AI round-up: Week of Dec. 4, 2023
We’re looking at the penultimate edition of the 2023 AI round-up. It seems like I launched this just yesterday. But in the world of AI news, yesterday might as well be years ago.
Over the course of the last three issues we’ve covered Sam Altman being fired. Sam Altman being rehired. And Sam Altman is back, officially, as the CEO of OpenAI. Want more on all of the names, drama and movement over the past year? The New York Times wrote a hell of a piece breaking this down. It's labeled as a 17-minute read. And they’re not far off.
While it’s easy to get hung up on the news cycle with all this intense moving and shaking, some of these stories are starting to create discussion points that need attention. Let’s start this week’s round-up with a few that are catching mine.
This week’s issue: 12 stories (counting the NYT article linked above)
The AI anxiety meter: Mild (but moderate for those of us close to SEO strategy)
How long to read: 20 minutes (NOT counting the NYT article linked above)
1. The top Google image for singer Israel Kamakawiwo’ole isn’t real. Why does this matter? Because we’re hitting a point where search is becoming a hot issue. There will be so much AI-generated content in the next year that searches may not return ‘real’ results. (And human content could be a premium – see the second article.) This will be one more reason more people use AI tools for search and discovery, disrupting SEO as we know it. So…how will people know what’s real? And are companies moving fast enough to adjust their search strategy? (Or invest and pivot to earned channels?)
2. Human-generated content at a premium? Considering that last article, where exactly does human-generated content stand? Christopher Penn broke down a fascinating study that recently wrapped where different groups evaluated content. Some was human. Some wasn’t. Some of the people knew. Some didn’t. The results? Surprising. We’ll make this the must-read of the week.
3. More on the erosion of Google’s SEO foothold is in this week’s Marketing AI Show. A great take from Paul and Mike at the 23-minute mark.
4. Speaking of Google…we see you being sneaky. If you blinked, you missed it. Gemini is here. See Ethan Mollick’s take here.
5. OpenAI is delaying the launch of its custom GPT store until early 2024.
6. Maybe that’s because the GPTs are leaking company secrets?
7. ChatGPT isn’t the only AI tool leaking secrets. Amazon’s Q has ‘severe hallucinations’ and leaks confidential data.
8. Speaking of OpenAI: Its COO, Brad Lightcap, talks about the ChatGPT launch, DevDay and how Sam Altman thinks.
9. Meta’s new AI image generator was trained on 1.1 billion Facebook and Instagram photos.
10. Resource: ChatGPT prompt frameworks. Did you know there were that many frameworks out there? Me neither. Great article from Shelly Palmer.
11. Resource: The Ethical Use of AI – for PR practitioners (from PRSA)
As a reminder, this is a round-up of the biggest stories, often hitting multiple newsletters I receive/review. The sources are many…which I’m happy to read on your behalf. Let me know if there’s one you’d like me to track or have questions about a topic you’re not seeing here.