AI round-up: Week of Feb. 12, 2024
We have a lot to get into, so I’ll spare you an opening thought, and we’ll just jump in!
This week’s issue: 12-ish stories
The AI impact meter: High
How long to read: 30 minutes
1. The art of the prompt. “Because models and interfaces are dynamic, there is no “perfect” prompt.” But these could help.
2. Are you aware of Aware? I wasn’t, but holy cow … this software uses AI to monitor all employee's messages across all platforms.
3. AI is starting to threaten white-collar jobs. Few industries are immune. (paywall)
4. US patent office confirms AI can’t hold patents.
5. The ‘amazing ways’ Walmart is using generative AI. What do you think? Is it ‘amazing’?
6. The head of Nvidia thinks every country needs its own AI systems.
7. Midjourney 6 means the end for a big chunk of the photo industry. (paywall)
Note: Midjourney 6 is here. And it’s spectacular. See for yourself:
Prompt: abstract painting shows a tree filled with stars under a moon, in the style of Amanda Sage, text "Thank You" in the sky, hyper-detailed illustrations, joyful celebration of nature, dark gray and light bronze, Victor Nizovtsev, swirling vortexes, folk art inspiration --ar 75:128 --v 6.0 (from Midjourney user)
8. Sam Altman is trying to raise $7T. Seven. Trillion. Dollars. Rolls right off the tongue.
9. Sam Altman worries AI could go horribly wrong.
I don’t know what he’s so worried about…
• ChatGPT can remember things now.
• People are falling in love with AI chatbots (literally).
• McDonald's is making applicants take ‘weird’ personality tests.
And finally…Remember last week when Bard was rebranded Gemini? Well, we neglected the privacy announcement/reminder that came with it. From Digital Trends:
“Google recently rebranded its AI-powered Bard chatbot as Gemini, a move that prompted the web giant to refresh its privacy notice regarding data gathered by its AI tool.
It says that when you interact with Gemini, Google will collect the conversations you have with it, along with information about your location, usage data, and any feedback you give. Human reviewers may also read, annotate, and process your Gemini conversations, though the company says that to protect privacy, it disconnects the conversations from Google accounts before reviewers see them.
The notice warns users not to enter "confidential information ... or any data you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see or Google to use" to improve its products, services, and machine-learning technologies ...”
Side note: We are taking our show on the road. If you’re interested in a lunch-and-learn format for you, your team, or your leadership group, we now have a presentation that can be customized and help inform, educate, and lay out the first steps you can take to assess your company’s position and identify gaps.
Email me to learn more.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to share!
-Ben
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.