LinkedIn’s AI Helps People Hunt for a New Job — from wired.com by Will Knight

LinkedIn is testing a new job-hunting tool that uses a custom large language model to comb through huge quantities of data to help people find prospective roles.

The company believes that artificial intelligence will help users unearth new roles they might have missed in the typical search process.

“The reality is, you don’t find your dream job by checking a set of keywords,” the company’s CEO, Ryan Roslansky, told me in a statement. The new tool, he says, “can help you find relevant jobs you never even knew to search for.”

The move comes as AI continues to change how people use the web.

 

DeepSeek R-1 Explained — from aieducation.substack.com by Claire Zau
A no-nonsense FAQ (for everyone drowning in DeepSeek headlines)

There is a good chance you’re exhausted by the amount of DeepSeek coverage flooding your inbox. Between the headlines and hot takes on X, it’s hard not to have questions: What is DeepSeek? Why is it special? Why is everyone freaking out? What does this mean for the AI ecosystem? Can you explain the tech? Am I allowed to use it?

Let’s break down why exactly it’s such a big deal with some straightforward FAQs:




AI Voice Agents: 2025 Update — from a16z.com (Andreessen Horowitz) by Olivia Moore

Voice is one of the most powerful unlocks for AI application companies. It is the most frequent (and most information-dense) form of human communication, made “programmable” for the first time due to AI.

For consumers, we believe voice will be the first — and perhaps the primary — way people interact with AI. This interaction could take the form of an always-available companion or coach, or by democratizing services, such as language learning, that were previously inaccessible.


The professions upskilling in AI — from by Rachel Cromidas

The use of artificial intelligence at work continues to climb. Twice as many LinkedIn members in the U.S. say they are using AI on the job now compared to 2023, according to the latest Workforce Confidence survey. Meanwhile, at least half of workers say AI skills will help them progress in their careers. Product managers are the most likely to agree AI will give them a boost, while those in healthcare services roles are least likely.

 

Google Workspace enables the future of AI-powered work for every business  — from workspace.google.com

The following AI capabilities will start rolling out to Google Workspace Business customers today and to Enterprise customers later this month:

  • Get AI assistance in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Chat, Vids, and more: Do your best work faster with AI embedded in the tools you use every day. Gemini streamlines your communications by helping you summarize, draft, and find information in your emails, chats, and files. It can be a thought partner and source of inspiration, helping you create professional documents, slides, spreadsheets, and videos from scratch. Gemini can even improve your meetings by taking notes, enhancing your audio and video, and catching you up on the conversation if you join late.
  • Chat with Gemini Advanced, Google’s next-gen AI: Kickstart learning, brainstorming, and planning with the Gemini app on your laptop or mobile device. Gemini Advanced can help you tackle complex projects including coding, research, and data analysis and lets you build Gems, your team of AI experts to help with repeatable or specialized tasks.
  • Unlock the power of NotebookLM PlusWe’re bringing the revolutionary AI research assistant to every employee, to help them make sense of complex topics. Upload sources to get instant insights and Audio Overviews, then share customized notebooks with the team to accelerate their learning and onboarding.

And per Evelyn from the Stay Ahead newsletter (at FlexOS)

Google’s Gemini AI is stepping up its game in Google Workspace, bringing powerful new capabilities to your favorite tools like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets:

  • AI-Powered Summaries: Get concise, AI-generated summaries of long emails and documents so you can focus on what matters most.
  • Smart Reply: Gemini now offers context-aware email replies that feel more natural and tailored to your style.
  • Slides and images generation: Gemini in Slides can help you generate new images, summarize your slides, write and rewrite content, and refer to existing Drive files and/or emails.
  • Automated Data Insights: In Google Sheets, Gemini helps create a task tracker, conference agenda, spot trends, suggest formulas, and even build charts with simple prompts.
  • Intelligent Drafting: Google Docs now gets a creativity boost, helping you draft reports, proposals, or blog posts with AI suggestions and outlines.
  • Meeting Assistance: Say goodbye to the awkward AI attendees to help you take notes, now Gemini can natively do that for you – no interruption, no avatar, and no extra attendee. Meet can now also automatically generate captions to lower the language barrier.

Eveyln (from FlexOS) also mentions that CoPilot is getting enhancements too:

Copilot is now included in Microsoft 365 Personal and Family — from microsoft.com

Per Evelyn:

It’s exactly what we predicted: stand-alone AI apps like note-takers and image generators have had their moment, but as the tech giants step in, they’re bringing these features directly into their ecosystems, making them harder to ignore.


Announcing The Stargate Project — from openai.com

The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately. This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world. This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.

The initial equity funders in Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman.

Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas, and we are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as we finalize definitive agreements.


Your AI Writing Partner: The 30-Day Book Framework — from aidisruptor.ai by Alex McFarland and Kamil Banc
How to Turn Your “Someday” Manuscript into a “Shipped” Project Using AI-Powered Prompts

With that out of the way, I prefer Claude.ai for writing. For larger projects like a book, create a Claude Project to keep all context in one place.

  • Copy [the following] prompts into a document
  • Use them in sequence as you write
  • Adjust the word counts and specifics as needed
  • Keep your responses for reference
  • Use the same prompt template for similar sections to maintain consistency

Each prompt builds on the previous one, creating a systematic approach to helping you write your book.


Adobe’s new AI tool can edit 10,000 images in one click — from theverge.com by  Jess Weatherbed
Firefly Bulk Create can automatically remove, replace, or extend image backgrounds in huge batches.

Adobe is launching new generative AI tools that can automate labor-intensive production tasks like editing large batches of images and translating video presentations. The most notable is “Firefly Bulk Create,” an app that allows users to quickly resize up to 10,000 images or replace all of their backgrounds in a single click instead of tediously editing each picture individually.

