What’s Happening In The World Of AI [December 2024]

AI is here to stay. More than that, we are at the beginning of a Cambrian explosion of AI and we’ll never go back. Together, we’ll all get better

QUOTES WORTH PONDERING 

• “In a world where AI is becoming the new baseline, the companies that thrive will be the ones that automate the routine, elevate human creativity, and redefine what’s possible.” John R. Williams, MIT

• The next billion dollar company will be built by one person using AI.” Sam Altman

BIG NEWS THIS MONTH 

• CreatorKit made a tool to create a personalized video from Santa Clause.
• ​​AI Christmas story generator. SOURCE

OTHER BIG NEWS

• Amazon just announced Nova, a new family of AI models with text, image, and video generation capabilities, marking the retail giant’s biggest push into the consumer GenAI space. The Nova lineup includes four text models of varying capabilities (Micro, Lite, Pro, and Premier), plus Canvas (image) and Reel (video) models.

• Nova Pro is competitive with top frontier models on benchmarks, edging out rivals like GPT-4o, Mistral Large 2, and Llama 3 in testing.
  
• The text models feature support across 200+ languages and context windows reaching up to 300,000 tokens — with plans to expand to over 2M in 2025.
  
• Amazon’s Reel model can generate six-second videos from text or image prompts, and in the months ahead, the length will expand to up to two minutes.
  
• Amazon also revealed that speech-to-speech and “any-to-any” modality models will be added to the Nova lineup in 2025. Source: RundownAI, Dec 4, 2024

• Microsoft Teams is planning to roll out a tool called “Interpreter,” which aids in real-time speech translation. How will this work? Slated for release in January, Interpreter in Teams will allow users to speak or listen to meeting participants in their preferred language, without any translation delays. Powered by AI, it even mimics your own voice tone and inflection in a different language. The feature will start with nine languages, with plans to add more later. Teams will also improve transcription for multilingual meetings, supporting up to 31 languages in meeting transcripts. (“If they speak the same language, then nothing they plan will be impossible for them.” Genesis 11:6)

IN OTHER NEWS 

• Slack released a new survey of 17,000+ office workers—workplace AI adoption is plateauing and enthusiasm is cooling (dropping 6% globally) due to workers hiding their AI use from managers, fears of increased workload, and lack of training (61% have spent > 5 hours learning AI tools). SOURCE

• Gen Z embraces the AI revolution: Just when it looked like the AI boom had reached a fever pitch, Gen Z stepped into the mix. A recent poll by Alphabet’s Workspace app shows that 93% of Gen Z professionals — including 82% of young adults in leadership positions — are using AI at work. SOURCE

• MIT study examined the effects of ChatGPT on mid-level professional writing tasks. Here are the results of 444 professionals:

• Productivity Skyrockets:
• Inequality Decreases:
• Task Structure Shift:
• Job Satisfaction Boost: SOURCE

• A new study found that AI can detect undiagnosed liver disease in the early stages. How does this work? Researchers at the University of Washington Internal Medicine Residency Program used an AI algorithm to analyze electronic health records. AI found that 834 patients met MASLD criteria, yet 83% lacked an official diagnosis. SOURCE

• A new study found ChatGPT outperformed 50 physicians at diagnosing medical cases 90% to 74% (but doctors scored 76% when using ChatGPT). SOURCE

• A personal friend of mine took a picture of his bloodwork and fed it into ChatGPT and was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer which his physician confirmed. (BTW I took a pic of my bloodwork and the interpretation was amazing!….pass the gravy please). Give it a try.

• Law of unintended consequences may catch us by surprise. In an article by Brooking Institute’s Molly Kinder, “How AI Could Break the Career Ladder: The basic logic of white-collar apprenticeship — grunt work for on-the-job learning — is suddenly at risk,” All types of jobs where expertise is required and grunt work, watching and mentoring are the path forward (Law, medicine, banking, creative arts, etc.) may be excising the workers who learn by watching and doing. Molly concludes by saying.  “The scenario I’m sketching remains speculative, but white-collar professions need to start preparing for the possibility. AI could soon help firms work more efficiently with far fewer entry-level workers. The damage that could do to the next generation of professionals might not be visible until it’s too late.” Well worth the read HERE

• Research shows OpenAI’s GPT-4 outperforms humans in financial statement analysis. SOURCE

• An auditor says their company’s new AI is “scarily good” at handling claims calls – putting 20,000 phone staff jobs at risk. SOURCE

• OpenAI has partnered with Common Sense Media to offer a free training course  aimed at helping K-12 teachers understand AI and its uses in education. OpenAI’s goal is to empower teachers and students with tools to use AI responsibly and effectively. The free training is available on Common Sense Media’s website. SOURCE

EXPERAIMENTS TO TRY

• Midjourney Prompt: Go to Midjourney.com and cut and paste this prompt: “a skyscraper in a small tropical island, ultra-realistic photography, detailed, high quality, 8k –ar 3:4 –v 6.1 SOURCE 

