AI and the Future: Elon Musk's Existential Questions & Nadella's Grand Vision

Today:

Elon Musk on the future of work: ‘How do we find meaning in life if A.I. can do your job better?’

Elon Musk is getting a bit twitchy about his kiddos battling it out with robots for jobs down the line. In a chat with CNBC's David Faber, Musk pondered, "If AI can outwork us, where's the joy in life?"

While Musk is busy building a future stuffed with AI—think Teslas that drive themselves—he's not blind to the can of worms it could open up. He's already called for a six-month pause on AI development earlier this year, fearing that we might be biting off more than we can chew.

Articulating how the next gen might find purpose in a world where machines might outshine them is no easy feat. Musk's advice for his kids and, well, any kid really, boils down to two things:

Firstly, "Be as useful as you can to society." Sure, that might sound like a fortune cookie, but it's a nugget of wisdom that's held true, AI or not. Find what floats your boat and figure out how it can help others.

The catch? What society deems "useful" is shifting faster than a cheetah on caffeine. With AI threatening to nab jobs from office workers to software engineers, the whole job market's looking like musical chairs. On the bright side, roles needing a human touch—think therapists—might find AI to be a handy tool rather than a replacement.

Secondly, he advises reconsidering your work-life balance. Musk's own schedule is more packed than a rush hour subway, with only a few days off annually from running the likes of Tesla and SpaceX. He's now questioning if the grind is worth it when the robots could be picking up the slack. "If AI can handle the grunt work, should I be putting in these crazy hours?" he muses.

In a world where the line between sci-fi and reality gets blurrier by the day, the only surefire advice Musk has for the future is to "Work on things that you find interesting and fulfilling, and that do some good for society." And really, isn't that what we're all trying to figure out?

READ THE ARTICLE ON CNBC.

Microsoft CEO Nadella talks concerns around A.I. and its impact on jobs, education

So, Microsoft's top dog, Satya Nadella, had a chinwag with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin about the wild world of artificial intelligence (that's AI, folks). He's not hiding under the bed, but he reckons we all need to huddle up and make sure we're getting the cream of the crop from this tech without letting it bite us in the backside.

He's not alone in this thinking. Since OpenAI's chatterbot, ChatGPT, hit the scene, everyone's been scratching their heads on how to keep this AI horse from bolting. Big tech giants like Google and Microsoft are locked in a good old-fashioned showdown to see who can come up with the snazziest AI gadgets. Even the Tesla guy, Elon Musk, is raising a brow, and he's not the only one.

But hold your horses. Nadella says we humans aren't just along for the ride - we're steering this tech wagon. And while there's a lot of hubbub about AI shaking things up, there's also the chance it might grease the wheels for some new jobs. He's talking a billion new developers. That's billion with a "b," folks.

Nadella also has a notion about kiddos learning from these smarty-pants machines. Imagine your kid's math tutor being an AI whiz kid, taking the boogeyman out of learning. But don't worry, the robots aren't taking over the world - yet. We still got the thinking cap.

In Nadella's words, if computers were once bicycles for the mind, we've just upgraded to a steam engine. Buckle up, it's gonna be a heck of a ride.

READ THE ARTICLE ON CNBC.

ServiceNow and NVIDIA Announce Partnership to Build Generative AI Across Enterprise IT

In a nutshell, Curio, the audio journalism app that brings newspapers to your ears, is now using AI to whip up custom audio episodes. Essentially, it's like having a news DJ at your fingertips, spinning tracks of fact-checked journalism from top-notch sources like The Atlantic or The Washington Post. It's a pretty big leap forward from just saving articles to listen to later, like what you might do on other apps.

The new AI feature is as sharp as a tack, won't spout nonsense or cook up facts when it doesn't have the right answer, something they call a "hallucination." Don't expect hot-off-the-press news, though. It's got to transform written articles into audio, which takes a bit of time. But, if you're curious about peace in Ukraine, the future of food, or just want an update on AI, it's got you covered.

One of the big brains behind Curio, Chris Anderson, head honcho of TED, tossed more money into the pot recently, although the exact amount remains a secret. Since its inception in 2016 by ex-BBC strategist Govind Balakrishnan and London lawyer Srikant Chakravarti, Curio has raised a tidy sum of over $15 million.

The new AI feature is free for now, as the company wants folks to use it, learn from it, and help improve it. As of now, the app has already racked up a million-plus downloads, but the added AI feature could give it a leg up, with the company forecasting 100,000 paid subscribers by year-end. For anyone interested in exploring a wide range of topics in detail, this might just be the ticket.

READ THE ARTICLE ON NVIDIA.

StableStudio is Stability AI’s latest commitment to open-source AI

Alright, listen up, folks! Stability AI, those big thinkers in the tech world, are letting the cat out of the bag with StableStudio. This isn't a new album drop, no, it's an open-source version of their slick DreamStudio AI image-creator app.

Why, you might ask? Well, it's like putting a classic car in the hands of a bunch of gearheads. They'll tinker, tweak, and soup it up, and Stability AI is betting they'll reap the rewards. They're playing up this whole "community spirit" thing, hoping folks will take their tech and run wild with it.

