AI Bytes Newsletter Issue #15

Welcome to the 15th Edition of the AI Bytes Newsletter! In this issue, we feature Boston Dynamics' new electric Atlas robot, explore ethical challenges in AI development, and discuss the impact of "AI/ML Lift" across industries. We also examine AI’s transformative role in agriculture and share insights in Mike's Musings and Favorites. Explore these exciting developments with us as we uncover the latest in the world of artificial intelligence. Thank you for tuning in!

The Latest in AI

A Look into the Heart of AI

Featured Innovation

Revolutionizing Robotics: Boston Dynamics Unveils New Electric Atlas

This week's Featured Innovation spotlights a groundbreaking leap in robotics technology by Boston Dynamics. Just one day after retiring its hydraulic model, the company has electrified the robotics industry by unveiling the all-new electric version of its Atlas humanoid robot. The latest iteration of Atlas showcases not only a sleeker, more user-friendly design but also demonstrates enhanced mobility and agility through advanced electric actuators, setting a new standard in commercial humanoid robotics. Join us as we delve into the details of this remarkable transition and what it signifies for the future of humanoid robots in industrial and commercial applications.

If you’ve seen a game changing innovation and want to share it with us, hit us up at [email protected]!

Ethical Considerations & Real-World Impact

Evolving Ethical Challenges in OpenAI's GPT Store

If you have been with us for a while, you have heard us introduce and outline the many changes that OpenAI has introduced to ChatGPT from its inception, from being multi-modal to introducing and later removing plug-ins, to the creation of custom GPTs and the GPT store. It is an ever-evolving application that appears to improve over time. However, recent findings highlight significant ethical concerns, particularly around the moderation practices in the GPT Store, suggesting that progress in features may not always align with progress in ethical standards.

The GPT Store, designed to democratize AI development, allows users to create and distribute their AI tools. Yet, a TechCrunch report has exposed a troubling trend of GPTs that may breach OpenAI's policies on copyright and academic honesty. These GPTs claim to bypass AI detection tools or simulate conversations with copyrighted characters, posing not only legal risks but also ethical dilemmas about content enforcement and platform responsibility.

Additionally, GPTs that promise to "humanize" content to evade AI detection raise concerns about promoting academic dishonesty. This capability, though technically impressive, contradicts OpenAI’s commitments to uphold academic integrity, illustrating a disconnect between policy and enforcement.

The ease of creating GPTs without deep technical knowledge has contributed to a rapid increase in content that may not meet quality and ethical standards. This surge underscores the critical need for enhanced moderation mechanisms to balance innovation with ethical responsibility. As AI technologies increasingly permeate our lives, it becomes imperative for platforms like OpenAI to prioritize rigorous ethical standards and robust moderation to address these shortcomings. Ensuring the safe and responsible use of AI technologies is essential to mitigate the ethical concerns that accompany these technological advances.

AI Tool of the Week

The Toolbox for Navigating the AI Landscape

“transcribe-anything” and “openai-whisper”, Open Source Transcription That you can run on your Computer.

Most of the time we focus on SaaS tools, easily accessible without any coding. This week we’re going a slightly different route by mentioning a couple of open source libraries that focus on transcribing audio/video. What’s great about these is that you can run them from your own computer instead an expensive SaaS service.

You can install directly on your computer and start transcribing YouTube videos, audio files etc.

The first library is called “transcribe-anything”, here’s the link: https://github.com/zackees/transcribe-anything. What this library does (after installing locally via their directions) is to allow you to put in a URL and get back the transcribed text. This library is great and it’s simple to get going, it it’s a beautiful wrapper that uses the other library we’re mentioning which is the Python library openai-whisper https://github.com/openai/whisper.

These libraries are seriously powerful. Below is a quick look at more detail of how the openai-whisper package does it’s thing:

If you’ve got a suggestion on tools we should check out, email us at [email protected] and let us know.

Rico's Roundup

Critical Insights and Curated Content from Rico

Skeptics Corner: AI Achievements: Impressive, But Predictable

Hello everyone! In this week’s edition of Skeptic’s Corner, I’m reflecting on our journey with AI and how we expected it would soon permeate nearly every aspect of our lives, both accentuating and at times overshadowing human capabilities.

Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) recently released its annual AI Index report, detailing AI's progress against various performance benchmarks. While the advancements may appear rapid, they are in line with the predictions of many, skeptics included.

The report shows that AI now exceeds human performance in areas like image classification, reading comprehension, and even more complex tasks such as visual reasoning and natural language inference. This progress necessitates the creation of new benchmarks not just to evaluate AI's capabilities but also to pinpoint areas where humans continue to excel.

