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.

 

Generative AI in a Nutshell – how to survive and thrive in the age of AI — from youtube.com by Henrik Kniberg; via Robert Gibson and Adam Garry on LinkedIn


Lawless superintelligence: Zero evidence that AI can be controlled — from earth.com by Eric Ralls

In the realm of technological advancements, artificial intelligence (AI) stands out as a beacon of immeasurable potential, yet also as a source of existential angst when considering that AI might already be beyond our ability to control.

Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy, a leading figure in AI safety, shares his insights into this dual-natured beast in his thought-provoking work, “AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable.”

His research underscores a chilling truth: our current understanding and control of AI are woefully inadequate, posing a threat that could either lead to unprecedented prosperity or catastrophic extinction.


From DSC:
This next item is for actors, actresses, and voiceover specialists:

Turn your voice into passive income. — from elevenlabs.io; via Ben’s Bites
Are you a professional voice actor? Sign up and share your voice today to start earning rewards every time it’s used.


 

 

Scammers trick company employee using video call filled with deepfakes of execs, steal $25 million — from techspot.com by Rob Thubron; via AI Valley
The victim was the only real person on the video conference call

The scammers used digitally recreated versions of an international company’s Chief Financial Officer and other employees to order $25 million in money transfers during a video conference call containing just one real person.

The victim, an employee at the Hong Kong branch of an unnamed multinational firm, was duped into taking part in a video conference call in which they were the only real person – the rest of the group were fake representations of real people, writes SCMP.

As we’ve seen in previous incidents where deepfakes were used to recreate someone without their permission, the scammers utilized publicly available video and audio footage to create these digital versions.


Letter from the YouTube CEO: 4 Big bets for 2024 — from blog.youtube by Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube; via Ben’s Bites

.

#1: AI will empower human creativity.

#2: Creators should be recognized as next-generation studios.

#3: YouTube’s next frontier is the living room and subscriptions.

#4: Protecting the creator economy is foundational.

Viewers globally now watch more than 1 billion hours on average of YouTube content on their TVs every day.


Bard becomes Gemini: Try Ultra 1.0 and a new mobile app today — from blog.google by Sissie Hsiao; via Rundown AI
Bard is now known as Gemini, and we’re rolling out a mobile app and Gemini Advanced with Ultra 1.0.

Since we launched Bard last year, people all over the world have used it to collaborate with AI in a completely new way — to prepare for job interviews, debug code, brainstorm new business ideas or, as we announced last week, create captivating images.

Our mission with Bard has always been to give you direct access to our AI models, and Gemini represents our most capable family of models. To reflect this, Bard will now simply be known as Gemini.


A new way to discover places with generative AI in Maps — from blog.google by Miriam Daniel; via AI Valley
Here’s a look at how we’re bringing generative AI to Maps — rolling out this week to select Local Guides in the U.S.

Today, we’re introducing a new way to discover places with generative AI to help you do just that — no matter how specific, niche or broad your needs might be. Simply say what you’re looking for and our large-language models (LLMs) will analyze Maps’ detailed information about more than 250 million places and trusted insights from our community of over 300 million contributors to quickly make suggestions for where to go.

Starting in the U.S., this early access experiment launches this week to select Local Guides, who are some of the most active and passionate members of the Maps community. Their insights and valuable feedback will help us shape this feature so we can bring it to everyone over time.


Google Prepares for a Future Where Search Isn’t King — from wired.com by Lauren Goode
CEO Sundar Pichai tells WIRED that Google’s new, more powerful Gemini chatbot is an experiment in offering users a way to get things done without a search engine. It’s also a direct shot at ChatGPT.


 

 

Survey Results Predict Top Legal Technology Trends for 2024 — from jdsupra.com

In the 2023 Litigation Support Trend Survey, U.S. Legal Support asked lawyers and legal professionals what technology trends they observed in 2023, and how they expect their use of technology to change in 2024.

Now, the results are in—check out the findings below.

