Hey there and welcome back for your daily AI news fix.
This week, the AI world has been especially buzzy.
Some really big stories to get into.
From Apple's big AI push to perplexity's legal trouble,
and even some stuff about the future of open AI.
Yeah, it's been a wild ride this week.
Seems like AI is making headlines left and right,
a real sign of how quickly things are changing
and impacting every corner of tech.
No kidding.
So let's just jump right into it.
Starting with the news that basically blew up
the internet this week, Apple is going all in on AI.
This is a big one.
Apple is known for being pretty secretive,
but they really dropped a bombshell.
A whole new suite of AI features
they're calling Apple Intelligence.
Rolling it out across iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS.
It's jam-packed with tools.
Okay, I'm all ears.
What kind of tools are we talking about?
Think integrated writing assistants,
image cleanup, article summarizers,
and even a totally new typing input for Siri.
But here's where it gets really interesting.
They're integrating OpenAI's chat GPT.
Wait, hold on.
Apple and OpenAI, I did not see that partnership coming.
Right.
Even tech giants can't resist the power of chat GPT.
So Apple's using it to make Siri way more powerful
for answering questions,
like way beyond what Siri's been able to do before.
And they're putting it into their writing tools too.
So you can use chat GPT to draft stuff
right inside those apps.
So I could have chat GPT write my emails, articles,
poems, whatever, all within Apple's ecosystem.
Exactly.
You don't need a separate chat GPT account,
but you do have to opt in to both Apple Intelligence
and chat GPT.
And you get access to their models, including GPT4,
but there are some limits on how much you can use it
without a premium chat GPT account.
Makes sense.
Apple's giving everyone a little taste of chat GPT,
but if you want the whole buffet, you gotta pay up.
Oh, yeah.
But Apple's not stopping there.
They're doing their own generative AI stuff too.
Absolutely.
They're going beyond techs too.
They've got this thing called GenMoji,
where you can make your own custom emojis using prompts.
Like imagine you type in a happy octopus wearing a hat,
and it makes that emoji for you.
That is so cool.
I could already see people going nuts with that.
What else?
There's also image playground.
It generates images in all kinds of styles,
like illustrations and animations,
and they've trained it on this mix of licensed content
and public domain stuff.
Really being careful with the whole copyright thing.
Speaking of copyright,
that leads us perfectly into our next story.
Perplexity that AI-powered search engine
is facing some legal challenges
from some pretty big publishers.
Yeah, this story is still unfolding.
It really shows the tension between AI companies
and those who are making the content.
Dow Jones, who owns the Wall Street Journal
and the New York Times,
they're both going after perplexity legally.
They say perplexity has been using their copyrighted stuff
without permission to train their AI models.
So it's a classic question.
Who owns the data in the age of AI?
Exactly.
And perplexity isn't backing down.
Their CEO is proposing this radical solution.
And instead of doing these traditional licensing agreements,
he wants to share revenue with publishers,
like sharing ad revenue
and even giving publishers these perplexity-powered chatbots
for their own websites.
Really bold move, trying to turn rivals into allies.
Fascinating.
I wonder how publishers are gonna respond to that.
Yeah.
It's a totally new way of thinking about who owns what
and how to collaborate in this AI world.
Definitely is.
This is gonna have big implications for everyone.
Okay, so we've got AI creating content
and AI facing legal challenges over content.
Now let's shift gears to Google and 11 Labs
who are releasing some really cool AI music tools.
Yes.
So Google launched this thing called Music FX DJ.
It's like having a real-time music generation studio
right in your hands.
You can just create and manipulate music as you go.
They've also updated their Music AI Sandbox,
which gives developers even more power
to build music-making stuff with AI.
That is cool.
Musicians and producers are gonna love those tools.
Oh yeah, and 11 Labs is doing
some really interesting stuff too.
They've released this feature where you can generate
custom voices from text prompts.
