May 12, 2023

  • Anthropic

    Anthropic’s Claude AI can now digest an entire book like The Great Gatsby in seconds

    ArsTechnica, 05/12/23. Anthropic’s latest announcement has revolutionized the capabilities of its ChatGPT-like language model, Claude. By expanding Claude’s context window to 100,000 tokens, equivalent to around 75,000 words, the AI model can now analyze an entire book’s worth of material in less than a minute. This significant upgrade allows Claude to participate in lengthy interactive conversations and answer questions about the text it has processed. Anthropic highlights the potential for businesses to leverage Claude’s enlarged context window for extracting crucial information from multiple documents through conversational interactions, surpassing traditional vector search-based methods for complex queries. This development marks a major advancement in the field of language models and opens doors to a multitude of possibilities for AI-driven analysis and comprehension of extensive textual content. READ THE ARTICLE

  • Hazards

    Why AI Voice Scams Mean You Should Probably Never Answer Your Phone

    Lifewire, 05/12/23. The rise of AI voice scams poses a significant threat as technology enables scammers to convincingly impersonate our loved ones. With the ability to clone voices using minimal data, these scams leverage personal information from public internet sources to create highly personalized profiles. While the current level of effort required is still considerable, scammers are likely to become more sophisticated. Protecting oneself from such scams involves not trusting caller ID, hanging up and calling back on a known number, and being cautious of social engineering tactics. However, as AI voice cloning technology improves rapidly, it is crucial to remain vigilant and consider avoiding calls from unfamiliar numbers altogether. READ THE ARTICLE

  •  Transparency

    AI Can Be Both Accurate and Transparent

    Harvard Business Review, 05/12/23. The increasing reliance on opaque algorithms that produce unexplainable results poses significant risks in various industries. Decision-makers often assume that complex black-box models are inherently more accurate than simpler white-box models, creating a perception known as the accuracy-explainability tradeoff. However, our rigorous analysis of nearly 100 representative datasets revealed that, in almost 70% of cases, black-box and white-box models performed similarly in terms of accuracy. This challenges the assumption that explainability compromises accuracy. While there are situations where black-box models may still be beneficial, organizations should default to white-box models as benchmarks, consider the quality and type of data involved, prioritize transparency for sensitive use cases, evaluate their own AI readiness, and comply with relevant regulations. By prioritizing explainability when possible and taking steps to address trust and safety concerns, organizations can harness the benefits of AI while maintaining user trust and reducing biases. READ THE ARTICLE

  • Politics

    Deepfakes, porn tapes, bots: How AI has shaped a vital NATO ally’s presidential election

    Fox News, 05/12/23. The upcoming presidential election in Turkey has been marred by allegations of Russian meddling through the use of deepfakes and AI-generated material. Russian interference, according to Sinan Ciddi, a non-resident senior fellow, aims to ensure President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s continued power and the division between Turkey and NATO. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Erdogan’s main political opponent, has accused Russian bots and disinformation campaigns of backing Erdogan’s presidency. The race has already seen Muharrem Ince drop out after claiming to be a victim of a faked character assassination involving deepfake technology. This raises concerns about the potential exploitation of AI in elections, with experts warning about the ability to create misleading content, target specific voters, and undermine campaign strategies. READ THE ARTICLE

  • Capabilities

    You’re Probably Underestimating AI Chatbots

    Wired, 05/12/23. In the spring of 2007, I had the opportunity to review the highly anticipated iPhone, recognizing its generational significance but failing to anticipate its mind-blowing secondary effects. Reflecting on that experience now, I see a parallel with the current fascination surrounding AI applications. While we obsess over their capabilities and potential impact, we may overlook the future trajectories of these technologies. Prompt-and-pronounce columns exemplify this by focusing on the present versions of AI systems while failing to consider their ongoing evolution. Today’s models may have shortcomings and lack the soul of human creativity, but they are just the beginning. As researchers continue to improve these algorithmic super brains, we can expect breathtaking innovation and a blurring boundary between human and AI collaboration. The movie of AI has only just begun, and the future promises a fascinating and transformative narrative. READ THE ARTICLE