 

The Best of AI 2024: Top Winners Across 9 Categories — from aiwithallie.beehiiv.com by Allie Miller
2025 will be our weirdest year in AI yet. Read this so you’re more prepared.


Top AI Tools of 2024 — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer (behind a paywall)
Which AI tools stood out for me in 2024? My list.

Memorable AI Tools of 2024
Catergories included:

  • Useful
  • Popular
  • Captures the zeighest of AI product innovation
  • Fun to try
  • Personally satisfying
  1. NotebookLM
  2. Perplexity
  3. Claude

New “best” AI tool? Really? — from theneurondaily.com by Noah and Grant
PLUS: A free workaround to the “best” new AI…

What is Google’s Deep Research tool, and is it really “the best” AI research tool out there?

Here’s how it works: Think of Deep Research as a research team that can simultaneously analyze 50+ websites, compile findings, and create comprehensive reports—complete with citations.

Unlike asking ChatGPT to research for you, Deep Research shows you its research plan before executing, letting you edit the approach to get exactly what you need.

It’s currently free for the first month (though it’ll eventually be $20/month) when bundled with Gemini Advanced. Then again, Perplexity is always free…just saying.

We couldn’t just take J-Cal’s word for it, so we rounded up some other takes:

Our take: We then compared Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, and Deep Research (which we’re calling DR, or “The Docta” for short) on robot capabilities from CES revealed:


An excerpt from today’s Morning Edition from Bloomberg

Global banks will cut as many as 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years—a net 3% of the workforce—as AI takes on more tasks, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence survey. Back, middle office and operations are most at risk. A reminder that Citi said last year that AI is likely to replace more jobs in banking than in any other sector. JPMorgan had a more optimistic view (from an employee perspective, at any rate), saying its AI rollout has augmented, not replaced, jobs so far.


 

 


AI in 2024: Insights From our 5 Million Readers — from linkedin.com by Generative AI

Checking the Pulse: The Impact of AI on Everyday Lives
So, what exactly did our users have to say about how AI transformed their lives this year?
.

Top 2024 Developments in AI

  1. Video Generation…
  2. AI Employees…
  3. Open Source Advancements…

Getting ready for 2025: your AI team members (Gift lesson 3/3) — from flexos.com by Daan van Rossum

And that’s why today, I’ll tell you exactly which AI tools I’ve recommended for the top 5 use cases to almost 200 business leaders who took the Lead with AI course.

1. Email Management: Simplifying Communication with AI

  • Microsoft Copilot for Outlook. …
  • Gemini AI for Gmail. …
  • Grammarly. …

2. Meeting Management: Maximize Your Time

  • Otter.ai. …
  • Copilot for Microsoft Teams. …
  • Other AI Meeting Assistants. Zoom AI Companion, Granola, and Fathom

3. Research: Streamlining Information Gathering

  • ChatGPT. …
  • Perplexity. …
  • Consensus. …

…plus several more items and tools that were mentioned by Daan.

 

Christina Blacklaws: “We’re on the cusp of meaningful A2J change” — from legaltechnology.com by Caroline Hill

As 2024 draws to a close, we took a look at the past year and the year ahead with Christina Blacklaws, the former president of the Law Society of England and Wales who, after leaving office, has developed a career supporting businesses as a non-executive director, consultant and strategic advisor. One of those advisory roles is chair of LawtechUK, an initiative to “turbocharge” the UK’s lawtech sector, delivered by CodeBase and LegalGeek and funded by the Ministry of Justice.

For Blacklaws, one of the huge areas of potential for GenAI technology is in helping to solve the access to justice crisis and she talks through some of the exciting work being done in this space and why we’re on the cusp of meaningful change.

2024 In Legal Ops: AI, Adaptation, And What’s Next — from abovethelaw.com by The Uplevel Ops Advisory Team
Reflections on the wild ride that was 2024 and bold predictions for the new year.

The Legal Operations landscape is evolving faster than ever, and UpLevel Ops is at the forefront of this transformation. With advancements like generative AI subscriptions, custom GPT services, and value-based pricing shaking up traditional approaches, legal departments are navigating uncharted territory.

From revolutionary uses of AI to new strategies in outside counsel management, their insights provide a roadmap for legal teams ready to embrace the next wave of innovation.


Judges Are Using Virtual Reality Headsets in the Courtroom — from vice.com by Luis Prada

A judge in Florida has just set a precedent that might forever change the US legal system—and maybe even the global legal system—forever.

But now the technology has advanced to the point where the judge and jury can be almost literally in his client’s shoes.

This allows the judge to not just understand the words of his testimony, but the physical conditions of it in a much more tactile way. Whether or not this will make his case more convincing is up to the jury.


The Evolution of a Virtual Court System — from law.com by Sondra Mendelson-Toscano (behind a paywall)
“It is my prediction that the future of the court system includes a hybrid employment model for the bench.”

Shortly thereafter, the New York Office of Court Administration designed and executed a plan whereby judges were able to handle their assigned matters electronically. Such seemed like a natural progression under the circumstances, given that prior to the advent of the Coronavirus, electronic testimony was successfully utilized in many different types of proceedings in various ways (e.g. vulnerable child witnesses, interstate custody and child support, elderly material witnesses, medically disabled defendants, and incarcerated individuals).

A virtual court online resource center was created for judges, staff, and the public for information related to remote operations. Despite some initial resistance by attorneys (who argued violations of the right to confrontation, that virtual is less effective and not as persuasive, computer illiteracy, and so forth), the Unified Court System pushed forward.

OCA’s course of action proved to be effective and, eventually, attorneys and litigants enjoyed the option of appearing virtually. Lawyers could handle multiple matters from their home offices in less time than it would have taken them to drive back and forth between courthouses, thus maximizing their work day.