• Prompt Tip of the Month. Ever notice how ChatGPT’s responses sound a bit… ChatGPT-ish? There’s a trick called “echo writing” people are using that can help fix that. Instead of getting the usual GPT-flavored phrases, you can make ChatGPT write in your voice. Here’s how to do it: Simple example prompt: “Here’s a sample of my writing: [paste your text]. Please write the next response matching this exact style, including my sentence length, vocabulary choices, and overall tone.” Remember—this works best when you give ChatGPT clear, specific examples of your writing style rather than vague instructions like “write casually.” SOURCE

CAPAIBILITIES AND HELPFUL TOOLS, TIPS & AIDEAS

• Word Wizard: AI-powered translation platform DeepL can now translate live conversations, audio, and videos in real-time, with support for 33 languages. SOURCE

• Need a poem for any occasion…in any style—from limerick to sonnet? Try out AI powered Myfreeepoem.com. SOURCE

• Argil: Transform articles into engaging videos in minutes. SOURCE

• Coca-Cola releases all-AI produced Christmas ad. The technology also made it possible to customize the ad for 27 cities, swapping in local skylines and details to connect with audiences around the world. SOURCE. 

• Ever wonder what that ancient building could possibly be? Herodot: A personalized AI-powered tour guide to help you make the most of your travel experiences. Explore any attraction simply by snapping a photo. Video Demo. SOURCE

• Turn image or Text into code with Vercel v0 AI. Pretty Amazing! Video Demo. SOURCE

• AI COMPANY USES AI to scam the scammers. Watch video demo HERE. SOURCE

• The ElevenLabs voice generator can deliver high-quality, human-like speech in 32 languages. Perfect for audiobooks, video voiceovers, commercials, and more. SOURCE

• Counting Calories? Try taking a picture of what you eat and let AI do the hard work. Check out CalCounter. SOURCE.

FAINANCIAL NEWS

• Chegg, the 24/7 homework helper, lost 500K subscribers and 99% of its 2021 stock value since ChatGPT’s launch. The online education company was once valued at over $14 Billion. Yes…there will be disruptions. SOURCE

• A WILD Reddit post went viral after a news station worker shared how their entire team just got laid off—replaced by AI. SOURCE

• NVIDIA’s latest earnings call. As the company powering nearly every major AI project (from ChatGPT to quantum computers), NVIDIA’s performance is basically a crystal ball for the entire AI industry.

• Revenue: $35B (up 94% from last year!).
• Profit: $20B (more than doubled!).
• Data center revenue: $30B (up from just $1.9B in 2020).
• NVIDIA’s revenue growth over time, from this explainer video.
• Here’s what’s driving all this growth—Blackwell, NVIDIA’s latest AI chip that’s got everyone from Microsoft to Musk begging to buy them…
  • 2.5x faster than its last chip for AI training.
  • 25x more energy efficient.
  • 72 of these get stacked in a server rack for ~$3M a pop. SOURCE

SOURCE  December  5, 2024       

FAITH CORNER

• Pastors are Embracing AI More in 2024. The survey reveals that 87% of respondents are in favor of using AI in ministry, indicating widespread acceptance of its potential benefits. This acceptance is reflected in the fact that 43% of church leaders use AI tools frequently, either weekly or daily for various ministry purposes. SOURCE

• Microsoft President Brad Smith is set to unveil an artificial intelligence-enhanced project focusing on St. Peter’s Basilica during a press conference at the Vatican. See video HERE. SOURCE.

• There’s a new kid in town Churchflow.org “helps Streamline Operations While Preserving the Human Connection.” SOURCE

• Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing religious life at a small church in Lucerne, Switzerland, where a virtual Jesus is caring for the concerns and needs of the faithful.  Got to check out the video. SOURCE

FROM THE “THIS IS CRAIZY” DEPARTMEMT

• AI robot artwork shatters auction estimates. In S2:E11 you learned about the first AI Robot generating painting. Now you’ll see what it sold for!

• A doctor used o1 to write a “major cancer treatment project” in under a minute, a task that would’ve taken him days. o1 even provided at least one creative idea he might not have thought of in “thirty years.” SOURCE

• A Beatles song that was partly generated by AI gets two nominations at the Grammy Awards. SOURCE

• Parents can now count on a new AI-powered crib to help babies fall asleep faster. SOURCE
  •  
• AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favorably. Apparently, we reached the point where figuratively speaking the thousandth monkey finally hit the right keystroke. SOURCE
• A robot who trained on hours of videos of skilled surgeons conducting surgeries performed the same surgery at the same skill level without human assistance. SOURCE
  •  
• I Spent 24 Hours in the Woods with FOUR Talking AI Chatbots | WSJ. This video is worth the watch (we have a way to go before bots will replace human friends). Thanks Dave Travis.
  •  
• This is pretty cute: A teacher inspired students by using AI-generated images that depict their future selves based on their goals and aspirations. SOURCE

HELPFUL GRAPHS AND CHARTS

One picture is often more valuable than a thousand words. Take these charts and graphs and put them into your Power Point presentations. 

SOURCE

Ryan Lakuza’s prompts. SOURCE

SOURCE

SOURCE (Thanks George Kopas—UC Berkeley)

That’s it for this month. Keep on learning. Keep on experimenting! Keep on growing! Stay curious. If you find this in any way helpful, please pass it on to a friend. 
Eric (eswanson@gloo.us)