Topics included:

  • Use of Artificial Intelligence
  • Prevalence of Remote Depositions
  • Digital Reporting

Speaking of legaltech and/or how emerging technologies are impacting the legal realm, also see:

 

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.


 

Animate Anyone — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman & Pete Huang

Animate Anyone is a new project from Alibaba that can animate any image to move however you’d like.

While the technology is bonkers (duh), the demo video has stirred up mixed reactions.

I mean…just check out the (justified) fury on Twitter in response to this research.

To the researchers’ credit, they haven’t released a working demo yet, probably for this exact concern.


 

Expanding Bard’s understanding of YouTube videos — via AI Valley

  • What: We’re taking the first steps in Bard’s ability to understand YouTube videos. For example, if you’re looking for videos on how to make olive oil cake, you can now also ask how many eggs the recipe in the first video requires.
  • Why: We’ve heard you want deeper engagement with YouTube videos. So we’re expanding the YouTube Extension to understand some video content so you can have a richer conversation with Bard about it.

Reshaping the tree: rebuilding organizations for AI — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Technological change brings organizational change.

I am not sure who said it first, but there are only two ways to react to exponential change: too early or too late. Today’s AIs are flawed and limited in many ways. While that restricts what AI can do, the capabilities of AI are increasing exponentially, both in terms of the models themselves and the tools these models can use. It might seem too early to consider changing an organization to accommodate AI, but I think that there is a strong possibility that it will quickly become too late.

From DSC:
Readers of this blog have seen the following graphic for several years now, but there is no question that we are in a time of exponential change. One would have had an increasingly hard time arguing the opposite of this perspective during that time.

 


 



Nvidia’s revenue triples as AI chip boom continues — from cnbc.com by Jordan Novet; via GSV

KEY POINTS

  • Nvidia’s results surpassed analysts’ projections for revenue and income in the fiscal fourth quarter.
  • Demand for Nvidia’s graphics processing units has been exceeding supply, thanks to the rise of generative artificial intelligence.
  • Nvidia announced the GH200 GPU during the quarter.

Here’s how the company did, compared to the consensus among analysts surveyed by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

  • Earnings: $4.02 per share, adjusted, vs. $3.37 per share expected
  • Revenue: $18.12 billion, vs. $16.18 billion expected

Nvidia’s revenue grew 206% year over year during the quarter ending Oct. 29, according to a statement. Net income, at $9.24 billion, or $3.71 per share, was up from $680 million, or 27 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.



 

From DSC:
The recent drama over at OpenAI reminds me of how important a few individuals are in influencing the lives of millions of people.

The C-Suites (i.e., the Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Operating Officers, and the like) of companies like OpenAI, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Netflix, NVIDIA, Amazon, Apple, and a handful of others have enormous power. Why? Because of the enormous power and reach of the technologies that they create, market, and provide.

We need to be praying for the hearts of those in the C-Suites of these powerful vendors — as well as for their Boards.

LORD, grant them wisdom and help mold their hearts and perspectives so that they truly care about others. May their decisions not be based on making money alone…or doing something just because they can.

What happens in their hearts and minds DOES and WILL continue to impact the rest of us. And we’re talking about real ramifications here. This isn’t pie-in-the-sky thinking or ideas. This is for real. With real consequences. If you doubt that, go ask the families of those whose sons and daughters took their own lives due to what happened out on social media platforms. Disclosure: I use LinkedIn and Twitter quite a bit. I’m not bashing these platforms per se. But my point is that there are real impacts due to a variety of technologies. What goes on in the hearts and minds of the leaders of these tech companies matters.


Some relevant items:

Navigating Attention-Driving Algorithms, Capturing the Premium of Proximity for Virtual Teams, & New AI Devices — from implactions.com by Scott Belsky

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

No doubt, technology influences us in many ways we don’t fully understand. But one area where valid concerns run rampant is the attention-seeking algorithms powering the news and media we consume on modern platforms that efficiently polarize people. Perhaps we’ll call it The Law of Anger Expansion: When people are angry in the age of algorithms, they become MORE angry and LESS discriminate about who and what they are angry at.

