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Breaking Silos: Experts Reveal Secret to Building User-Centric AI Products
Cross-functional collaboration is essential for building user-centric AI products that truly meet customer needs, according to experts from Capital One, Pinterest, and Slack at VB Transform 2024. AI innovation and its challenges: The rise of generative AI has led to a non-deterministic paradigm in product development, requiring teams to navigate numerous variables while focusing on quality, safety, and performance: The rapid pace of AI innovation and the evolution of AI foundations have made it challenging for developers to keep up with the latest advancements. With AI and large language models (LLMs), predicting the outcomes of user experiences has become difficult,...
read Jul 12, 2024Google’s AI Robots Learn from Videos, Hinting at Transformative Applications
Google's AI robots are making significant strides in learning by watching videos, demonstrating the potential for transformative applications of advanced language models like Gemini 1.5 Pro in robotics. Video training enables robots to navigate and complete tasks: By watching video tours of designated areas, Google's RT-2 robots equipped with the Gemini 1.5 Pro AI model can learn about their environment and carry out requests at their destination: The AI's long context window allows it to process extensive information simultaneously, enabling the robot to absorb details from the video to complete tasks based on its learned knowledge. In practical tests within...
read Jul 12, 2024Bipartisan Bill Aims to Protect Creators’ Rights in the Age of Generative AI
The bipartisan COPIED Act aims to protect journalists and artists from having their work used by AI models without consent. Introducing standards for authenticating AI-generated content: The COPIED Act directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish guidelines for proving the origin of content and detecting synthetic content: This includes methods like watermarking to authenticate the source of creative works. NIST will also develop security measures to prevent tampering with these authentication markers. Requiring transparency and consent for AI use of creative content: Under the bill, AI tools used for generating journalistic or creative content must allow...
read Jul 12, 2024AI Beauty Pageant Sparks Outrage Over Unrealistic Standards and Objectification of Women
The first "Miss AI" contest, held by influencer platform Fanvue, has sparked controversy for promoting unrealistic beauty standards through AI-generated social media influencers. Key details of the contest: Fanvue's "Miss AI" pageant, part of the "World AI Creator Awards," judged AI-generated social media influencers: The winner, Kenza Layli, is a fictional Instagram influencer from Morocco with over 200,000 followers, created by Myriam Bessa of the Phoenix AI agency. The contest awarded cash prizes to the creators of the top three AI-generated influencers, with Bessa receiving $5,000 for Layli's first-place win. CNN covered the event, seemingly referring to the AI-generated images...
read Jul 12, 2024Hong Kong Firm Relaunches Tech Blogs with Fake Content, Stolen Identities
In a brazen misuse of AI technology, a Hong Kong-based web advertising firm has relaunched classic tech blogs like The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) and iLounge, populating them with AI-generated content falsely attributed to the original writers. Unethical use of AI and stolen identities: Web Orange Limited, the company behind the relaunch, claims to have purchased the domain names and brand identities but not the original content. They have used AI to reword old articles and generate new ones, attaching the names of former writers without their consent: Christina Warren, a former TUAW writer now at GitHub, discovered her name...
read Jul 12, 2024OpenAI Unveils AI Progress Scale, Sparking Debate Over AGI Timeline and Safety Concerns
OpenAI has introduced an internal scale to track the progress of its AI systems toward artificial general intelligence, providing a framework for evaluating the capabilities of its models and setting milestones for future advancements. Key takeaways from the OpenAI scale: The scale ranges from Level 1 to Level 5, with each level representing a significant advancement in AI capabilities. Current chatbots like ChatGPT are at Level 1, while OpenAI claims to be nearing Level 2, which is defined as an AI system capable of solving basic problems at the level of a person with a PhD. The highest level, Level...
