UsefulAiNewsBackup16May23

Last update: Tuesday 5/16/23
This twice-weekly news guide tracks recent artificial intelligence (AI) tools that will be useful to our readers. It does not cover AI tools that are not accessible to the public, nor AI tools that can only be used by computer science experts. Its initial focus will be the large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT's GPT-4, that have been making the biggest headlines. It is written for three overlapping groups: those who are concerned that LLM's may impact their careers, those who would like to become effective users of LLM's but who do not have extensive AI or coding expertise, and those who are concerned about policies that will guide the development of LLM's.

... Under continuing reconstruction ...

Note:  During periods of peak AI development, alerts about the first edition of this news page are posted on this blog's @neoskeptics Twitter account on Sundays and Mondays; alerts about the second edition are tweeted on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

A. OpenAI | B. Other | C. Policy | D. Opinions | E. Use/Abuse Cases

Top stories ... 
  • "Google’s new Labs page lets you sign up for its AI experiments",  Ivan Mehta, TechCrunch, 5/11/23 *** 

  • "OpenAI peeks into the “black box” of neural networks with new research", Bemj Edwards, Ars Technica, 5/11/23 *** 

  • "EU lawmakers back transparency and safety rules for generative AI", Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch, 5/11/23 *** 

  • "“Meaningful harm” from AI necessary before regulation, says Microsoft exec", Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 5/12/23 *** 

  • "Microsoft 365’s AI-powered Copilot is getting more features and paid access", Chance Townsend , Mashable, 5/13/23 *** 

Editor's note: From time to time older articles in each of the following sections whose content has been overcome by events will be deleted, but enough will remain so that readers can get a quick sense of where we are and how we got here by skimming the headlines of the remaining articles in chronological order. No section will ever include more than 12 stories.

A. OpenAI -- ChatGPT
     ... GPT-4 System Card = OpenAI's own assessment of GPT-4
  • Who is Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI? 
    -- "The ChatGPT King Isn’t Worried, but He Knows You Might Be", Cade Metz, NY Times, 3/31/23  
    -- "The Contradictions of Sam Altman, AI Crusader",  Berber Jin and Keach Hagey, Wall Street Journal, 3/31/23 
    -- "The man who unleashed AI on an unsuspecting Silicon Valley", Gerrit De Vynck, Washington Post, 4/8/23 

  • "Everything We Know About OpenAI's ChatGPT ... Here are the basics you need to know.", Lucas Ropek, Gizmodo, 4/7/23 
  • "What is Auto-GPT and why are hustle bros hype for it?", Cecily Mauran , Mashable, 4/14/23 
    -- This story also covered by ZDNet, TechCrunch

  • "OpenAI previews business plan for ChatGPT, launches new privacy controls", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 4/25/23 
    -- This story also covered by EndGadget, Mashable, Ars Technica
  • "Watch an A.I. Learn to Write by Reading Nothing but Shakespeare or Harry Potter or Jane Austen or Star Trek or Moby Dick", Aatish Bhatia, NY Times, 4/27/23 ... Note: This instructive article provides non-AI experts with a look inside the deep learning process that underlies large learning models (LLMs), so it goes way beyond the usual "chatbot as sentence completion" metaphor

  • "OpenAI peeks into the “black box” of neural networks with new research", Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 5/11/23 *** 

B. Other major producers of Large Language Models (LLMs)

Microsoft -- Bing ... based on OpenAI's GPT
  • "Microsoft Bets Big on the Creator of ChatGPT in Race to Dominate A.I.", Cade Metz and Karen Weise, NY Times, 1/22/23
  • "Microsoft doubles down on AI with new Bing features", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 5/4/23 
    -- This story also covered by Mashable, Gizmodo, The Verge, VentureBeat, Ars Technica
     
  • "Microsoft 365’s AI-powered Copilot is getting more features and paid access", Chance Townsend , Mashable, 5/13/23 *** 
Google -- Bard
  • Initial impressiona ...
    -- "Google Releases Bard, Its Competitor in the Race to Create A.I. Chatbots",  Nico Grant and Cade Metz, NY Times, 3/21/23
    -- "What Google Bard Can Do (and What It Can’t)", Cade Metz, NY Times, 3/21/23 
    -- "Google just launched Bard, its answer to ChatGPT—and it wants you to make it better", Will Douglas Heavenarchive page, MIT Tech Review, 3/21/23