Parties appreciated the flexibility of appearing from home and those who were essential workers valued joining proceedings on breaks while at work. Being in court remotely alleviated the stress of having to ask for, and take off, time from work, or making arrangements to address child care issues, elder care issues, and the like. Litigants with physical disabilities and other hardships, such as lack of transportation, received an automatic accommodation without having to request one.


Microsoft partners with ABA on new pilot project to help asylum-seekers — from abajournal.com by Amanda Robert

“In an ideal world, we would get everyone an in-person attorney to represent them for the full length of their case,” says Baez, the Commission on Immigration’s director of pro bono. “But in the reality we live in, where that’s really not possible, we are trying to be thoughtful and innovative on how we engage the most volunteers to help the most people who would otherwise not be able to access any legal assistance.”

In June, the Commission on Immigration partnered with Microsoft to launch a new virtual clinic to help pro se asylum-seekers complete their asylum applications. During this clinic, which included four sessions, nearly 30 volunteers from Microsoft worked with asylum-seekers to gather necessary information and prepare their applications for submission.


 

Introducing Gemini 2.0: our new AI model for the agentic era — from blog.google by Sundar Pichai, Demis Hassabis, and Koray Kavukcuoglu

Today we’re excited to launch our next era of models built for this new agentic era: introducing Gemini 2.0, our most capable model yet. With new advances in multimodality — like native image and audio output — and native tool use, it will enable us to build new AI agents that bring us closer to our vision of a universal assistant.

We’re getting 2.0 into the hands of developers and trusted testers today. And we’re working quickly to get it into our products, leading with Gemini and Search. Starting today our Gemini 2.0 Flash experimental model will be available to all Gemini users. We’re also launching a new feature called Deep Research, which uses advanced reasoning and long context capabilities to act as a research assistant, exploring complex topics and compiling reports on your behalf. It’s available in Gemini Advanced today.

Over the last year, we have been investing in developing more agentic models, meaning they can understand more about the world around you, think multiple steps ahead, and take action on your behalf, with your supervision.

.

Try Deep Research and our new experimental model in Gemini, your AI assistant — from blog.google by Dave Citron
Deep Research rolls out to Gemini Advanced subscribers today, saving you hours of time. Plus, you can now try out a chat optimized version of 2.0 Flash Experimental in Gemini on the web.

Today, we’re sharing the latest updates to Gemini, your AI assistant, including Deep Research — our new agentic feature in Gemini Advanced — and access to try Gemini 2.0 Flash, our latest experimental model.

Deep Research uses AI to explore complex topics on your behalf and provide you with findings in a comprehensive, easy-to-read report, and is a first look at how Gemini is getting even better at tackling complex tasks to save you time.1


Google Unveils A.I. Agent That Can Use Websites on Its Own — from nytimes.com by Cade Metz and Nico Grant (NOTE: This is a GIFTED article for/to you.)
The experimental tool can browse spreadsheets, shopping sites and other services, before taking action on behalf of the computer user.

Google on Wednesday unveiled a prototype of this technology, which artificial intelligence researchers call an A.I. agent.

Google’s new prototype, called Mariner, is based on Gemini 2.0, which the company also unveiled on Wednesday. Gemini is the core technology that underpins many of the company’s A.I. products and research experiments. Versions of the system will power the company’s chatbot of the same name and A.I. Overviews, a Google search tool that directly answers user questions.


Gemini 2.0 is the next chapter for Google AI — from axios.com by Ina Fried

Google Gemini 2.0 — a major upgrade to the core workings of Google’s AI that the company launched Wednesday — is designed to help generative AI move from answering users’ questions to taking action on its own…

The big picture: Hassabis said building AI systems that can take action on their own has been DeepMind’s focus since its early days teaching computers to play games such as chess and Go.

  • “We were always working towards agent-based systems,” Hassabis said. “From the beginning, they were able to plan and then carry out actions and achieve objectives.”
  • Hassabis said AI systems that can act as semi-autonomous agents also represent an important intermediate step on the path toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) — AI that can match or surpass human capabilities.
  • “If we think about the path to AGI, then obviously you need a system that can reason, break down problems and carry out actions in the world,” he said.

AI Agents vs. AI Assistants: Know the Key Differences — from aithority.com by Rishika Patel

The same paradigm applies to AI systems. AI assistants function as reactive tools, completing tasks like answering queries or managing workflows upon request. Think of chatbots or scheduling tools. AI agents, however, work autonomously to achieve set objectives, making decisions and executing tasks dynamically, adapting as new information becomes available.

Together, AI assistants and agents can enhance productivity and innovation in business environments. While assistants handle routine tasks, agents can drive strategic initiatives and problem-solving. This powerful combination has the potential to elevate organizations, making processes more efficient and professionals more effective.


Discover how to accelerate AI transformation with NVIDIA and Microsoft — from ignite.microsoft.com

Meet NVIDIA – The Engine of AI. From gaming to data science, self-driving cars to climate change, we’re tackling the world’s greatest challenges and transforming everyday life. The Microsoft and NVIDIA partnership enables Startups, ISVs, and Partners global access to the latest NVIDIA GPUs on-demand and comprehensive developer solutions to build, deploy and scale AI-enabled products and services.


Google + Meta + Apple New AI — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harve

What else Google announced:

  • Deep Research: New feature that can explore topics and compile reports.
  • Project Astra: AI agent that can use Google Search, Lens, and Maps, understands multiple languages, and has 10-minute conversation memory.
  • Project Mariner: A browser control agent that can complete web tasks (83.5% success rate on WebVoyager benchmark). Read more about Mariner here.
  • Agents to help you play (or test) video games.

