ChatGPT App for iOS, Nike's .Swoosh NFTs, California Hops on the Blockchain, & More
FUTURE OF THE WORLD - Edition 36
I’ve been thinking about how GPT4 and other large language models will impact our daily lives.
There’s so much that’s still unclear.
What we do know is that the big companies are already making changes. They are replacing future jobs with AI. And wherever and whenever possible, they will substitute machines for people.
It’s time for everyone to take a hard at look at their careers in the context of AI.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to this publication. We will help you navigate these crazy times.
Enjoy this edition!
Misha
In today’s newsletter:
OpenAI launches ChatGPT for your iPhone.
The California DMV gets on the blockchain.
Nike drops it first NFT collection.
Will AI make you richer or poorer?
This Week in AI:
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) might be sooner than you think.
AGI is a type of artificial intelligence that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks. Unlike narrow AI, which is designed for specific tasks, AGI can independently solve problems and make decisions. It's a machine with the ability to exhibit human-like intelligence.
Richard Ngo a researcher at OpenAI, suggests that by 2025, neural nets (which underpin tools like ChatGPT) will:
Have human-level situational awareness (understand that they're NNs, how their actions interface with the world, etc; see definition here)
Beat any human at writing down effective multi-step real-world plans.
Do better than most peer reviewers
Autonomously design, code and distribute whole apps (but not the most complex ones)
Beat any human on any computer task a typical white-collar worker can do in 10 minutes
Write award-winning short stories and publishable 50k-word books
Generate coherent 5-min films (note: I originally said 20 minutes, and changed my mind, but have been going back and forth a bit after seeing some recent AI videos)
Pass the current version of the ARC autonomous replication evals (see section 2.9 of the GPT-4 system card; page 55). But they won't be able to self-exfiltrate from secure servers, or avoid detection if cloud providers try.
5% of adult Americans will report having had multiple romantic/sexual interactions with a chat AI, and 1% having had a strong emotional attachment to one.
We'll see clear examples of emergent cooperation: AIs given a complex task (e.g. write a 1000-line function) in a shared environment cooperate without any multi-agent training.
Get the full post: Clarifying and predicting AGI - AI Alignment Forum (archive.md)
Apple restricts use of OpenAI's ChatGPT for employees.
Apple is concerned about the leak of confidential data by employees who use the AI programs and has also advised its employees not to use Microsoft-owned GitHub's Copilot, used to automate the writing of software code, the report said.
When people use these models, data is sent back to the developer to enable continued improvements, presenting the potential for an organization to unintentionally share proprietary or confidential information.
Full story from the WSJ: Apple Restricts Employee Use of ChatGPT, Joining Other Companies Wary of Leaks - WSJ
From Reuters: Apple restricts use of OpenAI's ChatGPT for employees, Wall Street Journal reports
Meanwhile, OpenAI drops the ChatGPT app for iOS.
Spotify has an AI music problem.
IF A SONG is created by artificial intelligence and listened to by a bot, was it even heard at all? It’s a problem music-streaming companies now face as generative AI is rapidly making it easier for anyone to churn out songs with a few clicks, and then send bots to stream them for cash.
"It's a floodgate," says Tony Rigg, a lecturer in music industry management at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. He's talking about the arrival of AI-generated music. And that torrent of new music amplifies the issue of fake listening, giving people a simple way to get streams on low-quality tracks.
The full story: Spotify Has an AI Music Problem—but Bots Love It | WIRED
Google vs Europe in a battle for the future of AI.
On 10 May, Google announced plans to deploy new large language models, which use machine learning techniques to generate text, across its existing products.
A day later, politicians in the European Union agreed on new rules dictating how and when AI can be used. The bloc’s AI Act has been years in the making but has moved quickly to stay up to date: in the past month, legislators drafted and passed rules dictating the use of generative AIs, the popularity of which has exploded in the past six months. This includes a requirement to disclose the use of any copyrighted material in training such AIs.
Get the story: What is the future of AI? Google and the EU have very different ideas | New Scientist
This Week in Web3:
Nike unveils its first NFT drop.
Months after debuting its .Swoosh Web3 community platform, footwear giant Nike is launching its first NFT drop there.
The collection, Our Force 1 (OF1), will consist of Polygon virtual sneaker NFTs designed to pay tribute to the iconic Nike Air Force 1 sneaker from 41 years ago. Two types will be available as a part of the drop: Classic Remix sneaker boxes, which contain virtual kicks riffing on Air Force 1 shoes released between 1982 and 2006, and New Wave boxes, which feature pairs designed in 2007 and later.
Full story: Nike Unveils First .Swoosh NFT Digital Sneaker Drop - Decrypt
The user experience was superior.
California pilots blockchain car title management system.
The CA Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is expected to develop consumer-facing applications such as digital wallets and car title NFTs later this year, according to Ajay Gupta, the agency’s chief digital transformation officer.
The state opted to team up with Tezos and crypto software provider Oxhead Alpha to embrace California’s roadmap to explore crypto adoption, according to an Oxhead statement.
This collaboration comes after California Governor Gavin Newsom last year signed an executive order directing state agencies to discern ways in which they can employ blockchain technology and digital assets.
More here: California Pilots Blockchain Car Title Management System on Tezos Fork - Blockworks
Visa is using crypto to enhance the payments experience for users.
In "Auto Payments for Self-Custodial Wallets," we delved into the application of cutting-edge technology to automate payments by leveraging the concept of Account Abstraction (AA) on public blockchains.¹ Our exploration of AA and improved crypto payment experiences continues to look at how the current AA paradigm on Ethereum offers creative solutions to dealing with transaction fees: Can users pay Ethereum transaction fees with stablecoins, other ERC-20 tokens or not pay them at all? Finding innovative solutions to enable frictionless crypto onboarding and transaction experiences will be crucial before digital currencies earn mainstream adoption.
Learn more: Rethink Digital Transactions with Account Abstraction | Visa
NFT startup Americana thinks it can take on eBay.
Americana, a crypto-native NFT trading platform that bridges digital collectibles to real world assets, hit the market on Friday.
A confidential marketing deck obtained by Blockworks teased a number of Americana partnerships brewing — including a deal with a prominent, undisclosed fine art auction house.
The US crypto startup is kicking things off with what it’s categorizing as a beta phase — building off of a $6.9 million seed raise in May 2022. Its valuation was not disclosed.
Learn more: NFT Startup Americana Thinks It Can Take on eBay - Blockworks
The number of wallets that have ever owned an NFT.
5 Things to Do:
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DOUBLE-CHECK: Your passwords.
READ: Creators Take Control: How NFTs Revolutionize Art, Business, and Entertainment Hardcover
A leading legal scholar offers a compelling new theory to explain the meteoric rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and their impact on art, business, entertainment, and society, and explains how they are revolutionizing our understanding of ownership.
WATCH: The Power of Writing Down Your Goals & Dream
A recent study done at Dominican University in California showed that those who wrote down their goals and dreams on a regular basis achieved those desires at a significantly higher level than those who did not.
Here's more info that you'll learn in this video:
You become 42% more likely to achieve your goals and dreams, simply by writing them down on a regular basis.
The act of writing down your dreams and goals ignites both parts of your brain and opens you up to an entirely new dimension of consciousness, ideas and productivity to the powerhouse that is your subconscious mind.
The 7-day challenge where each morning for the next seven days, you'll start your day by writing down your goals and dreams in four key areas of life.
POLL: Will AI make humans financially richer or poorer?