A week in Generative AI: Mind reading, Copyright and The Beatles

News for the week ending 29th October 2023

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

Lots of generative AI features released this week and plenty around ethics with announcements from the UN and the White House. I highly recommend a listen to the Verge’s Why AI and social media are causing a free speech crisis for the internet - a fantastic interview with Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig.

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AI doomsday warnings a distraction from the danger it already poses, warns expert

Lots of sense being shared here by Aidan Gomez, who founded

cohere

, ahead of the AI safety summit in the UK this week.

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Meta's new AI system can generate images from brain data in milliseconds

This is mind-blowing. Imagine how good this could get over the next few years with more research and development. Good news is it requires opt-in from the ‘patient’ so no snooping!

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Half of UK marketers not actively testing or budgeting for generative AI: research

There are lots of sensible reasons behind why marketers are apprehensive, but we won’t learn without testing, so I’m hoping to see this loosen up in 2024.

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The Beatles to release emotional 'final song', Now and Then, next week

Really looking forward to the release of this song and the accompanying documentary - great to see generative AI put to such good use!

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AI Ethics News

• The UN forms a high level board to explore AI governance

• White House to unveil sweeping AI executive order next week

• OpenAI forms team to study 'catastrophic' AI risks, including nuclear threats

• Google announces tools to help users fact-check images

• How AI reduces the world to stereotypes

• AI risk must be treated as seriously as climate crisis

• US orders immediate halt to some AI chip exports to China

• UK officials use AI to decide on issues from benefits to marriage licences

• AI titans throw a (tiny) bone to AI safety researchers

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Long Reads

• The Atlantic - AI Is About to Photoshop Your Memories

• The Verge - Why AI and social media are causing a free speech crisis for the internet

• Nature - AI ‘breakthrough’: neural net has human-like ability to generalize language

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Interesting Features & Use Cases

• Google is actively looking to insert different types of ads in its generative AI search

• Jasper launches new marketing AI copilot: ‘No one should have to work alone again’

• Grammarly's new generative AI feature learns your style : and applies it to any text

• Amazon rolls out AI-powered image generation to help advertisers deliver a better ad experience for customers

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

William Gibson