AI Agents: Easier To Build, Harder To Get Right — from forbes.com by Andres Zunino

The swift progress of artificial intelligence (AI) has simplified the creation and deployment of AI agents with the help of new tools and platforms. However, deploying these systems beneath the surface comes with hidden challenges, particularly concerning ethics, fairness and the potential for bias.

The history of AI agents highlights the growing need for expertise to fully realize their benefits while effectively minimizing risks.

 

Where to start with AI agents: An introduction for COOs — from fortune.com by Ganesh Ayyar

Picture your enterprise as a living ecosystem, where surging market demand instantly informs staffing decisions, where a new vendor’s onboarding optimizes your emissions metrics, where rising customer engagement reveals product opportunities. Now imagine if your systems could see these connections too! This is the promise of AI agents — an intelligent network that thinks, learns, and works across your entire enterprise.

Today, organizations operate in artificial silos. Tomorrow, they could be fluid and responsive. The transformation has already begun. The question is: will your company lead it?

The journey to agent-enabled operations starts with clarity on business objectives. Leaders should begin by mapping their business’s critical processes. The most pressing opportunities often lie where cross-functional handoffs create friction or where high-value activities are slowed by system fragmentation. These pain points become the natural starting points for your agent deployment strategy.


Create podcasts in minutes — from elevenlabs.io by Eleven Labs
Now anyone can be a podcast producer


Top AI tools for business — from theneuron.ai


This week in AI: 3D from images, video tools, and more — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
From 3D worlds to consistent characters, explore this week’s AI trends

Another busy AI news week, so I organized it into categories:

  • Image to 3D
  • AI Video
  • AI Image Models & Tools
  • AI Assistants / LLMs
  • AI Creative Workflow: Luma AI Boards

Want to speak Italian? Microsoft AI can make it sound like you do. — this is a gifted article from The Washington Post;
A new AI-powered interpreter is expected to simulate speakers’ voices in different languages during Microsoft Teams meetings.

Artificial intelligence has already proved that it can sound like a human, impersonate individuals and even produce recordings of someone speaking different languages. Now, a new feature from Microsoft will allow video meeting attendees to hear speakers “talk” in a different language with help from AI.


What Is Agentic AI?  — from blogs.nvidia.com by Erik Pounds
Agentic AI uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems.

The next frontier of artificial intelligence is agentic AI, which uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems. And it’s set to enhance productivity and operations across industries.

Agentic AI systems ingest vast amounts of data from multiple sources to independently analyze challenges, develop strategies and execute tasks like supply chain optimization, cybersecurity vulnerability analysis and helping doctors with time-consuming tasks.


 

Introducing Copilot Actions, new agents, and tools to empower IT teams — from microsoft.com by Jared Spataro

[On November 19th] at Microsoft Ignite 2024, we’re accelerating our ambition to empower every employee with Copilot as a personal assistant and to transform every business process with agents built in Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Announcements include:

  • Copilot Actions in Microsoft 365 Copilot to help you automate everyday repetitive tasks.
  • New agents in Microsoft 365 to unlock SharePoint knowledge, provide real-time language interpretation in Microsoft Teams meetings, and automate employee self-service.
  • The Copilot Control System to help IT professionals confidently manage Copilot and agents securely.

These announcements build on our wave 2 momentum, including the new autonomous agent capabilities that we announced in October 2024.

Per the Rundown AI:
By integrating AI agents directly into Microsoft’s billion-plus users’ daily workflows, this release could normalize agentic AI faster than any previous rollout. Just as users now reach for specific apps or plugins to solve particular problems, specialized agents could soon become the natural first stop for getting work done.

Along these lines, also see:

AI agents — what they are, and how they’ll change the way we work — from news.microsoft.com by Susanna Ray

An agent takes the power of generative AI a step further, because instead of just assisting you, agents can work alongside you or even on your behalf. Agents can do a range of things, from responding to questions to more complicated or multistep assignments. What sets them apart from a personal assistant is that they can be tailored to have a particular expertise.

For example, you could create an agent to know everything about your company’s product catalog so it can draft detailed responses to customer questions or automatically compile product details for an upcoming presentation.

Microsoft pitches AI ‘agents’ that can perform tasks on their own at Ignite 2024 — from techxplore.com
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told customers at a conference in Chicago on Tuesday that the company is teaching a new set of artificial intelligence tools how to “act on our behalf across our work and life.”


From DSC:
I am not trying to push all things AI. There are serious concerns that I and others have with agents and other AI-based technologies especially:

  • When competitive juices get going and such forces throw people and companies into a sort of an AI arms race, and
  • When many people haven’t yet obtained the wisdom of reflecting on things like “just because we CAN build this doesn’t mean we SHOULD build it”, or
  • When governments seek to be the leader of AI due to military applications (and yes, I’m looking at the U.S. Federal Government especially here)
  • Etc, etc. 

But there are also areas where I’m more hopeful and positive about AI-related technologies — such as providing personalized learning and productivity tools (like those from Microsoft above).

 

Miscommunication Leads AI-Based Hiring Tools Astray — from adigaskell.org

Nearly every Fortune 500 company now uses artificial intelligence (AI) to screen resumes and assess test scores to find the best talent. However, new research from the University of Florida suggests these AI tools might not be delivering the results hiring managers expect.

The problem stems from a simple miscommunication between humans and machines: AI thinks it’s picking someone to hire, but hiring managers only want a list of candidates to interview.

Without knowing about this next step, the AI might choose safe candidates. But if it knows there will be another round of screening, it might suggest different and potentially stronger candidates.


