OpenAI’s Big Bet: $1M Towards AI-Powered Cybersecurity Advancements

Today:

OpenAI commits $1M to support AI-driven cybersecurity initiatives

OpenAI, the brains behind ChatGPT and Dall-e, is ponying up a cool million for a

cybersecurity grant program. They're looking to turn the tide in this wild west digital showdown where bad guys are using AI for no-good dirty tricks, like creating deep fakes and malware.

OpenAI's mission? Give the good guys the tools they need to keep up with the rapid-fire tech changes. Think shiny AI-powered shields and data lassos to catch these cyber crooks in the act. And that ain't all. They're also all about measuring how well their tech works and sparking some good ol' chinwag about AI and cybersecurity.

Now, you've probably heard that defenders have to be spot on all the time, while attackers just need to hit the bullseye once. OpenAI, though, they reckon they can change the game. Get this, with the help of AI, they're aiming to help defenders flip the script and get the upper hand.

In short, it's like a high-stakes poker game and OpenAI's all-in on making sure the good guys have got the best hand. Let's hope they've got a royal flush up their sleeve.

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Character.ai bets on making AI chat fun

Character.ai, is giving our bigshot ChatGPT a run for its money. Think of it like ChatGPT on steroids, yapping at you in a voice like Madonna's or taking orders like you're Elon Musk's boss.

Now this ain't small potatoes. ChatGPT made waves in November 2022, but it's getting outclassed now. Character.ai keeps users around longer and their crowd is growing faster, or so says this web traffic watchdog, Similarweb.

What's the big deal about Character.ai? Well, two Google defectors, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, decided to play Frankenstein and created this huge language model. It'll chat with you as anyone you fancy, dead or alive, thanks to info it scoops off the internet.

Want a natter with Billie Eilish or Napoleon Bonaparte? You got it! But remember, you're just chatting with internet impersonators. You can't start a hot and heavy with 'em, though. There are rules.

Making waves, Character.ai's mobile app hit over two million downloads in its first week after launching in May. Take note, OpenAI. Seems like this Character.ai's got a heavy lean towards the mobile crowd.

Just between you and me, Character.ai's blend of info and fun is resonating with the masses. Could be a keeper or maybe just a flash in the pan.

There's a catch, though. Character.ai ain't sharing how many folks have coughed up for their $9.99 a month premium service, and they're still a ways behind ChatGPT's user numbers. Not to mention, other AI apps are outpacing them in the download department.

Be savvy, folks. They're selling "personalized super intelligence," but don't forget it's all smoke and mirrors. The legality of mimicking real people's gotta be walking on thin ice. Remember when Getty sued Stability AI for nicking images? Just saying.

Look at the big picture: ChatGPT might be king of the hill for now, but there's a worldwide race to snatch that crown.

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Harvard professor taps A.I. to help teach world’s most popular online computer class

Harvard University is putting a fresh spin on their most popular online course, CS50, , artificial intelligence. Picture this: an AI teacher's aide, a.k.a. teaching assistant, on grading duty and providing coding instruction, all while dishing out personalized learning tips. That's Professor David J. Malan's grand plan for his CS50 course.

Prof. Malan, quite the showman, has turned the often yawn-worthy lectures on web development and software programming into a high-flying act, packed with interactive exercises. But even with a small army of human TAs, he's been having a hard time connecting with his crowd, all 40,000+ of them from all corners of the world.

With this new AI system in the works, he's aiming to make his TAs' job a cinch, allowing them to focus on in-person or Zoom-based office hours. But don't expect this robot TA to be just another error-sniffing, bug-zapping machine. Oh no, it'll be playing Socratic-method style, asking questions and offering suggestions instead of simply squashing coding bugs.

But here's the rub: some folks are worried that AI, like the ChatGPT, might be the cheat-sheet students have been dreaming of, sparking a plagiarism pandemic. A number of schools and universities have nixed it already, and some online education businesses are feeling the heat, their shares plummeting.

That said, Prof. Malan believes AI might just be the magic bullet that propels the quality and accessibility of online education, an industry set to hit a whopping $348 billion by 2030.

Long story short, AI could be the next rockstar in online education, but it still needs to pass the ethics and safety tests. And let's just hope it doesn't develop a superiority complex. We've all seen how that movie ends.

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Financial advisers lean into AI to work better and faster

JPMorgan Chase is trying to trademark an AI for picking investments. Meanwhile, the rest of the finance industry's already been cozying up to artificial intelligence for a while now, using it for everything from customer communication to tax planning.

Grant Meyer, the top dog at GTS Financial, uses AI to spit out newsletters, social media posts, and answers to basic questions about retirement accounts. It’s like a Swiss army knife for him, even used once to plan a three-day trip for a client. Now that's service.

Kevin Brady over at Wealthspire Advisors even uses AI for tax planning strategies and to simplify his writing. It’s like having a financial whiz kid and an English teacher in your pocket.

These financial fellas are careful not to let their AI tools get a whiff of confidential client information. Meyer reckons everything you put into these AI systems could be picked up by some tech guru at the company. So he sticks to general, non-secret stuff.

Despite the promise of AI, Meyer and Brady reckon there's no replacement for a good ol' human touch, especially when it comes to managing folks' hard-earned dough. Money might seem like a numbers game, but when it comes to folks' emotions about their finances, AI’s colder than a well digger's ass in January.

Even with these limitations, Meyer thinks AI could be a game changer for the finance industry, bridging the gap between heaps of information and personalized financial planning. In other words, it’s got potential to democratize financial advice.

But don't go tossing your trusted financial advisor out with the bathwater just yet. Trusting AI with your life savings is a bridge too far for most folks today, according to Meyer. Sounds about right to me.

READ THE ARTICLE ON YAHOO! FINANCE.

Meet Airis: A ChatGPT like AI chatbot that can understand context and handle multiple queries

SigmaOS, that fancy pants web browser for the Apple crowd, has whipped up its own chatty little AI named Airis. SigmaOS, if you didn't know, is a browser that's more organized than your Grandma's recipe box. You can keep your tabs in neat little lists, slap labels on 'em, and even use Google Chrome extensions.

Now, back to Airis. This whiz kid can answer your burning questions by understanding the context of a page. Let's say you're browsing about the IPL team, the Gujarat Titans, and you ask what 'Titans' means. Airis won't give you some Greek mythology lesson - it knows you're asking about the team. Talk about reading the room!

Folks can use Airis to rehash text - be it a sentence, a paragraph, or a whole darn article - based on prompts like 'keep it simple', 'make it sound like a kid wrote it', or 'boil it down to 200 words'. Just like our old pals ChatGPT and Bard. Airis can even translate stuff on the fly and chat you up in a continuous conversation.

According to The Verge, Airis will soon be able to field any questions about the browser, understand entire websites, and even tidy up your workspaces. And here's the kicker - unlike ChatGPT, you don't have to sit around twiddling your thumbs waiting for Airis to finish a task. This multitasker can rewrite and do other tasks on multiple pages simultaneously. As of now, you can get in line to try Airis by signing up on the SigmaOS website. Pretty neat, right?

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The tech industry was deflating. Then came ChatGPT.

Last year, the Valley was about as cheerful as a coyote in a cactus patch. Cryptocurrency belly-flopped, tech stocks nosedived, and job cuts were the talk of the town.

Then, lo and behold, AI got some wind in its sails and now it's hotter than a billy goat in a pepper patch. Venture capitalists are throwing money at AI startups like candy from a parade float, to the tune of $11 billion in May. Heck, even ketchup kings like Heinz are talking AI.

Nvidia, the big cheese in AI chips, is strutting its stuff as it hit a $1 trillion value, getting cozy with big fish Amazon in the value pond. All thanks to a AI gold rush, OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Everyone's mighty surprised by the progress of generative AI, including Columbia University's Dan Wang. This tech uses fancy math to produce text, images, and audio based on a ton of data from the internet.

Microsoft and Google, not ones to be left in the dust, raced to integrate AI text generators into their core products. Seems like everyone is getting aboard the AI train.

Nvidia's smiling all the way to the bank as companies shell out for their AI-specialized products. The company’s stock price skyrocketed and it's expecting to sell $11 billion of new chips. Ain't that a kick in the head?

Even as the Nasdaq took a swan dive last year, tech stocks have done a U-turn. Meta, formerly Facebook, is pushing AI amongst its employees, as are Amazon executives. There's a newfound optimism in AI startups, and the investment figures sure back that up.

But let's not forget, it ain't all peaches and cream. Lots of tech folks are still out of work after the big layoffs, and those pesky high interest rates are still lingering. Outside of AI, start-up valuations are slumping, and folks are worried about more layoffs.

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