Zoho CEO Says AI Will Replace Roles, Not Employees

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July 24, 2023

Zoho CEO says AI will replace roles, not employees — Image Credits: CIO

Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and CEO of Indian SaaS giant Zoho, stated on 21 July that artificial intelligence will only replace roles, not employees, amid discussions about how it will replace jobs.

During his keynote address to CIOs from various industries at an event organized by ManageEngine and Zoho in Chennai, Vembu said, “Language models are generating human-sounding, plausible text but it can be a fiction and it is a problem. At Zoho, we believe that AI can only replace roles but people will still matter. It reflects an organization’s philosophy.”

This occurs at a time when businesses are increasingly attempting to automate numerous services using AI. Suumit Shah, a co-founder of Dukaan, said that the e-commerce SaaS company has let go of more than 90% of its customer care staff.

Vembu from Zoho also mentioned that the initial AI frenzy has subsided and that the technology is now developing to be more advantageous for businesses. “The crest of the current wave has been reached. We are currently engaged in a grueling, lengthy process to make technology helpful for businesses,” he said.

Vembu also discussed a poll that was carried out among roughly 8,000 people who are a part of the Zoho ecosystem.

“We observed that around 52% of users use ChatGPT regularly, 30% of users used it in past, although utilization is declining, and 15% of users have completely ceased using it. I fall under the bracket of 30%,” he said. More significant use cases are starting to emerge as the initial usage frenzy declines, according to the CEO.

Seven AI Tech Companies Agree to Safeguards in the US

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Sahil Pawar

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July 24, 2023

Seven AI tech companies agree to safeguards in the US — Image Credits: MSNBC

The White House stated on Friday that seven major US AI companies have voluntarily agreed to safeguards on the technology’s advancement. They also promised to minimize the dangers associated with the new capabilities while vying for the potential of AI.

At a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday afternoon, the seven tech giants—Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI—will formally declare their dedication to new standards in the areas of safety, security, and trust.

The announcement comes as the businesses compete to develop the most advanced versions of AI that provide potent novel techniques to create writing, images, music, and video without the involvement of humans.

However, as self-aware computers develop, there are growing concerns about the dissemination of misinformation and apocalyptic statements about the “risk of extinction” as a result of technological advances.

As Washington and governments all over the world scramble to put legal and regulatory frameworks for AI in place, the voluntary safeguards are merely a first, hesitant step. Even while politicians have failed to govern social media and other technologies, they show a need for the Biden administration and lawmakers to react to the constantly growing technology.

Singapore Releases Draft Guidelines on Using Personal Data for AI Training

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Sahil Pawar

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July 23, 2023

Singapore draft guidelines using personal data AI training — Image Credits: TVX

In order to safeguard personal data when it is used to develop artificial intelligence models and systems, Singapore recently announced a draft of guidelines. The document describes how the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) of the nation will apply in these circumstances.

The objectives of the rules are to guarantee responsibility and transparency in the use of personal data for AI training. The guidelines offer firms best practices for establishing transparency around the use of personal data by AI systems in making judgements, predictions, and recommendations.

According to the guidelines, when gathering personal data for AI systems, the principles cover consent, accountability, and notification responsibilities. They also identify two exceptions: business development and research.

The guidelines advise performing an impact analysis on data protection for AI systems that use personal information. The effectiveness of risk reduction and data remediation measures is evaluated by this assessment.

When creating, educating, and maintaining AI systems, organizations should implement the necessary technological procedures and legal safeguards to ensure data safety. In order to train and enhance the AI system, they should also practice minimizing data, employing only the essential personal data features.

By August 31st, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) is asking the public for suggestions and comments on the draft rules.

GitHub Makes Copilot Chat Feature Available in Public Beta

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Sahil Pawar

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July 22, 2023

GitHub Copilot Chat feature available in public beta — Image Credits: GitHub

Copilot Chat, a ChatGPT-like tool designed to assist developers with coding, has been made accessible as a limited public beta for enterprise businesses and organizations, according to GitHub. The Copilot Chat beta, according to GitHub, will be accessible to “all business users” via the Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code apps from Microsoft.

As the primary feature of GitHub’s Copilot X programme, an augmentation of its original Copilot code completion tool that linked with OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, the chatbot was first introduced back in March. The tool aims to save developers time by allowing them to execute some of the most complex tasks with simple prompts.