read Jul 12, 2024OpenAI’s 5-Step Roadmap to AGI: From Chatbots to Autonomous Organizations by 2030
OpenAI's roadmap to AGI revealed: OpenAI has outlined a five-step plan to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI) by the end of the decade, with the company currently transitioning from the first to the second stage. Chatbots mark the first milestone: The initial level, which has already been achieved with models like GPT-3.5 and ChatGPT, focuses on developing AI with conversational language abilities: Frontier-grade AIs like GPT-4o, Gemini Pro 1.5, and Claude Sonnet 3.5 represent the pinnacle of this stage, capable of complex, context-aware conversations and limited reasoning. These models mark a significant advancement over earlier conversational AI like Siri or...
read Jul 12, 2024Financial Services Cautiously Embraces Generative AI, Balancing Innovation and Regulation
The financial services industry is cautiously exploring generative AI's potential, balancing innovation with regulatory compliance and data security concerns. Despite being a highly regulated sector, financial services companies are finding ways to leverage AI to enhance customer experiences, improve efficiency, and drive financial inclusion. Key takeaways: Experian and Northwestern Mutual executives highlight the transformative impact of generative AI in financial services, while emphasizing the need for responsible adoption: Shri Santhanam, EVP and GM of Software, Platforms, and AI at Experian North America, notes that AI can contribute to various aspects of financial services, from writing management to productivity, with the...
read Jul 12, 2024SoftBank’s $600M Graphcore Deal Is a Bold Challenge to Nvidia’s Dominance
SoftBank's acquisition of UK AI chip startup Graphcore marks a significant push into the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. The deal, reportedly valued at over $600 million, positions SoftBank to become a key player in the AI chip industry, despite the dominance of American giant Nvidia. Strategic move to capitalize on AI growth: SoftBank's owner, Masayoshi Son, sees the acquisition as a crucial step in making his company a major force in the development of AI technology: The deal comes at a time when AI is becoming increasingly pivotal across various industries, with the potential to revolutionize computing and...
read Jul 12, 2024There’s a New Emotionally Intelligent AI Model Offering Empathetic Support and Companionship
A groundbreaking conversational AI model, HelpingAI-15B, has been introduced, setting a new standard for emotionally intelligent and empathetic human-machine interaction. Key Objectives: HelpingAI-15B is designed to engage users in open-ended dialogue while providing emotionally attuned and supportive responses: The model can recognize and validate user emotions and contexts, ensuring sensitive and ethical interactions. It aims to provide psychologically-grounded responses that cater to a wide range of emotional states and communicative needs. Continuous improvement is a priority, with the model constantly enhancing its emotional awareness and dialogue skills. Innovative Training Methodology: The development of HelpingAI-15B combines cutting-edge techniques and insights to...
read Jul 12, 2024The Dark Secret Powering AI: Exploited Human Labor Fuels Tech Giants
AI's rise powered by exploited human labor: When tech companies present their AI products as sleek, autonomous machines, they often ignore the reality of the low-paid, menial labor that trains these systems and is managed by them. Illusion of autonomous AI has historical roots: The current perception of AI as fully automated has parallels to the 18th-century "Mechanical Turk" chess-playing machine, which secretly relied on a human chess master to operate it. Similarly, today's sophisticated AI software functions only through thousands of hours of low-paid human labor. Amazon coined the term "artificial artificial intelligence" to describe the process of keeping...
read Jul 12, 2024AI Vision Models Fail Basic Tests, Highlighting Significant Capability Gaps
State-of-the-art AI models struggle with basic visual reasoning tasks that are trivial for humans, highlighting significant gaps in their capabilities: Key findings: Researchers tested four top-level AI vision models on simple visual analysis tasks and found that they often fall well short of human-level performance: The models struggled with tasks such as counting rows and columns in a blank grid, identifying circled letters in a word, and counting nested shapes. Small changes to the tasks, like increasing the number of overlapping circles, led to significant drops in accuracy, suggesting the models are biased towards familiar patterns they were trained on....
read Jul 12, 2024Tesla’s AI-Driven Rally Unravels Amid Robotaxi Delays, Bubble Concerns
The AI hype surrounding Tesla stock appears to have gone too far, prompting a sell-off and downgrades from analysts concerned about inflated valuations and delayed robotaxi plans: UBS downgrade reflects concerns over AI-driven rally: UBS analysts downgraded Tesla from neutral to sell, warning that the stock price has risen "too much, too soon" on a wave of AI optimism rather than the strength of its core auto business: The analysts believe Tesla's stock has been caught up in the AI "trade/phenomenon" and is vulnerable if market enthusiasm for AI diminishes. While Tesla has grand plans for utilizing AI in autonomous...
read Jul 12, 2024VentureBeat AI Innovation Awards: OpenAI, Microsoft Lead Winners Transforming Industries with Generative AI
VentureBeat announced the winners of its sixth annual AI Innovation Awards, recognizing achievements in generative AI across five categories. Key winners and highlights: The awards showcased enterprise implementation, innovation, startup promise, and initiatives in diversity and open source contributions: OpenAI won the Generative AI Innovator of the Year award for its rapid advancements and viral successes like ChatGPT and GPT-4, steering the narrative of AI's future. Microsoft was awarded Best Enterprise Implementation of Generative AI for incorporating the technology into its Dynamics, Power, and Microsoft 365 platforms, enabling enterprise applications with generative AI capabilities. Patronus AI won Best Enterprise Implementation...
read Jul 12, 2024Ex-OpenAI Employee Compares OpenAI to the Titanic
A former OpenAI employee recently revealed he left the company due to concerns it was prioritizing product development over safety, drawing parallels to the Titanic disaster. OpenAI as the Titanic: William Saunders, who worked on OpenAI's "superalignment team" for three years, shared his reasons for leaving in a podcast interview: He questioned whether OpenAI was on a path more akin to the successful Apollo space program or the tragic Titanic, ultimately concluding the latter. Saunders described an office culture where employees raising safety concerns were punished and leadership focused on profit, stating, "Over time, it started to really feel like...
read Jul 12, 2024Samsung Bets on Tailored AI to Regain Ground in China’s Smartphone Market
Samsung is developing AI features specifically for the Chinese market in a bid to regain lost market share, as it faces intense competition from local players like Huawei. Tailored AI development for China: Samsung's mobile chief, TM Roh, revealed that the company is creating a suite of artificial intelligence features called Galaxy AI with a focus on the Chinese market: Samsung aims to satisfy Chinese consumers by advancing mobile AI technology that caters to their specific needs and preferences. The company believes that developing AI features tailored for China will contribute to its recovery in the highly competitive Chinese smartphone...
read Jul 12, 2024Google’s Gemini-Powered Robot Navigates Offices, Follows Complex Commands
Google DeepMind has unveiled a chatbot-powered robot capable of navigating an office environment and following complex verbal and visual instructions, demonstrating the potential for large language models to enable more intelligent and useful physical machines. Gemini chatbot upgrade enables advanced robot capabilities: Google DeepMind's robot leverages the latest version of the company's Gemini large language model to understand commands and navigate its surroundings: The robot can parse complex verbal instructions like "Find me somewhere to write" and lead a person to an appropriate location, such as a whiteboard. Gemini's ability to handle video and text input, combined with pre-recorded video...
read Jul 12, 2024Walmart Balances Efficiency with Human Oversight as It Continues to Double Down on AI
Walmart continues to expand its use of generative AI across the company, focusing on improving customer care, associate productivity, operations, and developer efficiency, while maintaining a human presence to ensure accuracy and protect its brand. Scaling AI as a platform: Walmart is building its AI capabilities as platforms that allow for rapid iteration and experimentation: By developing foundational AI systems that can be broadly applied, Walmart can quickly test and deploy new tools and approaches. Walmart's large employee base serves as an initial testing ground for new AI technologies before they are rolled out more widely. Ensuring accuracy and limiting...
read Jul 12, 2024Microsoft Is Upgrading OneNote with Copilot Capabilities
Microsoft's Copilot AI is bringing handwriting recognition to OneNote to enhance note-taking capabilities for its users. Key Features: Copilot's integration with OneNote introduces powerful handwriting recognition and analysis tools: Users can write handwritten notes using a stylus, and Copilot will be able to read, summarize, and even generate to-do lists based on the notes. The AI-powered feature can convert handwritten notes into editable and shareable text, making it easier to work with notes taken by hand. Availability and Testing: The handwriting recognition feature is currently in beta testing, with promising results: Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscribers and Copilot Pro users...
read Jul 12, 2024Microsoft’s VALL-E 2 Achieves Human-Level Speech Synthesis, Sparking Ethical Debate
Microsoft's VALL-E 2 reaches human parity in text-to-speech synthesis, raising ethical concerns about potential misuse. Key breakthrough: VALL-E 2, Microsoft's latest text-to-speech (TTS) generator, has achieved "human parity" for the first time, producing speech indistinguishable from a human voice: The model only needs a few seconds of audio to reproduce a voice that matches or exceeds the quality of human speech when compared to standard speech libraries. VALL-E 2 consistently generates high-quality, natural-sounding speech even for traditionally challenging phrases due to its "Repetition Aware Sampling" and "Grouped Code Modeling" features. Potential applications and risks: While Microsoft sees beneficial uses for...
read Jul 12, 2024Instabase Voted Most Likely to Succeed at VentureBeat’s Transform 2024
Instabase, an AI company focused on accelerating decision-making in enterprises by unlocking unstructured data, was voted most likely to succeed at the Transform 2024 Innovation Showcase. Key Takeaways: Instabase's AI Hub is being used by the world's largest enterprises across various industries to automate document workflows and take actions based on insights from all data types: Four of the top five banks are using Instabase's technology The company has raised $177 million to date, with a valuation of $2 billion Instabase's AI Hub can unlock any unstructured data, including images, PDFs, Excel files, and messages The Instabase Story: Founded in...
read Jul 12, 2024Metafilter Turns 25: Pioneering Online Community Weathers Challenges, Looks to Future
Metafilter, a pioneering online community, turns 25 this month, remaining a beacon of early internet culture and civility in an era of rapid change and consolidation. A tight-knit community frozen in time: Metafilter has maintained its core identity and functionality over a quarter-century, preserving the spirit of the early web: The site's feed remains strictly chronological and text-only, eschewing modern social media features and resisting the urge to scale up or monetize aggressively. Its small, dedicated user base of around 10,000 active members fosters a sense of camaraderie and shared history, with the $5 membership fee and active moderation keeping...
read Jul 12, 2024Japan is Building a $1B AI Supercomputer with NVIDIA
The Japan National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) is significantly enhancing its AI research capabilities with the development of the AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure 3.0 supercomputer (ABCI 3.0), powered by NVIDIA H200 GPUs and Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking. Advancing Japan's AI sovereignty and competitiveness: AIST, one of Japan's largest public research organizations, is upgrading to ABCI 3.0 to bolster the country's AI research and development capabilities: The initiative is part of a $1 billion investment by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to strengthen computing resources and support cloud AI computing. ABCI 3.0 aims to enhance...
read Jul 12, 2024How AI Is Changing Healthcare: Personalized, Efficient Care and Groundbreaking Research
The AI-powered transformation of healthcare is underway, with generative AI driving unprecedented levels of precision, personalization, and efficiency in patient care, diagnostics, and research. Generative AI's impact on healthcare today: The technology is already changing various aspects of the healthcare industry, from improving diagnostic accuracy to streamlining administrative processes: AI-driven multisensory input and real-time data integration are enhancing disease detection and early intervention, leading to better patient outcomes. Personalized treatment plans based on patient data are being generated, tailoring care to individual needs. Administrative tasks like scheduling, billing, and documentation are being automated, reducing provider workloads and improving efficiency. AI-powered...
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