The Rise of AI: Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Society and the Future of Work

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March 26, 2023

impact of AI on work — Image credit: Canva

The impact of artificial intelligence is sure to reach far and wide in our society. Unemployment or underemployment due to automation and robotics may challenge working-class citizens, while increased access to data within larger corporations may cause potential ethical issues. With the rise of AI, we must think now about how to mitigate these pitfalls before they become realities. AI can bring many positive impacts – improved medical diagnosis methods, more efficient use of energy resources, and better predictive analytics for business models. In this blog post, we’ll explore the impact of AI on society, as well as the ethical considerations and risks posed by AI-driven technologies. Besides, we will examine how it will shape the future of work.

Benefits of the New Technology

It’s predicted that by 2025, about 97 million people will use AI in their work. From being able to obtain and analyze data from a range of different fields to assisting us in our everyday routines, AI has proven itself to be an asset. It is clear that AI is set to make all our lives simpler by automating operations that might otherwise be excessively tedious or mundane. This means humans will be free to do what we are naturally inclined towards doing: the creative, thought-provoking, ingenious work that requires more than programming numbers and equations.

Enhancing the Efficiency of Healthcare

With machine learning algorithms, AI can track and interpret data from a slew of sources such as news reports, airline information, and healthcare data — painting a comprehensive story. This includes being able to monitor the full impact of COVID-19 not just within individual countries but across borders. In other words, AI is helping governments strategize their response and perhaps have a better grasp on this pandemic. When working with AI tools and systems, you can protect your Mac from cyberattacks. For instance, you may use trusted services such as VeePN to ensure the privacy of your data. If you aren’t sure whether you need to pay for a premium version, you can use a free trial first.

Quick Support

With customer service departments having to provide support around the clock, artificial intelligence is quickly becoming the go-to solution for many businesses. AI chatbots can offer customers assistance wherever and whenever it’s needed and can handle multiple inquiries simultaneously. Additionally, AI eliminates the need for breaks or overtime pay when something needs immediate attention at two in the morning.

Automating Tasks and Improving Accuracy

AI tools can be accurate without fail. They provide valuable data analysis and process large data sets at incomparable speeds. This is one of the greatest benefits of using automated intelligence — it doesn’t experience any of the behavioral issues we do such as stress or fatigue that affect our decisions and judgments. AI thus offers an invaluable service in data integration for businesses and scientific developments.

What is the Impact of Artificial Intelligence AI on Society?

The unstoppable march of AI is met with both amazement at the possibilities that can be unlocked and apprehension about how this new technology will impact our lives in totally unforeseen ways. Beyond the wonders that are already visible, like self-driving cars, robots that can do manual labor, and algorithms that augment decision-making processes, there are deeper implications for humans. To prepare ourselves for the downside of AI, we need to start talking about them now: who will shoulder the liability if an autonomous vehicle seriously injures a pedestrian, or how to control a global autonomous arms race?

Creating artificial intelligence algorithms is a delicate dance between producing accurate results and setting effective limits on what they can and cannot do. In many cases, the underlying algorithm must be built with legal standards or ethical guidelines to ensure they are not operating outside the boundaries set by humanity.

Also, since these algorithms are powered by large data sets, it’s imperative that those data sets accurately reflect real-world conditions and in some cases establish explicit boundaries for how any decisions can be made. If you need to protect your privacy when using AI tools, you may read this content to learn more about the usage of virtual private networks. A VPN will help you safeguard your data and prevent unauthorized access to your information.

How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact the Future of Work?

AI holds tremendous potential, but its use has led to an increase in automation which can have a major impact on certain fields of work. For instance, there are many jobs that are typically held by Black and Latino Americans, such as cashiers, food-service workers, and customer service representatives. They might lose around 73 million jobs by 2030 due to automation. However, the potential for artificial intelligence to drastically increase workplace efficiency and augment the work capabilities of humans is tremendous.

AI can free up valuable time for humans to put their skills and energy toward more creative, strategic, and emotionally driven thinking. Being able to use AI could allow us to take on more challenging projects that require higher levels of skill and concentration. These projects could have an incredible impact on our collective lives. Indeed, with the right integration, AI can become a powerful tool in helping to create smooth and profitable workflows within businesses, allowing employees to invest all their energies where it matters most.

AI can vastly reshape our lives in numerous ways, bringing us great benefits while also presenting us with unique challenges. For instance, AI future positive developments can improve decision-making, enhance efficiency, and bring other positive outcomes, but we must also be cognizant of the risks it poses — from privacy violations to job losses. To capitalize on AI’s vast potential for good and ensure that it serves our interests instead of harming them, meaningful conversations are essential. All sides must work together to bridge the divide between technical experts and policymakers, encouraging collaboration across different domains and implementing thoughtful safeguards carefully designed for specific applications. If we work together wisely, we can realize a powerful future enabled by AI that works for everyone.

