Risky AI Investments?

☕️ Greetings! It's Thursday, October 26th. Welcome back to my daily dive into the AI landscape.

♨️ Venture capitalists heavily investing in AI startups risk facing financial repercussions due to looming copyright infringement issues, particularly from major music companies. While the current VC attitude appears nonchalant, successful lawsuits could significantly impact the financial stability of these startups, already burdened with enormous compute costs. The ignorance towards the inherent risk, overshadowed by the allure of pioneering the next tech shift, could lead to substantial losses, spotlighting the importance of data ownership and manageable licensing in AI development.

Reference: (The big risk behind the AI investment boom)

🗞️ Today’s Highlights:

• LATEST NEWS & TRENDS — The next digital revolution: AI-mediated interactions

• INDUSTRY | FUNCTION — Revolutionizing Product Life Cycle Management with Generative AI

• RESOURCES — Embeddings: What they are and why they matter

• WORK — Why boomers are catching up with AI faster than Gen Zers, according to Microsoft’s modern work lead

• AI TOOLS — Verble: AI speechwriting assistant that helps you master the art of verbal persuasion and storytelling.

🗞️ LATEST NEWS & TRENDS

1️⃣ There is an upcoming shift towards personal AI agents, acting as mediators between individuals and digital services, simplifying mundane tasks, and enhancing user interactions. These agents, akin to upgraded versions of ChatGPT, leverage personal data to make informed decisions on the user's behalf, promising a new era of hyper-personalization and efficiency. The paradigm shift presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses, urging a re-imagination of digital offerings to stay relevant in this AI-centric landscape.

Reference: (The next digital revolution: AI-mediated interactions)

2️⃣ A Stanford study warns that popular healthcare AI chatbots may perpetuate racial biases, presenting potential risks for Black patients. The tested chatbots, including OpenAI's ChatGPT and GPT-4, misinformed on racial health differences. Such misinformation could amplify existing medical racism, making the unbiased deployment of AI in healthcare a critical concern. This underscores the necessity for rigorous, unbiased AI training and evaluation to ensure equitable healthcare AI applications, while also highlighting the growing attention towards ethical AI implementation in medicine.

Reference: (Health providers say AI chatbots could improve care. But research says some are perpetuating racism)

3️⃣ Google is refining ad formats for its Search Generative Experience (SGE), blending generative AI with user searches to better tailor advertising. Despite revenue diversification attempts, ads remain crucial for Google, contributing majorly to its $76.69 billion Q3 2023 revenue. CEO Sundar Pichai's confidence in transitioning towards an AI-augmented search mirrors past successful shifts, like mobile adoption. Initially launched in the US, SGE now reaches Japan and India, displaying customized ads, enhancing user-advertiser engagement, and potentially fostering a more intuitive, personalized ad experience.

Reference: (Google is actively looking to insert different types of ads in its generative AI search)

4️⃣ Nightshade, a new tool aiding artists in combating unauthorized use of their art by AI companies, subtly alters pixel data, causing havoc in AI models if the altered images are used for training. Developed by a University of Chicago team, it aims to deter AI firms from using artists' work without consent, which has been a contentious issue. Additionally, Nightshade, planned to be integrated with another tool Glaze, will be open-sourced, encouraging collective enhancement and utilization to potentially inflict more significant disruption in improperly trained AI models.

Reference: (This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI)

5️⃣ Direqt, a startup offering customizable chatbot solutions to publishers like ESPN and Vogue, aids in direct audience engagement and content monetization. Initially focused on chatbot monetization, it pivoted to AI, enhancing its platform amidst the rising popularity of generative AI. With $4.5 million in recent funding, Direqt plans to expand its team and improve its conversational engine, catering to publishers' desire for direct reader relationships, while navigating the challenges AI presents to traditional publishing and advertising models.

Reference: (As publishers block AI web crawlers, Direqt is building AI chatbots for the media industry)

🗞️ INDUSTRY | FUNCTION

Generative AI is emerging as a revolutionary force in Product Life Cycle Management (PLM), promising to address existing challenges and optimize key performance indicators. By enhancing decision support, tackling data fragmentation, and promoting creativity, it could significantly expedite product development cycles. Its applications span from design optimization to predictive maintenance, showing potential in various industries to accelerate innovation, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. A Salesforce study highlighted its acceptance among workers and its perceived benefits in leveraging other tech investments.

Reference: (Revolutionizing Product Life Cycle Management with Generative AI)

🗞️ RESOURCES

Embeddings are adjacent to Large Language Models technology like ChatGPT, transforming content into fixed-size numerical arrays irrespective of content length, defined by the embedding model used. Imagined as coordinates in a multi-dimensional space, this numerical representation reflects the semantic essence of content, albeit in a complex, hard-to-grasp manner. Utilized in various applications like creating a "related content" feature, embeddings, processed through models like OpenAI's text-embedding-ada-002, enable similarity assessment among content, facilitating meaningful connections and insights.

Reference: (Embeddings: What they are and why they matter)

🗞️ WORK

In the flourishing age of Generative AI, the role of employees is shifting towards that of a "manager" of artificial intelligence. Interestingly, digital natives are struggling to adapt, unlike their more tenured counterparts. Research indicates that 65% of Gen Z employees feel under-skilled for this AI-centric work landscape, compared to 50% of baby boomers. For maximum productivity, AI should not be viewed as a mere tool for routine tasks; it excels in complex assignments when given detailed instructions. Proper delegation to AI requires clarity in goal-setting, context, source, and expectations. This transformation mandates a skill set update across the organizational hierarchy, emphasizing problem-solving, critical thinking, and dynamic adaptability. The journey to becoming an AI-empowered organization demands an intentional upskilling strategy that makes every employee a capable manager in this new paradigm.

Reference: (Why boomers are catching up with AI faster than Gen Zers, according to Microsoft’s modern work lead)

🗞️ AI TOOLS

🧰 Verble: AI speechwriting assistant that helps you master the art of verbal persuasion and storytelling.

🧰 ChatSimple AI: ChatGPT for your business made simple

🧰 Helpix AI: Solve most customer questions on autopilot.

🧰 TrueSparrow: Open-source AI-powered Salesforce companion.

🧰 Hexofy: Capture data from any page, like magic.

Disclaimer: 1) The tool descriptions are from the company behind each tool/app. 2) Please read the site details thoroughly before using and/or acquiring any of the tools listed above. We have not tested these tools and we will not be liable for anything.

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I'm not a newsletter expert so you might find my approach a tad different. In my daily dives into the world of AI, I handpick the latest gems, initially to support the AI projects that I’m working on. Realizing that these snippets might resonate with others, I thought, "Why not share this with my community and fellow AI enthusiasts?" I truly want this newsletter to be valuable to you so if there's anything on your mind—praises, critiques, or just a hello—please drop me a note. You can hit reply or shoot me a message directly at my email address: _{[email protected].}