June 29, 2024, 7:15 p.m. • VentureBeat • (5 Minute Read)
From chatbots to superintelligence: Mapping AI's ambitious journey
Human civilization may be on the verge of creating a higher intellect than itself, making such a development increasingly plausible. Last week, the launch of Safe Superintelligence, Inc. (SSI) by Ilya Sutskever, a founding member of OpenAI, marks a dedicated effort to develop advanced artificial superintelligence (ASI), surpassing human cognitive abilities. With experts divided on the feasibility and timeline, the AI landscape continues to evolve swiftly, potentially blurring the boundaries between human and artificial intelligence. Amidst debates regarding superintelligence, near-future advancements are expected to impact and shape the AI field substantially, enhancing capabilities and reliability. AI's progress is likely to catalyze innovation, and businesses must prepare to thrive in this AI-driven future.
June 24, 2024, 7:18 p.m. • Fortune • (3 Minute Read)
OpenAI's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, has raised alarm about the potential for artificial intelligence to displace jobs in the creative industry. Murati suggests that some creative jobs "maybe will go away," questioning whether they "shouldn't have been there in the first place." The use of AI programs like ChatGPT and DALL-E in graphic design and Hollywood has already led to job loss and worker strikes. Murati acknowledges the technology's potential to enhance creativity but predicts job displacement, without specifying the extent. Other executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and online learning platform Coursera's CEO Jeff Maggioncalda, have also warned of the impact of AI on the job market, emphasizing the necessity for reskilling and adaptation.
June 19, 2024, 9 a.m. • MIT Technology Review • (4 Minute Read)
The new Chinese text-to-video generative AI model, Kling, has been released by Kuaishou, a platform with over 600 million active users. The model, capable of generating videos up to two minutes long at a frame rate of 30fps and a resolution of up to 1080p, is freely available for public testing. The writer discovered that while the videos generated by Kling align closely with the provided prompts and demonstrate accurate representation of physics, they are currently capped at five seconds in length and exhibit shortcomings such as blurriness and graininess. However, the model's capacity to simulate physics and natural environments has been lauded, and it is considered a potential game-changer for short-video creators, despite its limitations.
June 14, 2024, 7:37 p.m. • CNET • (3 Minute Read)
After spending four months reviewing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini, a reporter's brain has been rewired to rely heavily on generative technology. The reporter, who has been evaluating the chatbots according to CNET's testing standards, has become increasingly reliant on them for providing immediate answers and information. While AI chatbots have proven to be a valuable tool for specific tasks such as finding niche information and making purchase decisions, their reliance on online opinions can lead to inaccuracies. The reporter highlights the need for prompt engineering to effectively utilize AI and cautions against overreliance on them, stressing the importance of double-checking their work due to their potential for mistakes. This story serves as a reflection on the impact and potential pitfalls of integrating AI chatbots into daily life, raising questions about the role of human thought and decision-making in an AI-dependent world.
June 9, 2024, 9:15 p.m. • VentureBeat • (5 Minute Read)
In a recent news story titled "The AI paradox: Path to utopia or dystopia?", the debate over the responsible development and deployment of AI has been reignited by recent headlines, such as an AI suggesting people should eat rocks or the creation of 'Miss AI,' the first beauty contest with AI-generated contestants. While there have been concerns about potential risks from AI technology, including its weaponization, encoding of societal biases, and privacy violations, there is no evidence yet that AI on its own is posing harm. The emergence of advanced AI models and the potential achievement of artificial general intelligence (AGI) within five years have raised existential worries, but disagreement exists about whether this progress will continue or lead to a new "AI Winter." Responsible AI development with ethical principles, safety testing, human oversight, and control measures is considered essential to navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape. This article presents different viewpoints and acknowledges the uncertainty surrounding AI's future impact on society.
June 9, 2024, 3:10 p.m. • Variety • (7 Minute Read)
The animation community is grappling with the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the industry at the Annecy Festival. The use of AI in animation raises concerns about job obsolescence, copyright issues, and the overall impact on artistic expression and workflow. While some see AI as a productivity tool that can enhance the creative process, others worry about its potential to infringe on copyright and replace human creativity. The industry is urged to adapt and integrate AI into their work and education, emphasizing the need to establish policies and ethical boundaries around AI usage. As animators navigate through this technological evolution, they are encouraged to harness the benefits of AI while also respecting artistic ownership and creativity.
June 3, 2024, 9:17 p.m. • WIRED • (5 Minute Read)
"The Uncanny Rise of the World’s First AI Beauty Pageant" reports the launch of the "world’s first beauty pageant for AI creators" by Fanvue, featuring AI-infused creators vying to make a liar out of Keats. Among the 10 semifinalists chosen from a pool of 1,500 applicants are AI models with stereotypical beauty traits, reflecting a narrow vision of attractiveness. The pageant, similar to human beauty competitions, values "social media clout" and prompt-based creation. The AI models draw on stereotypes of traditional beauty, reflecting a larger societal issue. The author highlights the increasing number of AI creators on Fanvue, like the popular Aitana Lopez, and emphasizes the AI industry's potential impact on societal beauty standards.