  • Google I/O 2023 conference on 5/10/23 
    -- Overviews of all announcements provided by Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Wired, 
    -- AI announcements were covered by Mashable, Gizmodo
    -- "Google launches PaLM 2, its next-gen large language model", Frederic Lardinois,  TechCrunch, 5/10/23
    -- "Google jumps into the AI coding assistant fray with Codey and Studio Bot", Sanuel Axon, Ars Technica, 5/10/23

  • "Google’s new Labs page lets you sign up for its AI experiments",  Ivan Mehta, TechCrunch, 5/11/23 *** 
Baidu -- Ernie
  • Initial impressions ...
    -- "China’s Answer to ChatGPT Gets an Artificial Debut and Disappoints", Chang Che and John Liu, NY Times, 3/16/23
    -- "Chinese tech giant Baidu just released its answer to ChatGPT",Zeyi Yang, MIT Tech Review, 3/16/23
  • Second looks ...
    -- "The bearable mediocrity of Baidu’s ChatGPT competitor", Zeyi Yang, MIT Tech Review, 3/22/23 
    -- "China's Baidu reveals more capabilities of AI-powered chatbot Ernie", Eduardo Baptista, Reuters, 3/27/23  
Amazon -- Bedrock
  • "With Bedrock, Amazon enters the generative AI race", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch. 4/12/23 
    -- This story also covered by Ars Technica, Wired
Anthropic -- Claude

C. Public Policy Considerations 
  • "In Sudden Alarm, Tech Doyens Call for a Pause on ChatGPT", Will Knight and Paresh Daveand, Wired, 3/29/23   
    -- "Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter" ... from Elon Musk and others, Future of Life, 3/29/23
    -- This story also covered by The Verge,     Gizmodo, TechCrunch

  • "Ethicists fire back at ‘AI Pause’ letter they say ‘ignores the actual harms’", Devin Coldewey, TachCrunch, 3/31/23 
    -- "Statement from the listed authors of Stochastic Parrots on the “AI pause” letter", Timnit Gebru (DAIR), Emily M. Bender (University of Washington), Angelina McMillan-Major (University of Washington), Margaret Mitchell (Hugging Face), DAIR, 3/31/23

  • "Italian regulators order ChatGPT ban over alleged violation of data privacy laws", James Vincent, The Verge, 3/31/23 
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch, Mashable, Gizmodo, Ars Technica
    -- "ChatGPT resumes service in Italy after adding privacy disclosures and controls", Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch, 4/28/23 
    Return also covered by The Verge, Engadget

  • "Prohibition of AI that ‘subverts state power’ in China may chill its nascent industry", Devin Coldewey, TechCrunch, 4/11/23
    -- This story also covered by Ars Technica

  • "US begins study of possible rules to regulate AI like ChatGPT", David Shepardson and Diane Bartz, Reuters, 4/12/23 
  • "OpenAI’s hunger for data is coming back to bite it", Melissa Heikkiläarchive page, MIT Tech Review, 4/19/23 

  • "‘The Godfather of A.I.’ Leaves Google and Warns of Danger Ahead", Cade Metz, NY Times, 5/1/23 
    -- This story also covered by The Verge, Engadget, Gizmodo, Wired, Ars Technica, Mashable, MIT Tech Review, VentureBeat, MIT EmTech interview video 

  • "White House Pushes Tech C.E.O.s to Limit Risks of A.I.", David McCabe, NY Times, 5/4/23  
    -- This story also covered by Gizmodo, Wired, The Verge, Engadget,     VentureBeat, Ars Technica

