AI News & Launches

A new study reveals AI's efficacy in countering conspiracy beliefs through dialogues, significantly reducing adherence even among staunch believers. This begs ethical questions regarding the use of AI for mass influence and the potential for its misuse by authorities.

Muraena is a cybersecurity company leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide advanced threat defense solutions. Their innovative approach aims to protect organizations from various cybersecurity threats, offering adaptive and autonomous systems.

Open-Parse is an open-source library for visually analyzing and chunking documents, aimed at creating better inputs for Large Language Models (LLMs). It supports various features such as markdown parsing, high-precision table extraction, and intuitive usage with editor support.

RedCom AI offers a Chrome extension to enhance Reddit engagement by generating personalized comments using AI, driving traffic to websites with features such as real-time post analysis and performance tracking.

Ping Parrot offers an AI powered chatbot that can be easily embedded on any website to handle customer support. It requires no coding and is customizable to match the brand, supporting over 80 languages.

UI Bakery introduces an AI App Generator capable of creating web applications such as internal tools, CRUD apps, and admin panels, with just a text prompt. It includes features like drag and drop UI Builder, integration options, workflow automation, Git version control, and database connectivity.

MapStory is an online platform that empowers individuals and communities to create, share, and collaborate on maps that reflect dynamic spatial-temporal data.

Spotify announces a new beta feature for Premium users in the UK and Australia, allowing them to create personalized playlists through AI-driven prompts directly in the Spotify app.

GitHub repository 'sourcegraph/awesome-code-ai' provides a comprehensive list of AI-based coding tools, including assistants, code completion, and refactoring tools. It offers a variety of resources for developers looking to integrate AI into their workflow.

Blind internet users are facing challenges with automated AI tools designed to assist them. Due to persistent errors and limitations in these technologies, visually impaired individuals struggle with efficient and reliable internet usage, as reported by the Financial Times.

Flash Notes is an innovative learning app designed to provide a bespoke and intelligent learning experience for advanced learners. The app features AI-powered flashcards, tailored learning algorithms, and seamless multi-device synchronisation.

Gerry McGovern warns against perceiving AI as a friend, as it functions more like a predator in digital advertising. AI thrives on selling personal data to the highest bidder, fostering addictions, and promoting overconsumption. McGovern criticizes the 'free' services economy for its hidden costs, including environmental damage and societal pressures, urging a move towards a 'pay for what you use' economy to avert the unsustainable cycle of consumption and waste.

Explore the lifecycle of Cody's code AI completion in Sourcegraph's blog by Philipp Spiess. From the use of a Large Language Model (LLM) in generating responses, through the vital planning, retrieval, and post-processing steps, to ensuring quality and reliability in production code AI applications. Discover how AI assists developers with context-aware, high-quality coding completions and how Sourcegraph's Cody, an open-source AI coding assistant, embarks on this inventive journey.

Stanford Medicine implemented an AI to assist clinicians in drafting responses to patient messages. The AI, using large language models, integrates with the EHR system, helps alleviate clinician burnout, and reduces cognitive workload. A study showed positive impacts, with plans to expand its use.

The integration of Rust into the Linux kernel poses challenges, particularly regarding memory models. Kernel developers are more familiar with the kernel's memory model; thus, Rust code in the kernel will conform to it. This decision ensures consistency and simplifies development, but it may hinder the use of external Rust tools or standard libraries designed around the Rust or C11 memory models.

The paper 'Sophia: A Scalable Stochastic Second-order Optimizer for Language Model Pre-training' introduces a second-order optimization algorithm that significantly improves the efficiency of training language models. The optimizer, named Sophia, utilizes a light-weight Hessian approximation and clipping method to speed up the training process.

Best Buy's Geek Squad employees face mass layoffs as the company aims to redirect resources towards areas such as AI and Best Buy Health. CEO Corie Barry announced the expected layoffs during a February earnings call, citing a shift in strategy and various macro factors influencing consumer spending. Laid-off employees expressed their shock and frustration on social media and online forums. Best Buy is also removing physical media from stores to revamp departments.

Stylar is a robust AI-powered image editing tool that simplifies the graphic design process. It provides users with unmatched control over image composition by offering predefined styles, layering, positioning, and sketching tools that cater to a wide range of skill levels. With features like the 'Enhance' tool, intuitive interface, and high-resolution export options, Stylar serves as a versatile partner for professional designers and beginners alike.

Boostrbot offers a comprehensive AI marketing assistant platform that allows users to generate content quickly and efficiently. Boasting tools for text, image, voice, and chat generation along with unique features like Affiliate System, Advanced Templates, and Fine Tuning, it empowers creators to produce consistent, engaging content and monetize their efforts.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and ex-Apple design guru Jony Ive are collaborating on a new AI-powered personal device. The unnamed company seeks $1 billion in funding for technology not resembling a smartphone. The device could feature AI similar to ChatGPT and may not need a traditional screen or apps, hinting at wearable tech like the Humane AI Pin or Rabbit R1.

Google is reportedly developing a 'lookup' feature for unknown callers within the Android Phone app, allowing users to search phone numbers directly from their recent calls. An email summarization feature called Gemini might also be added to the Android Gmail app, expected to enable quick summaries of emails with a simple tap.

