Who Will Own the Future? A Free ChatGPT Prompt Course, FOTW Events Begin, & More
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Who Will Own the Future? A Free ChatGPT Prompt Course, FOTW Events Begin, & More
FUTURE OF THE WORLD - Edition 33
Hey everyone,
At Future of the World, we are on a mission to get millions more people involved in technology.
Why?
The future will be owned and controlled by the people who understand and are able to use technology to build the tools and platforms that run the world. Right now, that’s an exceedingly tiny percentage of the global population.
But the future should not be determined by a select few who do not have the necessary ideas or vision to build a better world. For viable solutions to emerge, we need people with a lived understanding of the problems to have access to technology. The teenage girl in Bangladesh, the sixty-five-year-old grandpa in the Andes, the single mom in Mississippi, the refugee from Sudan—they have a perspective that is unique. And they can create solutions for the world that the rest of us cannot begin to imagine.
Technology offers us great possibilities, but only if we use it well. That starts with ensuring that it’s accessible for many, many more people.
Who will own the future?
Let’s make it every person with talent, creativity, vision, or a solution to a real problem.
Have an awesome weekend!
Misha
It’s time for FUTURE OF THE WORLD (FOTW) events.
SAVE THE DATE: Our first FOTW event is May 5th at 1:00pm Pacific Time. Online.
Events are exclusive to the FOTW community. To join us, become a paid subscriber.
Look out for details on topics, guests, and how to join the networking platform.
In today’s newsletter:
This week in AI
This week in Web3
5 Things to Do
This Week in AI:
The world needs a publicly owned AI supercomputer.
If you’ve been keeping up, you understand that the current AI boom is an exponential expansion of Big Tech’s control of the world.
This is a problem that smart people are trying to solve.
“How can we make sure that we don’t build these gigantic monopolies? How can we make sure that big tech companies can still keep doing business, while still allowing smaller businesses to benefit from these technologies without becoming completely dependent?”
“[Legislating to slow down] is a lost battle because models will get more powerful anyway,” says Christoph Schuhmann, founder of German AI non-profit LAION. “We should empower citizens, researchers and companies to keep pace with and mitigate risks.”
This is where the publicly owned AI supercomputer comes in. Schuhmann says that the technology should be overseen by a “well-curated board of directors” representing AI professors, open-source researchers and representatives from the “mid-scale” business community. This group, he says, should be elected by politicians and scientists, but "without years of bureaucracy."
Full article here: ‘Combat godlike AI with benevolent godlike AI’ — the call for a CERN-like AI supercomputer | Sifted
Watch an A.I. Learn to Write.
Fun article from the New York Times on how BabyGPT works.
In this article, we’ll watch an A.I. — which we’re affectionately calling BabyGPT — try to learn language by reading only the complete works of Jane Austen. It sees just the nearly 800 thousand words in this text — and nothing else.
Dive in here: Let Us Show You How GPT Works — Using Jane Austen - The New York Times
What AI can do in 30 minutes.
As a writer who puts out content every week, I have found the new LLM-based chatbots to be incredibly useful for research and organization. But they constantly make factual errors, and are terrible at nuance, richness, and the more human things. That’s OK, they don’t need to be. Per Kevin Kelly, they’re just the intern. They can help with some tasks, and as long as you doublecheck their work, they’re useful.
Ethan Mollick, professor at Wharton, did some experiments with what AI can accomplish in 30 minutes.
Here’s what he found:
It did market research, created a positioning document, wrote an email campaign, created a website, created a logo and “hero shot” graphic, made a social media campaign for multiple platforms, and scripted and created a video.
Read the article here: Superhuman: What can AI do in 30 minutes?
HuggingChat is the free ChatGPT.
Hugging Face, which has emerged in the past year as a leading voice for open-source AI development, announced today that it has launched an open-source alternative to ChatGPT called HuggingChat.
HuggingChat is a user interface that allows people to interact with an open-source chat assistant dubbed Open Assistant, which was organized by LAION, the nonprofit that created the data set that trained Stable Diffusion. HuggingChat will soon allow users the ability to plug in the new chat models, similar to other AI chatbot clients such as Poe.
I tried it. It’s not good. But these models improve with use.
Full story here: Hugging Face launches open-source version of ChatGPT in bid to challenge dominance of closed-source models | VentureBeat
DeepLearning.AI announces a free ChatGPT prompt engineering course.
This is super exciting! Do it!
This short course taught by Isa Fulford (OpenAI) and Andrew Ng (DeepLearning.AI) will describe how LLMs work, provide best practices for prompt engineering, and show how LLM APIs can be used in applications for a variety of tasks, including:
ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers is beginner friendly. Only a basic understanding of Python is needed. But it is also suitable for advanced machine learning engineers wanting to approach the cutting-edge of prompt engineering and use LLMs.
Sign up here: ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers - DeepLearning.AI
This Week in Web3:
First, a general comment.
As we learned in the a16zcrypto 2023 State of Crypto Report, contrary to popular perception, web3 is going strong. While most people evaluate web3 through financial and price lenses, insiders consider the technology cycle.
We’re still early in web3, but we’re no longer at the beginning. Stepping back from short-term volatility reveals a more predictable pattern: a steady product cycle that is distinctly different from the financial cycles that saturate media attention.
