Applied AI Weekly News

Justin Grammens

Welcome Applied AI Weekly Readers to Issue 175! I'm thrilled to once again share with you some of the most interesting articles I've found this past week on Artificial Intelligence. Before we go there, here are a few things to note:

The latest Conversations on Applied AI Podcast has been released! Join me in an amazing conversation with David Espindola as we talk about not only what AI is doing today, but how it will affect all of us in the future. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and follow!
I had an AMAZING TIME speaking last week on AI at an event put on by ClubE. In case you were not able to attend I welcome you to watch the YouTube video of the talk entitled "Everything AI: Q&A".
We continue to sell tickets to the Applied AI Conference on May 10th. Register today or submit a presentation. We are closing our call for speakers at midnight on Feb 24th
Applied AI held an amazing AI in Business Strategy session last week at the Lab651 / Recursive Awesome offices. We continue to have some amazing talks by leaders in AI each week. Register for new events at the Applied AI Website.

Now that we have that covered, please enjoy the articles that I have spent time finding and curating for you this past week. Reach out if there's anything you feel I might have missed. Enjoy!

News

This AI Learnt Language by Seeing the World Through a Baby’s Eyes

Vong and his colleagues used 61 hours of recordings from a camera mounted on a helmet worn by a baby boy named Sam, to gather experiences from the infant’s perspective. Sam, who lives near Adelaide in Australia, wore the camera for around one hour twice a week (roughly 1% of his waking hours), from the age of six months to around two years.

Apple Vision Pro Owners Are Wondering What They Bought

For some buyers, Apple Vision Pro’s most compelling use is one that Apple didn’t advertise. It’s a native feature of the device that allows its user to get enormous amounts of attention, in real life and subsequently online, by simply wearing it in public.

Gemini - Google DeepMind

Gemini is built from the ground up for multimodality — reasoning seamlessly across image, video, audio, and code.

Gemini is the first model to outperform human experts on MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding), one of the most popular methods to test the knowledge and problem-solving abilities of AI models.

How AI Showed Up in Ads During Super Bowl 58

Themes surrounding artificial intelligence such as AI-driven product launches or ads created with the help of gen AI, and at least one poking fun at the technology, emerged throughout the Super Bowl this year.

For example, ahead of the Super Bowl, tech giants such as Microsoft released its Copilot AI ad while Google’s ad, “Javier in Frame” for its AI-powered Guided Frame feature in Pixel 8 spoke about the smartphone’s accessibility features.

Sponsor

Leverage Artificial Intelligence to Bring Efficiency and Innovation to Your Business

At Recursive Awesome, we have a team of consultants to help leaders leverage Artificial Intelligence to bring efficiency and innovation to their business. We are experts in strategy, implementation, and training to help you use modern technology and AI tools from leading solution providers. Contact us today!

Security

Pakistan’s Imran Khan Uses AI to Make Victory Speech From Jail

Imprisoned and barred from running, Khan used artificial intelligence to create a stand-in voice to spread his message.

Having been imprisoned last August and barred from running in the election, Khan used artificial intelligence to create a stand-in-voice to spread the good word to his followers, according to reports in the New York Times and other media.

Consumer

Apple Vision Pro Review: $3,499 Headset Will Eventually Replace the iPad

Apple’s Vision Pro will eventually replace the iPad, but the device has hardware and software shortcomings that need to be resolved first. Also: Forgetting your headset’s passcode can turn into a headache, and Apple makes upgrades to its software on Windows.

Ikea’s AI Assistant Gives Design Inspiration — at Least It Tries To

Francesco Marzoni, chief data and analytics officer at Ingka Group, the largest Ikea franchise holder, said in a press release the AI assistant is part of a series of experiments the company is doing “so that we can take part in the AI evolution as we shape our company strategy.”

Tim Cook's 3-Word Answer About Apple's Plans for AI Was Incredibly Revealing

In Apple's most recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook was asked about the company's plans for artificial intelligence (AI). Of course, Apple's employees rarely reveal anything about their plans about much of anything until they make an announcement. The closest we've ever gotten is when Cook made his famous "I think the wrist is interesting" a few years before the company launched the Apple Watch.

Development

How Many People Are Downloading Apple Vision Pro Apps?

When the Apple Vision Pro launched on 2 February 2024, a deluge of new apps entered the App Store. Apple announced that more than 600 have been made for the headset, ranging from productivity tools to games. At the time of writing, apps have been out for about a week. So how well have they been performing in the initial jump of sales?

Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Step by Step

Typically, the use of large language models (LLMs) in the enterprise falls into two broad categories. The first one is where the LLM automates a language-related task such as writing a blog post, drafting an email, or improving the grammar or tone of an email you have already drafted. Most of the time these sorts of tasks do not involve confidential company information.

Google DeepMind Develops Grandmaster-Level Chess AI With Language Model Architecture

Google DeepMind's latest chess AI uses a language model architecture, plays at a high level, and shows that transformers can be more than just stochastic parrots.

Researchers at Google DeepMind have developed an AI model that plays chess at a grandmaster level without relying on the complex search algorithms or heuristics that have characterized powerful chess programs such as Stockfish 16, IBM's Deep Blue, or Deepmind's AlphaZero.

Apple Vision Pro: What Does It Mean for Scientists?

Apple’s virtual reality (VR) headset, the Vision Pro, was released only 10 days ago — but scientists are already grappling with some of the research implications. Researchers say that the headset could be a watershed in the path toward widespread VR use and that its high precision could aid research tasks and analog activities such as surgery. All have implications for human behavior, opening up a torrent of research questions for scientists.