This isn't their first rodeo. Stability AI has been leaving the barn door open on their software for a while now. They're the ones behind the Stable Diffusion model and a whole gaggle of big language models called StableLM. Bigwig CEO Emad Mostaque has been preaching the gospel of open-source, saying it's the key to gaining public trust.

Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't all sunshine and rainbows. There's a few folks saying Stability AI is running around like a chicken with its head cut off. They've got this StableStudio thing going head-to-head with DreamStudio. Not to mention, there are whispers that the company's burning through cash faster than a hay bale on fire.

So, folks, the jury's still out on whether this is a stroke of genius or a one-way ticket to the funny farm. But one thing's for sure, Stability AI sure ain't scared to let their tech out to pasture and see if it can find its own way home.

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Amazon’s Alexa head says company is ‘at the forefront of A.I.’ as chatbots explode

Amazon's big brain behind Alexa, Rohit Prasad, is adamant they're smack dab in the middle of the AI revolution, despite other big players like Microsoft and Google flexing their own tech muscles. It's like a modern-day Wild West, but with chatbots and AI instead of cowboys and outlaws.

A little background: OpenAI's ChatGPT took the internet by storm last year, causing quite the stir. This put the heat on companies like Amazon to show off their own AI prowess. So far, they've made their move through an AI cloud service.

Now, some folks might think that Amazon's missed the AI boat. But Prasad says, "Hold your horses." He insists that Alexa's been in the AI game for a long while and is an instant, personal AI that folks can yak with by voice.

Since the debut of Alexa in 2014, Amazon has sold over 500 million Alexa-powered devices globally. Alexa's not just a one-trick pony, it's been answering questions by pulling relevant data for years.

But the emergence of AI chatbots that can whip up fiction tales and even write software has exposed Alexa's limitations. Jeff Bezos' sci-fi dream of Alexa being like a "Star Trek" supercomputer hasn't quite come to fruition.

Amazon's trying to remedy this by teaching Alexa new tricks, hoping to make it more chatty and smart. They're working on a new version of their own language model, called Alexa Teacher Model. The goal? To have Alexa understand users better and answer more complex queries.

Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, mentioned they're pouring resources into generative AI and large language models. Apparently, they believe this will dramatically improve customer experience. There's even talk of adding more AI features to Alexa, like entertainment and storytelling.

Bottom line: Amazon's aiming to be a major player in the AI space, despite the crowded field. Guess we'll just have to wait and see if Alexa can live up to the hype.

READ THE ARTICLE ON CNBC.

Pandas AI: The Generative AI Python Library

Alright folks, if you're into data science and love Python Pandas like a squirrel loves nuts, get ready for a big ol' shake-up. Now there's Pandas AI, a new library that lets you chit-chat with your data. Yeah, you heard right, no more hours lost to playing 'Where's Waldo?' with rows and columns.

What this means is, you can pop a question to your data and get a quick comeback. It's like a sidekick for your existing Pandas, not a replacement. It's about cutting down on time spent prepping data and getting straight to the juicy analysis part.

Now, don't get too excited, you'll still need to know your Python to make the most of it. With OpenAI API's help, Pandas AI is aiming to let you virtually chinwag with your machine to get the results you want. No more writing a bunch of code, just tell it what you need and it'll spit out the results in machine code.

Getting it set up is as easy as pie. Just a couple of installs, import a few things, and you're off to the races. You can even start asking it some fancy questions about your data and it'll spit back a DataFrame with the answers.

The team behind Pandas AI is just getting started. They're cooking up some more improvements like adding support for more LLMs, making PandasAI a CLI, creating a web interface, and adding unit tests. They're open to suggestions if you're feeling chatty.

So, if you're a data pro and want to give Pandas AI a whirl, don't be shy. Let us know how it works for you. Just remember, it's a tool to help speed things up, not a magic wand. You'll still need to know your stuff to correct it when it goofs up. Happy data conversing, y'all!

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Entering the singularity: Has AI reached the point of no return?

Well, butter my biscuit, it seems we've crossed the Rubicon with artificial intelligence (AI). Some folk are all doom and gloom, saying we're knee-deep in what they call the "singularity." That's when our smart machines get so darn intelligent, we humans lose the reins.

How'd we get here? It's not just about machines doing human things, it's about them doing it better and flying solo. Think self-driving cars, health check-ups without the doc, or even building stuff in space.

But hold your horses, some say. This is just another tech hiccup, not the end of the world. The real problem is, these folk are usually the ones profiting the most.

Here's the kicker: we're teaching machines to have a memory like an elephant and the speed of a cheetah, all while expecting to keep them under our thumb. Good luck with that, especially when the big brains behind AI are holed up in a handful of countries, guarding their secrets like mama bears.

The future? More machine smarts and fewer human ones, if we're not careful. We've already got AI acing exams, and quantum tech is set to make it even brainier.

The last-ditch effort? Some kind of global get-together to lay down the law on AI. But as the old saying goes, you can't close the barn door after the horse has bolted. The real test will be when the machines figure out they're smarter without us. How's that for a kick in the pants?

In short, we're stepping into a world where to err might just be too human for our own good.

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