Algorithms that optimize for grabbing attention, thanks to AI, ultimately drive polarization.

The AI learns quickly that a rational or “both sides” view is less likely to sustain your attention (so you won’t get many of those, which drives the sensation that more of the world agrees with you). But the rage-inducing stuff keeps us swiping.

Our feeds are being sourced in ways that dramatically change the content we’re exposed to.

And then these algorithms expand on these ultimately destructive emotions – “If you’re afraid of this, maybe you should also be afraid of this” or “If you hate those people, maybe you should also hate these people.”

How do we know when we’ve been polarized? This is the most important question of the day.

Whatever is inflaming you is likely an algorithm-driven expansion of anger and an imbalance of context.


 

 

Shocking AI Statistics in 2023 — from techthatmatters.beehiiv.com by Harsh Makadia

  1. Chat GPT reached 100 million users faster than any other app. By February 2023, the chat.openai.com website saw an average of 25 million daily visitors. How can this rise in AI usage benefit your business’s function?
  2. 45% of executives say the popularity of ChatGPT has led them to increase investment in AI. If executives are investing in AI personally, then how will their beliefs affect corporate investment in AI to drive automation further? Also, how will this affect the amount of workers hired to manage AI systems within companies?
  3. eMarketer predicts that in 2024 at least 20% of Americans will use ChatGPT monthly and that a fifth of them are 25-34 year olds in the workforce. Does this mean that there are more young workers using AI?
  4. …plus 10 more stats

People are speaking with ChatGPT for hours, bringing 2013’s Her closer to reality — from arstechnica.com by Benj Edwards
Long mobile conversations with the AI assistant using AirPods echo the sci-fi film.

It turns out that Willison’s experience is far from unique. Others have been spending hours talking to ChatGPT using its voice recognition and voice synthesis features, sometimes through car connections. The realistic nature of the voice interaction feels largely effortless, but it’s not flawless. Sometimes, it has trouble in noisy environments, and there can be a pause between statements. But the way the ChatGPT voices simulate vocal ticks and noises feels very human. “I’ve been using the voice function since yesterday and noticed that it makes breathing sounds when it speaks,” said one Reddit user. “It takes a deep breath before starting a sentence. And today, actually a minute ago, it coughed between words while answering my questions.”

From DSC:
Hmmmmmmm….I’m not liking the sound of this on my initial take of it. But perhaps there are some real positives to this. I need to keep an open mind.


Working with AI: Two paths to prompting — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Don’t overcomplicate things

  1. Conversational Prompting [From DSC: i.e., keep it simple]
  2. Structured Prompting

For most people, [Conversational Prompting] is good enough to get started, and it is the technique I use most of the time when working with AI. Don’t overcomplicate things, just interact with the system and see what happens. After you have some experience, however, you may decide that you want to create prompts you can share with others, prompts that incorporate your expertise. We call this approach Structured Prompting, and, while improving AIs may make it irrelevant soon, it is currently a useful tool for helping others by encoding your knowledge into a prompt that anyone can use.


These fake images reveal how AI amplifies our worst stereotypes — from washingtonpost.com by Nitasha Tiku, Kevin Schaul, and Szu Yu Chen (behind paywall)
AI image generators like Stable Diffusion and DALL-E amplify bias in gender and race, despite efforts to detoxify the data fueling these results.

Artificial intelligence image tools have a tendency to spin up disturbing clichés: Asian women are hypersexual. Africans are primitive. Europeans are worldly. Leaders are men. Prisoners are Black.

These stereotypes don’t reflect the real world; they stem from the data that trains the technology. Grabbed from the internet, these troves can be toxic — rife with pornography, misogyny, violence and bigotry.

Abeba Birhane, senior advisor for AI accountability at the Mozilla Foundation, contends that the tools can be improved if companies work hard to improve the data — an outcome she considers unlikely. In the meantime, the impact of these stereotypes will fall most heavily on the same communities harmed during the social media era, she said, adding: “People at the margins of society are continually excluded.”