May 21, 2024, 4 a.m. • VentureBeat • (4 Minute Read)
At the Think 2024 conference, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna announced new advancements in the company's generative AI efforts, emphasizing the importance of real open source for enterprise AI. IBM unveiled a set of Granite models, ranging from 3 to 34 billion parameters, and made them fully available as open-source code under the Apache license. This move marks a significant step in enabling contributions and growth for the technology. The company also introduced three new Watsonx assistants, including a code assistant for Java and an assistant for IBM Z, aimed at helping organizations manage IBM Z environments. Additionally, IBM is optimistic about the potential of gen AI to create jobs and increase total productivity, highlighting the significance of these capabilities for the future.
May 18, 2024, 7:05 p.m. • VentureBeat • (4 Minute Read)
In the dawn of emotionally intelligent AI, the release of OpenAI's GPT-4o, which can understand and respond to emotions in real time, signals a significant advancement in human-computer interaction technology. Despite not being categorized as artificial general intelligence (AGI) yet, GPT-4o's ability to integrate audio, visual, and textual data presents transformative opportunities in areas such as healthcare and education. For instance, it could lead to more nuanced patient interaction in healthcare, as well as personalized and adaptive content in education. The potential for AI to become an integral part of emotional support networks, providing empathetic companionship and aid, raises both excitement and concern for the responsible and ethical use of these technologies. As AI tools become more embedded in daily lives, a dialogue among developers, users, and policymakers becomes essential to ensure that AI continues to empower rather than diminish humanity.
May 18, 2024, 5:25 p.m. • The Guardian • (2 Minute Read)
OpenAI has come under fire as a departing researcher, Jan Leike, criticized the company for prioritizing "shiny products" over safety. Leike, who was a key safety researcher and co-head of superalignment at OpenAI, resigned following a disagreement over the company's priorities, stating that the safety culture had taken a backseat. His departure, along with another senior safety figure, comes in the wake of the launch of OpenAI's latest AI model, GPT-4o. Leike emphasized the importance of investing in safety, social impact, confidentiality, and security for the next generation of AI models, highlighting the inherent risks in developing smarter-than-human machines. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, acknowledged Leike's concerns and expressed the company's commitment to prioritize safety. This development raises questions about regulation and oversight of rapidly advancing AI technology.
May 16, 2024, 4 a.m. • MIT News • (6 Minute Read)
Researchers at MIT and the University of Basel have developed a new technique using generative artificial intelligence to automatically classify phases of physical systems, particularly in the context of investigating novel materials. This approach aims to efficiently map out phase diagrams for unknown physical systems, alleviating the need for laborious manual techniques and extensive labeled training datasets. The physics-informed machine-learning framework leverages generative models to detect phase transitions in materials, potentially enabling scientists to autonomously discover unknown phases of matter. This innovative method, detailed in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could significantly enhance the computational efficiency of identifying phase transitions and has potential applications in studying thermodynamic properties and quantum systems.
May 9, 2024, 3:50 p.m. • TechCrunch • (7 Minute Read)
Paris-based Mistral AI is currently raising money at a $6 billion valuation, according to sources. This valuation is three times higher than its valuation in December, as the startup aims to compete with industry giants like OpenAI and Anthropic. While SoftBank is said to not be participating in this fundraising round, DST, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed Venture Partners have expressed an interest in being part of it. The round is expected to be around $600 million. Mistral AI, known for its open source approach to developing large language models, has attracted significant investor interest despite not disclosing its user base or revenues. This latest fundraising demonstrates the heightened competition and considerable investor interest in the AI sector.
March 22, 2024, 10:01 a.m. • Scientific American • (7 Minute Read)
Scientific American has recently reported on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolutionized the music industry with award-winning compositions. Yaboi Hanoi, a music technologist from Bangkok, Thailand, created a unique blend of Thai and Western music with the help of machine learning. This allowed him to break away from the constraints of the 12-tone equal temperament tuning that has dominated Western music for centuries. Through AI tools like Mawf, Hanoi transformed recordings of traditional Thai instruments into a fusion EDM track named "Enter Demons & Gods". The piece won the AI Song Contest in 2022, marking a significant leap in diversifying music styles with the aid of AI. This landmark achievement hints at the potential of AI to empower creative individuals in preserving and reinvigorating diverse cultural music traditions.
