrian Moment” is upon us, and the implications are both mind blowing and equally concerning, let’s explore the impact of a few forecasts in particular.

Excerpts:

Three forecasts are becoming clear…

  • Education will be reimagined by AI tools.
  • AI-powered results will be both highly confident and often wrong, this dangerous combo of inconsistent accuracy with high authority and assertiveness will be the long final mile to overcome.
  • The defensibility of these AI capabilities as stand-alone companies will rely on data moats, privacy preferences for consumers and enterprises, developer ecosystems, and GTM advantages. (still brewing, but let’s discuss)

As I suggested in Edition 1, ChatGPT has done to writing what the calculator did to arithmetic. But what other implications can we expect here?

  • The return of the Socratic method, at scale and on-demand…
  • The art and science of prompt engineering…
  • The bar for teaching will rise, as traditional research for paper-writing and memorization become antiquated ways of building knowledge.

 

From DSC:
Check out the items below. As with most technologies, there are likely going to be plusses & minuses regarding the use of AI in digital video, communications, arts, and music.



Also see:


Also somewhat relevant, see:

 


Also relevant/see:

 
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