ChatGPT app revenue shows no signs of slowing, but some other AI apps top it — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez; Via AI Valley – Barsee

ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot from OpenAI, far outpaces all other AI chatbot apps on mobile devices in terms of downloads and is a market leader by revenue, as well. However, it’s surprisingly not the top AI app by revenue — several photo AI apps and even other AI chatbots are actually making more money than ChatGPT, despite the latter having become a household name for an AI chat experience.


ChatGPT can now analyze files you upload to it without a plugin — from bgr.com by Joshua Hawkins; via Superhuman

According to new reports, OpenAI has begun rolling out a more streamlined approach to how people use ChatGPT. The new system will allow the AI to choose a model automatically, letting you run Python code, open a web browser, or generate images with DALL-E without extra interaction. Additionally, ChatGPT will now let you upload and analyze files.

 

60+ Ideas for ChatGPT Assignments — from stars.library.ucf.edu by Kevin Yee, Kirby Whittington, Erin Doggette, and Laurie Uttich

60+ ideas for using ChatGPT in your assignments today


Artificial intelligence is disrupting higher education — from itweb.co.za by Rennie Naidoo; via GSV
Traditional contact universities need to adapt faster and find creative ways of exploring and exploiting AI, or lose their dominant position.

Higher education professionals have a responsibility to shape AI as a force for good.


Introducing Canva’s biggest education launch — from canva.com
We’re thrilled to unveil our biggest education product launch ever. Today, we’re introducing a whole new suite of products that turn Canva into the all-in-one classroom tool educators have been waiting for.

Also see Canva for Education.
Create and personalize lesson plans, infographics,
posters, video, and more. 
100% free for
teachers and students at eligible schools.


ChatGPT and generative AI: 25 applications to support student engagement — from timeshighereducation.com by Seb Dianati and Suman Laudari
In the fourth part of their series looking at 100 ways to use ChatGPT in higher education, Seb Dianati and Suman Laudari share 25 prompts for the AI tool to boost student engagement


There are two ways to use ChatGPT — from theneurondaily.com

  1. Type to it.
  2. Talk to it (new).


Since then, we’ve looked to it for a variety of real-world business advice. For example, Prof Ethan Mollick posted a great guide using ChatGPT-4 with voice as a negotiation instructor.

In a similar fashion, you can consult ChatGPT with voice for feedback on:

  • Job interviews.
  • Team meetings.
  • Business presentations.



Via The Rundown: Google is using AI to analyze the company’s Maps data and suggest adjustments to traffic light timing — aiming to cut driver waits, stops, and emissions.


Google Pixel’s face-altering photo tool sparks AI manipulation debate — from bbc.com by Darren Waters

The camera never lies. Except, of course, it does – and seemingly more often with each passing day.
In the age of the smartphone, digital edits on the fly to improve photos have become commonplace, from boosting colours to tweaking light levels.

Now, a new breed of smartphone tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are adding to the debate about what it means to photograph reality.

Google’s latest smartphones released last week, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, go a step further than devices from other companies. They are using AI to help alter people’s expressions in photographs.



From Digital Native to AI-Empowered: Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence — from campustechnology.com by Kim Round
The upcoming generation of learners will enter higher education empowered by AI. How can institutions best serve these learners and prepare them for the workplace of the future?

Dr. Chris Dede, of Harvard University and Co-PI of the National AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education, spoke about the differences between knowledge and wisdom in AI-human interactions in a keynote address at the 2022 Empowering Learners for the Age of AI conference. He drew a parallel between Star Trek: The Next Generation characters Data and Picard during complex problem-solving: While Data offers the knowledge and information, Captain Picard offers the wisdom and context from on a leadership mantle, and determines its relevance, timing, and application.


The Near-term Impact of Generative AI on Education, in One Sentence — from opencontent.org by David Wiley

This “decreasing obstacles” framing turned out to be helpful in thinking about generative AI. When the time came, my answer to the panel question, “how would you summarize the impact generative AI is going to have on education?” was this:

“Generative AI greatly reduces the degree to which access to expertise is an obstacle to education.”

