🤔 w/147: Everyone Can Now Have Their Own Customised ChatGPT
OpenAI's GPTs, Elon Musk's GROK, Humane's AI Pin, and Samsung's Galaxy AI, along with other news and insights in the world of technology and AI.
w/Wiser! #147 - 12th Nov 2023
Hi Wiser! readers,
In this week’s issue, the lead story is about OpenAI’s developer day. Specifically the significance of the launch of GPTs, a feature to build your own customised version of ChatGPT.
Not to be overshadowed, Elon Musk announced a hastily prepared large language model called GROK. It’s unique selling point is that it’s built on Twitter data, unlike any others.
Plus I take a look at Picsart, the cheaper alternative to Canva, Humane’s AI Pin hits the streets and NVIDIA are building even faster AI computers!
As always, there are the stories that caught my attention on what’s going on in AI and emerging technologies shaping tomorrow’s digital world and your workplace.
All the best, Rick
w/Wisdom!
OpenAI Puts The Power Of AI Into The Hands Of Everyone
OpenAI held its first ever conference for developers this week and made some significant announcements. The highlight was the introduction of something called “GPTs”. They’re significant because they give you and I the ability to create a custom version of ChatGPT.
That means that literally anyone (as long as you have a Plus account, a bargain at only $20/month), can create and tailor your own ChatGPT to perform a specific purpose or task. You can customise ChatGPT to be whatever you want it to be, such as a creative writing coach in the style of Hunter S Thompson, or an expert in sales or negotiation based on Jordan Belfort and Chris Voss, or even a handy guide for recipes in your kitchen in the unconventional style of Heston Blumenthal.
The point is that GPTs allow users to move away from “general output” that everyone gets when using ChatGPT, to custom and specific output based on whatever you want it to be.
This versatility was demonstrated live on stage by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who built a prototype of a GPT named “Startup Mentor.” I’ve included the link to Altman’s keynote below and it’s worth watching the whole 45 minutes, but if you just want the juice about GPTs, skip to 20 minutes in.
In Altman’s example he created a GPT called Startup Mentor. Startup mentoring is a subject Altman knows a bit about and he built the GPT to specifically offer advice to startup founders. To give Startup Mentor the Altman touch, he uploaded a bunch of transcripts from his past talks and speeches on the subject.
This uploaded data will train his customised GPT to provide advice to startups based on Altman’s way of thinking, whilst also having access to GPT-4’s vast knowledge base underneath it.
The beauty of this feature is that building GPTs requires no coding or technical skills, just some imagination, purpose and access to some data.
OpenAI, again, have put the power of AI into the hands of non-technical folk. You simply engage in a conversation with ChatGPT, provide it with some instructions and any relevant information, and the AI shapes itself accordingly.
Personalised GPTs go further than just personal use too. These GPTs can also be shared with a wider community publicly or be built privately to operate just within your company or community.
Which is why OpenAI is launch a GPT Store later this month!
The GPT Store could be as significant for ChatGPT as the App Store was to making the iPhone the catalyst for the mobile generation.
The GPT Store will feature GPTs from verified builders that can be used by anyone, whilst ChatGPT Enterprise customers will be able to deploy their own internal-only GPTs for specific tasks via the GPT Store.
But the GPTs were just the tip of the iceberg at the conference.
The paid for version of ChatGPT is now based on GPT-4 Turbo which has an updated knowledge base and includes information up until April 2023. (The free version of ChatGPT stops in September 2021.) They have also removed the need to specify plugins, ChatGPT will just figure out what you need and take action on it.
They have massively expanded the context window to 128,000 tokens. What this means is that you can now load massive amounts of data into ChatGPT, more than four times larger than the previous version of GPT-4. To put it in perspective, 128,000 tokens are equivalent to about 100,000 words and significantly more than the 75,000 word limit of Anthropic’s Claude.
So what? Imagine giving ChatGPT the 99,000 words of the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” and asking ChatGPT to explain Scout Finch’s relationship with his father, Atticus Finch, which is central to the story. That would make homework a lot easier!
The other big announcement was the launch of the Assistance API. This is a feature designed to enable the creation of assistive experiences, including voice-powered ones. Expect to see major brands build whole new customer experiences using Assistance API. With ChatGPT in the background, you won’t even know it’s there!
➜ Here’s The Thing: The pace at which new features are being rolled out is unprecedented. And not insignificant either.
Being able to create your own, personalised, custom-build GPT is an awesome capability. With no technical knowledge, anyone with an idea can unlock the power of AI for the bargain price of only $20/month. ChatGPT will even write the design prompts for you!
But this is not the end of the matter, we’re only just at the beginning. As Greg Brockman, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, says about, “a year from now we will look back fondly on the AI that exists today as quaint and antiquated.”
Watch Sam Altman’s Keynote (YouTube) | OpenAI Dev Day Website | Wired
w/Productivity
Do You Use Canva? Try Picsart Instead, It’s A Cheaper Alternative
Canva is my go-to content creation tool for images and artwork. With the paid for version, Canva has integrated a bunch of tools that I could get for free on a piecemeal basis, but the convenience of having them all integrated into a single app is worth the $120/year subscription.
