A week in Generative AI: Announcements from almost everyone!

News for the week ending 24th September 2023

cyberpunk news presenter, male, long hair, behind desk, facing camera, in clean pixel art style, neon colors --ar 16:9

Wow, so much news this week and so much on the ethics front too. Some great long reads as well. I highly recommend the One Useful Thing article about how generative AI will re-shape work, and the Sequoia article on generative AI’s second act. Both are definitely well worth a read!

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Midjourney's upcoming version 6 promises a big leap in quality

v4 → v5 was a big step change and apparently v5 → v6 is an even bigger step forward and will have better text understanding. Midjourney are also looking at 3D and video, which is very exciting!

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Announcing Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion

Copilot in Windows is going to be a big deal and will change the nature of how people work as it’s rolled out in businesses. Shame us Mac folk are being left behind 😭.

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OpenAI Aims to Release “Multi-Modal” Model Ahead of Google’s Gemini

Multi-model models “have exhibited capabilities that traditional methods lack, such as generating stories based on images, answering questions about visual knowledge, and performing mathematical reasoning without the need for optical character recognition (OCR)“. Sounds cool!

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Bard can now connect to your Google apps and services

This is like Windows Copilot, but for Google apps. Big difference here is that you can double-check answers from Bard by clicking on a “G” icon. If this works as advertised it’s a big step forward for hallucinations and transparency.

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Amazon brings generative AI to Alexa

It doesn’t sound like this will make a huge difference to how Alexa works or what it could do, but I might be wrong!

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YouTube Shorts to gain a generative AI feature called Dream Screen

No surprises to see more generative AI features coming to creator platforms like YouTube. These features will become the norm by the end of next year in all major platforms I suspect. Maybe sooner…

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This week’s AI Ethics news

• NASA’s Mars Rovers Could Inspire a More Ethical Future for AI

• AI developing too fast for regulators to keep up, says Oliver Dowden

• UK’s competition watchdog drafts principles for ‘responsible’ generative AI

• China’s AI boom depends on an army of exploited student interns

• Prompt injection: What’s the worst that can happen?

• First Google Search Result for Tiananmen Square “Tank Man” Is AI Generated Selfie

• Why Timnit Gebru wants AI giants to think small

• ‘It could have me read porn’: Stephen Fry shocked by AI cloning of his voice in documentary

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This week’s long reads

• Sequoia - Generative AI’s Act Two

• The Guardian - When it comes to creative thinking, it’s clear that AI systems mean business

• Politico - The Silicon Valley doomers behind Rishi Sunak’s AI pivot

• Technology Review - Generative AI is just a phase. What’s next is interactive AI

• One Useful Thing - How AI will reshape work

• Coagulopath - GPT-4 Is Not Getting Worse

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“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.“

William Gibson