  • "EU lawmakers back transparency and safety rules for generative AI", Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch, 5/11/23 *** 
  • "“Meaningful harm” from AI necessary before regulation, says Microsoft exec", Ashley Belanger , Ars Technica, 5/12/23 *** 
D. Opinions ... other news and rumors
  • "The Imminent Danger of A.I. Is One We’re Not Talking About", Ezra Klein, NY Times, 2/26/23
  • "A.I. is about to get much weirder: Here's what to watch for", Guest = Kelsey Piper (VOX), The Ezra Klein Show (podcast with transcript), 3/21/23

  • ChatGPT vs Bing vs Bard 
    -- "Bing vs. Bard: The ultimate AI chatbot showdown", Cecily Mauran, Mashable, 3/24/23 
    -- "AI chatbots compared: Bard vs. Bing vs. ChatGPT", James Vincent, Jacob Kastrenakes, Adi Robertson, Tom Warren, Jay Peters, and Antonio G. Di Benedetto, The Verge, 3/24/23

  • "Why A.I. Might Not Take Your Job or Supercharge the Economy", Guest = Ezra Klein. Klein answers listeners' questions about ChatGPT, The Ezra Klein Show (podcast with transcript), 4/7/23 ... Editor's note: Mr. Klein is brilliant and well informed; but he is not an AI expert, so his incisive comments may illustrate the limits of what can be understood about large language models (LLMs) by concerned non-experts.
  • "A.I. Vibe Check With Ezra Klein, and Kevin Tries Phone Positivity", Ezra Klein is the guest, HardFork (podcast with transcript), 4/7/23 

  • "What Biden's Top AI Thinker Concluded We Should Do", Guest = Alondra Nelson (former deputy director and acting director of the Biden White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy), The Ezra Klein Show (podcast with transcript), 4/11/23 ... Dr. Nelson edited Biden's Blueprint for an A.I. Bill of Rights (2022)
  • "An A.I. Hit of Fake ‘Drake’ and ‘The Weekend’ Rattles the Music World", Joe Coscarelli, NY Times, 4/19/23 
    -- This story also covered by Mashable     

  • "A terrible decision on AI-made images hurts creators", Edward Lee, Washington Post, 4/27/23  
  • "When A.I. Chatbots Hallucinate", Karen Weise and Cade Metz, NY Times, 5/1/23  

  • "Chegg shares drop more than 40% after company says ChatGPT is killing its business", Sarah Min, CNBC, 5/2/23 
    -- Note: According to Wikipedia, Chegg "provides homework help, digital and physical textbook rentals, textbooks, online tutoring, and other student services"
    -- Note: Blaming ChatGPT might not be the whole truth. A college student, a young friend of the editor of this blog, informed him that many students have been deserting Chegg because Chegg "ratted us out" a few years ago, as per this post on a subreddit by another student. The bad news about Chegg's betrayal of its users' identities to colleges and universities has been spreading on subreddits and TikTok. 

E. Use cases and abuses of large language models (LLMs)
This section provides links to articles written by tech reporters about how they or other people used or abused LLMs. Most tech reporters are likely to have some familiarity with the deep learning methodologies on which these models are based; whereas the "Post a Comment" section (below) will contain short notes written by readers who are likely to have substantially less AI expertise.
  • "ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it", Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Tech Review, 4/6/23 
  • "A.I. Is Coming for Lawyers, Again", Steve Lohr, NY Times, 4/10/23 
    -- An earlier discussion can be found on      Wired
  • "The ChatGPT Cheat Sheet" for producing better prompts, u/fozrok, 4/16/23 
  • "Auto-GPT, BabyAGI, and AgentGPT: How to use AI agents", Cecily Mauran, Mashable, 4/19/23 

  • "Brace Yourself for the 2024 Deepfake Election", Thor Benson, Wired, 4/27/23 
  • "Will a Chatbot Write the Next ‘Succession’?",  Noam Scheiber and John Koblin, NY Times, 4/30/23 
  • "A.I. Is Getting Better at Mind-Reading", Oliver Whang, NY Times, 5/1/23 

  • "OpenAI’s ChatGPT is shaking up the edtech markets", Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas, TechCrunch, 5/5/23 
___________________________________
Links to related notes on this blog:  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comments will be greatly appreciated ... Or just click the "Like" button above the comments section if you enjoyed this blog note.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)