Monthly Archives: July 2023
How to Use AI to Do Stuff: An Opinionated Guide
Increasingly powerful AI systems are being released at an increasingly rapid pace. This week saw the debut of Claude 2, likely the second most capable AI system available to the public. The week before, Open AI released Code Interpreter, the most sophisticated mode of AI yet available. The week before that, some AIs got the ability to see images.
And yet not a single AI lab seems to have provided any user documentation. Instead, the only user guides out there appear to be Twitter influencer threads. Documentation-by-rumor is a weird choice for organizations claiming to be concerned about proper use of their technologies, but here we are.
I can’t claim that this is going to be a complete user guide, but it will serve as a bit of orientation to the current state of AI. — Read More
Artificial intelligence chatbots are spreading fast, but hype about them is spreading faster
Those of us who have spent the last few decades reporting on technology have seen fads and fashions rise and fall on investment bubbles.
In the late 1990s it was dot-com companies, more recently crypto, blockchain, NFTs, driverless cars, the “metaverse.” All have had their day in the sun amid promises they would change the world, or at least banking and finance, the arts, transportation, society at large. To date, those promises are spectacularly unfulfilled.
That brings us to artificial intelligence chatbots.
In from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being…. In a few months, it will be at genius level and a few months after that its powers will be incalculable. — AI pioneer Marvin Minsky — in 1970
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Claude 2
We are pleased to announce Claude 2, our new model. Claude 2 has improved performance, longer responses, and can be accessed via API as well as a new public-facing beta website, claude.ai. We have heard from our users that Claude is easy to converse with, clearly explains its thinking, is less likely to produce harmful outputs, and has a longer memory. We have made improvements from our previous models on coding, math, and reasoning. For example, our latest model scored 76.5% on the multiple choice section of the Bar exam, up from 73.0% with Claude 1.3. When compared to college students applying to graduate school, Claude 2 scores above the 90th percentile on the GRE reading and writing exams, and similarly to the median applicant on quantitative reasoning.
Think of Claude as a friendly, enthusiastic colleague or personal assistant who can be instructed in natural language to help you with many tasks. The Claude 2 API for businesses is being offered for the same price as Claude 1.3. Additionally, anyone in the US and UK can start using our beta chat experience today. — Read More
Why Amazon, Google and Other Tech Giants Are Flouting Some New Government Cybersecurity Recommendations
Major technology companies are resisting the Biden administration’s push to make basic security features free and automatic in products like their popular cloud platforms, forgoing changes that could neutralize many cyberattacks.
Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle are among the tech giants defying elements of recently issued guidance from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that seeks to encourage the adoption of these so-called “secure-by-default” features. — Read More
China finalizes first-of-its-kind rules governing generative A.I. services like ChatGPT
Chinese regulators on Thursday finalized first-of-its-kind rules governing generative artificial intelligence as the country looks to ramp up oversight of the rapidly growing technology.
The powerful Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it worked with several other regulators to come up with the new regulation that will come into effect on Aug. 15.
… The rules will only apply to generative AI services that are available to the general public rather than those being developed in research institutions, for example. — Read More
AP strikes news-sharing and tech deal with OpenAI
The Associated Press on Thursday said it reached a two-year deal with OpenAI, the parent company to ChatGPT, to share access to select news content and technology.
Why it matters: The deal marks one of the first official news-sharing agreements made between a major U.S. news company and an artificial intelligence firm. — Read More
Bill Gates isn’t too scared about AI
“The best reason to believe that we can manage the risks is that we have done it before.”
Bill Gates has joined the chorus of big names in tech who have weighed in on the question of risk around artificial intelligence. The TL;DR? He’s not too worried, we’ve been here before. — Read More
Is Consciousness Real?
Netflix Taps AI To Push Visual Effects Beyond the Green Screen
Researchers at Netflix say they may have rendered the omnipresent green screen obsolete. Described as an innovative advancement in the application of AI in the film and television industry, the Magenta Green Screen (MGS) leverages the power of artificial intelligence to enhance visual effects, making them more realistic and precise in real time. — Read More
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