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On Wednesday, Google displayed how Bard, its new AI robot, could be used to write up job listings from a simple one line prompt. Microsoft has demonstrated how a ChatGPT-powered tool can write entire articles in Word.

“There are a tonne of sales representatives doing a lot of banal work to compose prospecting emails,” says Rob Seaman, a senior vice president at workplace messaging company Slack, which is working with OpenAI to embed ChatGPT into its app as a kind of digital co-worker.

New AI tools may remove some of the most tedious aspects of such roles. But based on past evidence, technology also threatens to create a whole new class of menial roles.

Perspective from a very-educated layman. Er, laywoman.

This is Hello, Computer, a series of interviews carried out in 2023 at a time when artificial intelligence appears to be going everywhere, all at once.

Continue reading “Hello, Computer — Sabine Hossenfelder — A.I. going mainstream” »

The other day a friend proudly told me she wrote a heartwarming graduation card to her teenage son. “Okay,” she confessed. “I

How long was your card? I asked her.

Not only that, but many also couldn’t even generate a topic on their own. They lacked creativity to dream up their own ideas, much less the critical thinking skills to put themselves in the shoes of their audience, imagining what would land. But they all had 4.0 GPAs or higher and came from private schools in Orange County and LA, reflecting our watered-down educational system.

Continue reading “Will AI Produce Useless Humans?” »

With LIMA, Meta’s AI researchers introduce a new language model that achieves GPT-4 and Bard level performance in test scenarios, albeit fine-tuned with relatively few examples.

LIMA stands for “Less is More for Alignment,” and the name hints at the model’s function: It is intended to show that with an extensively pre-trained AI model, a few examples are sufficient to achieve high-quality results.

Few examples in this case means that Meta manually selected 1,000 diverse prompts and their output from sources such as other research papers, WikiHow, StackExchange, and Reddit.

Summary: Researchers used artificial intelligence to predict how enzymes interact with various substrates. The team developed an AI model that can accurately predict whether an enzyme can work with a particular molecule.

Their enzyme substrate prediction (ESP) model provides a valuable tool for drug research and biotechnology, with applications ranging from the creation of new drugs to the production of biofuels.

I asked Bard chatbot whether we should fear Google. It shared concerns about Google you’d never expect would come from an AI created by Google.

Plus: Official ChatGPT iPhone app debuts; Debt collectors using chatbots to chase debtors.

ChatGPT has changed the world since it emerged a few short months ago. Where will future advancements in generative AI take us?

Welcome back Katie Brenneman, a regular contributor to 21st Century Tech Blog. Several weeks ago when ChatGPT entered the headlines I suggested to Katie that she consider writing about Large Language Modelling (LLM) and the technological and societal implications in terms of its capabilities. Were we witnessing the birth of consciousness in this new artificial intelligence (AI) discipline, or were we coming to terms with what defines our sentience?

By definition, sentience is about feelings and sensations and not thinking. Consciousness, on the other hand, is about our awareness of self and our place in the world around us. And thinking is about the ability to reason, consider a problem, come up with an idea or solution, or have an opinion.

Continue reading “Are Large Language Model Generative AIs Sentient, Conscious or Thinking?” »

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When Microsoft-funded lab OpenAI launched ChatGPT in February, millions of people realized almost overnight what tech professionals have understood for a long time: Today’s AI tools are advanced enough to transform daily life as well as an incredibly broad range of industries. Microsoft’s Bing leaped from a distant second place in search to a much higher-profile level. Concepts like large language models (LLMs) and natural language processing are now part of mainstream discussion.

However, with the spotlight also comes scrutiny. Regulators around the world are taking note of AI’s risks to user privacy. The Elon Musk-backed Future of Life Institute amassed 1,000 signatures from tech leaders asking for a six-month pause on training AI tools that are more advanced than GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT.