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- 🧠 Sam Altman testifies in front of congress
🧠 Sam Altman testifies in front of congress
PLUS: The startup using AI to create personalized episodes
Alan Buxbaum & Alex Valaitis
May 18, 2023
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Howdy Big Brain enthusiasts,
Today we're dusting off the magic crystal ball known as AI – yes, it's like your horoscope but with algorithms and less Mercury in retrograde. Shall we?
🔦 Today's AI spotlights:
Sam Altman testifies in front of Congress 👨⚖️
Shell paves the way for AI use in deep sea oil drilling 🛢
The startup using AI to create personalized episodes🎙️
👨⚖️ SAM ALTMAN TESTIFIES IN FRONT OF CONGRESS
Finally, the day has come (and passed!): OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified in Congress.
This has been a long-awaited event, especially given how slow the US has been in regulating AI...
Well, Sam had a lot to say about it. He urged the government to act swiftly on this front, even going as far as saying that "regulatory intervention by governments will be critical [in] mitigating [AI] risks".
That being said, Altman sees AI as a "printing press moment". He was emphatic about how much potential this new tech could bring to humanity.
Testifying alongside him were Gary Marcus, a professor at NYU, and Christina Montgomery from IBM.
Their consensus? AI is powerful but difficult to control, and therefore needs careful governance.
Well that was easy, right? Not so fast.
Many senators were less than enthusiastic about Altman's comparison to the printing press. Sen. Richard Blumenthal went as far as likening the potential impact of AI to that of an atomic bomb.
Discussion ensued around AI's potential misuse, with fears that it could be utilized for large-scale disinformation. Altman agreed, restating that regulation is necessary to prevent such scenarios.
Specifically, Altman suggested three points:
The establishment of a federal agency to grant licenses for AI development
The creation of safety standards
The requirement of independent audits
The hearing marked the beginning of a long, complex journey in establishing AI regulation. And with the rapid evolution of AI, it's anyone's guess where this road will lead.
🔦 SHELL PAVES THE WAY FOR AI USE IN DEEP SEA OIL DRILLING 🛢
Shell is stepping up its deep sea oil game by bringing in SparkCognition's AI tech for the win.
How will the oil giant be utilizing AI? Boost oil output by accelerating exploration and imaging of subsurface structures.
Gabriel Guerra, VP of Innovation at Shell, sees this as an exciting opportunity to reinvent exploration: "I'm picturing a cartoon light bulb over his head right about now."
The traditional approach to deep sea oil hunting involves analyzing tons of data and using high-performance computing. But the new strategy? AI algorithms working with seismic data, optimizing the process like a well-oiled machine.
John Browne, SparkCognition's Chairman, believes AI is instrumental for meeting growing energy demands. According to him, AI innovations are part of our journey towards a net-zero future.
Time will tell if Shell's new AI strategy will help to create an innovative future in oil exploration.
🎙️ THE STARTUP USING AI TO CREATE PERSONALIZED EPISODES
Curio, the startup turning expert journalism into voice-acted, podcast-esque nuggets, is now mixing AI into the recipe.
They've roped in OpenAI to train their new bot, Rio, using a massive cache of licensed journalism. It's like teaching a parrot with Pulitzer Prize-winning speeches instead of your uncle's questionable jokes.
Rio serves up custom audio episodes based on your questions, but only uses top-tier, fact-checked content. So, unlike some other AI "geniuses," Rio doesn’t make stuff up when it gets stuck – no AI hallucinations here!
TED head honcho Chris Anderson, a previous investor in Curio, just threw more money in the pot. He didn’t say how much, but Curio calls him a "significant investor." So we're guessing it's not just lunch money.
Curio's got a subscriber base in the thousands, over a million app downloads, and now, with Rio on board, they're aiming for 100k paid subscribers by year-end.
Not bad for a company that turns written words into audio, eh? AI for the win!
📰 OTHER HEADLINES & STORIES
📍UNCLASSIFIEDS
Munch: Use state of the art AI to help you maximize ROI on your long-video content, by generating short, media-optimal clips for social media
The AI Entrepreneur: Grow your business so fast it scares you using an “AI Tv Channel” and Virtual Influencers at MoneyToaster.
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🛠️ AWESOME AI TOOLS
LottieFiles: Bring motion to Figma
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MyShell: Create your own chatbot with a realistic voice in seconds
Digger: Open source GitOps tool for Terraform
💼AI JOBS
🖼️ AI ART PIECE
Catpurcino — u/Mr_Wendell0x
🤖 CHATGPT PROMPT OF THE DAY
Enjoy this diagram about 🥔’s courtesy of ChatGPT plugins
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