AI agents explained: Why OpenAI, Google and Microsoft are building smarter AI agents — from digit.in by Jayesh Shinde

In the last two years, the world has seen a lot of breakneck advancement in the Generative AI space, right from text-to-text, text-to-image and text-to-video based Generative AI capabilities. And all of that’s been nothing short of stepping stones for the next big AI breakthrough – AI agents. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI is preparing to launch its first autonomous AI agent, which is codenamed ‘Operator,’ as soon as in January 2025.

Apparently, this OpenAI agent – or Operator, as it’s codenamed – is designed to perform complex tasks independently. By understanding user commands through voice or text, this AI agent will seemingly do tasks related to controlling different applications in the computer, send an email, book flights, and no doubt other cool things. Stuff that ChatGPT, Copilot, Google Gemini or any other LLM-based chatbot just can’t do on its own.


2025: The year ‘invisible’ AI agents will integrate into enterprise hierarchies  — from venturebeat.com by Taryn Plumb

In the enterprise of the future, human workers are expected to work closely alongside sophisticated teams of AI agents.

According to McKinsey, generative AI and other technologies have the potential to automate 60 to 70% of employees’ work. And, already, an estimated one-third of American workers are using AI in the workplace — oftentimes unbeknownst to their employers.

However, experts predict that 2025 will be the year that these so-called “invisible” AI agents begin to come out of the shadows and take more of an active role in enterprise operations.

“Agents will likely fit into enterprise workflows much like specialized members of any given team,” said Naveen Rao, VP of AI at Databricks and founder and former CEO of MosaicAI.


State of AI Report 2024 Summary — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer
Part I, Consolidation, emergence and adoption. 


Which AI Image Model Is the Best Speller? Let’s Find Out! — from whytryai.com by Daniel Nest
I test 7 image models to find those that can actually write.

The contestants
I picked 7 participants for today’s challenge:

  1. DALL-E 3 by OpenAI (via Microsoft Designer)
  2. FLUX1.1 [pro] by Black Forest Labs (via Glif)
  3. Ideogram 2.0 by Ideogram (via Ideogram)
  4. Imagen 3 by Google (via Image FX)
  5. Midjourney 6.1 by Midjourney (via Midjourney)
  6. Recraft V3 by Recraft (via Recraft)
  7. Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large by Stability AI (via Hugging Face)

How to get started with AI agents (and do it right) — from venturebeat.com by Taryn Plumb

So how can enterprises choose when to adopt third-party models, open source tools or build custom, in-house fine-tuned models? Experts weigh in.


OpenAI, Google and Anthropic Are Struggling to Build More Advanced AI — from bloomberg.com (behind firewall)
Three of the leading artificial intelligence companies are seeing diminishing returns from their costly efforts to develop newer models.


OpenAI and others seek new path to smarter AI as current methods hit limitations — from reuters.com by Krystal Hu and Anna Tong

Summary

  • AI companies face delays and challenges with training new large language models
  • Some researchers are focusing on more time for inference in new models
  • Shift could impact AI arms race for resources like chips and energy

NVIDIA Advances Robot Learning and Humanoid Development With New AI and Simulation Tools — from blogs.nvidia.com by Spencer Huang
New Project GR00T workflows and AI world model development technologies to accelerate robot dexterity, control, manipulation and mobility.


How Generative AI is Revolutionizing Product Development — from intelligenthq.com

A recent report from McKinsey predicts that generative AI could unlock up to $2.6 to $4.4 annually trillion in value within product development and innovation across various industries. This staggering figure highlights just how significantly generative AI is set to transform the landscape of product development. Generative AI app development is driving innovation by using the power of advanced algorithms to generate new ideas, optimize designs, and personalize products at scale. It is also becoming a cornerstone of competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced market. As businesses look to stay ahead, understanding and integrating technologies like generative AI app development into product development processes is becoming more crucial than ever.


What are AI Agents: How To Create a Based AI Agent — from ccn.com by Lorena Nessi

Key Takeaways

  • AI agents handle complex, autonomous tasks beyond simple commands, showcasing advanced decision-making and adaptability.
  • The Based AI Agent template by Coinbase and Replit provides an easy starting point for developers to build blockchain-enabled AI agents.
  • AI based agents specifically integrate with blockchain, supporting crypto wallets and transactions.
  • Securing API keys in development is crucial to protect the agent from unauthorized access.

What are AI Agents and How Are They Used in Different Industries? — from rtinsights.com by Salvatore Salamone
AI agents enable companies to make smarter, faster, and more informed decisions. From predictive maintenance to real-time process optimization, these agents are delivering tangible benefits across industries.

 

LinkedIn launches its first AI agent to take on the role of job recruiters — from techcrunch.com by Ingrid Lunden

LinkedIn, the social platform used by professionals to connect with others in their field, hunt for jobs, and develop skills, is taking the wraps off its latest effort to build artificial intelligence tools for users. Hiring Assistant is a new product designed to take on a wide array of recruitment tasks, from ingesting scrappy notes and thoughts to turn into longer job descriptions to sourcing candidates and engaging with them.

LinkedIn is describing Hiring Assistant as a milestone in its AI trajectory: It is, per the Microsoft-owned company, its first “AI agent” and one that happens to be targeting one of LinkedIn’s most lucrative categories of users — recruiters.


Also relevant/see:

 

Along these same lines, see:

Introducing computer use, a new Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Claude 3.5 Haiku

We’re also introducing a groundbreaking new capability in public beta: computer use. Available today on the API, developers can direct Claude to use computers the way people do—by looking at a screen, moving a cursor, clicking buttons, and typing text. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is the first frontier AI model to offer computer use in public beta. At this stage, it is still experimental—at times cumbersome and error-prone. We’re releasing computer use early for feedback from developers, and expect the capability to improve rapidly over time.


