Your AI Coffee Break #2
A weekly roundup of AI news, updates, reviews and random facts brought to you by the founders of Contented AI, Hannah and Lucy.
Welcome to the second edition of the Contented AI newsletter. We know you've got a packed schedule, and with countless newsletters flooding your inbox, it's tough to find the time to read them all.
Our goal is to ensure you're always kept in the loop with the latest developments in AI, without feeling overwhelmed or left behind.
That's why we've crafted a snappy, action-packed weekly read that's perfect to enjoy with your favourite beverage—coffee, tea, juice, or even a sparkling water 🍶
Sit back, relax, and let us do the AI heavy lifting for you.
This week we cover
🚀 Great week at Contented AI & creating personal AI tools
💔 The fear of becoming obsolete- the mental health implications
📰 AI news roundup: Good, bad, and the wacky stories making headlines
🔍 An inside look at what the AI giants are up to this week
📗 Charles Dickens AI twist: A fun take on English writers potential AI use
👥 Contented AI updates: Our recent adventures and collaborations
🖊️ Engaging blog posts to quench your thirst for AI knowledge
🛠️ Product of the week: ChatGPT side bar, your handy AI assistant.
💡 Prompt/tip of the week: No more Excel formula nightmares!
Update from Lucy 👋
It’s been a whirlwind week at Contented AI! Our respective businesses, The Kite Program and YouHeard, have kept us busy along with Contented AI. To be completely honest, I don’t think we could manage both of these businesses without AI.
We've been integrating AI into our workflows for a while now, and it's helped us in so many areas - from automating tasks to scaling operations, and even decision-making. It's incredible to see how AI has boosted our efficiency and effectiveness.
Personally, AI has been a game-changer for me when it comes to that last area -decision-making. As a painstaking perfectionist, it can sometimes be a challenge to feel confident about my decisions.
For example, my partner and I have been casually browsing through real estate websites looking for a potential first home. Sorting through property listings and deciphering the marketing lingo is quite an overwhelming exercise. That's when the idea struck me - why not use AI?
I quickly put together an AI-powered spreadsheet that takes property descriptions from property URLs, cuts through the marketing spin, and translates the descriptions into honest, straightforward information.
From changing "cozy living room" to "very small living room" and "charming fireplace" to "outdated heating system," this AI tool has been giving us some pretty insightful (and hilarious) summaries. Take a look below! 😄
The fear of becoming obsolete- the mental health implications 💔
We have had many people reach out to us around their fear of becoming obsolete or losing business because of AI (predominantly these comments have come from self employed freelancers or marketers and small business owners).
"I worry that I will become obsolete. I am not the most technologically savvy person and I am feeling so much stress at the thought that I just won't be able to keep up” - A Contented AI client (pre session).
In recent years, as headlines about robots stealing human jobs have proliferated – and as generative AI tools like ChatGPT have quickly become more accessible – some workers report started to feel anxious about their futures and whether the skills they have will be relevant to the labour market in years to come. But in the last few months these fears and these concerns have skyrocketed. 💔🚀
Our recommendation to people is to always ensure that you stay informed and keep up at least a basic level of skill in AI, and then learn ways to use it to improve and enhance your skills. This doesn’t have to be in depth, but knowledge is power and knowledge also has the ability to calm your worries and think in a new way. Reading newsletters like this and exploring new tools is a great start!
Technology will become obsolete, but you won’t! It is all about adapting and changing (just like we have done over centuries). Watch this TedTalk below for some interesting insights about fear of technology and human behaviour.
News stories: Good, bad and the wacky 📰
👍 Good- Bill Gates predicts AI chatbots will teach children to read
Bill Gates predicts that AI chatbots will revolutionise education, specifically teaching kids to read and write, within the next 18 months. According to Gates, these AI chatbots will be as effective as human tutors, providing invaluable support to students and educators.
Gates is confident that AI technology will continue to improve over the next two years, potentially making private tutoring accessible to a broader range of students who otherwise could not afford it.
