AI round-up: Week of Feb. 19, 2024
Go home, ChatGPT. You’re drunk.
So ChatGPT had a moment earlier this week … spouting gibberish and freaking people out.
But don’t worry – it turns out there was a perfectly fine explanation for this. ChatGPT/AI hasn’t gone rogue yet.
What may be the most amazing aspect of this is that it wasn’t the biggest moment of the past week. Not even close, actually.
This week’s issue: 11 stories
The AI impact meter: High
How long to read: 30 minutes (not including the pods)
The biggest news, by far.
Introducing Sora. Look, I could include ten different links here … or just this one to Vox, which has all the bases covered. I would encourage you to take your time reading through this one as well as visiting Sam Altman’s Twitter* page, where he demoed Sora in real time.
We heard Paul Roetzer say on a recent episode of The Artificial Intelligence Show (they renamed it!) that 2024 is the year of generative video. Didn’t take long to pay off that prediction.
While there is a lot of noise around this announcement, stop and think about how much things have changed in the last … six months? And dare yourself to think about how this announcement (and tech) looks six months from now.
*Yes, I still call it Twitter.
Bigger news.
The “most important stock on the planet Earth” delivers again.
Big news.
The state of (generative) search. If you invest in SEO planning/strategy/programs, this is a must-read, must-learn topic. It’s one we’re talking to people about quite a bit because the rules are changing. Mainly because the whole game will be changing.
Want to learn more? Here’s a deeper dive into one of the alternative tools the article is talking about. Hard Fork’s interview with Aravind Srinivas, chief executive of Perplexity. (Jump in at the 44-minute mark.)
The rest of the news:
What is the impact of AI on the climate?
Scary story of the week! A new report finds that 55% of generative AI inputs contain sensitive information. Oh, is that all?! (Stop using proprietary info guys!!)
Reddit signs a content licensing deal with Google. Google will be able to use Reddit’s content to train its AI models. (For only $60M a year!)
Google pauses Gemini’s AI image generation because it won’t show white people. AI is pretty wild … but the stories and the headlines that are generated as a result of it are fascinating.
This is a must-read: A return to old school passwords in the age of AI. Why? Because we can’t trust our eyes or ears anymore. Don’t underestimate what Christopher Penn is suggesting here … especially if you have kids and/or are worried about senior family members being taken advantage of.
The DOD and AI. If you were curious about how the government is planning on using AI.
Finally, ads tailored just to me. With the wave of its “Magic Wand”, Disney is going to use AI to make your advertising experience better.
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.