AI round-up: Week of August 19, 2024
Project Strawberry. @iruletheworldmo. What became of this?
Well, not much. A week later, @iruletheworldmo is still tweeting. A LOT. And I’m not sure we really know what it is or what to think. So rather than wait for a possible AGI/sentient Twitter account/AI grifter to tell me what to think, I’ll just say what I’m thinking:
I think I was had. I think I pulled a thread … but before I realized it, the thread had pulled me in, wrapped me up and locked me into becoming a part of its narrative.
The world of AI continues to be a fascinating one. Where even verified truth (@iruletheworldmo was a ‘verified’ account) needs vetting.
If nothing else, this was a great reminder that we now live in a world where you can’t trust your eyes or ears.
The Big 5
1. Are you rushing to hire a CAIO? You may want to pump the brakes.
I enjoyed this read in Chief Executive. I’m not sure I saw the Chief AI Officer role as one of the hottest, most crucial hires of 2024. However, I did make the prediction to our internal AI council that we would see the rise of new, sometimes vanity positions in the second half of 2024. I was thinking more along the lines of AI Jedi or AI Ninja (hey, I lived through the social media boom, and these were real titles).
2. I’ve been talking to clients a lot about what it means to be the human in the loop (courtesy of Ethan Mollick). One thing worth noting is that it is probably forgotten when it comes to ‘mundane’ tasks (like note-taking). The need may be greater when it comes to tasks like this, says Shelly Palmer in a recent blog titled “AI summarization v. manual note-taking: what could go wrong?”
3. Meta has released two new AI bots that are ‘quietly scraping the Internet’ for training. (Business Insider)
It is probably worth mentioning that they are offering this training for free. But then again, you probably knew that with the whole ‘quietly scraping’ reference.
4. The backlash against AI has officially begun. (Down with AI! Long live AI!)
Apparently, it just took one brand (in this Digital Trends article’s case, it’s Procreate) for there to be an official backlash against AI. We can talk more about that another time. My real question when I heard this news was … is that a good idea? Is it smart for a brand (like Procreate) to take such a strong stand against a tool that pretty much every ‘expert’ agrees is one that will need to be learned and incorporated? What if companies had taken this kind of stand against the Internet? I’m very curious to see how this goes … because while there is some backlash for now … it’s nothing, oh, say an AI-generated cat can’t fix.
5. AI + TikTok + Cats = a perfect, terrible match – right? Meet Chubby, TikTok’s AI-generated cat.
What is happening? Why is this a ‘big thing’? Well, mainly because it speaks to what I’ve been talking about when it comes to our adoption of AI. There was always going to be a moment … right? When AI hits mass. But maybe not. Maybe we’ve seen a series of moments over the past year that find us just ‘in AI.’ And when you read this BBC article about how seamlessly AI has been integrated into a few key facets of our lives (social media, pop culture, viral potential), you may find yourself abandoning the thought that we are still ‘waiting’ … and may have arrived.
Learn a little
This may be more about applying what you’ve learned than learning something … but did you know you can put all your AI knowledge to work to help the government spot and chase down fraudulent AI?
Congratulations, you’ve all been deputized!
Did you hear about…
…Midjourney is now free to try? (ZDNET)
…the company that did the fake Biden robocall getting fined $1M?!?! (The Verge)
…OpenAI’s letter to California stating its AI regulation bill would stifle creativity? (Bloomberg)
…Perplexity’s plan to start running ads in the fourth quarter? (CNBC)
…Trump endorsing Swift? (Entertainment Weekly)
…leaked footage of the Amazon Cloud / AWS CEO telling coders they won’t have to do that much longer after AI kicks in. (Business Insider)
…ElevenLabs being able to translate narration into 32 different languages? (The Verge)
…these 5 free AI tools kids, parents and educators can use for school? (ZDNET)
Must read/must discuss:
Microsoft has updated its terms of service for Copilot. Starting in September, you will be reminded that AI is not a replacement for real human advice.
My question for you this week – do we need to be reminded of this?
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.