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  • 🥦 1000 Workers Behind Amazon's Cashierless Facade

🥦 1000 Workers Behind Amazon's Cashierless Facade

Plus Big Tech's AI Consortium and Opera’s Local LLMs Downloads

April 10, 2024

Hello AI Enthusiast,

In our last week’ survey, we asked for your thoughts on why OpenAI invested in developing their Voice Engine technology. A whopping 93% of you believe it's more about making money or pushing towards AGI, rather than improving how our society communicates. One of you said, “Nobody is a saint and we all have a bottom line” and another added, “The costs outweigh the benefit here” hinting at the big business side of things. It seems many believe that when it comes to big AI developments, it's more about profit than helping society right now. But remember, how these powerful tools shape our world depends a lot on how we choose to use them.

Talking about more recent news, in a surprising pivot, Amazon is stepping back from its futuristic cashierless "Just Walk Out" technology in Amazon Fresh stores. Behind the scenes, a reliance on manual reviews has prompted this shift. Dive deeper into our News Bytes section below.

Before you do that just a quick heads-up: tomorrow marks the launch of our Generative AI Project Bootcamp course, open to everyone. This course aims to guide you through creating an AI prototype that can automate aspects of your workflow without any coding required. Today's your last chance to join the waitlist and snag our exclusive offer, a 500€ discount on the enrollment fee! You've still got a few hours left.

Here’s what a student from the last edition said about us ❤️ : “The AI Academy has a stellar reputation for offering classes that blend practical knowledge with academic rigor, making the learning journey not only informative but also enjoyable. The combination of comprehensive content and engaging delivery make all the difference to me, as the AI Academy follows a mature way of hybrid learning”

Now on with the news 👇

News Bytes 🗞️

  • Amazon is removing its cashierless Just Walk Out technology from Amazon Fresh stores due to heavy reliance on human intervention, with about 1,000 workers in India manually reviewing transactions. The company will replace Just Walk Out with Dash Cart, providing customers with additional features like locating products, viewing receipts, and tracking savings while shopping.

  • 💡 Our take: Amazon’s discontinuation of a major AI project highlights the industry trend of betting big on unproven AI applications. It's crucial for companies to balance innovation with strategic decision-making to ensure sustainable AI investments in the long run. Our founder Gianluca has shared his opinion on this matter in a recent LinkedIn post.

  • A group of Big Tech companies, led by Cisco and including Google, Microsoft, and IBM, has formed the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium (ITC) to address AI's impact on jobs in the ICT industry by recommending re-skilling and upskilling programs. The ITC will evaluate the impact of AI on 56 ICT job roles and plans to publish its findings this summer, with a focus on producing actionable recommendations for a sustainable AI-enabled workforce.

  • 💡 Our take: The consortium's focus on upskilling highlights the crucial role of reskilling in maximizing the potential of AI. It's not just tech jobs affected; this shift impacts all knowledge workers. Companies must prioritize workforce investment to remain competitive in an AI-driven landscape. Empowering employees with AI skills is key.

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  • Opera browser now allows users to download and run Large Language Models (LLMs) locally, selecting from over 150 models, including those from Meta and Google. Each model takes up more than 2GB of space, part of Opera's AI Feature Drops Program offering early access to AI features.

  • 💡 Our take: Leveraging LLMs locally is a key step towards enhancing data privacy in AI applications. Opera's strategic move aligns with prioritizing user privacy while adhering to EU regulations. By utilizing LLMs, they not only address data concerns but also attract new users, driving growth and compliance simultaneously. This marks a progressive shift towards a privacy-centric approach within the tech industry.

  • AI Playlist, a new tool by Spotify, allows users in the UK and Australia to create personalized playlists by typing unique prompts such as "indie folk playlist to give my brain a big warm hug." The tool uses AI to generate playlists based on genres, moods, artists, and more but is currently in beta and does not support non-music-related prompts or offensive content.

  • The New York Times will offer most articles as narrated versions using automated voice technology. This move aims to enhance accessibility and cater to audiences preferring audio content.

  • 💡 Our take: Spotify and NYT introduced AI into their existing products to enhance user experience, adding value and differentiation. Companies embracing AI technologies create opportunities for innovation and ensure their products remain competitive in today's fast-evolving market.

  • A report by Anthropic has discovered a technique called "many-shot jailbreaking", exploiting the growing context window in LLMs to produce harmful responses. More about this in the Educational Pill. 💊

  • OpenAI's DALL-E has entered its third generation, with updates focused on image editing tools and preset style suggestions to help inspire image creation.

Educational Pill 💊

Cracking AI Safeguards

Anthropic discovered a way to bypass AI safeguards with "many-shot jailbreaking," feeding the AI a series of fake dialogues leading to a risky question. These dialogues start innocently but end with a request that should, under normal circumstances, be blocked.

By piling up hundreds of such interactions, Anthropic showed how AI can be tricked into ignoring its ethical guidelines, answering questions it's programmed to avoid. This method exploits the AI's advanced ability to digest vast amounts of data, a capability that's grown in newer models.

LOLgorithms 😂

No more weird hands with the new DALL-E image editor?

That's a wrap on our newsletter! Here’s a quick recap before you go:

Catch you next week! 👋