A Guide To Understanding File Compression

By

Ratan Kumar

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March 25, 2023

If you have to regularly share files offline/online or upload files across the web, you already know the importance of file compression. After all, it can be challenging to share or upload large files. For instance, Gmail, Yahoo, and other email platforms allow attachments of up to 25MB. Therefore, to send those files, you must compress them first and then attach them to the email.

With time, file compression has become integral to how the web works. It lets you easily transfer files that would otherwise take too long and too much bandwidth. Thanks to file compression, you can reduce the size of the file and save disk space for faster transition over the Internet or network. In addition, this data compression method allows you to create a version of one or multiple files with the same data at a smaller size than the original file.

Most of the time, file compression is used synonymously with file zipping. Zipping files is one of the oldest and most widely used methods of combining and compressing multiple files into one file. If you zip files, they will be seen with the .zip extension, and you can quickly send the zipped file via the Internet. Since the file size is small, the recipient will not face any challenges downloading the file. Also, ZIP files are compatible across platforms and devices. But if you are stuck with a RAR file and using a Mac, you must work with RAR converters for Mac.

Now let’s continue to learn more about file compression.

What is the Meaning of File Compression?

File compression is carried out through data or file compression software, creating a compressed version of the files.

File compression works by scanning files and identifying repetitive or similar patterns and data. Then, the duplicates are replaced with a unique identifier. Typically, the identifier is smaller in size than the original file and consumes less space.

While there’s no specific measurement of the reduced file size, file compression can decrease the size of a file by fifty to ninety percent.

Lossless V/s Lossy Compression

Lossless compression allows you to create a version of the original file, and this compression is based on the idea of breaking the file into smaller forms for storage and transmission. Then, the file is put back again so you can use it. In layman’s terms, it recreates the original file in a reduced size without throwing any information out. This method works by storing the same information more efficiently by removing redundancy. Lossless compression is used in situations where you cannot remove any of the original files. For instance, the ZIP format uses lossless compression. It stores information efficiently, but all the original information is present when you unzip the file. Other lossless formats are FLAC for audio, PNG for images, etc.
Lossy compression works differently. Lossy compression eliminates irrelevant bits of information and tailors the file to reduce its size. This type of compression is used for reducing the file size, but it impacts the file quality. Lossy compression is typically used in video, audio, and image formats where it is unnecessary to create a perfect representation of the source media. JPEG, MP3, and other popular media formats use lossy compression. However, if the files are compressed heavily, you will notice a drop in quality.

How Can You Compress Your Files?

One of the quickest and easiest ways to compress files is by creating ZIP folders. You can compress a file with ZIP without a fuss using a Windows computer. You don’t even need other software or programs.

You can start the process by choosing the folder or the files you wish to compress and right-click the selection. Next, choose the Compressed (zipped) folder option under Send To. You can also follow the same steps when zipping files or folders on your Mac. Right-click on the selected files and then choose Compress (filename).

It is also possible to create a Windows Explorer page or an empty ZIP file on your computer by right-clicking anywhere on a black area > choosing Compressed (zipped) folder under New > rename the folder and drag the files to the folder.

Alternatively, you can save files in lossy compression formats like MP3, MP4, JPEG, etc. For instance, if you have clicked RAW photos on your camera but want to store them on your computer and share it with others, it would be best to convert the RAW images to JPEG and then save them. However, it is best first to finish all the editing work and then save images in JPEG so that the image quality is not significantly affected.

The Bottom Line

So, what do you think of file compression? It makes your life easier, doesn’t it? You have been compressing files all your life without realizing it. Now that you know what this means, don’t forget to compress your files before storing or sharing them.

Microsoft Introduces Notion Competitor Microsoft Loop

By

Sahil Pawar

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March 25, 2023

Microsoft Introduces Microsoft Loop — Image Credits: Indian Express

Microsoft Loop, a hub for collaboration that offers a fresh approach to organizing tasks and projects across Office products, is now available for everyone to preview.

Microsoft Loop has workspaces and pages where you may import and arrange tasks, projects, and documents, similar to Notion. Nevertheless, Loop’s shareable components, which let you transform any page into a real-time content block that can be pasted into Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word on the web, and Whiteboard, are what distinguish the two.

For whoever they are shared with, loop components are continuously updated and editable. If you have a table that you and your coworkers are working on, you can drop that component as a Loop into an Outlook or Teams message, and any changes you make to the table will be reflected everywhere it is embedded or shared.

Co-creation and collaboration were top priorities in the design of Microsoft Loop. The workspace program Notion, used by companies like Adobe, Figma, Amazon, and many more, has a similar main layout. With basic templates created to help you get started, loop pages are like empty canvases where people can exchange and collaborate.