Now that Canva is tightly integrated with ChatGPT and DALL-E, the value of Canva is even greater for me.
However, if you’re looking for a less costly alternative that packs a punch with integrated AI tools, look at Picsart. The image creation platform costs only $40/year and is great value for money now that it has launched Ignite, a suite of over 20 AI tools for digital content creation. The tools include image editing features, GIF and sticker generation, and AI-powered QR codes and advertisements.
The company aims to provide a comprehensive platform for businesses and individuals to enhance their digital content with AI.
➜ Here's The Thing: According to Grand View Research the global content creation market is expected to touch $69.8 billion by 2030, growing at over 13% a year.
Much of that growth will come from the adoption of tools like Canva and Picsart using integrated services with foundation AI technologies embedded in the platform. The cost of the subscription is outweighed by the convenience of having multiple AI features all in a single place.
w/News
What Else Happened This Week?
Elon Musk Announced GROK, The AI Built On Twitter Data
Ever since his exit from OpenAI, Elon Musk has been at odds with the AI research firm he co-founded in 2015 with Sam Altman and others.
Therefore, it was no surprise that Musk chose to announce GROK at the same time as Altman was leading OpenAI's first ever developer's conference, even though GROK isn't ready yet.
But the real question's raised by GROK are: do we need another foundation large language model and can it/will it succeed?
Until we can get our hands on it, they're near impossible questions to answer. All we know is that GROK's unique selling point is that it's based on Twitter's history banks of data, a dataset that Musk turned off for everyone else months ago.
Depending on your POV about toxicity or relevance on Twitter, this has more or less merit as a USP.
It's also been rushed through and there's little evidence that Musk has any time for read teaming. The potential for GROK to harmful and unsafe has to be scored as high until Musk can proves otherwise.
Whatever you think of him, Musk continues to be the dominant figurehead in this AI gold rush, even though its questionable whether he should be!
To find out more about GROK, read this article I posted earlier this week on my Medium blog.
Can Humane’s AI Pin Be The Next Big Thing After The Smartphone?
Humane’s AI Pin is a screenless computer that you attach to your lapel, jacket or top pocket. It’s designed for the wearer to interact with an AI system by talking, not typing. There is no screen or keyboard, just a microphone and speaker. It’s meant to be like having a smartphone without having a smartphone. Its novelty factor is very high, as is the price. The AI Pin costs $699 plus a $24/month subscription fee.
➜ Here’s The Thing: It’s hard to see how this wearable device will make it given that the same functionality will be in Siri, Alexa or any of the AI apps before long. Anyhow, I’m fascinated by the AI Pin and the way the team are punching above their weight when it comes to attention. Learn more in this 10 minute video from the ex-Apple co-founders of Humane, Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno
🎙️ For more on this and a screenless future, Shaun and I talked about the Humane Pin in this episode of Big Tech Little Tech about the future of screenless tech.
Samsung Teases AI-Powered Real-Time Phone Call Translation
Samsung is set to introduce its own AI-based real-time phone call translation feature, called "Galaxy AI." This upcoming feature, expected to be available on the Galaxy S24 family, will provide users with real-time AI translation capabilities.
With "AI Live Translate Call," users can communicate seamlessly during phone calls by viewing real-time translations in a chat log format. Source: Engadget
NVIDIA’s Supercomputer Just Broke Its Own AI Training Benchmark Record
NVIDIA is the computer chip manufacturer that is building the best AI chips in the world. This week they unveiled the newest iteration of the Eos supercomputer that is so powerful it can train a 175 billion-parameter large language model on 1 billion tokens in under four minutes. That’s three times faster than the previous benchmark set by NVIDIA just six months ago. Is it any wonder that the USA has banned the sale of these high end AI chips to China? The question is, who will benefit in the long run when China’s response is to develop their own? Source: Engadget
Five Snippets Of Insight
Ever wondered how Netflix use tech to create trailers, promos and socials? This is an interesting insight into how Netflix use technology to create content. Source: Netflix Blog
AI is about to completely change how you use computers, according to Bill Gates. In the near future, anyone who's online will be able to have a personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence that's far beyond today's technology. This type of software, something that responds to natural language and can accomplish many different tasks based on its knowledge of the user, is called an agent. Source: Bill Gates’ Blog
First taxi rides in autonomous flying vehicles move a step closer after China approval. Chinese startup EHang has received the world’s first airworthiness certificate for an autonomous flying taxi. Source: Euronews
A humanoid robot has been appointed as CEO at Polish rum company, Dictador. In what’s being called a “world’s first,” the humanoid, AI-powered robot was appointed for its lack of bias and ability to make data-led decisions. Source: IOT World Today
Researchers have developed an AI system that can detect type 2 diabetes with up to 89% accuracy just by analysing characteristics of a smartphone recording of a person's voice. The AI studied pitch, strength, vibration, and shimmer (breathiness/hoarseness) and flagged subtle differences imperceptible to humans, that correlated with diabetes. Source: Mayo Clinic Research
FREE TO WISER! READERS: If you’re new to generative AI and want to know the basics of how to get started, what you can do with AI and sample prompts to get you going…download your copy of The Beginner’s Guide To ChatGPT for FREE!
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