According to GitHub, Copilot Chat can provide the most pertinent assistance in a developer-specific environment since it is contextually aware of the code being put into the code editor and any error alerts. GitHub Copilot Chat’s key features include “simple troubleshooting” to find possible problems, real-time help suited to particular coding projects, and coding analysis that clarifies code suggestions and difficult coding ideas.

Mario Rodriguez, GitHub’s vice president of product, said, the programme will increase productivity tenfold and enable even inexperienced coders to build entire applications or debug vast arrays of code in a matter of minutes instead of a matter of days. “This means 10 days of work, done in one day,” Rodriguez remarked.

The new Copilot X system from GitHub is being built with more features than just Copilot Chat. For instance, the business is working to integrate its “Hey, GitHub!” voice-to-code interactions into the programme. The release schedule for the other Copilot X features has not been disclosed, according to GitHub.

OpenAI Introduces Custom Instructions Feature for Enhanced ChatGPT Experience

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Sahil Pawar

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July 21, 2023

OpenAI custom instructions feature — Image credits: AD

To provide users more control over ChatGPT’s responses, OpenAI has unveiled a new feature dubbed “custom instructions.” Users will be able to interact with ChatGPT more effectively and easily by using fewer prompts, thanks to the addition of custom instructions.

ChatGPT will now be able to remember your conversation context based on your chosen preferences, enabling a more customized and tailored AI interaction experience.

For instance, while asking for suggestions, a developer may describe their preferred programming language or a teacher might mention that they are teaching maths to sixth graders. Users can also choose the size of their family, which enables ChatGPT to offer apt suggestions for meals, grocery shopping, and travel arrangements that are catered to their particular requirements.

Users of the Plus plan will get access to the beta version of this function as of now, and over the ensuing weeks, it will gradually be made available to all users.

The timing of this update and OpenAI’s decision to double the maximum amount of messages that ChatGPT Plus subscribers can send to GPT-4 at any given time are interestingly congruent. Users will be able to send up to 50 messages every three hours starting the next week, substantially enhancing the potential for discussions powered by AI.

Notably, the business announced that it would employ customized instructions to enhance user experience with the model. However, “you can disable this via data controls”, the company added.

Google Tests AI tool Genesis That Can Write News Articles

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Sahil Pawar

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July 21, 2023

Google tests AI tool Genesis that can write news articles — Image credits: AD

The newest example of how artificial intelligence technology has the potential to change white-collar jobs is that Google is creating an application that can compose news articles. The tool was presented as a “helpmate” to News Corp, Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Google claimed to be just beginning its research of the AI technology, which it said may provide journalists suggestions for headlines or other writing approaches. It emphasized that journalists were not to be replaced by technology.

It stated, “These tools are not meant to take the position of the reporting, article development, and fact-checking functions performed by journalists. Our intention is to provide journalists with the option to utilize these cutting-edge tools in a way that improves their output, much as how we already provide people with assistive capabilities like Gmail and Google Docs.”

When they read the pitch, two New York Times executives complained that it “seemed to take for granted the effort that went into producing accurate and artistic news stories.”

According to a source familiar with the initiative, Google regarded the tool as a chance to steer the publishing industry away from the pitfalls of generative AI and that it would act as a personal assistant for journalists by automating some activities.

The news comes after an agreement between OpenAI and the Associated Press allowed the ChatGPT creator to use the news organization’s database of stories for the purpose of training its AI models, which trains on a significant amount of data in order to generate credible responses.

Chinese OpenAI Competitor Zhipu AI Gets Meituan Funding

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Sahil Pawar

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July 20, 2023

Chinese OpenAI competitor Zhipu AI gets Meituan funding — Image Credits: Zhipu

Meituan, a major Chinese food delivery company with a market cap of almost $100 billion as of this writing, has invested in Zhipu AI, one of the most promising OpenAI rivals in China.

According to business filings, a Meituan subsidiary that was already a shareholder in a Zhipu AI affiliate was recently added as a shareholder and now holds 10% of the company.

The company hasn’t specified how much money it has received to date. All that is known is that it raised “hundreds of million yuan” in a Series B investment last September. Qiming Venture Partners, Legend Capital, and Tsinghua Holdings are some of its financiers.

Many Chinese businesses are striving to create large language models (LLMs) that might compete with their Western counterparts. One such business, Zhipu AI, is academic in origin, having been established by the renowned Tsinghua University in China. Tang Jie, a professor in the university’s Department of Computer Science and Technology, is the startup’s founder and CEO.

