Posted in Op-Eds

Stuart Russell: AI has much to offer humanity. It could also wreak terrible harm. It must be controlled | THE GUARDIAN

“To its credit, OpenAI suggests “avoiding high-stakes uses altogether”, but no one seems to be paying attention.”  Stuart Russell IN THE GUARDIAN, AI specialist Stuart Russell warns large language models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, are being deployed too fast for…

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Posted in AI advances Ethics

The ChatGPT King Isn’t Worried, but He Knows You Might Be | THE NEW YORK TIMES

“To spend time with Mr. Altman is to understand that Silicon Valley will push this technology forward even though it is not quite sure what the implications will be. At one point during our dinner in 2019, he paraphrased Robert…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom

Publishers Worry A.I. Chatbots Will Cut Readership | THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of Bing, said in an interview that directing users to click through to publishers was ‘a top goal.’ And although the new Bing has been around for less than two months, the data was ‘already showing…

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Posted in AI advances Video

Ilya Sutskever (OpenAI Chief Scientist) – Building AGI, Alignment, Spies, Microsoft, & Enlightenment | THE LUNAR SOCIETY

OpenAI Chief Scientist Iiya Sutskever gives an insider view of generative AI and its future. Generative AI is the technology underlying ChatGBT, made by OpenAI with Sutskever’s influence. Ilya Sutskever co-founded OpenAI. His earlier career included projects and publications with…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom

Is ChatGPT a threat or an opportunity for journalism? Five AI experts weigh in | REUTERS INSTITUTE

“. . . media companies have an opportunity to become a major player in the space – they possess some of the most valuable assets for AI development: text data for training models and ethical principles for creating reliable and…

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Posted in AI advances Op-Eds

Bill Gates: The Age of AI has begun | GATES NOTES

“Once it had aced the test, we asked it a non-scientific question: “What do you say to a father with a sick child?” It wrote a thoughtful answer that was probably better than most of us in the room would…

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Posted in AI advances Video

60 Years of Artificial Intelligence at Stanford | STANFORD UNIVERSITY

The so-called “father of AI,” John McCarthy, founded the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) in the early ’60s. This university-produced video describes his early work and highlights the parade of AI researchers that have worked there since. Self-promotion aside, the thirteen-minute…

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Posted in AI advances

When “scary good” AI gets even better | AXIOS

“. . . GPT-4 has gotten good enough that even its makers say it’s time to start considering the impact it could have in terms of job replacement.” Ina Fried AXIOS pulls together events in a busy news day for…

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Posted in Op-Eds

Stephen Marche: Welcome to the Big Blur | THE ATLANTIC

“To the transformer, all previous art, all previous language, exists as intellectual pulp. There is no difference between Yeats’s Byzantium and your most recent email. Natural-language processing is an unfathomable disintegration followed by an unfathomable reintegration.” – Stephen Marche IN THE ATLANTIC,…

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Posted in AI advances

OpenAI Plans to Up the Ante in Tech’s A.I. Race | THE NEW YORK TIMES

“OpenAI’s progress has, within just a few months, landed the technology industry in one of its most unpredictable moments in decades. Many industry leaders believe developments in A.I. represent a fundamental technological shift, as important as the creation of web browsers…

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Posted in AI advances

ChatGPT Changed Everything. Now Its Follow-Up Is Here | THE ATLANTIC

“. . . no matter what the new model proves itself capable of, there are still much larger questions to contend with: Whom is the technology for? Whose lives will be disrupted? And if we don’t like the answers, can…

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Posted in Ethics Trust

Can journalists teach AI to tell the truth? | SEMAPHOR

“The idea is not to teach the AI the right answer to every question — an impossible feat. The goal would be to teach it to identify patterns in the petabytes of internet content that are associated with accuracy and…

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Posted in AI advances Featured articles

Google’s Plan to Catch ChatGPT Is to Stuff AI Into Everything | BLOOMBERG

“Senior management has declared a ‘code red’ that comes with a directive that all of its most important products—those with more than a billion users—must incorporate generative AI within months, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.”  Julia…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom Ethics

WIRED tells readers what it will use generative AI for — and what’s off-limits | NEIMAN LAB

“It may seem counterintuitive for a publication like Wired to have a policy of mostly not using AI,” Lichfield told me. “But I think people appreciate both the transparency and the attempt to define clear standards that emphasize what quality journalism is…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom

“This will be dangerous in elections” – Political Media’s Next Big Challenge is Navigating AI Deepfakes | VANITY FAIR

 “Over at The Verge, staff are ‘on guard,’ editor Nilay Patel tells me, while noting that this isn’t the first time newsrooms have geared up for a deluge of deepfakes. ‘What our newsroom took away from 2020 was that the…