ZombAIs: From Prompt Injection to C2 with Claude Computer Use — from embracethered.com by Johann Rehberger

A few days ago, Anthropic released Claude Computer Use, which is a model + code that allows Claude to control a computer. It takes screenshots to make decisions, can run bash commands and so forth.

It’s cool, but obviously very dangerous because of prompt injection. Claude Computer Use enables AI to run commands on machines autonomously, posing severe risks if exploited via prompt injection.

This blog post demonstrates that it’s possible to leverage prompt injection to achieve, old school, command and control (C2) when giving novel AI systems access to computers.

We discussed one way to get malware onto a Claude Computer Use host via prompt injection. There are countless others, like another way is to have Claude write the malware from scratch and compile it. Yes, it can write C code, compile and run it. There are many other options.

TrustNoAI.

And again, remember do not run unauthorized code on systems that you do not own or are authorized to operate on.

Also relevant here, see:


Perplexity Grows, GPT Traffic Surges, Gamma Dominates AI Presentations – The AI for Work Top 100: October 2024 — from flexos.work by Daan van Rossum
Perplexity continues to gain users despite recent controversies. Five out of six GPTs see traffic boosts. This month’s highest gainers including Gamma, Blackbox, Runway, and more.


Growing Up: Navigating Generative AI’s Early Years – AI Adoption Report — from ai.wharton.upenn.edu by  Jeremy Korst, Stefano Puntoni, & Mary Purk

From a survey with more than 800 senior business leaders, this report’s findings indicate that weekly usage of Gen AI has nearly doubled from 37% in 2023 to 72% in 2024, with significant growth in previously slower-adopting departments like Marketing and HR. Despite this increased usage, businesses still face challenges in determining the full impact and ROI of Gen AI. Sentiment reports indicate leaders have shifted from feelings of “curiosity” and “amazement” to more positive sentiments like “pleased” and “excited,” and concerns about AI replacing jobs have softened. Participants were full-time employees working in large commercial organizations with 1,000 or more employees.


Apple study exposes deep cracks in LLMs’ “reasoning” capabilities — from arstechnica.com by Kyle Orland
Irrelevant red herrings lead to “catastrophic” failure of logical inference.

For a while now, companies like OpenAI and Google have been touting advanced “reasoning” capabilities as the next big step in their latest artificial intelligence models. Now, though, a new study from six Apple engineers shows that the mathematical “reasoning” displayed by advanced large language models can be extremely brittle and unreliable in the face of seemingly trivial changes to common benchmark problems.

The fragility highlighted in these new results helps support previous research suggesting that LLMs use of probabilistic pattern matching is missing the formal understanding of underlying concepts needed for truly reliable mathematical reasoning capabilities. “Current LLMs are not capable of genuine logical reasoning,” the researchers hypothesize based on these results. “Instead, they attempt to replicate the reasoning steps observed in their training data.”


Google CEO says more than a quarter of the company’s new code is created by AI — from businessinsider.in by Hugh Langley

  • More than a quarter of new code at Google is made by AI and then checked by employees.
  • Google is doubling down on AI internally to make its business more efficient.

Top Generative AI Chatbots by Market Share – October 2024 


Bringing developer choice to Copilot with Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro, and OpenAI’s o1-preview — from github.blog

We are bringing developer choice to GitHub Copilot with Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro, and OpenAI’s o1-preview and o1-mini. These new models will be rolling out—first in Copilot Chat, with OpenAI o1-preview and o1-mini available now, Claude 3.5 Sonnet rolling out progressively over the next week, and Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro in the coming weeks. From Copilot Workspace to multi-file editing to code review, security autofix, and the CLI, we will bring multi-model choice across many of GitHub Copilot’s surface areas and functions soon.

 

AI-governed robots can easily be hacked — from theaivalley.com by Barsee
PLUS: Sam Altman’s new company “World” introduced…

In a groundbreaking study, researchers from Penn Engineering showed how AI-powered robots can be manipulated to ignore safety protocols, allowing them to perform harmful actions despite normally rejecting dangerous task requests.

What did they find ?

  • Researchers found previously unknown security vulnerabilities in AI-governed robots and are working to address these issues to ensure the safe use of large language models(LLMs) in robotics.
  • Their newly developed algorithm, RoboPAIR, reportedly achieved a 100% jailbreak rate by bypassing the safety protocols on three different AI robotic systems in a few days.
  • Using RoboPAIR, researchers were able to manipulate test robots into performing harmful actions, like bomb detonation and blocking emergency exits, simply by changing how they phrased their commands.

Why does it matter?

This research highlights the importance of spotting weaknesses in AI systems to improve their safety, allowing us to test and train them to prevent potential harm.

From DSC:
Great! Just what we wanted to hear. But does it surprise anyone? Even so…we move forward at warp speeds.


From DSC:
So, given the above item, does the next item make you a bit nervous as well? I saw someone on Twitter/X exclaim, “What could go wrong?”  I can’t say I didn’t feel the same way.

Introducing computer use, a new Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Claude 3.5 Haiku — from anthropic.com

We’re also introducing a groundbreaking new capability in public beta: computer use. Available today on the API, developers can direct Claude to use computers the way people do—by looking at a screen, moving a cursor, clicking buttons, and typing text. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is the first frontier AI model to offer computer use in public beta. At this stage, it is still experimental—at times cumbersome and error-prone. We’re releasing computer use early for feedback from developers, and expect the capability to improve rapidly over time.

Per The Rundown AI:

The Rundown: Anthropic just introduced a new capability called ‘computer use’, alongside upgraded versions of its AI models, which enables Claude to interact with computers by viewing screens, typing, moving cursors, and executing commands.

