AI Milestones: A Week of Surprises and Innovations

Jerry Cooper on December 4, 2023

Last week witnessed a series of groundbreaking events in the realm of artificial intelligence, setting the stage for significant advancements and sparking discussions across the industry. From OpenAI’s major announcements to Elon Musk’s unveiling of Grok, and the debut of Humane’s Ai Pin, the week was nothing short of monumental.

OpenAI’s Strides in AI Development:

In a move reminiscent of an arms race, OpenAI hosted its inaugural developer conference, marking a pivotal moment since the launch of ChatGPT. The conference showcased a range of updates, including the introduction of GPTs, customizable versions of ChatGPT. These GPTs, akin to plugins, promise versatile applications such as database connectivity, email integration, and e-commerce facilitation. With a strategic focus on developers, OpenAI aims to address commercial challenges by fostering a robust developer ecosystem.

GPT Store Launch:

To further enhance accessibility, OpenAI announced the upcoming launch of the GPT Store. This platform will allow users to search and discover GPTs, categorizing them based on utility across productivity, education, and entertainment. The move reflects OpenAI’s commitment to providing a diverse array of tools to meet varied user needs.

GPT-4 Turbo Unveiled:

CEO Sam Altman introduced GPT-4 Turbo, the latest iteration powering ChatGPT. Boasting enhanced capabilities, GPT-4 Turbo can process input equivalent to about 300 pages of a standard book—significantly surpassing its predecessor. Altman’s revelation of the platform’s growth, with 2 million developers and 100 million active users, underscores the widespread adoption of OpenAI’s technology.

Humane’s Revolutionary Ai Pin:

Humane, a startup founded by former Apple employees, presented a glimpse into the future with the introduction of Ai Pin. This AI wearable, equipped with a Snapdragon processor and Qualcomm AI engine, aims to redefine human-machine interaction. Packed with depth and motion sensors, an ultra-wide camera, and a laser ink display, Ai Pin envisions replacing smartphones by projecting information onto users’ hands. Despite the promising features, industry analysts raise concerns about potential challenges, including battery life and societal acceptance of always-on AI.

Grok’s Arrival on X:

Elon Musk’s xAI took inspiration from literary humor, introducing Grok—a chatbot with a sarcastic sense of humor, reminiscent of Musk himself. While still in early testing, Grok is set to join X’s Premium+ service, offering a unique blend of wit and real-time access to information. Musk’s move into the chatbot space adds a new dimension to AI applications on social platforms.

OpenAI’s Resilience Amidst Challenges:

Two days post-conference, OpenAI faced disruptions attributed to potential targeted attacks on its servers. The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack led to periodic outages, showcasing the vulnerability of AI infrastructure. OpenAI, however, assured users that no sensitive information was compromised, highlighting the need for robust security measures in the evolving landscape of AI.

AI Landscape Beyond OpenAI:

Major players in the tech industry continue to invest heavily in AI. Amazon’s commitment to training “Olympus,” an AI codenamed project with double the parameters of OpenAI’s GPT-4, underscores the competitive race in AI development. Additionally, YouTube is exploring AI tools to enhance user interactions, from answering questions to providing content recommendations.

Takeaway:

The events of the past week underscore the dynamic nature of the AI landscape. As OpenAI pushes the boundaries of AI capabilities, other tech giants follow suit, contributing to an era of rapid innovation. While challenges such as security and societal acceptance persist, the relentless pursuit of advancements ensures that the AI journey is one of constant evolution.

Bard is unveiled, Alphabet shares receive a boost

Alice Blake on March 23, 2023

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Bard – The race for AI has taken another turn as Google’s efforts have finally paid off, and now the company is eager to launch its chatbot service.

The initial backlash the company faced a couple of weeks earlier seems to have been drowned out with the company’s latest foray into the AI space.

Soon, chatbot enthusiasts can utilize Google’s latest innovation: Bard.

The news

Google recently announced opening access to its AI chatbot tool Bard, the company’s answer to rival ChatGPT.

Since Tuesday, users have been given access to a waitlist, allowing them to experiment with Bard.

Bard has similar tools that can allow users to try the following and more:

Outline and create essay drafts
Write out a plan for a baby shower
Create lunch ideas with the content of a refrigerator

According to Google, it will start rolling out Bard to the United States and the United Kingdom, with plans to expand the tool to more countries and languages in the future.

AI extravaganza

The news comes after several major tech companies, like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, among countless others, stepped up their efforts in the race to develop and deploy AI-powered tools.

The increased focus on AI sprang up after the viral success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Last week, Google announced it would integrate AI into its productivity tools, such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Sheets.

After their news, Microsoft announced a similar upgrade to its productivity tools.

In February, Google unveiled Bard through a demo that sparked criticism after it provided an inaccurate response to some questions.

As a result, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, experienced a 7.7% share drop, wiping out $100 billion from its market value.

ChatGPT impact

Bard follows ChatGPT’s model, wherein it is built on a massive language model.

ChatGPT, a product developed by AI research firm OpenAI, was released to the public in late November.

The models are trained on massive amounts of data online to help the AI create unique responses to the user’s creative prompts.

It was ChatGPT’s success and the spotlight given to it that led to Google management calling a “code red” situation for its search business.

However, Bard’s mistakes during the demo emphasized the challenge Google and other companies had with integrating AI technology into their core products.

Large language models are helpful, but they can also present several issues, including:

Biases
Incorrect facts
Responding aggressively

On Tuesday, Google released a blog post saying its AI tools are stall prone to mistakes.

