Applied AI Weekly News

Justin Grammens

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

I've published my latest video from our Applied AI Workshop Wednesday event on LangChain titled, "Let's Continue to Learn Langchain". This talk is extremely approachable for people of all levels. If you are interested in AI and how anyone can chain the power of AI and Large Language Models. I hope you talked some time watch the video
I will be leading a discussion on AI and Emerging Technology at the Minnesota Entrepreneur Kickoff. I hope you can join me in Minneapolis on April 11th as we talk about AI and Emerging Technologies and the innovation being unleashed right here in Minnesota!
Please check out two awesome events going on this week for Applied AI. AI in Virtual and Augmented Reality and AI at the Crossroads of Business Strategy. I hope you can join me at both of these events!
I'm continuing to offer free consultation with many business leaders on how AI is changing the landscape of how you will run your business today and into the future. This can be everything from how I'm working on building chatbots, looking at open source LLMs, and how GPTs are changing how products are being developed from product management to software engineering. Connect today and book a meeting with me.
The latest Conversation on Applied AI Podcast with Jim Wilt has dropped. Check it out!
Finally, be sure to visit the AppliedAI.MN and Applied AI Spring Conference 2024 to register for all the upcoming events.

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

AI Firms Treat Any "Publicly Available" Data as Fair Game

Leading AI companies have a favorite phrase when it comes to describing where they get the data to train their models: They say it's "publicly available" on the internet.

Why it matters: "Publicly available" can sound like the company has permission to use the information — but, in many ways, it's more like the legal equivalent of "finders, keepers."

"That phrase confuses people," developer Ed Newton-Rex tells Axios. "It's probably designed to confuse people."

Google Expanding Its Healthcare AI Ambitions in 2024

Google Health has big ambitions for healthcare AI in 2024. The tech giant is exploring how generative AI can help clinicians in medical decision-making, understand lab and imaging information, aid in early disease detection and provide consumers with a personal health coach based on their Fitbit data.

X Makes Grok Chatbot Available to Premium Subscribers

Last year, after Musk’s xAI announced Grok, it made the chatbot available to Premium+ users — people who are paying $16 per month or a $168 per year subscription fee. With the latest update, users paying $8 per month can access the chatbot.

Users can chat with Grok in a “Regular mode” or a “Fun mode.” Just like any other large language model (LLM) product, Grok shows labels indicating that the chatbot would return inaccurate answers.

AI Taking on More Work Doesn't Mean It Replaces You. Here Are 12 Reasons to Worry Less

The impact of generative AI on jobs is not a simple issue. (Back in 2010 -- well before the advent of generative AI -- I explored the subject of job disruption and creation in How To Save Jobs.) Today, AI has the potential to destroy some jobs (possibly including my own), but it also has the potential to empower -- and provide deep value to -- workers and employers. We call that disruption, and it's nothing new because disruption is always new.

Navigating the Challenges and Opportunities of Synthetic Voices

OpenAI is committed to developing safe and broadly beneficial AI. Today we are sharing preliminary insights and results from a small-scale preview of a model called Voice Engine, which uses text input and a single 15-second audio sample to generate natural-sounding speech that closely resembles the original speaker. It is notable that a small model with a single 15-second sample can create emotive and realistic voices.

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Business

Big Tech Companies Form New Consortium to Allay Fears of AI Job Takeovers

AI might not be coming for all jobs, but it might be coming for some.

UPS’s largest layoff in its 116-year history was the result of, in part, new technologies, including AI, CEO Carol Tomé said during an earnings call in February. Meanwhile, IBM plans to pause hiring for roles it thinks could soon be automated by AI, CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg last year.

From Potential to Profit with GenAI

BCG’s survey of 1,400+ C-suite executives reveals that GenAI is quickly changing the way companies do business—but 90% of leaders are still waiting for it to move beyond the hype or pursuing limited experimentation.

2023 marked a turning point for AI. ChatGPT, OpenAI’s wildly popular chatbot, became one of the fastest-growing web platforms of all time and now receives 1.5 billion visits every month. Bing Chat, Bard, and other generative AI (GenAI) competitors quickly followed.

How Companies Are Teaching Workers AI Skills

Companies are getting creative to show workers the ropes of using AI — even if some employees just don't want to learn.

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, businesses have been trying to figure out how to get their employees to use generative AI tools to boost productivity, save time, and make more money.

Video

But what is a GPT? Visual intro to transformers

Unpacking how large language models work under the hood. Check it out!

Development

Uniting Forces: Integrating Hugging Face with Langchain for Enhanced Natural Language Processing

In the domain of Natural Language Processing (NLP), the synergy between different frameworks and libraries can significantly enhance capabilities. Hugging Face, known for its transformer-based models, and Langchain, a versatile linguistic toolkit, represent two formidable tools in the NLP landscape. Merging these resources can offer a robust and dynamic solution for language understanding, generation, and analysis.

How to Run a Local LLM via LocalAI, an Open Source Project

Earlier this year I wrote about how to set up and run a local LLM with Ollama and Llama 2. In this article, I’ll look at an alternative option for running large language models locally. While Ollama is a private company, LocalAI is a community-maintained open-source project.

5 Best Open Source LLMs

As these models become increasingly sophisticated, there's a growing emphasis on democratizing access to them. Open-source models, in particular, are playing a pivotal role in this democratization, offering researchers, developers, and enthusiasts alike the opportunity to delve deep into their intricacies, fine-tune them for specific tasks, or even build upon their foundations.

Everything You Need to Evaluate Open-Source (Vs. Closed-Source) LLMs

Businesses are under growing pressure to integrate artificial intelligence into their products. But should you go for an open-source or closed-source large language model (LLM)?

Large language models (LLMs) are a class of machine learning models that can process and generate human-like natural language. Their main purpose is to generate coherent and contextually relevant text, following a (hopefully well-crafted!) prompt.