Zooming out shows progress across key indicators. Market cap, developer activity, and funding activity have all increased steadily over the last decade. Stepping back from short-term volatility reveals a more predictable pattern: a price-innovation cycle where price swings propel new ideas forward.
Download the full report here: 2023 State of Crypto Report
Top corporations & organizations continue to expand their web3 divisions.
Visa plans to drive mainstream adoption of public blockchain networks and stablecoin payments.
This week, Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s Head of Crypto, tweeted, “We have an ambitious crypto product roadmap @Visa and just opened a few reqs for senior software engineers to help us drive mainstream adoption of public blockchain networks and stablecoin payments.”
More here: Visa Hiring More Crypto Developers To Drive Mainstream Adoption - Blockworks
Venmo crypto transfers are coming in May.
The feature allows users to send crypto to Venmo and PayPal users, as well as to external wallets
Crypto transfers on Venmo are on the way, PayPal announced Friday during Consensus 2023.
Venmo customers will be able to transfer their crypto to friends natively on the app and will also be able to move their digital holdings to external wallets and exchanges.
The four accepted cryptocurrencies on Venmo are bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash.
The story: PayPal brings crypto transfers to 60 million Venmo users
Mastercard teaming with Solana, Polygon on new Crypto Credential standards.
Mastercard is teaming with public blockchain developers Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, Polygon and The Solana Foundation on a new set of standards it's dubbing Crypto Credential in an effort to build the trust of consumers, businesses and governments in the sector.
"Instilling trust in the blockchain ecosystem is a critical step towards realizing its full potential," Mastercard head of crypto and blockchain Raj Dhamodharan said in a statement. "We need a way for trusted, compliant, and verifiable interactions to take place on public blockchain networks."
"Together, we’ll collaborate to enhance verification in NFTs, ticketing, enterprise and other payments solutions."
The move shows the continued interest that large, global payment processors have in crypto, despite reports of slowed down plans amid a widespread market decline over the past year.
Mastercard teaming with Solana, Polygon on new Crypto Credential standards
Deloitte could be jumping into crypto headfirst with hundreds of job listings.
Recent activity on LinkedIn and Google Jobs suggests that Deloitte is on the prowl for crypto natives to join its ranks.
Crypto-related titles at Deloitte include:
Blockchain & Digital Assets Manager — position available in 97 US locations
Tax Manager, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency — position available in 18 US locations
Tax Manager, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency in NFTs — position available in three US locations
Read the article: Deloitte Could Be Jumping Into Crypto Headfirst With Hundreds of Job Listings - Blockworks
European institutions are using public blockchains.
Some big European companies have made major strides in adopting blockchain technology.
For a while now, European institutions have been showing signs of significant participation in the blockchain industry, demonstrating its range and impact on traditional finance.
Banks and other major players have clearly paid attention to increased institutional demand for digital assets and built products accordingly. Blockchain’s potential to revolutionize the way the world does business is being recognized.
European institutions are focusing on custody to digital finance strategy and tokenization — often outstripping the US for development and adoption.
Get the story here: Real Examples of European Institutions Using Public Blockchains - Blockworks
Hong Kong pushes to become a crypto hub.
Regulators in Hong Kong are urging banks to provide much-needed services to crypto companies as part of a multi-faceted push to establish the city as an industry hub.
It’s all part of a push to establish Hong Kong as a crypto-friendly jurisdiction, even as other regulators in other major financial hubs crack down on the sector.
More here: The Block: Hong Kong to local banks: play nice with crypto firms
Abu Dhabi global market proposes a ‘Decentralized Economy.’
The authority’s key proposals for the new regime revolve around the structure of the DLT foundations, governance and control, tokens, token-holder voting, reporting and disclosures, beneficiaries, profit distribution, supervision, liquidation or voluntary strike-off, and insolvency. The authority is currently seeking public feedback and comments on it.
Find the proposal here: Microsoft Word - Consultation Paper - DLT Foundations Regulations (adgm.com)
Gitcoin Grants are back.
This web3 native program is a powerful way to democratize philanthropy and support projects that matter to a wide range of people.
Click on the image to find incredible projects to support.
Announcing: The Gitcoin Grants Beta Round | Gitcoin Blog
5 Things to Do:
PONDER: Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. — Chinese proverb
READ: What is the piece of writing advice that has helped you most, personally? : r/writing (reddit.com)
The writing subreddit is packed with super useful ideas and thinking.
This post had 333 comments, and is a must-read for anyone who wants to be a better writer.
WATCH: How Psilocybin Mushrooms Can Help Save the World with Paul Stamets | SXSW 2023
Join Mycologist Paul Stamets, co-founder of MycoMedical Life Sciences, as he speaks of their historical use of psilocybin mushrooms and explores the potential for neurological health based, in part, on recent results on molecular modes of action his team has discovered.
PRACTICE: Daily Calm | 10 Minute Mindfulness Meditation | Present
A daily meditation practice helps with lessening anxiety, worry and stress, while enhancing self-esteem and self-acceptance. It also improves resilience against uncertainty and adversity. There are loads of scientifically proven meditation benefits including improving mental strength, focus, better decision-making and problem solving - all of which are paramount to achieving success on the entrepreneurial journey.
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