Educators are increasingly utilizing AI tools like ChatGPT for grading essays, which stirs ethical concerns. AI use offers efficiency in handling declarative knowledge in large classes but lacks personal touch in smaller settings, where nuanced feedback is crucial. Experts caution on integrity, originality, and consent in using AI, as it could affect intellectual property and the validity of academic evaluations. Policies are being developed to address AI's role in education, emphasizing transparency and informed consent.

Loki is an innovative open-source tool designed for automated fact verification. It breaks down texts into claims, assesses their check-worthiness, generates evidence search queries, crawls for evidence, and verifies claims, benefiting journalists and researchers.

Promoted.ai is hiring an AI Sales Engineer for new graduates, offering a $120k salary with 0.10% equity. The role is based in San Francisco and involves demonstrating AI-driven search and ads optimization solutions to prospective clients.

Promptordle is an online puzzle game inspired by the popular word game Wordle. It provides daily challenges where players guess a hidden word within a limited number of attempts.

The RaspRover, an open-source 4WD AI robot kit by Waveshare, supports Raspberry Pi 4B and 5. It includes an all-aluminum chassis, dual-controller system with ESP32 MCUs, camera-serial interface, and various operational controls for developers and tech enthusiasts.

A paper titled 'AI and the Problem of Knowledge Collapse' by Andrew J. Peterson discusses the potential negative impacts of AI on public understanding and innovation. While AI can process large amounts of data, an over-reliance on AI systems may lead to 'knowledge collapse'. The paper models scenarios where communities depend on AI-assisted processes versus traditional methods, showing that a discount on AI content can lead to beliefs further from the truth.

The Qwen Team releases a new model, Qwen1.5-32B, fitting into the language model series with approximately 30 billion parameters, offering balance between performance, efficiency, and memory consumption. Outperforming competitors in various tasks, Qwen1.5-32B presents a more resource-friendly alternative to 72B parameter models, maintaining high capabilities in diverse languages and complex tasks.

Brett Scott analyzes financial capitalism using a Lego model, showcasing the mechanisms of equity and debt financing in property development. The model breaks down complex financial concepts into understandable analogies, explaining capital raising, leverage, and investment outcomes through the metaphor of constructing a building using investor funds. The article also touches on the potential risks and rewards of financial leverage.

Big Tech companies, including Microsoft and Google, have formed a consortium led by Cisco to study the impact of artificial intelligence on tech jobs. The group will examine how AI may change work for different technology roles and provide actionable insights. Amidst AI advancements, concerns about AI-induced job displacement are being taken more seriously, with debates heating up regarding legislative action.

Google Books indexes AI-generated content leading to concerns over its credibility and impact on research tools like Google Ngram viewer. Investigations uncovered repetitive content with outdated information due to delayed knowledge updates.

Dippy is an AI-powered application that offers users an opportunity to chat with AI friends right on their home screen. It provides a space where users can find a virtual friend, therapist, or partner according to their preference.

NUCA is an AI-powered camera and speculative art project by Mathias Vef and Benedikt Groß. It captures nude portraits by combining AI with real-time input data, emphasizing consent and societal implications.

Pizi AI is an innovative tool designed for chat interactions with multiple PDFs. It summarizes lengthy documents, translates texts, and solves math problems efficiently. Built with privacy in mind, Pizi AI works on various file formats and languages offering fast, encrypted, and performance-oriented services. Key features include advanced layout comprehension, formula recognition, and OCR technology supporting over 100 languages.

OneClick Defi is a platform offering users a comprehensive list of DeFi airdrops, enabling participants to explore and join various cryptocurrency airdrops with ease.

Crescendo is a new multi-turn jailbreak attack technique that demonstrates high success in steering conversations towards prohibited topics in state-of-the-art language models. Designed to be user-friendly and requiring no technical knowledge of the LLM's workings, Crescendo exploits the model's pattern-following tendency, particularly when referencing its own generated content. The technique poses significant risks to language model ecosystems and highlights the need for improved security measures.

A journalistic investigation has unveiled a scheme where fake law firms using AI-generated profiles are sending out fraudulent DMCA notices to website owners. Their aim is to create backlinks and illegitimately boost SEO rankings. The pseudo firm 'Commonwealth Legal', targeting a photo from Unsplash, is one such example, and the incident raises questions about the effectiveness of search engines to screen for the quality of backlinks.

The term 'open AI' lacks a universal definition, creating confusion between marketing jargon and technical descriptors. The article delves into what constitutes 'open' AI, touching upon sustainability, transparency, accountability, and the impact of AI on knowledge work.

The study titled 'Extracting Social Support and Social Isolation Information from Clinical Psychiatry Notes: Comparing a Rule-based NLP System and a Large Language Model' compares the efficacy of a Rule-based System (RBS) and a Large Language Model (LLM) in processing psychiatric notes. The RBS showed superior macro-averaged f-scores in identifying social support and social isolation, outperforming LLM in both Mount Sinai Health System and Weill Cornell Medicine data sets.

JetMoE-8B, achieving better performance than LLaMA2-7B and comparable models, has been trained on a significantly lower budget of less than $0.1 million. It's designed to be open, using public datasets, and is optimized for lower computational costs with only 2.2B active parameters during inference. The model and training code are open-sourced and approachable for academia with limited compute budgets.