The company reassured people that it still uses human feedback to improve its system and add guardrails, such as capping the number of exchanges in a dialogue to keep the interactions helpful and stay on topic.

Last week, GPT-4 was launched as the next-generation version of the tech and to power Microsoft’s Bing browser with similar safeguards.

After its first day, GPT-4 surprised users with its early test and company demo.

Public sway

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet, told employees that Bard’s success would largely rely on public testing in an email.

“As more people start to use Bard and test its capabilities, they’ll surprise us. Things will go wrong,” Pichai wrote.

“But the user feedback is critical to improving the product and the underlying technology.”

The message came as Google launched Bard.

Following the announcement, Alphabet shares were up nearly 4% in mid-day trading.

Pichai’s email also revealed that over 80,000 Google employees helped update Bard’s development following his all-hands-on-deck call to action in February.

The Tuesday note also said the company is working on testing responsibly, having invited 10,000 testers from different backgrounds and perspectives.

Pichai also told employees they should be proud of their work and the years of tech breakthroughs that led them to where they are.

“Even after all this progress, we’re still in the early stages of a long AI journey,” he said.

“For now, I’m excited to see how Bard sparks more creativity and curiosity in the people who use it.”

Baidu stocks improve after ERNIE Bot demo

Scarlet Logan on March 20, 2023

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Baidu – Chinese search giant Baidu received a massive share bump after it revealed its answer to the ChatGPT trend: ERNIE Bot.

On Friday in Hong Kong, the stock surged 14.3%, making it the top company in the Hang Seng Index.

In addition, the company gained 3.8% in New York during US trading hours on Thursday.

What happened?

A day earlier, Baidu was the most prominent loser in the Hang Seng Index.

A public demonstration of the company’s bot left investors unimpressed, leading Hong Kong shares to drop 6.4%.

However, CEO Robin Li revealed during the presentation that more than 650 companies had joined the ERNIE ecosystem since February.

The reversal follows the company’s announcement of more than 30,000 businesses signing up to try the chatbot service two hours after the demonstration.

Esme Pau, the head of China and Hong Kong internet and digital assets for Macquarie, said:

“The high degree of enterprise interest is positive, and we expect Baidu to continue to capture China’s enterprise demand for generative AI.”

According to Pau, the company’s shares bounced back on Friday following positive feedback from users and analysts.

The reviews suggested the bot was highly advanced.

Stock drop

During the company’s presentation, Baidu showed its chatbot’s capabilities, like generating a company newsletter, creating a corporate slogan, and solving a math riddle.

According to Esme Pau, the company’s stocks dropped on Thursday due to the demo being pre-recorded.

Because it wasn’t live, investors were skeptical of the authenticity of the ERNIE Bot.

Furthermore, Pai pointed out Baidu’s demo came days after GPT-4 was launched, raising the bar for ERNIE.

GPT-4

OpenAI launched GPT-4 as the latest update to its artificial intelligence technology, receiving wide acclaim from users.

Many were stunned by early tests and a company demo showcasing its ability to do the following:

Draft lawsuits
Pass standardized exams
Build a working website from hand-drawn sketches

On Tuesday, OpenAI introduced GPT-4 to change how the internet is used for work, play, and creating content.

The latest update is trained on online data to create unique responses to user prompts.

The update allows users to perform the following with ease:

Analyze beyond texts
Made coding easier
Pass tests
Provide more accurate responses
Streamline work across various industries

Despite its advancement, OpenAI said GPT-4 still has similar limitations to previous versions.

For example, the technology is limited to its data set, which cuts off in September 2021.

ERNIE

Esme Pau said Baidu’s shares were modestly down before its showcase on Thursday, indicating pressure from investors with high expectations after the GPT-4 launch.

“ERNIE also does not have the [same] multilingual capability as GPT-4, and has yet to improve for English queries,” said Pau.

“Also, the ERNIE launch did not provide sufficient quantifiable metrics compared to the GPT-4 launch earlier this week.”

ERNIE is similar to ChatGPT in that the technology is based on a language model trained on a massive amount of online data to create unique responses to user prompts.

Robin Li said Baidu expects ERNIE to be close to ChatGPT or GPT-4.

However, he acknowledged the software has yet to be perfected, noting that it was launched to enterprise users first.

Baidu’s latest service isn’t available to the public yet.

Competition

Baidu announced its chatbot development in February.

At the time, critics said the service would only add to the current US-China rivalry regarding technology and innovation.

However, Li shook off the comparison over the launch, saying:

“The bot is not a tool for the confrontation between China and the United States in science and technology, but a product of generations of Baidu technicians chasing the dream of changing the world with technology.”

“It is a brand new platform for us to serve hundreds of millions of users and empower thousands of industries.”

According to Baidu, the company’s service stands out due to its advanced grasp of Chinese queries and ability to create different kinds of responses.

“ERNIE Bot can produce text, images, audio, and even video given a text prompt,” the company said in its statement.

“And [it] is even capable of delivering voice in several dialects, such as the Sichuan dialect.”

However, Baidu is not alone in the development of similar technology in China.

In February, Alibaba announced plans to launch a ChatGPT-style tool.

According to analysts, Baidu has the best advantage in the space in China so far.

“Our view is ERNIE is six months ahead of its potential contenders,” said Esme Pau.

On Friday, Baidu announced a milestone in its transportation business, becoming the first Beijing operator to provide fully driverless ride-hailing services.

Despite its innovation, the company isn’t allowed to charge passengers in the capital yet.

It was previously required to have a driver in the front passenger seat to assume control in emergencies.

Tag: GPT-4