AI round-up: Week of July 30, 2024

The world of AI seems to have hit an interesting point. Remember when people were focused on AI advancement, safety, acceleration – you know, all those noble gestures that made us feel a little better about the power they were developing and holding in their hands?

Well, we are starting to see Game of Thrones-like storylines come into focus. What do I mean by that? Let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on in the industry right now:

The Big 5

1.    Sam Altman urges U.S. action to beat China in AI race.
I would encourage you to read the summary of Almtan’s interview (linked above) to show why he fears us falling behind.

2.    One thing Altman calls out is the need for state governments to ensure ‘physical infrastructure.’ Just one problem with that … generative AI requires massive amounts of power and water that the aging U.S. grid can’t handle.

3.    Runway ripped off YouTube creators.
Kind of a big deal. Why? Well, remember when Google told OpenAI that if Sora used YouTube videos to train, it would be a violation of its rules? Google is an investor in Runway.

4.    Speaking of ripped off, Perplexity is issuing checks and free memberships to publishers following plagiarism concerns.
Classic case of a company being sorry … they got caught.

5.    Last summer it was actors. This summer, it’s video game actors.
Video game performers will go on strike over AI concerns.

Learn a little

Ok, more than a little today – in honor of summer, we have a double feature:

1.    Five awesome things you can do with Google Gemini Advanced (Digital Trends)

2.    All the wild things people are doing with ChatGPT’s new voice mode (Digital Trends)

Did you hear about…

…Microsoft placing OpenAI on its list of competitors? (CNBC)

…this new tool that can tell you if AI stole your work? (Mashable)

…Google’s lazy AI ad.
And how it’s now pulled? (MarketWatch)

…AI is coming for weather forecasters? (WSJ)

…the Cleveland Clinic naming a chief AI officer? (Cleveland Clinic Newsroom)

…OpenAI’s new SearchGPT? (The Verge)

…Adobe’s new generative AI featres, for Illustrator and Photoshop? (The Verge)

Must read/must discuss:

I’ll get right to the point—shadow AI. It’s a thing. Unsurprisingly, whether you have an AI policy in place or not, 75% of employees are using it. This means everything from copyright to legal to ethics is in danger of being violated in your company every day.

If you ever needed a reason to put some type of policy in place, this is it.

Shadow AI: The controversial 2024 trend that could create disaster (Forbes)

Thanks for reading!

-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.