So you could type in something like,
a wise old wizard with a booming voice
and the AI will make that voice.
Whoa, that could be a game changer
for audiobooks, podcasts, video games, who knows what.
Right, it's like having an entire voice acting studio
at your fingertips.
Yeah.
All thanks to AI.
These tools are making music and audio creation
way more accessible to everyone
and opening up so many creative doors.
Couldn't agree more.
Okay, before we move on, let's go back to Open AI,
the company behind ChatGPT.
It seems they've had a big week with some new hires
and some pretty significant departures.
Yeah, some changes going on over there.
Makes sense though with how fast this industry is moving.
So on the one hand, they've hired a former Uber executive
as their first chief compliance officer.
Shows they're taking the whole regulatory landscape seriously.
So they're bringing in someone who knows how to deal
with all the rules and regulations.
Smart move with all the attention AI is getting
from governments around the world.
But what about the people leaving Open AI?
Who's leaving and what does it mean?
Well, some key figures have left,
including their CTO and a policy researcher
who'd been there a long time.
And that sparked a lot of discussion
about Open AI's priorities.
Some people think they might be focusing more
on commercial success and maybe putting some
of their ethical considerations on the back burner.
Tough spot to be in.
They've built this incredibly powerful tech,
but then they have to figure out the ethics
and the societal impact.
A lot of AI companies are facing this right now.
Absolutely.
It's not just about building something cool anymore.
It's about building it responsibly
and thinking about the consequences.
Right.
And speaking of responsible development,
Open AI just open sourced their synthy tool.
This is supposed to help identify text
that's been generated by AI.
Huge step towards transparency.
It's basically a watermark that gets embedded
in AI-generated text.
Software can detect it, but humans can't see it.
Like a digital fingerprint, you can trace back
to where the text came from.
So this could help fight misinformation
and all that fake content being generated by AI.
Yeah.
A way to make sure people are using AI responsibly
when it comes to content creation.
Now this leads to a really interesting question
about the future of AI.
Apple, with their small models approach,
seems to be focused on privacy
and processing stuff right on your device.
Do you think other companies will follow their lead?
That's the big question.
These large language models like GPT-4
are incredibly powerful,
but they need a ton of computing power.
And they usually rely on the cloud.
Apple's betting that people care about privacy
even if it means giving up some of that power.
It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Definitely will.
This whole balancing act between power efficiency
and privacy is gonna define the next chapter of AI.
I think you're right about that.
Feels like we're at a real turning point.
Anyway, let's shift gears for a second.
Let's talk about IBM.
They seem to be feeling the effects
of this big AI shift in the tech world.
Yeah, their earnings report was kind of a surprise.
What's the deal there?
So they missed their revenue targets for last quarter,
partially because businesses
are cutting back on spending right now,
which isn't surprising given the economy.
But here's what's interesting.
Their software segment actually grew.
Hmm, even with the economy the way it is,
they're still buying software.
Is that AI related?
It seems like it.
Analysts think this growth is because companies
are investing in cloud infrastructure,
to handle all the demands of these new generative AI tools.
And get this, IBM's AI book of business
is now at $3 billion.
That's up a whole billion from last quarter.
Wow, so even though things are a little shaky,
IBM is still making bank from AI.
Definitely.
It's pretty clear that businesses are prioritizing AI,
even if it means cutting back on other things.
They see AI as the future
and they're putting their money where their mouth is.
Makes sense.
Every company wants to be on a cutting edge,
especially when it comes to something as big as AI.
Okay, let's zoom out from the corporate world for a minute.
Over in Denmark,
they just launched their first AI supercomputer.
Yeah, that's a pretty big deal.
This supercomputer is called Gifion.
It's powered by NVIDIA technology.
It's a public-private partnership.
The goal is to use it to speed up research and innovation.
Things like life sciences, climate research,
and even quantum computing.
So some pretty big goals.
What kind of impact are they hoping this will have
on Denmark's tech scene?