Loop will even look for all the pertinent Office documents you’ve been working on when you create a workspace, making it simple to add ones you need to manage a project. The Loop preview will allow up to 50 users to update a workspace at once, much like a collaborative Word document or Google Doc.

Microsoft has now made Loop available for public preview, enabling organizations and even individual users to use a beta version of the program. The online app is already accessible to users with a Microsoft Account or Azure Active Directory account, and iOS and Android versions will be made available to consumers and companies soon.

GitHub Launches AI-powered Developer Experience Copilot X

By

Sahil Pawar

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March 24, 2023

GitHub launches Copilot X — Image Credits: YouTube

GitHub, the largest collaborative platform for software development in the world, has announced the launch of GitHub Copilot X. GitHub Copilot X is the company’s vision for the future of artificial intelligence-powered software development.

As an AI pair programmer that maintains developers’ focus by automatically completing comments and code, GitHub Copilot heralded the dawn of a new era in software development. In addition, GitHub Copilot, which has been around for less than two years, has already helped engineers write 46% more code and code up to 55% faster.

Auto-completion driven by AI is just the beginning. The GitHub R&D team at GitHub Next has been focusing on GitHub Copilot’s evolution beyond the editor into a readily available AI helper for the duration of the whole development lifecycle. GitHub Copilot X is the result of that.

In addition to adding chat and voice support for Copilot, GitHub is adopting the new GPT-4 model from OpenAI and integrating Copilot to provide assistance for developers’ projects. Users will spend less time searching and more time learning by getting personalized answers that are grounded in maintainer-written documentation with inline citations.

“With AI available at every step, we can fundamentally rethink developer productivity,” stated Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub. “Throughout the development lifecycle, we are minimizing boilerplate and manual activities and simplifying difficult work. By doing this, we give every developer the opportunity to concentrate all of their creative energy on the big picture: creating tomorrow’s innovations and advancing humanity today.”

OpenAI Adds Support for Plug-ins to ChatGPT

By

Sahil Pawar

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March 24, 2023

OpenAI adds support plug-ins ChatGPT — Image Credits: TechCrunch

A major update to ChatGPT’s functionality that provides it access to live web data for the first time is the addition of plug-in support by OpenAI. The announcement came on March 23.

The fact that ChatGPT can only access its training data—which expires in 2021—has limited it up until this point. According to OpenAI, plug-ins would let the bot not only search the web but also communicate with particular websites, potentially transforming the system into a flexible interface for a variety of services and websites.

A “limited number of users” will soon have access to plug-ins, according to OpenAI. There are initially 11 plug-ins for external websites, including Zapier, Expedia, OpenTable, Kayak, and Klarna Shopping.

Additionally, OpenAI is offering some of its own plug-ins, including one for deciphering code and another one called “Browsing,” which enables ChatGPT to access the internet for data.

The company uses a scenario where a user inquires about how the box office performances of this year’s Oscar winners compare to those of recently released films. The browsing plug-in responds by displaying the sources it used to gather its information. Before, ChatGPT would not have been able to perform this.

OpenAI claims to have considered the risks posed by these plug-ins and “applied many safeguards,” including initially only making the plug-ins available to a very small group of users. The firm offers a sign-up for a waitlist here and states in a blog post that it would initially prioritize a small number of developers and ChatGPT Plus subscribers” to acquire plug-in access.

Accenture Lays Off 19,000 of its Employees Amid Economic Rundown

By

Sahil Pawar

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March 24, 2023

Accenture Lays Off 19,000 Employees — Image Credits: Accenture

Accenture on Thursday lowered its annual profit and revenue forecasts to announce it would cut about 2.5% of its workforce, i.e.19,000 jobs. This is the most recent indication that corporate spending on IT services is being slashed as a result of the deteriorating global economic outlook.

The company announced the layoffs, sending its shares up more than 4% before the bell, and stated that more than half would affect employees at its non-billable corporate activities.

As opposed to its previous prediction of an increase of 8% to 11%, Accenture now anticipates yearly revenue growth to be between 8% and 10%.

As its first-quarter revenue prediction came in below market expectations last month, rival Cognizant Technology Solutions predicted “muted” growth in bookings—the transactions that IT services companies have in the works—in 2022.

Instead of the previous range of $11.20 to $11.52, Accenture said it now anticipates earnings per share to be in the range of $10.84 to $11.06.

In a post-earnings call, Chief Executive Julie Sweet said, “Companies remain focused on executing compressed transformations,” referring to how companies are attempting to become leaner in the unstable economy.

Character.AI Raises $150 Million in Series A Funding Round Headed by Andreessen Horowitz

By

Sahil Pawar

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March 24, 2023

Character.AI $150 million series a — Image Credits: Character.ai

The inexhaustible thirst of venture capitalists for transactions in the trendiest sector of technology is being tapped by Character.AI, an artificial intelligence start-up formed by two former Google workers.