Consider AI's performance in advanced mathematics: a GPT-4-based model is solving competition-level problems nearly as well as top human mathematicians. Though impressive, this was to be expected given the programming of these systems with massive data sets and sophisticated algorithms. The report also touches on AI-generated content and issues with "hallucinations" where AI presents false information as fact. These short-comings, although common, highlights AI's limitations. Although AI can process tons of information, it still lacks the deep, intuitive understanding that humans possess.

Additionally, in AI-generated imaging, models like DALL-E and Midjourney have shown remarkable progress, achieving in months what might take human artists years. This rapid development is a testament to the power of iterative improvements in AI training but also underscores the predictable nature of these advancements.

As we continue to enjoy and monitor AI's evolution, it's crucial to approach these developments with a blend of admiration and skepticism, recognizing both the potential and the pitfalls of such rapid technological progress. Despite the areas where AI can outperform humans, there remains a significant need for the human side of AI. Human insight, ethics, creativity, and emotional intelligence are irreplaceable elements that AI cannot replicate. The synergy between human intuition and AI's capabilities is what will drive truly transformative solutions in every field, from healthcare to education to art. This balance is essential as we harness AI to augment human abilities and ensure that technology serves humanity, not the other way around.

Must-Read Articles

Listener's Voice

In this week’s Listener's Voice, Dave inquires, “My daughter was asking me about Logo Creators (AI) to play around with. I was wondering what your first choice would be for her as a newbie. Any opinions, thoughts? Appreciate your time, opinion.” 

Dave, thanks for writing in! We have a simple answer for you Brandmark.io is a solid choice, that is the one we’ve used and like. Another option is to use Midjourney, not quite as refined as brandmark though.

Catch us on the next episode of Artificial Antics, where we'll explore even further into the technology that's reshaping our world. And hey, don't forget to follow us on X.com/@anticslab for more insights and discussions. See you in the lab!

Mike's Musings

Tech Deep Dive

Mike breaks down a complex AI/ML tool or concept into understandable terms.

In the latest edition of our Tech Deep Dive, we explore the transformative power of AI and machine learning across various industries, focusing on a concept known as “AI/ML Lift”. This term encapsulates the significant performance boost that businesses experience by embedding AI technologies into their core operations. From automating mundane tasks to enhancing decision-making capabilities, AI/ML Lift is reshaping how companies operate, ensuring they are more efficient, accurate, and agile in the face of evolving market demands.

One striking example of AI/ML Lift in action is seen in the retail sector, where AI-driven systems predict customer behaviors, manage inventories, and personalize marketing strategies, significantly enhancing customer satisfaction and sales. The healthcare and finance industries are not left behind; AI is instrumental in improving diagnostics and fraud detection, respectively, showcasing the broad applicability and impact of these technologies. This efficiency not only streamlines operations but also substantially cuts costs and improves service delivery, illustrating AI/ML Lift's role as a critical lever for modern business success.

For a deeper dive into how AI and machine learning are streamlining business processes and to understand the real-world implications of these technologies, including detailed case studies and expert insights, I invite you to read the full article:

Feel free to reach out to me if you’d like to talk through anything, you can reach me at [email protected] 

Mike's Favorites

Sharing personal recommendations for technology, AI books, podcasts, or documentaries.

Write up on “Lift” by “thedatascientist” that helped me in building out my deep dive this week

I think it’s important to cite the works that inspire, guide and augment in helping us to dive deeper ourselves and this write up by thedatascientist.com did not disappoint, I used this to refresh my understanding of Lift in ML. This article takes Lift as a high level idea and brings it down into concrete math and science, check it out below:

Debunking “First AI Software Engineer” - Internet of Bugs Show

In the realm of AI, honesty about capabilities is paramount; the Devin incident reveals the risks of overstating AI's abilities. Sam Altman's transparent approach with Sora serves as a model, highlighting the importance of keeping AI expectations grounded in reality.

Check out this comprehensive look at why Devin’s demo video is simply a farce, this doesn’t mean Devin can’t do some great things, and similar to Google’s Gemini Ultra video it was more about what wasn’t said (as in wasn’t transparent). I’d highly suggest watching this, especially if you are interested in how AI can augment (not replace) developers:

Thanks for checking out my favorites section and if you have something you like to share, talk about or ask, hit me up at [email protected]

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Thank You!

Thanks to our listeners and followers! Continue to explore AI with us. More at Artificial Antics (antics.tv).

Quote of the week: "By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it."