AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Machine Learning

Everyone is talking about generative AI products like ChatGPT, Midjourney, DALL-E 2, and Stable Diffusion (among dozens more), so it's clear that we're on the cusp of something exciting and new. What no one knows is where value will accrue. Continue Reading →

My Sunday essay was about Generative Synthetic Media. If you don't know what that is, have a quick look at the post, then go play around (pun intended) with some examples you'll find in this Google Research paper: MusicLM: Generating Music From Text. Continue Reading →

Synthetic media, sometimes referred to as "deepfake" technology, is the use of AI and machine learning to generate realistic, digital media such as images, videos, and audio. This technology is already revolutionizing the creative process as both artists and artisans conscript AI-coworkers for production assistance. But in the coming months, we are likely to see this technology evolve into Generative Synthetic Media (GSM) which we will define (for this essay) as data-driven synthetic media (created in near real time and surfaced in place of traditional media). When fully achieved, GSM will revolutionize human communication. This is a bold claim, so it requires bold evidence. Let's review. Continue Reading →

We know that OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) is working on a pricing plan, and some users are reporting that they’ve been granted access to a pro tier that costs $42 a month. Fans of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" know this number well. In the book, the answer to the "Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything" is 42, which makes me wonder if the final pricing will be announced on May 25. More importantly, I have been wondering if ChatGPT is, in fact, a pseudonym for Deep Thought. (Apologies to non-Douglas Adams fans.) Continue Reading →

What possible safeguards could be (or have been) put in place to prevent a bunch of mischievous teenagers (and I'm being careful to choose my words here) from crafting some very nasty code? Continue Reading →

Can you really use ChatGPT to write better blogs? Unsurprisingly, the work done in partnership with my AI-coworker outperformed work I did alone. Here's the process. Continue Reading →

People should listen closely to Sam Altman when he speaks about AI. We are all amazed by the productivity increases enabled by GPT 3.5 and ChatGPT, but speculating about the capabilities of GPT4 is just dumb. We'll know when we know. Continue Reading →

At the 2023 World Economic Forum, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the WSJ that the company will incorporate AI (such as ChatGPT) into all of its products. This raises a question: Do you wait to learn to use the version of ChatGPT that's built into Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.), or will you start learning how to use native ChatGPT right now? Continue Reading →

M3GAN has been a box office smash, grossing nearly $60 million in its first two weekends on a $12 million budget. The movie follows a robotics engineer at a toy company who builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own. This raises the question: Could M3GAN be real? Continue Reading →

I understand why teachers are worried about students using ChatGPT, but let's not forget that students have always found ways to cheat, chatbots or not. I think it's more important to focus on how we can use these tools in a positive way in education. Continue Reading →