They're hoping it will attract top talent and investment.
Basically turn Denmark into this AI hub.
Imagine what's possible when researchers and businesses
have access to that kind of computing power.
It could lead to all sorts of breakthroughs.
It's amazing how AI is driving innovation everywhere you look.
It really is.
And speaking of innovation,
remember those self-driving robotaxes
Elon Musk was talking about?
Oh yeah.
Tesla wants to roll out a whole fleet of driverless cabs
in California and Texas next year.
Super ambitious.
But you said earlier there are some doubts
about whether they can actually do it.
Yeah, there are some pretty big hurdles.
First of all, California has very strict rules
for autonomous vehicles.
Tesla still needs to get the permits
to operate a robotaxi service there.
In fact, they haven't even applied
for a driverless testing permit in California yet.
So Musk's timeline might be a little optimistic.
Maybe a little.
And then there are the safety concerns.
You know, Tesla's full self-driving system,
that's at the heart of this whole robotaxi plan,
that's currently under investigation
by US safety regulators.
They've had a bunch of accidents.
Yikes.
So between the regulations and the safety issues,
it sounds like Tesla's robotaxi dreams
might be further off than they're saying.
Probably.
This whole thing shows how complicated it is
to bring autonomous vehicles to the masses.
It's not just about the technology.
It's about safety regulations,
how the public feels about it, all sorts of stuff.
It's a good reminder that just because the tech exists
doesn't mean it's gonna be
in our everyday lives right away.
Right.
It takes time to work out the kinks
and address people's concerns
and build the infrastructure
for this kind of groundbreaking technology.
Well, we've covered a lot of ground today.
Apple's new AI stuff,
perplexities legal battles,
AI-powered music tools,
IBM's shift to AI Denmark's supercomputer,
Tesla's robotaxi plans.
It's clear that AI is having
a huge impact on everything.
Definitely. This is a really exciting time.
Things are changing so fast.
We're seeing AI change entire industries,
creating new opportunities,
and raising some really important questions.
Questions about the future of work creativity,
even humanity itself?
Makes you think.
But that's what makes it so interesting, right?
We're living through a technological revolution
and it's changing everything.
Makes you wonder what the world's gonna look like
in five, 10, 20 years.
I know, right?
So after all this,
what do you think is the biggest takeaway
from all these AI developments?
Hmm, that's a good question.
I think the biggest thing is that AI
isn't some far-off thing anymore.
It's here right now.
It's already affecting our lives,
whether we realize it or not.
And it doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon.
Nope, not at all.
We talked about so much today,
but one thing kept coming up over and over.
That tension between the amazing potential of AI
and all the ethical and societal issues it brings up,
like copyright stuff, jobs being replaced,
the possibility of it being used for bad things.
It seems like every time AI takes a step forward,
it also raises a bunch of questions
we need to figure out as a society.
Yeah, that's a really important point.
It's crucial that we have these conversations.
AI is a powerful tool, and like any tool,
it can be used in good ways or bad ways.
We have to be really careful about how we develop AI,
how we regulate it,
how we make sure it's used to benefit everyone.
It's a huge responsibility.
And it's gonna take a lot of people working together
to figure it out.
Policymakers, researchers, developers, everybody.
I agree.
We all have a role to play in shaping the future of AI.
For sure.
And it starts with knowing what's going on
and understanding the issues.
Right.
The more people know about AI, what it can do,
how it can affect us,
the better decisions we can make
about its place in our lives.
Well said.
So before we wrap up,
I wanna leave everyone with something to think about.
Based on everything we've talked about today,
how do you think AI is gonna change your life
in the years to come?
How will it change the way you work,
how you create, how you interact with the world?
It's a question worth considering.
Because in a lot of ways,
the future of AI is the future of all of us.
That's the truth.
A future with endless possibilities.
And we're building it together.
Thanks for listening to the Daily AI News Podcast.
And stay tuned for more.