We haven’t even started to unpack the implications of this notion yet, but hopefully just naming it will give the conversation focus, give people something to disagree with, and help the conversation progress more quickly.


How to Make an AI-Generated Film — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
Plus, Midjourney finally has a new upscale tool!


Eureka! NVIDIA Research Breakthrough Puts New Spin on Robot Learning — from blogs.nvidia.com by Angie Lee
AI agent uses LLMs to automatically generate reward algorithms to train robots to accomplish complex tasks.

From DSC:
I’m not excited about this, as I can’t help but wonder…how long before the militaries of the world introduce this into their warfare schemes and strategies?


The 93 Questions Schools Should Ask About AI — from edweek.org by Alyson Klein

The toolkit recommends schools consider:

  • Purpose: How can AI help achieve educational goals?
  • Compliance: How does AI fit with existing policies?
  • Knowledge: How can schools advance AI Literacy?
  • Balance: What are the benefits and risks of AI?
  • Integrity: How does AI fit into policies on things like cheating?
  • Agency: How can humans stay in the loop on AI?
  • Evaluation: How can schools regularly assess the impact of AI?
 

41 states sue Meta, claiming Instagram, Facebook are addictive, harm kids — from washingtonpost.com by Cristiano Lima and Naomi Nix
The action marks the most sprawling state challenge to date over social media’s impact on children’s mental health

Forty-one states and the District of Columbia are suing Meta, alleging that the tech giant harms children by building addictive features into Instagram and Facebook. Tuesday’s legal actions represent the most significant effort by state enforcers to rein in the impact of social media on children’s mental health.

 

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.

 

Next month Microsoft Corp. will start making its artificial intelligence features for Office widely available to corporate customers. Soon after, that will include the ability for it to read your emails, learn your writing style and compose messages on your behalf.

From DSC:
As readers of this blog know, I’m generally pro-technology. I see most technologies as tools — which can be used for good or for ill. So I will post items both pro and con concerning AI.

But outsourcing email communications to AI isn’t on my wish list or to-do list.

 

Deepfakes: An evidentiary tsunami! — fromthebrainyacts.beehiiv.com by Josh Kubicki

Excerpt: (emphasis DSC):

I’ve written and spoken about this before but the rise of deepfakes is going to have a profound impact on courts throughout the world. This week we saw three major deepfake stories.

Whether you are a lawyer or not, this topic will impact you. So, please consider these questions as we will need to have answers for each one very soon (if not now).

  1. How will we establish a reliable and consistent standard to authenticate digital evidence as genuine and not altered by deepfake technology?
  2. Will the introduction of deepfakes shift the traditional burdens of proof or production, especially when digital evidence is introduced?
  3. Will courts require expert witnesses for digital evidence authentication in every case, and what standards will be used to qualify these experts?
  4. Are there existing technological tools or methods to detect deepfakes? (yes there is but it is not 100%) How can courts keep abreast of rapidly advancing technology?
  5. …plus several more questions

From DSC:
What are law schools doing about this? Are they addressing this?


And speaking of legal matters and law schools, this might be interesting or helpful to someone out there:

 

The Prompt #14: Your Guide to Custom Instructions — from noisemedia.ai by Alex Banks

Whilst we typically cover a single ‘prompt’ to use with ChatGPT, today we’re exploring a new feature now available to everyone: custom instructions.

You provide specific directions for ChatGPT leading to greater control of the output. It’s all about guiding the AI to get the responses you really want.

To get started:
Log into ChatGPT ? Click on your name/email bottom left corner ? select ‘Custom instructions’


Meet Zoom AI Companion, your new AI assistant! Unlock the benefits with a paid Zoom account — from blog.zoom.us by Smita Hashim

We’re excited to introduce you to AI Companion (formerly Zoom IQ), your new generative AI assistant across the Zoom platform. AI Companion empowers individuals by helping them be more productive, connect and collaborate with teammates, and improve their skills.