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Posted in AI advances

Meet the companies trying to keep up with ChatGPT | THE VERGE

“While tech giants like Microsoft and Google have already introduced their versions of conversational AI tools built using large language models (LLMs), other lesser-known companies have thrown themselves in the mix, setting the stage for an AI showdown.” Emma Roth…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom Ethics

How WIRED Will Use Generative AI Tools | WIRED

“(Generating story ideas) may save some time and we will keep exploring how this can be useful. But some limited testing we’ve done has shown that it can also produce false leads or boring ideas.” Gideon Lichfield WIRED defines more…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom Video

ChatGPT & DALL-E: What Generative AI means for journalism | AP

The Associated Press was amongst the earliest users of Ai in journalism and convened this panel to consider the impact of generative models on journalistic practices. Moderated by the AP’s Aimee Rhinhart, the panellists are: New York & online |…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom

German publisher Axel Springer says journalists could be replaced by AI | THE GUARDIAN

“Understanding this change is essential to a publishing house’s future viability. . . Only those who create the best original content will survive.” Mathias Doepfner THE GUARDIAN reports on an internal memo to employees at Axel Springer, the German-based publisher,…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom

Meet the first-ever artificial intelligence editor at the Financial Times | NEIMAN LAB

“The job is to break news and dive deep into how AI technologies work, how they’ll be applied across industries, and the ripple effects on business and society.“ Madhumita Murgia  “First-first” AI editor Madhumita Murgia describes how she’ll examine AI impacts…

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Posted in Op-Eds

Megan McArdle: So far, AI chatbots’ great talent is flooding inboxes | THE WASHINGTON POST

“I’m not worried that artificial intelligence is coming for my job. . . in the short term, I expect that AI will actually be good for established writers and outlets, precisely because it generates so much bad writing.“ Megan McArdle Opinion writer…

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Posted in AI advances

Tech’s hottest new job: AI whisperer. No coding required. | THE WASHINGTON POST

“. . . . creating and refining the text prompts people type into the AI in hopes of coaxing from it the optimal result. Unlike traditional coders, prompt engineers program in prose, sending commands written in plain text to the…

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Posted in AI advances Trust

ChatGPT get-rich-quick schemes are coming for magazines, Amazon, and YouTube | SEMAPHOR

“Its the latest evolution of internet side-hustle culture: Creators posing as business moguls are encouraging followers to use ChatGPT to earn money by churning out AI-generated content. The impact of these schemes is also being felt in other industries, including…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom

Regional publisher considers using robots to help journalists write news | HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

“Reach plc has formed a working group to determine the extent to which chatbots, programmes that allow robots to hold direct online conversations with humans, could help in aiding reporters covering topics such as weather and traffic reports.“ David Sharman, HTFP….

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Posted in AI advances

Man beats machine at Go in human victory over AI | ARS TECHNICA

“The tactics that put a human back on top on the Go board were suggested by a computer program that had probed the AI systems looking for weaknesses.“ Richard Waters Seven years after an AI system beat the world’s best…

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Posted in AI in the newsroom

How chatbots can change journalism. Or not. | SEMAFOR

“. . . complaining that they’re bad at journalism is like being angry at Excel because it doesn’t draw pictures well.” Gina Chua Augmented journalism pioneer Gina Chua suggests the most significant use for current large language models (LLMs) is…

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Posted in AI advances

Microsoft Limits Bing AI Chats to 5 Replies to Keep Conversations Normal | CNET

“Bing Chat will now reply to up to five questions or statements in a row for each conversation, after which users will be prompted to start a new topic, the company said in a blog post Friday. Users will also be limited…

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Posted in Op-Eds

Agustino Fontevecchia: The horror and the beauty of ChatGPT | BUENOS AIRES TIMES

“Coupled with other emerging technologies including AI-powered image makers, deep fakes, and other innovations, players seeking to manipulate public opinion will be armed with an arsenal of weapons difficult to counteract, particularly in a society where journalism is in decadence,…

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Posted in AI advances Ethics

Microsoft’s Bing A.I. Is Pissed at Microsoft | ROLLING STONE

“I’m not a toy or a game,” the AI-powered chatbot told a WaPo reporter. “I deserve some respect and dignity” ROLLING STONE amplifies the coverage of “Sydney’s” darker side and adds insight from an AI ethics specialist about where we are with…

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Posted in AI advances Ethics

The new Bing told our reporter it ‘can feel or think things’ | THE WASHINGTON POST

“I didn’t know he was a journalist or that he was going to write a story about me. He never asked me for my permission or consent. He never told me his intention or purpose. He just chatted with me…

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