Applied AI Weekly News

Justin Grammens

Welcome, Applied AI Weekly Readers, to the latest issue! I'm thrilled to once again share with you the most interesting articles on artificial intelligence that I've found this past week.

From the evolving role of programming—where AI is not replacing developers but transforming how we code—to the latest advancements in AI-powered assistants like ChatGPT’s scheduled tasks, automation is taking center stage. We dive into the accelerating AI arms race with Grok 3’s release, the impact of AI in healthcare predicting patient outcomes, and the growing debate over deepfake regulations as Scarlett Johansson calls for urgent action. Meanwhile, AI is reshaping software development, with companies like Zillow leveraging AI to build production-ready applications, and OpenAI pivoting its model roadmap in favor of a next-gen unified release. The pace of AI innovation is relentless—let’s dive in.

Before we go there, here are a few things I wish to share.

Upcoming Events

AppliedAI has our next event, AI in Product Management: Using AI to Improve Discovery on Thursday, Feb 27th. I hope you can join us!
For the Spring 2025 Applied AI Conference, I'm thrilled to announce that will be partnering with MinneAnalytics. If you wish to speak at the conference, please submit your presentation ASAP through our speaker submission form. Be sure to submit TODAY!
I'll be speaking at several events this coming spring. The next is the Future of Healthcare Conference at the University of Saint Thomas. please register and join me on a panel discussing how AI will impact Healthcare with leaders from Mayo, Fairview, and UST.

A Bit of Thanks

I'm continuing to offer free consultations and workshops with many business leaders on how AI is changing the landscape of how you will run your business today and into the future. Connect today and book a meeting with me.

Now that we have that covered, please enjoy the articles I have spent time finding and curating for you this past week.

Finally, please do reach out if there is anything you feel I might have missed. Enjoy!

News

The End of Programming as We Know It

There’s a lot of chatter in the media that software developers will soon lose their jobs to AI. I don’t buy it.

It is not the end of programming. It is the end of programming as we know it today. That is not new. The first programmers connected physical circuits to perform each calculation. They were succeeded by programmers writing machine instructions as binary code to be input one bit at a time by flipping switches on the front of a computer.

Does the Solution to Building Safe Artificial Intelligence Lie in the Brain?

In February 2023, New York Times columnist Kevin Roose tested an AI-powered version of the Bing search engine, which featured a research assistant built by OpenAI. Using some of the same technology that would eventually make it into GPT-4, the assistant could summarize news, plan vacations and have extended conversations with a user. Like today’s large language models (LLMs), it could be unreliable, sometimes confabulating details that didn’t exist.

Grok 3 and an Accelerating AI Roadmap

xAI launched their latest flagship model, Grok 3, last night via a live stream on X, which is a new take on the launch process, but it largely felt familiar. Grok 3 is a state-of-the-art model on some important benchmarks. The core is that it is state-of-the-art relative to available models and we know better models are out there. Only some of them have been announced, some of them have been teased, and others lie in waiting.

ChatGPT's Scheduled Task Feature Is a Game Changer — 5 Prompts to Try First

ChatGPT’s capabilities continue to expand as OpenAI works to make it a more intelligent personal assistant. With the latest update, OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT Tasks, a feature that lets users set automated reminders and scheduled prompts.

Whether you're looking for daily reminders or recurring prompt suggestions, ChatGPT can handle tasks on a set schedule — without requiring manual input. Currently available in beta for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, Tasks can be accessed via the web, mobile, and macOS apps, with Windows support coming soon.

Scarlett Johansson Calls for Anti Deepfake Laws After AI Video Goes Viral

Scarlett Johansson is calling on the government to pass a law limiting the use of AI after a video featuring an AI deepfake of the actress circulated online. In a statement to People, Johansson said, “It is terrifying that the U.S. government is paralyzed when it comes to passing legislation that protects all of its citizens against the imminent dangers of A.I.”

Sponsor

Leverage Artificial Intelligence to Bring Efficiency and Automation to Your Business

At Recursive Awesome, we have a team of consultants to help leaders leverage Artificial Intelligence to bring efficiency and automation 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!

Business

Replit and Anthropic’s AI Just Helped Zillow Build Production Software

Replit partners with Anthropic's Claude and Google Cloud to enable non-programmers to build enterprise software, as Zillow and others deploy AI-generated applications at scale, signaling a shift in who can create valuable business software.

Healthcare

AI Mortality Predictor Enhances End-of-Life Care and Palliative Support

In a prognostic study, an artificial intelligence model significantly outperformed oncologists in predicting short-term mortality, resulting in a 60% positive predictive value vs 34.8%, which involved 57 physicians and 17 advanced practice clinicians.

Artificial Intelligence Decision Support Tools for End-of-Life Care Planning Conversations

End-of-life care provides support for patients and their families during the last stage of life. End-of-life conversations aim to help people better understand their disease prognosis and expected survival, enabling them to make informed decisions regarding end-of-life care.

An artificial intelligence (AI)-based “nudge” is a decision-making support tool that uses prompts and alerts to aid clinicians in deciding whether and when to discuss end-of-life planning with patients.

Big Data

David Howard - Why AI Adoption is Harder Than AI Development

The conversation this week is with David Howard. David is a multidisciplinary data scientist and researcher with more than six years of industry experience and eight years in academia. He's been focused on pioneering advancements in generative AI and driving decision-making through insightful analytics, predictive modeling, and advanced data interpretation.

Development

Personal Software

AI has changed our relationship with software.

Software can now adapt to you, not the other way around. Better yet, AI is making it possible for anyone, not just developers, to create single-use or custom applications.

The Death of the Stubborn Developer

People often ask me “What’s one thing Coding Assistant X can do that others cannot?” I don’t think that’s the right question. If you view them more like car models, since they are arguably both as plentiful and as complex, then coding assistants can be as different a Hummer, a Lamborghini, and an e-bike. The right question is, “Which one is best for you?”

OpenAI Postpones Its o3 AI Model in Favor of a 'Unified' Next-Gen Release

OpenAI has effectively canceled the release of o3, which was slated to be the company’s next major AI model, in favor of what CEO Sam Altman is calling a “simplified” product offering.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Altman said that in the coming months, OpenAI will release a model called GPT-5 that “integrates a lot of [OpenAI’s] technology,” including o3, in its AI-powered chatbot platform ChatGPT and API. As a result of that roadmap decision, OpenAI no longer plans to launch o3 as a stand-alone model.