Recently, Zhipu released the source code for its ChatGLM-6B multilingual (Chinese and English) conversational AI model. This model is trained on six billion parameters and boasts the ability to perform LLM inferences on a single consumer-grade graphics card.

A more reliable, all-purpose variation, the GLM-130B trained on 130 billion parameters, was also previously open-sourced by the company. A close beta version of ChatGLM, its user-facing chatbot application, is currently available, intended initially at academic and professional players.

Tesla Begins Production of Dojo Supercomputer to Train Its Autonomous Vehicles

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Sahil Pawar

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July 20, 2023

Tesla begins production of Dojo supercomputer — Image Credits: Shutterstock

Tesla claims to have begun manufacturing the Dojo supercomputer that will be used to train its fleet of autonomous vehicles.

In its second quarter earnings report for 2023, the business defined four main technology pillars required to solve vehicle autonomy at scale: neural net training, vehicle hardware, extremely large real-world dataset, and vehicle software.

The company stated in its report, “We are internally building each of these pillars. With the beginning of Dojo training computer production, we are moving towards quicker and less expensive neural network training.

The automaker already owns a sizable supercomputer powered by Nvidia GPUs that is among the most potent in the world, but the new Dojo custom-built computer uses chips designed by Tesla. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, gave this “super powerful training computer” the name “Dojo” in 2019.

In the past, Musk has asserted that Dojo will be able to process 1 quintillion (1018) floating-point operations per second, or an exaflop. That much power is astonishing. According to Network World, one would have to conduct one calculation per second for 31,688,765,000 years to match what a one exaFLOP computer system can do in just one second.

Tesla revealed Dojo’s advancements at AI Day 2022, including the addition of a full system tray. The manufacturer had previously stated that a complete cluster will be available by early 2023, but it now appears that this will most likely happen in early 2024.

UN Security Council to Conduct First Talks on AI Risks This Week

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Sahil Pawar

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July 20, 2023

UN Security Council to conduct first talks on AI risks this week — Image Credits: UN

This week in New York, the United Nations Security Council will hold its first official discussion on artificial intelligence (AI), with Britain urging an international conversation about its influence on international peace and security.

Governments from all around the world are debating how to lessen the risks posed by developing AI technology, which has the potential to alter the global economy and the nature of international security.

This month, Britain is in charge of rotating the UN Security Council president, and the country has been pushing for a worldwide leadership position in AI governance. Tuesday’s session will be led by James Cleverly, the British foreign secretary.

At the first meeting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supported a proposal from some AI executives in June to establish a global AI watchdog organization akin to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“The international community must urgently confront the new reality of generative and other artificial intelligence (AI),” speakers told the Security Council in its first formal meeting on the subject. The following discussion spotlighted the duality of risk and reward that is inherent in this emerging AI technology.

Recently, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said China should have a major influence on the guardrails for artificial intelligence that are needed to guarantee the security of revolutionary new technologies. “The stakes for international cooperation have never been higher,” said Altman, speaking at the conference in Beijing.

Apple Working On AI Tool Apple GPT To Compete With ChatGPT and Bard

By

Sahil Pawar

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July 20, 2023

Apple Working On AI Tool Apple GPT To Compete With ChatGPT — Image Credits: Shutterstock

The Cupertino-based tech giant Apple is now working on a project named “Apple GPT” that uses artificial intelligence and could compete with Google’s Bard and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Work on AI has reportedly become Apple’s top priority over the past six months, according to the company.

Apple hasn’t revealed any firm plans yet, but they may make a significant AI announcement in 2024. Apple’s AI initiatives are being led by Craig Federighi, the company’s head of software engineering, and John Giannandrea, its AI head.

According to Gurman, Apple has built its own internal chatbot, which some developers have dubbed “Apple GPT,” a pun on ChatGPT, as well as a “Ajax” framework for large language models like ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing, and Google’s Bard. According to him, the business does not yet have a clear strategy for developing a product for consumers.

Apple is worried that it would be lagging in embracing new AI technology because of the popularity of chatbots, which might completely change how consumers use mobile devices.

The chatbot app that the corporation is currently creating is only available to Apple employees. The app’s output, however, cannot be used to develop fresh features for users. According to MacRumors, it is utilised for product prototyping and can respond to queries based on the data utilised to train it.

Teams from the company are working on artificial intelligence and trying to find solutions to issues like privacy concerns. The business has always been more careful than rivals, attempting to choose privacy over functionality, even with its Siri personal assistant.