Tech Biz

Welcome to the brave new world of generative AI, where the machines are no longer just number crunchers, they’re word crunchers, image crunchers, audio and video crunchers. But here’s the catch: If we’re to ride the wave of this technological revolution, we need to rethink not just the tools we use, but also how we use them. Continue Reading →

At a dinner party the other night, a very accomplished business person told a story about how he and his wife were certain that their devices were listening to their conversations. “I was talking to my wife about a pair of designer shoes that she wanted to purchase, and not 10 minutes later while she was doing some online research for work, she saw an ad for that exact pair of shoes. She hadn’t searched for the shoes; the ad just appeared. Clearly, our computers or our phones are listening.” Some people nodded in agreement, and others began to chime in. Continue Reading →

You've probably read about the "existential threat" posed by Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). It's a dark future where super-intelligent machines outsmart us and cause humanity to go extinct. We may be mesmerized by this high-stakes narrative, but we’re also being misled. The real threats of AI are already here, lurking in our everyday digital experiences. While tech titans and the media tout a dystopian AI future, they’re drawing our attention away from the AI and related data privacy issues we need to solve right now. Continue Reading →

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is asking for your help. The Biden-Harris Administration is developing a National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy that will chart a path for the United States to harness the benefits and mitigate the risks of AI. To inform this strategy, OSTP requests public comments to help update U.S. national priorities and future actions on AI. Continue Reading →

Shelly Palmer talks about the "Alignment Problem" - one of the scariest and most dangerous issues posed by AI. When you set a goal for an autonomous agent (such as AutoGPT, AgentGPT or BabyAGI) will the output be aligned with your goal and human values? The answer today is, "no so much." What will this look like as more and more people start to rely on generative AI, LLMs, and Autonomous Agents? Continue Reading →

For reasons that are theorized – but not fully understood – human beings "default-to-trust." This strategy has stood the test of time. We generally trust others until given a reason to do otherwise. However, as the output from large language models and generative AI becomes increasingly indistinguishable from that produced by humans, it's time to consider a new paradigm: "default to distrust." Continue Reading →

The blue check apocalypse has hit Twitter, and it has (once again) pushed users to seek out other options. Can anything compete with Twitter? Shelly Palmer speaks with Dan Bowens and Tashanea Whitlow on Fox 5's Good Day New York about whether you should seek out options like Bluesky or Mastodon. Continue Reading →

Chat interfaces for GPT-4 may soon take a backseat to a new approach: autonomous agents. Emerging versions such as AutoGPT, BabyAGI, and the no-code GodMode promise a simplified user experience by focusing on achieving user goals with minimal input. Although it's still early days, autonomous agents are poised to revolutionize how we interact with technology and each other. Continue Reading →

The human creative community, the U.S. Copyright Office, and AI-enabled creators all have different ideas about where copyrightable human creativity begins. Are you entitled to royalties if your work is used to help train a model? If a model is prompted to create something that is inspired by a bunch of different styles is that work "original?" If a human uses what they've learned to craft a prompt is the result of that prompt "original?" Humans learn by mimicking. In fact, human beings are the most successful mimics on the planet. “Watch Mommy!” or “Daddy will show you how to do it,” or “Repeat after me” are phrases we have heard all of our lives. You will learn about this subject by mimicking the words, acronyms and concepts written here – that’s why you are reading. Generative AI learns in a very similar way. Has it crossed a line? If it has, we’ve been walking up to the edge for decades. Let's explore. Continue Reading →

Be honest – how often do you read the Terms & Conditions for the online services you use? If you're like most people, the answer is "almost never." That's fine for some things, but today, I want you to read Section 3, Paragraph (c) of OpenAI's Terms of Use. It is the most important thing you are going to read this morning. Continue Reading →