The Carnival Issue (039)
Exploring many kinds of human-machine augmentation.
Happy Monday and welcome to another issue of Artificial Insights, your weekly guide to navigating the near future.
I have a life-long interest in emerging technology – it has always been something that fascinates me, and I have spent immense time and energy closely tracking what the “tech ecosystem” is up to. Until recently, I would recommend most leaders and the tech-curious to keep a “360º” approach to technology at large: spend time getting to know different branches of emerging tech, in order to get a sense of what might affect your business or work. Nowadays however the only sensible recommendation I give people is: establish a personal (or collective) AI approach. How are you integrating it into your workflows? How are you personally upskilling and developing technical competencies in the space? What are you waiting for until you start doing any of this?
I don’t mind sounding like a broken record: the only technology that is certain to redefine more-or-less every aspect of your professional life in the next 5 years is AI. Not as an end itself, but a means. You might not even notice exactly how AI will suddenly start affecting the world around you, but be certain it will. Growth-seeking organizations of all industries and regions will probably start replacing entire chunks of their workload with generative autonomous systems, which in turn means the upskilled and specialized stand to gain the most from such future growth.
Reading this newsletter means you are already on the right path. I don’t mean to guarantee a particular approach or promise to teach any specific skills - but rather indulge in sharing my personal learning journey with anyone wanting to listen.
As always, if any of this resonates with you, please reach out or like the issue.
MZ
Copilots are going mainstream
One-minute Microsoft ad promoting AI copilots to everyone. It’s a little bit uncanny how they aim to replace our own abilities with software, but I like how they frame it as a democratic superpower (?).
Generative AI in a nutshell
Great personal description of how to think and learn about general AI skills. I like the mindmap approach for relating disparate subjects, and find the scattershot approach to make sense to me.
Comparing LLMs to lawyers
Our empirical analysis benchmarks LLMs against a ground truth set by Senior Lawyers, uncovering that advanced models match or exceed human accuracy in determining legal issues. In speed, LLMs complete reviews in mere seconds, eclipsing the hours required by their human counterparts. Cost wise, LLMs operate at a fraction of the price, offering a staggering 99.97 percent reduction in cost over traditional methods. These results are not just statistics, they signal a seismic shift in legal practice. LLMs stand poised to disrupt the legal industry, enhancing accessibility and efficiency of legal services.
Reddit: What is the most useful AI tool you have used?
I love threads like these for exploring unexpected use cases from random internet users. Lots of translations, home automation, meeting summarizations, video subtitling, coding assistance and image generation.
Language models are easy to trick
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Artificial Insights is written by Michell Zappa, CEO and founder of Envisioning, a technology research institute.
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The Copilot ad is so cringe 🥹
I have to respectfully disagree with the suggestion that we can abandon 360-degree approaches and go all-in on the AI feeding frenzy to ensure a greater likelihood of being at the forefront of technological change and disruption.
The track record of patents and human innovation shows that the edges, not staring at the center, is where most of this happens. Reference Mickey McManus' description of technological exaptation as part of "Building a Department of Strategic Surprise" from 15'26" to 18'54" for a better walkthrough. :)