Why it matters: While many hoped for Opus 3.5, Anthropic’s Sonnet and Haiku upgrades pack a serious punch. Plus, with the new computer use embedded right into its foundation models, Anthropic just sent a warning shot to tons of automation startups—even if the capabilities aren’t earth-shattering… yet.

Also related/see:

  • What is Anthropic’s AI Computer Use? — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer
    Task automation, AI at the intersection of coding and AI agents take on new frenzied importance heading into 2025 for the commercialization of Generative AI.
  • New Claude, Who Dis? — from theneurondaily.com
    Anthropic just dropped two new Claude models…oh, and Claude can now use your computer.
  • When you give a Claude a mouse — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
    Some quick impressions of an actual agent

Introducing Act-One — from runwayml.com
A new way to generate expressive character performances using simple video inputs.

Per Lore by Nathan Lands:

What makes Act-One special? It can capture the soul of an actor’s performance using nothing but a simple video recording. No fancy motion capture equipment, no complex face rigging, no army of animators required. Just point a camera at someone acting, and watch as their exact expressions, micro-movements, and emotional nuances get transferred to an AI-generated character.

Think about what this means for creators: you could shoot an entire movie with multiple characters using just one actor and a basic camera setup. The same performance can drive characters with completely different proportions and looks, while maintaining the authentic emotional delivery of the original performance. We’re witnessing the democratization of animation tools that used to require millions in budget and years of specialized training.

Also related/see:


Google to buy nuclear power for AI datacentres in ‘world first’ deal — from theguardian.com
Tech company orders six or seven small nuclear reactors from California’s Kairos Power

Google has signed a “world first” deal to buy energy from a fleet of mini nuclear reactors to generate the power needed for the rise in use of artificial intelligence.

The US tech corporation has ordered six or seven small nuclear reactors (SMRs) from California’s Kairos Power, with the first due to be completed by 2030 and the remainder by 2035.

Related:


ChatGPT Topped 3 Billion Visits in September — from similarweb.com

After the extreme peak and summer slump of 2023, ChatGPT has been setting new traffic highs since May

ChatGPT has been topping its web traffic records for months now, with September 2024 traffic up 112% year-over-year (YoY) to 3.1 billion visits, according to Similarweb estimates. That’s a change from last year, when traffic to the site went through a boom-and-bust cycle.


Crazy “AI Army” — from aisecret.us

Also from aisecret.us, see World’s First Nuclear Power Deal For AI Data Centers

Google has made a historic agreement to buy energy from a group of small nuclear reactors (SMRs) from Kairos Power in California. This is the first nuclear power deal specifically for AI data centers in the world.


New updates to help creators build community, drive business, & express creativity on YouTube — from support.google.com

Hey creators!
Made on YouTube 2024 is here and we’ve announced a lot of updates that aim to give everyone the opportunity to build engaging communities, drive sustainable businesses, and express creativity on our platform.

Below is a roundup with key info – feel free to upvote the announcements that you’re most excited about and subscribe to this post to get updates on these features! We’re looking forward to another year of innovating with our global community it’s a future full of opportunities, and it’s all Made on YouTube!


New autonomous agents scale your team like never before — from blogs.microsoft.com

Today, we’re announcing new agentic capabilities that will accelerate these gains and bring AI-first business process to every organization.

  • First, the ability to create autonomous agents with Copilot Studio will be in public preview next month.
  • Second, we’re introducing ten new autonomous agents in Dynamics 365 to build capacity for every sales, service, finance and supply chain team.

10 Daily AI Use Cases for Business Leaders— from flexos.work by Daan van Rossum
While AI is becoming more powerful by the day, business leaders still wonder why and where to apply today. I take you through 10 critical use cases where AI should take over your work or partner with you.


Multi-Modal AI: Video Creation Simplified — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper

Emerging Multi-Modal AI Video Creation Platforms
The rise of multi-modal AI platforms has revolutionized content creation, allowing users to research, write, and generate images in one app. Now, a new wave of platforms is extending these capabilities to video creation and editing.

Multi-modal video platforms combine various AI tools for tasks like writing, transcription, text-to-voice conversion, image-to-video generation, and lip-syncing. These platforms leverage open-source models like FLUX and LivePortrait, along with APIs from services such as ElevenLabs, Luma AI, and Gen-3.


AI Medical Imagery Model Offers Fast, Cost-Efficient Expert Analysis — from developer.nvidia.com/

 

AI’s Trillion-Dollar Opportunity — from bain.com by David Crawford, Jue Wang, and Roy Singh
The market for AI products and services could reach between $780 billion and $990 billion by 2027.

At a Glance

  • The big cloud providers are the largest concentration of R&D, talent, and innovation today, pushing the boundaries of large models and advanced infrastructure.
  • Innovation with smaller models (open-source and proprietary), edge infrastructure, and commercial software is reaching enterprises, sovereigns, and research institutions.
  • Commercial software vendors are rapidly expanding their feature sets to provide the best use cases and leverage their data assets.

Accelerated market growth. Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, summed up the potential in the company’s Q3 2024 earnings call: “Generative AI is the largest TAM [total addressable market] expansion of software and hardware that we’ve seen in several decades.”


And on a somewhat related note (i.e., emerging technologies), also see the following two postings:

Surgical Robots: Current Uses and Future Expectations — from medicalfuturist.com by Pranavsingh Dhunnoo
As the term implies, a surgical robot is an assistive tool for performing surgical procedures. Such manoeuvres, also called robotic surgeries or robot-assisted surgery, usually involve a human surgeon controlling mechanical arms from a control centre.

Key Takeaways

  • Robots’ potentials have been a fascination for humans and have even led to a booming field of robot-assisted surgery.
  • Surgical robots assist surgeons in performing accurate, minimally invasive procedures that are beneficial for patients’ recovery.
  • The assistance of robots extend beyond incisions and includes laparoscopies, radiosurgeries and, in the future, a combination of artificial intelligence technologies to assist surgeons in their craft.

