This week in AI+Culture

Happy Friday, Cyborgs.

Greetings from the southern coast of Italy. I snagged a pair of Ray Ban Meta’s right before my trip (with slight hesitation, due to my long history of loyalty to Snap and Spectacles). I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far with this little gadget, finding it more useful than novelty. I love that I can record content from my own first person perspective, without anyone noticing, so I don’t have to pull out my phone. The POV organically catches my strands of hair or pointed finger in the shot, and the jerkiness of me walking, making the entire experience feel very organic. It’s kind of like having a hands-free chatgpt that records vertical video all in stealth mode - I’ve replaced quick searches on my phone, which I find inconvenient while walking or in bright sun, getting insight into things like the weather or top spotify picks without having to lift a finger. This was another marker in the beginning of a monumental shift in our human-computer experience.

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled programming… lots of activity in AI land this past week!

Today’s rundown:

• TLDR: This week in Future + Culture

  • ChatGPT launches search & real-time information

  • Meta’s Llama swings & Zuck gets a makeover

  • Adobe continues to double down on AI with Firefly expansion

  • Senators press for OpenAI’s safety protocols

  • Musk vocal with upcoming Grok launch and Humanoid Robots

  • AI models predict the election

• Community Shares

• We’re skipping spotlights this week, but back for more so soon!

ChatGPT launches search feature & real-time information

ChatGPT launches search feature in competition with Google, and introduces real-time information, allowing responses with up-to-date links.

Why we care: Competing on google search is what spurred a lot of initial excitement for AI back in 2022. Lack of real-time information in ChatGPT has been a source of limitation for many, so these updates will greatly improve user experience.

Meta challenges OpenAI with Llama 3.1

Meta is taking a swing with the biggest and best open-source LLM thus far, outperforming OpenAI’s on several benchmarks.

Why we care: the game is heating up for mass adoptable LLMs, challenging OpenAI for the throne. Zuck harps on Llama’s open source positioning, compared to “Open” (but really closed) AI.

Also…we noticed Zuck is getting quite the PR makeover. He’s presented with a different aesthetic on recent posts, and this Bloomberg interview on his “AI Era” is kind of fascinating!

Adobe expands it’s AI capabilities

New tools and updates expand use of AI within Adobe’s Firefly tools for creatives. The updates make it easier to generate images and textures with brief prompts, cutting down generation time. The updates do not come without continued controversy from existing Adobe users and the creative community, but the company is finding ways to compensate creators whose work models are trained on.

Why we care: The leader in creative toolsets for creators and businesses continues to double down in AI.

Senators press for OpenAI’s safety protocols

Five US Senators have sent a letter to OpenAI requesting visibility into safety protocols. They’ve requested that the next foundation model following GPT-4 Omni is made available to US Government Agencies for testing. They’ve also asked OpenAI to commit 20% of computing resources to AI Safety Research.

Why we care: We are not surprised that the AI Safety conversation and regulation is heating up. Buckle up, it’s going to be a rollercoaster as use cases and adoption expands. We’ll see a push and pull between AI leaders like OpenAI gunning for speed to market, at odds with increasing regulation.

Musk vocal with upcoming Grok launch and Humanoid Robots

Alongside Grok AI’s recently announced December 2024 launch, Musk shares that Tesla will begin producing and using it’s humanoid robotics. The robots will be used internally first, then for sale to the public in 2026.

AI Models predict the election

Decrypt asks ChatGPT, Grok, Claude AI, and Venice AI “in a head-to-head match, who would win the election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump?”

The results come out mixed - read full report by Decrypt here.

👫ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ꜱʜᴀʀᴇꜱ👫

In the spirit of our Virtual Beings event, Ross Ingram and team have kindly offered to gift 3 copies of their new book - “Designing AI Companions.” Reply with your name & email to request your free copy 🙂 Thank you, Ross!!

😺ᵤₚcₒₘᵢₙg ₑᵥₑₙₜₛ😺

We’re taking the summer to regroup on IRL events and come in hot with monthly salons in both LA and NY starting in September! We’ll send save the dates soon.