“There’s been so much news about AI lately. What are the latest updates?”
Hi there, and welcome back to another week of Ask Trish! I hope you’re having a wonderful May.
Thanks so much to this week’s question-er for the fantastic question…there has indeed been a lot about AI in the news lately. In fact, it can kind of feel like nearly every headline is AI-related! We talk about AI quite a bit here on Ask Trish, but at the pace at which this technology is advancing, I think it’s important to cover where AI is now, in May 2024…because it’s quite different from where it was even just a few months ago. In that vein, in this week’s post I’ll i) talk through the most recent AI tech developments – what are the latest generative AI offerings? What about the latest, coolest features? as well as ii) the most recent AI regulation developments – are we seeing any movement in the legislative world? Hopefully, that’ll offer y’all a brief, but helpful look at all things new in the AI world.
Sound like a plan? Let’s dive in:
Let’s start on the tech side of things. Perhaps the most notable recent AI tech development is the release of ChatGPT-4o, OpenAI’s latest generative AI technology. ChatGPT-4o represents a major step forward for AI technologies: this large language model (LLM) is incredibly sophisticated. For one, it’s a much faster, more efficient model. For another, it’s multi-modal, meaning that it can analyze images and audio. Just upload your image…and ChatGPT-4o will share its assessment. ChatGPT-4o can even assess emotive expressions; that is, it can determine whether your facial expression is “happy” or “sad” (or anything else). (Pretty cool, right?) This latest model also has new voice capabilities! That’s right…ChatGPT can now talk to you. As OpenAI demonstrated in a presentation earlier this month, that means that ChatGPT can do everything from read a bedtime story (you can even instruct it to adopt a certain tone/certain inflections!) to talk through how to solve a math problem. So, in summary: ChatGPT has come a long way. But it’s not just ChatGPT. To really get a full picture of the tech side of things, we also have to talk about other LLMs that have taken off. Consider Gemini (previously known as Bard), Google’s generative AI offering. It’s very, very advanced as well…and may potentially revolutionize the search/browsing experience. Indeed, per their executives, Google is envisioning a world in which Google does the Googling for you, thanks to AI. Plenty of other tech companies are in the mix as well, including Microsoft and Meta. All that’s to say: we’re currently amidst a vigorous AI race, with lots of players working around the clock to try to make their model the “best” one.
Okay, so that’s tech. What about the regulatory side of things? While regulation (perhaps unsurprisingly) hasn’t been moving at break-neck speed, there have been significant developments. In the US, earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer unveiled a bipartisan legislative plan for AI. The plan calls for spending $32 billion/annually on both public and private AI research and development. But what about guardrails? you might wonder. In fact, the bill includes no limits on AI, which, Senator Schumer said, ought to be the mandate of federal agencies. Indeed, he and his co-authors have claimed that AI is changing too quickly to implement legislative guardrails now. To some, this is exactly the right approach – an opportunity to turbocharge AI development and realize its full potential. To others, though, this legislation is misguided. Many have argued that the US risks falling behind the EU on AI regulation. In response, Senator Schumer and others have thrown their support behind a federal privacy bill and legislation that would prevent the use of deepfakes in elections. But comprehensive legislative AI guardrails remain a ways away, at least at this moment.
So…that’s where things stand. I hope this post helped get you up-to-speed on the latest AI happenings in our world. I’m sure there are many, many more “where is AI now” posts to come…so stay tuned. But next week, we’ll take on a new topic – and that topic just might be yours! When you have a moment, go ahead and share your internet-related musings or thoughts here. Don’t forget: anything is on the table – whatever you’re wondering about, I want to help you navigate it! Thanks in advance for contributing; I can’t wait to hear from you.
Have a great week,
Trish