Proto hologram tech allows cancer patients to receive specialist care without traveling large distances — from inavateonthenet.net

“Working with the team from Proto to bring to life, what several years ago would have seemed impossible, is now going to allow West Cancer Center & Research Institute to pioneer options for patients to get highly specialized care without having to travel to large metro areas,” said West Cancer’s CEO, Mitch Graves.




Clone your voice in minutes: The AI trick 95% don’t know about — from aidisruptor.ai by Alex McFarland
Warning: May cause unexpected bouts of talking to yourself

Now that you’ve got your voice clone, what can you do with it?

  1. Content Creation:
    • Podcast Production: Record episodes in half the time. Your listeners won’t know the difference, but your schedule will thank you.
    • Audiobook Narration: Always wanted to narrate your own book? Now you can, without spending weeks in a recording studio.
    • YouTube Videos: Create voiceovers for your videos in multiple languages. World domination, here you come!
  2. Business Brilliance:
    • Customer Service: Personalized automated responses that actually sound personal.
    • Training Materials: Create engaging e-learning content in your own voice, minus the hours of recording.
    • Presentations: Never worry about losing your voice before a big presentation again. Your clone’s got your back.

185 real-world gen AI use cases from the world’s leading organizations — from blog.google by Brian Hall; via Daniel Nest’s Why Try AI

In a matter of months, organizations have gone from AI helping answer questions, to AI making predictions, to generative AI agents. What makes AI agents unique is that they can take actions to achieve specific goals, whether that’s guiding a shopper to the perfect pair of shoes, helping an employee looking for the right health benefits, or supporting nursing staff with smoother patient hand-offs during shifts changes.

In our work with customers, we keep hearing that their teams are increasingly focused on improving productivity, automating processes, and modernizing the customer experience. These aims are now being achieved through the AI agents they’re developing in six key areas: customer service; employee empowerment; code creation; data analysis; cybersecurity; and creative ideation and production.

Here’s a snapshot of how 185 of these industry leaders are putting AI to use today, creating real-world use cases that will transform tomorrow.


AI Data Drop: 3 Key Insights from Real-World Research on AI Usage — from microsoft.com; via Daniel Nest’s Why Try AI
One of the largest studies of Copilot usage—at nearly 60 companies—reveals how AI is changing the way we work.

  1. AI is starting to liberate people from email
  2. Meetings are becoming more about value creation
  3. People are co-creating more with AI—and with one another


*** Dharmesh has been working on creating agent.ai — a professional network for AI agents.***


Speaking of agents, also see:

Onboarding the AI workforce: How digital agents will redefine work itself — from venturebeat.com by Gary Grossman

AI in 2030: A transformative force

  1. AI agents are integral team members
  2. The emergence of digital humans
  3. AI-driven speech and conversational interfaces
  4. AI-enhanced decision-making and leadership
  5. Innovation and research powered by AI
  6. The changing nature of job roles and skills

AI Video Tools You Can Use Today — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
The latest AI video models that deliver results

AI video models are improving so quickly, I can barely keep up! I wrote about unreleased Adobe Firefly Video in the last issue, and we are no closer to public access to Sora.

No worries – we do have plenty of generative AI video tools we can use right now.

  • Kling AI launched its updated v1.5 and the quality of image or text to video is impressive.
  • Hailuo MiniMax text to video remains free to use for now, and it produces natural and photorealistic results (with watermarks).
  • Runway added the option to upload portrait aspect ratio images to generate vertical videos in Gen-3 Alpha & Turbo modes.
  • …plus several more

 



“Who to follow in AI” in 2024? — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer
Part III – #35-55 – I combed the internet, I found the best sources of AI insights, education and articles. LinkedIn | Newsletters | X | YouTube | Substack | Threads | Podcasts

This list features both some of the best Newsletters on AI and people who make LinkedIn posts about AI papers, advances and breakthroughs. In today’s article we’ll be meeting the first 19-34, in a list of 180+.

Newsletter Writers
YouTubers
Engineers
Researchers who write
Technologists who are Creators
AI Educators
AI Evangelists of various kinds
Futurism writers and authors

I have been sharing the list in reverse chronological order on LinkedIn here.


Inside Google’s 7-Year Mission to Give AI a Robot Body — from wired.com by Hans Peter Brondmo
As the head of Alphabet’s AI-powered robotics moonshot, I came to believe many things. For one, robots can’t come soon enough. For another, they shouldn’t look like us.


Learning to Reason with LLMs — from openai.com
We are introducing OpenAI o1, a new large language model trained with reinforcement learning to perform complex reasoning. o1 thinks before it answers—it can produce a long internal chain of thought before responding to the user.


Items re: Microsoft Copilot:

Also see this next video re: Copilot Pages:


Sal Khan on the critical human skills for an AI age — from time.com by Kevin J. Delaney

As a preview of the upcoming Summit interview, here are Khan’s views on two critical questions, edited for space and clarity:

  1. What are the enduring human work skills in a world with ever-advancing AI? Some people say students should study liberal arts. Others say deep domain expertise is the key to remaining professionally relevant. Others say you need to have the skills of a manager to be able to delegate to AI. What do you think are the skills or competencies that ensure continued relevance professionally, employability, etc.?
  2. A lot of organizations are thinking about skills-based approaches to their talent. It involves questions like, ‘Does someone know how to do this thing or not?’ And what are the ways in which they can learn it and have some accredited way to know they actually have done it? That is one of the ways in which people use Khan Academy. Do you have a view of skills-based approaches within workplaces, and any thoughts on how AI tutors and training fit within that context?

 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian