Welcome to our weekly roundup of artisanal handcrafted AI news.
This week Google said we should put glue on pizza.
OpenAI says it’s training a new model safely.
And Elon Musk says you’ll need a hobby because AI will take your job.
Let’s dig in.
Hey Google. Are you ok?
Google announced its AI Overview search feature last week and said it would change how people found information on its platform.
Well, it changed things all right, but not in a good way. Google AI Overview told users that pythons are mammals, suggested they put glue on pizza, and other blunders.
In just a few months Google got caught faking Gemini demo videos, Gemini generated inaccurate woke images, and now AI Overview is suggesting that people eat rocks.
It’s not a good look.
Safety second?
OpenAI had an AI safety snafu last week when key members of its superalignment team jumped ship. This week, the OpenAI board formed a Safety and Security Committee to get it back on track.
When you hear why Sam Altman was fired last year and see that he’s part of this committee, it feels like a case of the wolf looking after the sheep.
OpenAI says it’s training its new frontier model with “next-level capabilities” so let’s hope safety trumps profit.
OpenAI is trying to get on the straight and narrow with its accumulation of training data. It inked a deal with News Corp giving it access to content from the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and others.
You’ve got to wonder how the journalists feel about this.
People in Europe are very touchy over their personal data. This week the EU ChatGPT Taskforce released a report after investigating whether or not OpenAI complies with GDPR rules. The short answer is, maybe, maybe not.
We’re still figuring out how good GPT-4o is but even older versions of the model are still impressing us. Researchers found that GPT-4 Turbo outperforms financial analysts in predicting earnings. Will AI replace your fund manager?
We can, but should we?
Generative AI has made it possible to interact with virtual replicas of famous personalities. Just because we can, does that mean we should?
A German magazine printed an AI-generated ‘interview’ with Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher. There has been swift legal action from his family and the case is just one of several in the controversial AI imitation game.
AI companions could be a potential antidote to the loneliness epidemic many are experiencing. Once solely a feature of sci-fi movies, people are now forming “real” relationships with their AI companions.
Is this solving the problem, or making it worse?
If you’re old-school and still interact with real people, then you might want to grab these AI headphones. They let users focus on a single voice in noisy environments using Target Speech Hearing.
The tech is impressive and being able to tune out the crying baby on the other side of the restaurant is priceless.
Take my job
In an interview, Elon Musk said that as AI and robotics advance “Probably none of us will have a job”. He said any job a person did would be more of a hobby.
Musk went on to explain why that’s actually a good thing but said it raises some existential questions.
Will you be happy with a universal high income while AI and robots take over your job?
xAI raised another $6 billion in a series B funding round taking the company to a valuation of $24 billion. Musk had some interesting comments about what he plans to do with the money.
A big chunk of that cash will go towards the “Gigafactory of compute” Musk says he’s planning to build using 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs. NVIDIA’s record-breaking revenue rocketed 18% from the last quarter and shows no sign of slowing down.
Talking AI
This week we got to speak with Vivien Lin, Chief Product Officer at BingX, a leading cryptocurrency exchange. Vivien explained how smart contracts and the decentralized nature of blockchain complement the analytical capability of AI.
AI Events
Ai4 2024 is North America’s largest AI industry event. The AI and ML industry’s premier event takes place from 12-14 August in Las Vegas.
Ai4 2024 will see more than 350 speakers, including Geoffrey Hinton, and 150+ AI exhibits and training workshops will turn Las Vegas into the epicenter of AI innovation. If you want to be at the forefront of what’s happening in the AI industry then Ai4 is unmissable.
The Smart Data & AI Summit Saudi Arabia 2024 took place this week which saw 300+ professionals and top industry experts come together in Riyadh.
In other news…
Here are some other clickworthy AI stories we enjoyed this week:
- Does it matter if empathic AI has no empathy?
- Anduril is building the Pentagon’s dream of deadly drone swarms.
- Google’s weird AI answers hint at a fundamental problem that might not be solveable.
- White House pushes tech industry to shut down market for sexually abusive AI deepfakes.
- China’s military shows off rifle-toting robot dogs.
The Chinese troops’ #robot dogs debuted at the “Golden Dragon-2024” joint military exercise between #China and #Cambodia. Weighing over 50 kilograms, it can be equipped with a rifle and move forward quickly under the control of an operator. It can also shake hands with humans. pic.twitter.com/DJiJg83uRH
— Shanghai Daily (@shanghaidaily) May 27, 2024
And that’s a wrap.
I can’t wait for GPT-5, GPT-6, or whatever model it is OpenAI is busy training. I’m not sure Altman should be trusted to decide what’s safe and what isn’t, though. We still don’t know what Ilya saw, and Sam isn’t saying. What do you think?
AI companions, a good idea or just weird? Is this the inevitable next step after Facebook “friends” and Instagram likes from people we don’t know?
When Musk’s prediction of AI doing all the work for us is realized, maybe we’ll have time to hang out with real people again. Would you take a job as a hobby or let the AI do it?
Let us know and keep sending us links to any juicy AI news we may have missed.
