I really like this part: "AI is a tool. It is not always the right tool. Consider carefully whether, given its weaknesses, it is right for the purpose to which you are planning to apply it."
On the video front, have you tried Descript @Ethan? I've delved into this recently and find it's AI features very helpful in my daily flow.
This is brilliant. Thank you for the cogent utility! As you note: “Documentation-by-rumor is a weird choice for organizations claiming to be concerned about proper use of their technologies, but here we are.” I hope Altman, et al remember to send you a check.
Thanks Ethan for a most informative summary of the current state of play (& links to learn more).
The image at the end reminded me of Vannevar Bush's Memex, envisioned in 1945. Who knew it would take so long to come this far, and now we're here, the blistering pace of change makes it a challenge to keep up at times! https://history-computer.com/memex-guide/
I'm a writer and have been playing around with Writer.ai & Jasper and other tools. I write about it a lot and that's prompting (see what I did there?) a lot of my colleagues in the creative field to reach out to discuss this. Of course they are tracking with these changes and having various reactions as you can imagine.
A lot are centered around scraping. Even if Firefly is using licensed work, I've heard that those artists didn't agree to AI. It's not stated in their contracts. If you don't follow Jon Lam, he might be worth a look. He's very vocal.
I know this is a huge topic and not one you may want to enter but it would be nice (for me anyway) to hear your perspective.
As of today, I'm unsubscribing to several AI related newsletters b/c of their fear-mongering headlines (often paired with stupid tone-deaf emojis) b/c tech brahs and wanna-bes seem to forget about the anxiety this new technology is causing.
But not yours. So thanks again for the measured, thoughtful work you do. :)
If I may recommend another product - aimed at coders:
Fine transforms dev tasks into tailor-made specifications and uses AI agents to implement them. With it, devs can focus on solving problems and shipping higher quality software instead of solving bugs and manual work. It's free!
This was great post. I've just started to use ChatGPT to help with writing and w.o.w. do I feel guilty about it. But I would be lying if it didn't make my writing cleaner and clearer and more what I want it to be.
I wish it made sense for me to employ a real person to do this. But often times, I'm writing or re-writing last minute, and have a (self-appointed) deadline to hit. And I'm not making any money from this endeavor ... (yet - I'm hoping I can make that change). Having a pocket editor and someone to lob ideas and get something bad has been a huge help.
But yeah, still feel very conflicted about using it.
For companies wishing to take advantage of the above but looking to protect their data, do you have any opinions on what's available or up and coming? e.g. Emad at Stability AI has been talking about develping bespoke versions for countries, vertical markets, companies with data security, but do you know of other such initiatives?
"If you are going to use AI as a search engine, probably don’t do that."
Absolutely. I have, however, had good results with the AI-assisted search engine Perplexity.ai. Ask a questions, get back a brief summary of answers, with (here's the important part) links to references on the web. Thus you can check Perplexity's work.
I find it very useful for resolving questions of how to do X in software package Y, or how to resolve hardware or software errors.
I think that's right, that Code Interpreter will completely change the way data is studied. I mean, instead of becoming good at manipulating data in a spreadsheet, you can just talk so "someone" about your data. "Draw some charts for me that would be useful to my business" is such a ridiculous magic spell if you're a business owner, or if you're at all in the realm of data analysis.
Thanks for this Ethan! Where you talk about the use of AI with code, maybe point to GitHub copilot? To me the implementation of this software inside the IDE seems a lot more elegant and it will likely catch up in power soon (as far as I know GitHub is owned by Microsoft as well, could hence benefit from OpenAi advancements)
I've been running parallel tests on Bard & Bing chat for image context recognition and surprisingly am finding better results on Bard. Have you experienced this? I'm wondering if GPT4's abilities have declined even for image recognition as few articles are suggesting.
I really like this part: "AI is a tool. It is not always the right tool. Consider carefully whether, given its weaknesses, it is right for the purpose to which you are planning to apply it."
On the video front, have you tried Descript @Ethan? I've delved into this recently and find it's AI features very helpful in my daily flow.
This is brilliant. Thank you for the cogent utility! As you note: “Documentation-by-rumor is a weird choice for organizations claiming to be concerned about proper use of their technologies, but here we are.” I hope Altman, et al remember to send you a check.
Thanks Ethan for a most informative summary of the current state of play (& links to learn more).
The image at the end reminded me of Vannevar Bush's Memex, envisioned in 1945. Who knew it would take so long to come this far, and now we're here, the blistering pace of change makes it a challenge to keep up at times! https://history-computer.com/memex-guide/
Ethan, I'm a huge fan. Thank you for what you do.
I'm a writer and have been playing around with Writer.ai & Jasper and other tools. I write about it a lot and that's prompting (see what I did there?) a lot of my colleagues in the creative field to reach out to discuss this. Of course they are tracking with these changes and having various reactions as you can imagine.
A lot are centered around scraping. Even if Firefly is using licensed work, I've heard that those artists didn't agree to AI. It's not stated in their contracts. If you don't follow Jon Lam, he might be worth a look. He's very vocal.
I know this is a huge topic and not one you may want to enter but it would be nice (for me anyway) to hear your perspective.
As of today, I'm unsubscribing to several AI related newsletters b/c of their fear-mongering headlines (often paired with stupid tone-deaf emojis) b/c tech brahs and wanna-bes seem to forget about the anxiety this new technology is causing.
But not yours. So thanks again for the measured, thoughtful work you do. :)
If I may recommend another product - aimed at coders:
Fine transforms dev tasks into tailor-made specifications and uses AI agents to implement them. With it, devs can focus on solving problems and shipping higher quality software instead of solving bugs and manual work. It's free!
https://www.fine.dev/
This was great post. I've just started to use ChatGPT to help with writing and w.o.w. do I feel guilty about it. But I would be lying if it didn't make my writing cleaner and clearer and more what I want it to be.
I wish it made sense for me to employ a real person to do this. But often times, I'm writing or re-writing last minute, and have a (self-appointed) deadline to hit. And I'm not making any money from this endeavor ... (yet - I'm hoping I can make that change). Having a pocket editor and someone to lob ideas and get something bad has been a huge help.
But yeah, still feel very conflicted about using it.
Thanks Ethan,
For companies wishing to take advantage of the above but looking to protect their data, do you have any opinions on what's available or up and coming? e.g. Emad at Stability AI has been talking about develping bespoke versions for countries, vertical markets, companies with data security, but do you know of other such initiatives?
"If you are going to use AI as a search engine, probably don’t do that."
Absolutely. I have, however, had good results with the AI-assisted search engine Perplexity.ai. Ask a questions, get back a brief summary of answers, with (here's the important part) links to references on the web. Thus you can check Perplexity's work.
I find it very useful for resolving questions of how to do X in software package Y, or how to resolve hardware or software errors.
https://perplexity.ai
I think that's right, that Code Interpreter will completely change the way data is studied. I mean, instead of becoming good at manipulating data in a spreadsheet, you can just talk so "someone" about your data. "Draw some charts for me that would be useful to my business" is such a ridiculous magic spell if you're a business owner, or if you're at all in the realm of data analysis.
"Some things to worry about: Deep fakes are a huge concern, and these systems need to be used ethically."
Aren't deepfakes an entirely different thing compared to AI generated videos?
I'd like to share a tool I built, which makes you use ChatGPT, Bing, Bard, Claude in one place: https://chathub.gg
Thanks for this Ethan! Where you talk about the use of AI with code, maybe point to GitHub copilot? To me the implementation of this software inside the IDE seems a lot more elegant and it will likely catch up in power soon (as far as I know GitHub is owned by Microsoft as well, could hence benefit from OpenAi advancements)
Thank you, Ethan! This is super helpful! One piece of information from a German guy: Claude is only available in the USA and UK.
Comprehensive.
Can you give me some real-world examples of the current state of AI adoption in US schools and universities?
I've been running parallel tests on Bard & Bing chat for image context recognition and surprisingly am finding better results on Bard. Have you experienced this? I'm wondering if GPT4's abilities have declined even for image recognition as few articles are suggesting.