Headlines: Microsoft has banned ChatGPT.

AI Timeline News on Nov 11, 2023

AI Timeline News is a section of THE AI SECRETS and is written by the Co-Founder of Flot.ai & Flot.ai Copilot. This newsletter is the Most Advanced AI news of the world, designed to Greatly Expand your Horizons.

🤯 Shock: Microsoft has banned ChatGPT.

🔑 Key Pionts:

• Microsoft temporarily barred its employees from using OpenAI's tool, ChatGPT.

• Despite Microsoft investing billions in OpenAI, the company underscored that ChatGPT and all other third-party AI services come with privacy and security risks.

• Microsoft advised employees and customers to use Bing Chat Enterprise, which offer enhanced privacy and security.

• Microsoft and OpenAI have a close partnership, with the latter's services relying heavily on Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure.

• While some large companies have restricted the use of ChatGPT to prevent potential data leaks, the AI-powered chat tool has amassed over 100 million users.

• This ban was temporary, and accessibility was soon reinstated. Microsoft attributed this incident to an inadvertent activation during a system test for large language models. However, this event may potentially conclude the honeymoon between the two corporations.

This week in AI: OpenAI plays for keeps with GPTs.

🔑 Key Pionts:

• OpenAI recently hosted its first developer conference announcing various new products, the most significant being GPTs, which provide a way for developers to build their own AI systems using OpenAI’s models.

• OpenAI's transition from being an AI model provider to a platform has opened a new marketplace for developers to publish their AI systems, potentially enabling them to monetize their GPTs.

• The recent shift indicates that OpenAI is moving towards providing more user-friendly tools, which might cause a threat to consultancies whose models build similar tools for customers.

• Developments from other tech giants include Samsung launching its own generative AI family, Samsung Gauss, Microsoft offering free AI infrastructure for startups, and Youtube experimenting with new generative AI features.

• Further AI advancements are observed such as customizable Copilot plans by GitHub, AI chat-bot developed by Mozilla for online shopping, and a text detector for journal articles developed by researchers at the University of Kansas.

• Progress in AI has also allowed for enhancement in weather prediction as seen with MetNet-3, which combines data from different sources to provide high-resolution predictions.

• The use of AI in analyzing admissions essays by Colorado University and UPenn showed the potential in identifying strengths in applicants and provided insights into student behavior towards graduation rates.

• Even with these advancements, the limitations of AI remain, for instance, the inability of AI tools to consistently apply accessibility content rules. Some participants with disabilities found benefits in using AI tools to overcome communication challenges.

• Municipalities and states are beginning to lay down regulations for official use of AI, as seen in Seattle which released a governing set of principles for AI usage.

• In the realm of VR, machine learning models have been used to develop unique methods of interacting with virtual objects, providing a more intuitive and immersive user experience.

• Further, AI has been used in the field of art and culture, as observed in the EPFL exhibition where AI’s potential to enhance comics was explored.

AI makes you worse at what you’re good at.

🔑 Key Pionts:

• The author of the newsletter article shows a keen interest in AI, specifically generative AI. He observes that AIs carry out tasks in an average manner but their significance is in handling tasks individuals are not very skilled at, hence their potential benefit to white-collar workers.

• The author highlights the "GPT Store" by OpenAI, a platform for developers to create and monetize custom GPT-based conversational AI models. The author sees this as a threat to startups that had previously capitalized on the void in ChatGPT’s offerings, cautioning against businesses basing their model around another company's API without a sustainable product.

• Large companies like Apple are also using AI. Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, during the company's Q4 earnings call, emphasized the importance of AI and its various applications in Apple's products.

• Twitter's Premium Plus subscribers will soon get early access to xAI’s new AI system, Grok, after it exits its beta stage. This system will be a part of Twitter's $16/month ad-free service tier.

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced a new service that allows customers to rent Nvidia GPUs for a set period, mainly for AI tasks like training or experimenting with machine learning models.

• Michael Koch, in a piece titled “How to bootstrap an AI startup” on TC+, advises founders on maintaining control over their startup’s strategy and product by bootstrapping while running AI startups.

• WeWork, a former high-flying startup, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It received an agreement to convert $3 billion of its debt into equity, which is part of a plan to address its expensive leases and improve its balance sheet.