The two-year-old business announced on Thursday that it had raised $150 million in a Series A funding round headed by Andreessen Horowitz at a $1 billion value. In 2021, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas formed Character.AI after leaving Google and contributing to the architecture of well-known chatbots.

Character.AI said that users of its technology may “build a fully-customizable and personalized AI companion with a distinct personality and values.”

Character.AI claimed that with the additional funding, it will be able to increase its “compute skills, resulting in a more complex model with better reasoning and greater accuracy.” The funding will enable the business to expand its 22-person staff and bring in technical expertise. The business said that it is getting closer to 100 mn monthly visitors, a four-fold rise in almost two months.

Andreessen Horowitz partner Sarah Wang stated that Character.AI is drastically and quickly advancing generative AI, which has the potential to change not only how people interface with AI but also how we interact with technology in general in their daily lives.

Google Opens Access to its Generative AI Chatbot Bard

By

Sahil Pawar

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March 23, 2023

Google opens access to Bard — Image Credits: Moneycontrol

In order to “enhance its systems” and compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google has begun granting access to Bard, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot.

US and UK users can now access Bard through its official website. According to the major tech company, it will eventually be offered in additional regions and additional languages.

The AI-powered Bing, based on OpenAI’s huge language model specifically created for search, is more potent than even ChatGPT and was also revealed at the same time as Bard last month.

The launch of Google’s Bing didn’t go as planned because the chatbot gave false information in

a promotional film, which reduced the market value of Google parent Alphabet by $100 billion.

In a blog post, the president of product, Sissie Hsiao, and vice president of research, Eli Collins, said, “Today we’re starting to open access to Bard, an early experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI. This follows our announcements from last week as we continue to bring helpful AI experiences to people, businesses, and communities.”

Sundar Pichai said, ‘We are expanding access to Bard in US + UK with more countries ahead, it’s an early experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI. Hope Bard sparks more creativity and curiosity and will get better with feedback.’

NVIDIA Collaborates with Microsoft to Bring the Industrial Metaverse and AI to Enterprise Users through Azure Cloud

By

Sahil Pawar

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March 23, 2023

NVIDIA collaborates Microsoft Industrial Metaverse AI Azure Cloud — Image Credits: NVIDIA

Today, NVIDIA and Microsoft announced their partnership to give Microsoft enterprise users cloud access to the super-efficient industrial metaverse and AI supercomputing capabilities.

Microsoft Azure will host two new cloud services from NVIDIA: NVIDIA DGX Cloud, an AI supercomputing service that gives businesses immediate access to the software and infrastructure needed to train advanced models for generative AI and other ground-breaking applications.

Another is NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud, a platform-as-a-service that gives instant access to a full-stack environment for designing, developing, deploying, and managing industrial metaverse applications.

Businesses can connect real-time data from sensors in the physical world to their digital duplicates by connecting Omniverse to Azure Cloud Services Digital Twins and the Internet of Things.

This will make it possible for businesses to create and use 3D digital twins that are more accurate, dynamic, and fully functional and react instantly to changes in their surroundings. Azure offers the cloud architecture and functionalities required to deliver enterprise services at scale, such as security, identity, and storage.

Accenture’s GTC keynote demo illustrates the value of combining Microsoft Teams with NVIDIA Omniverse to enable real-time 3D communication. The Accenture example demonstrates how this integration can reduce the time between decision-making, action, and feedback. It runs on Omniverse Cloud and makes use of a Teams Meeting featuring Live Sharing.

GPT-4 now available in Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service

By

Sahil Pawar

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March 23, 2023

GPT-4 now available in Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service — Image Credits: Microsoft

Microsoft has announced that GPT-4 is now available for public preview in Azure OpenAI Service. According to the company, users can begin requesting access to GPT-4 right away.

Microsoft hopes that by doing this, its Azure customers will have access to cutting-edge AI models like GPT-3.5, ChatGPT, and DALL.E 2, as well as infrastructure that has been optimized for AI in Azure, enterprise-readiness, compliance, data security, privacy controls, and numerous integrations with other Azure services.

Epic Hospital, Coursera, and Coca-Cola are just a few of the clients using GPT-4 on Azure OpenAI Service. According to Mustafa Furniturewala, senior vice president of engineering at Coursera, the company is using Azure OpenAI Service to develop a new AI-powered learning experience on its platform, This will allow students to receive high-quality and individualized support throughout their learning journeys.

While the new Bing and Microsoft 365 Copilot is powered by GPT-4, Microsoft stated in its blog post that the latest announcement would allow businesses to utilize the same underlying advanced models to build their own applications using Azure OpenAI Service.

The business added that using Copliot in Power Virtual Agents, this new solution would enable bot developers to create virtual assistants using natural language quickly. It thinks businesses may improve internal and external communication by implementing GPT-4 in Azure OpenAI Services.