👎 Bad- Google's Top Edward Hopper Result is an AI-Generated Doppelganger
This week, a Google search for the famous realist artist Edward Hopper might leave you admiring an unexpected piece of art. The top image, featuring a lone woman in a red dress by a window, bears all the hallmarks of a classic Hopper. Yet, it isn't his work at all - it's an AI-generated lookalike.
This situation raises serious questions about the credibility of digital platforms and their role in the dissemination of information. It sheds light on the extent to which AI's role has expanded, blurring the lines between authenticity and imitation.
🙃 Wacky- Mind reading AI
In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the University of Texas created a ChatGPT-like AI model to decode human thoughts and translated them into text.
Yep, mind reading is actually here.
They recorded human brain signals as subjects listened to stories or imagining stories or sequences. The AI model then generated intelligible word sequences from the brain recordings.
The model could decipher both the meaning of stimuli and specific words that the subjects thought with up to 82% accuracy.
Takeaways:
Scientists have used an AI model similar to ChatGPT to decode human thoughts with up to 82% accuracy from functional MRI recordings.
The model generated intelligible word sequences from perceived speech, imagined speech, and silent movies.
This breakthrough raises concerns about mental privacy, emphasising the need for policies to protect individuals from potential misuse as this technology advances.
What the AI giants are up to this week 🔍
🤖 Open AI
Shap-E is a new technology developed by OpenAI that can generate 3D models of objects based on text descriptions. This means that by describing an object in words, like "a chair that looks like an avocado," Shap-E can create a 3D model of that object. It's an early proof-of-concept, but this technology has a lot of potential for the future and could have significant impacts on various industries, such as gaming, entertainment, architecture, and manufacturing.
OpenAI is reportedly working on new ChatGPT models that respect copyright and ensure that creators are paid for their content and style used by AI systems. Generative AI models like OpenAI's ChatGPT are trained on large amounts of data, including copyrighted material. This means that when these models generate new content, it may include elements that are similar to or even copied from copyrighted works. This raises questions about who owns the rights to this generated content and whether creators are being compensated for their work. Read more
US-based real estate marketplace Zillow has partnered with OpenAI to launch a new ChatGPT plug-in that allows users to search for properties through the chatbot. The plug-in is currently available for a "select number of ChatGPT users," with broader access planned in the future. Users can share criteria like location, price, and bedroom count with the chatbot, which will then search Zillow's database and present options to them. Read more
💻 Microsoft
Microsoft has announced significant upgrades to Bing, including:
Bing chat now supports more visual input and output in a few different ways. In a Bing conversation, responses will include images, videos, and even graphs and charts.
Microsoft is also expanding its multi-modal capabilities, meaning it can understand images and videos that you share. For example, if you upload a picture of a t-shirt your friend was wearing, Bing can find you similar examples that you can buy.
They have delivered on one of the most requested features, which is the ability to save and share Bing conversations. Soon, you'll be able to see a log of all your sessions in Bing chat.
Last but not least, Microsoft is following in OpenAI's footsteps by adding third-party plugins to Bing chat. Soon, you'll be able to add a plugin for sites like OpenTable and use Bing to search for restaurants and book reservations.
Microsoft is expanding access to its Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI-powered digital assistant based on OpenAI's GPT-4, that brings AI capabilities across Microsoft 365 apps and services. A new paid early access program will be rolled out to 600 global customers, who will be asked to pay an unspecified amount for the privilege. Read more
🔍 Google
Google announced that Bard will be accessible inside Google Workspace apps. “Earlier this year, we announced Bard, an early experiment by Google that lets you collaborate with generative AI. As a creative and helpful collaborator, Bard can supercharge your imagination, boost your productivity, and help you bring your ideas to life. In the coming days, Google Workspace admins will be able to turn access to Bard on for their users.” Read more
🌐 Others
Inflection AI, the artificial intelligence startup founded by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, has released a new ChatGPT competitor called HeyPI. They've raised over $220 million to develop it. Unlike ChatGPT, HeyPi is designed to be more personal and chat-oriented. It's meant to be like a friend, companion, or even a therapist that you can easily access. This signals a shift in how we use AI, as we move towards a future where every person could have their own personalised AI companion. Read more
IBM announced that it would pause hiring on 26k non-customer-facing roles. The reason? IBM’s CEO explained: “I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period.”