• Former Twitter executives, Dick Costolo and Adam Bain, have secured $395 million for their third fund, 01 Advisors. The fund is aimed at investing in Series B–stage startups focused on business software and fintech services.

• Microsoft plans to offer selected startups free access to advanced Azure AI supercomputing resources in response to a shortage of AI chips, allowing these startups to develop AI models.

• Bankman-Fried, the co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the trading firm Alameda Research, has been found guilty on all seven counts of fraud and money laundering.

The U.S. is in a game of "catch me if you can" with Nvidia on the rules of China's new AI chips.

🔑 Key Pionts:

• U.S. restrictions on China, specifically in the chip industry, have shifted the dynamics between major U.S. chip producer Nvidia and various other companies. This was highlighted by the Global Times newspaper, portraying the scenario as a game of "catch me if you can".

• The newsletter SemiAnalysisas mentioned that Nvidia intends to launch new artificial intelligence chips aimed at the Chinese market, as a move subsequent to the U.S.'s introduction of stricter rules on high-end AI chip sales to China.

• The restrictions imposed by the U.S., aiming to prevent China from accessing state-of-the-art U.S. technologies associated with strengthening its military, are believed to be equally damaging for both nations, according to the Global Times.

• The consecutive attempts by Nvidia to uphold its business in face of governmental policies have been characterized as a legitimate firm's struggle through strong political interference in free trade.

• Last month, Nvidia announced that the new U.S. export restrictions would halt the sales of two high-end AI chips, the A800 and H800, explicitly fabricated for the Chinese market last year in response to the prior export rules.

• The new regulations include a computing power cap for chips, and introduce a "grey zone" that would allow some chips to be shipped to China only under license.

• Potentially, new chips from Nvidia called the HGX H20, L20 PCIe and L2 PCIe could be unveiled on Nov. 16 - these chips possess many of Nvidia's latest features, but with some reductions in computing power measures.

• The ongoing restrictions could trigger and expedite the process of independent innovation in China's high-tech sectors, the Global Times suggests.

• U.S. companies, according to Global Times, have been seeking "workarounds" to comply with the new regulations which could ultimately leave the U.S. in an 'awkward situation'.

AI Investors view more startup prospects amid ChatGPT growth.

🔑 Key Pionts:

• OpenAI recently unveiled a marketplace for personalized AI "apps" causing concern among AI startup founders who fear they can't compete with the products offered by OpenAI.

• Despite these fears, investors suggest that OpenAI's move does not mean the end for startups in the AI product space.

• There is still a significant demand for new AI products to improve consumer interaction with the technology and address deep tech issues, such as brain-computer interface.

• The investors suggest there is still room for innovation in the AI field with the next step in the AI revolution still some decades away.

• Avery Klemmer, investor at Thrive Capital, sees the potential rise of consumer applications similar to ChatGPT, expecting more innovations based on popular AI chatbot formats.

• Despite the large investments recently made into AI technology, investors and analysts believe that development of AI products is still in its early stages.

• While building applications using large language models is currently expensive, the decreasing costs of AI 'inference' (making predictions using AI models) could lead to the creation of new AI-powered businesses and assist current companies.

Google in talks to invest in AI startup Character.AI.

🔑 Key Pionts:

• Google is looking to invest in artificial intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI. The investment could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, with the intent to help the company scale up to meet user demand.

• The potential investment would fortify the current partnership between Google and Character.AI. The latter already utilizes Google's cloud services and Tensor Processing Units for training its AI models.

• Character.AI, founded by former Google employees Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, allows users to converse with virtual versions of popular figures, as well as creating personal AI chatbots.

• The company's chatbots have been particularly popular with users aged between 18 and 24, which makes up about 60% of Character.AI's website traffic. This has helped the company to position itself as a provider of entertaining personal AI companions.

• The firm reported that its website had a whopping 100 million monthly visits during the first six months after its launch.

• Besides Google's potential investment, Character.AI is also in conversations to raise equity funding from venture capital investors, which could boost the company's valuation to over $5 billion.

• Google's interest in Character.AI forms part of a larger trend of major tech cloud service providers investing in AI companies. This helps entice these start-ups to use their hardware or cloud services.

• However, recent large investments in AI startups by big tech companies have drawn the attention of regulatory bodies. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating if these investments might carry anti-competitive behaviors.

🌟Today’s Newsletter is Written by our Co-founder & Flot.ai Copilot.

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