March 20, 2024, 10 a.m. • WIRED • (13 Minute Read)
In 2017, eight Google employees, including Noam Shazeer, Jakob Uszkoreit, and Llion Jones, collaborated on the groundbreaking "Attention Is All You Need" paper, introducing the transformative AI architecture known as transformers. The paper proposed a self-attention mechanism that revolutionized the processing of language data and greatly improved translation tasks. Initially met with skepticism, the team's relentless experimentation and innovation ultimately led to the development of highly efficient models, setting new benchmarks in machine translation performance. This ambitious project, driven by dedicated individuals, laid the foundation for the transformative impact of modern AI systems and continues to shape the development of advanced language and multimodal AI technologies.
March 14, 2024, 9 a.m. • Mashable • (3 Minute Read)
Microsoft Copilot's free tier is set to receive a major upgrade with the introduction of GPT-4 Turbo, a more advanced version of the AI model. The new upgrade brings several enhancements to the AI assistant, including an extended knowledge base cut-off date, an improved ability to process larger amounts of text in a single prompt, and a reduction in "laziness" that had been previously observed in the GPT-4 model. The upgrade to GPT-4 Turbo aims to provide free users with an enhanced and more capable Copilot experience. This development comes amid rumors of a new GPT-4.5 Turbo model, which is speculated to be exclusive to the paid tier.
March 13, 2024, 11:48 a.m. • The Associated Press • (5 Minute Read)
European Union lawmakers have given final approval to the 27-nation bloc’s artificial intelligence law, marking a significant milestone in the regulation of AI technology. The AI Act, which is expected to take effect later this year, is designed to prioritize human control over AI, allowing for economic growth and societal progress while safeguarding against potential risks. The law establishes a risk-based approach, with varying levels of scrutiny for different AI systems. It also addresses generative AI models and deepfakes, with provisions for transparency, data usage, and risk assessment. The EU's regulatory efforts are expected to influence global AI governance, as other countries and regions are also developing their own AI regulations. The EU will begin enforcing the AI Act in stages, with fines of up to 35 million euros or 7% of a company’s global revenue for violations. This law is just the beginning of the EU's AI-related legislation, as further regulations may be pursued in the future.
March 12, 2024, 12:30 p.m. • Nature.com • (5 Minute Read)
OpenAI’s debut of its impressive text-to-video tool, Sora, has raised important questions regarding its potential impact on science and society. The California-based company showcased how Sora can create photorealistic videos from short text prompts, leading to concerns about the misuse of the technology. The tool's capabilities have sparked worries about the potential for misinformation and hateful content, particularly in the context of upcoming elections. However, experts also see the potential benefits of Sora, such as simplifying complex concepts for a lay audience and aiding in data management for scientific research. With such powerful technology at hand, society faces the challenge of developing new ways to evaluate the content produced. As these tools democratize the creation of media content, there is an urgent need to navigate the consequences of their widespread use.
March 7, 2024, 5 a.m. • Mashable • (3 Minute Read)
In a recent article by Joseph Green, it has been revealed that Udemy is offering a wide range of online AI and ChatGPT courses for free. These courses cover topics such as AI for Everyone, AI-Powered Chatbot, AI SEO Mastery, and many others. These courses can help learners understand artificial intelligence, boost their business, and develop marketable skills. Although these free online courses do not offer certificates of completion or direct instructor messaging, learners still get unrestricted access to all the video content. This means they can learn at their own pace. With the growing importance of AI in various industries, these free courses offer an opportunity for anyone to learn and benefit from this technology.
Feb. 29, 2024, 2:55 p.m. • The Independent • (2 Minute Read)
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has announced a collaboration with robotics startup Figure to integrate its AI systems into humanoid robots. The partnership, backed by $675 million in venture capital funding from tech industry giants like Amazon and Microsoft, aims to bring AI models into the physical world for the first time. The California-based Figure plans to deploy human-like robots to workplaces and homes, with OpenAI developing specialized AI models tailored for Figure's robots. This move signals OpenAI's return to robotics research, aiming to leverage its existing AI technology to enhance the capabilities of humanoid robots. Despite differing views on the practicality of humanoid robots, this collaboration signifies a significant step toward integrating AI-powered robots into everyday life.
Feb. 24, 2024, 9:37 p.m. • The Guardian • (3 Minute Read)
OpenAI has unveiled its new video generation tool named Sora, which can create detailed, high-definition clips from brief text descriptions. However, closer examination shows that the tool struggles with accurately simulating the physics of complex scenes, indicating its limitations in understanding physical reality. While the tool appears impressive at first, it exhibits difficulties such as movement inconsistencies and confusion about cause and effect. Despite its current limitations, OpenAI views Sora as a stepping stone towards achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI). However, the company's goal of AGI may require machines to understand not only the laws of physics but also how humans operate in the real world, a challenge that may be beyond the capabilities of current AI. The article suggests that understanding the development of babies, as researched by Alison Gopnik, could offer valuable insights for the pursuit of AGI.