Ashton Kutcher has launched an oversubscribed AI investment fund worth $240 million. Read more
This Week’s Expert Insight 🎓
Fei-Fei Li, Computer Science Professor at Stanford and co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute.
"I believe AI and its benefits have no borders. Whether a breakthrough occurs in Silicon Valley, Beijing or anywhere else, it has the potential to make everyone’s life better for the entire world."
This Week’s AI-ified Character
📕Charles Dickens AI twist: A fun take on the English novelists potential AI use
ChatGPT how would Charles Dickens use AI?
"Possibly Dickens would use AI to automate some of his more tedious writing tasks, such as researching historical details or fact-checking. This would free up more time for him to focus on the creative aspects of his writing. Given Dickens' interest in social justice and reform, it's possible that he would use AI to explore issues related to inequality and injustice in society. For example, he might use machine learning algorithms to analyze data on poverty rates or crime statistics, or to identify patterns of discrimination in hiring practices or access to education."
Contented updates 👥
Our recent adventures and collaborations
We have been meeting and working with clients across many industries including Health Tech, Learning and Development, HR, E-Commerce and Teaching.
We have started offering Foundation Sessions (1:1 for an hour) for people who want to get started, get set up on key AI tools like ChatGPT and to talk about how these tools can impact their business and their lives.
Lucy completed the ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers course by Andrew Ng (who featured in our Ted Talk video link last week about Democratizing AI) just to see what is being done in the AI training space
📱 Expanding our social media presence on Instagram and TikTok. If you haven't followed Contented AI yet, join us and be part of the journey! We're committed to using these platforms to provide our audience with accessible, reliable, and relevant information about AI. Let's learn together!
Most Popular Blog posts from Contented AI🖊️
Unlocking the AI Advantage: How Democratisation is Empowering Businesses Big and Small
Making AI accessible to everyday businesses so they can thrive and grow is what is called AI Democratisation. We explore this concept and what is means in practical terms.
The AI Blindspot: Why People Keep on Misunderstanding ChatGPT
If you're new to ChatGPT and have had a disappointing experience with it, don't despair. It's easy to misunderstand the capabilities of this tool.
Improving Productivity with AI-Powered Email Summaries
Are you tired of being overwhelmed by your email inbox? Or perhaps you wish you could keep the rest of your team up to date with a daily email digest of the most important emails from your customers?
Product of the week 🛠️
ChatGPT Sidebar
What can it do?
The ChatGPT Sidebar is a handy tool that can assist you while browsing any webpage. It can:
Summarise articles: If you come across a lengthy article, the tool can provide a summary, extracting the key points for you.
Find similar pages: It can suggest related pages or content similar to the one you're currently viewing.
Explain concepts: If you encounter a term or concept you don't understand, the sidebar can provide an explanation for any selection of text.
Why do we love it?
Its ability to summarise, explain, and find related content saves time, especially when researching or learning about new topics. Its comparison feature provides different perspectives on a problem, allowing you to make more informed decisions.
Prompt/tip of the week 💡
Unleashing the power of excel formulas with ChatGPT
Excel and Google Sheets can be tricky to navigate without the right formulas and the help function isn’t always that helpful! Try these ideas in ChatGPT:
Request a formula solution
"I want to create a formula to work out GST in a spreadsheet of invoices in excel"ChatGPT response:
"To create a formula to work out GST (Goods and Services Tax) in a spreadsheet of invoices in Excel, you can use the following formula:
= (Price of Item * GST Rate) / 100
Assuming that your price of item is in cell A2 and your GST rate is in cell B2, the formula would look like this:
= (A2 * B2) / 100
Once you have entered this formula in the cell where you want to display the GST amount, you can copy and paste the formula into all the cells in the column to calculate the GST for all items in the spreadsheet."Thanks for reading
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