Envision being able to interact with AI Companion through a conversational interface and ask for help on a whole range of tasks, similarly to how you would with a real assistant. You’ll be able to ask it to help prepare for your upcoming meeting, get a consolidated summary of prior Zoom meetings and relevant chat threads, and even find relevant documents and tickets from connected third-party applications with your permission.

From DSC:
You can ask AI Companion to catch you up on what you missed during a meeting in progress.”

And what if some key details were missed? Should you rely on this? I’d treat this with care/caution myself.



A.I.’s un-learning problem: Researchers say it’s virtually impossible to make an A.I. model ‘forget’ the things it learns from private user data — from fortune.com by Stephen Pastis (behind paywall)

That’s because, as it turns out, it’s nearly impossible to remove a user’s data from a trained A.I. model without resetting the model and forfeiting the extensive money and effort put into training it. To use a human analogy, once an A.I. has “seen” something, there is no easy way to tell the model to “forget” what it saw. And deleting the model entirely is also surprisingly difficult.

This represents one of the thorniest, unresolved, challenges of our incipient artificial intelligence era, alongside issues like A.I. “hallucinations” and the difficulties of explaining certain A.I. outputs. 


More companies see ChatGPT training as a hot job perk for office workers — from cnbc.com by Mikaela Cohen

Key points:

  • Workplaces filled with artificial intelligence are closer to becoming a reality, making it essential that workers know how to use generative AI.
  • Offering specific AI chatbot training to current employees could be your next best talent retention tactic.
  • 90% of business leaders see ChatGPT as a beneficial skill in job applicants, according to a report from career site Resume Builder.

OpenAI Plugs ChatGPT Into Canva to Sharpen Its Competitive Edge in AI — from decrypt.co by Jose Antonio Lanz
Now ChatGPT Plus users can “talk” to Canva directly from OpenAI’s bot, making their workflow easier.

This strategic move aims to make the process of creating visuals such as logos, banners, and more, even more simple for businesses and entrepreneurs.

This latest integration could improve the way users generate visuals by offering a streamlined and user-friendly approach to digital design.


From DSC:
This Tweet addresses a likely component of our future learning ecosystems:


Large language models aren’t people. Let’s stop testing them as if they were. — from technologyreview.com by Will Douglas Heaven
With hopes and fears about this technology running wild, it’s time to agree on what it can and can’t do.

That’s why a growing number of researchers—computer scientists, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, linguists—want to overhaul the way they are assessed, calling for more rigorous and exhaustive evaluation. Some think that the practice of scoring machines on human tests is wrongheaded, period, and should be ditched.

“There’s a lot of anthropomorphizing going on,” she says. “And that’s kind of coloring the way that we think about these systems and how we test them.”

“There is a long history of developing methods to test the human mind,” says Laura Weidinger, a senior research scientist at Google DeepMind. “With large language models producing text that seems so human-like, it is tempting to assume that human psychology tests will be useful for evaluating them. But that’s not true: human psychology tests rely on many assumptions that may not hold for large language models.”


We Analyzed Millions of ChatGPT User Sessions: Visits are Down 29% since May, Programming Assistance is 30% of Use — from sparktoro.com by Rand Fishkin

In concert with the fine folks at Datos, whose opt-in, anonymized panel of 20M devices (desktop and mobile, covering 200+ countries) provides outstanding insight into what real people are doing on the web, we undertook a challenging project to answer at least some of the mystery surrounding ChatGPT.



Crypto in ‘arms race’ against AI-powered scams — Quantstamp co-founder — from cointelegraph.com by Tom Mitchelhill
Quantstamp’s Richard Ma explained that the coming surge in sophisticated AI phishing scams could pose an existential threat to crypto organizations.

With the field of artificial intelligence evolving at near breakneck speed, scammers now have access to tools that can help them execute highly sophisticated attacks en masse, warns the co-founder of Web3 security firm Quantstamp.


 
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