Today's edition of The Download is the weekday newsletter that gives you a daily dose from the world of technology.
AI literacy may be ChatGPT’s greatest lesson for schools
Artificial intelligence systems have been used by millions to amaze them this year. This is in large part due to OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT.
The chatbot was launched in November last year and quickly became a hit with students. Many of them started using it to help write essays and do homework. Schools around the globe quickly banned the technology after being alarmed by the influx of AI-generated essays.
There is an unexpected upside to ChatGPT: Schools have had to adapt quickly and begin teaching AI 101 to their students. It is hoped that policymakers and educators will see how crucial it is to teach critical thinking skills about AI. The full story is available here.
–Melissa Heikkila
Melissa's story comes from The Algorithm her weekly AI newsletter. Get it delivered to your inbox every Monday by signing up
Learn more about AI:
ChatGPT is poised to revolutionize the economy. It is up to us to define what this looks like. Many jobs will be transformed by large-scale language models. We can only speculate as to whether they will bring about widespread prosperity. Check out the complete story.
+ We are heading towards an AI-powered, glitchy, spammy and scammy internet. Even though large language models have many security flaws, they are being embedded in tech products on an enormous scale. The full story is available here.
+ How would we ask AI to be less biased? Researchers are now experimenting with asking the model to provide less biased answers. The full story is available here.
Podcast: Concerning AI ethics
Although the best definitions of AI can be vague and lack consensus, they pose a major challenge to lawmakers and legal scholars trying to regulate it. However, back-to-back breakthroughs and rapid adoptions of generative AI tools make it seem a lot more real.
In Machines We Trust is the latest episode of our podcast. It explores the ethics and implications of these tools for legal decision making. You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts.
The must-read
I've combed the internet to find you today's most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Elon Musk works on an AI project for Twitter
Even though they joined a call to an industry-wide halt on AI training, (Insider $)
+ Twitter is technically dead. It's been merged with Musk’s X Corp. (Bloomberg $).
Musk made a joke about his dog being in charge of Twitter. (WP $)
+ Twitter is causing the brain death. (MIT Technology Review)
2 China is trying to manipulate its covid heritage
Its officials withhold data and censor dissident voices. (WSJ $)
3 Bitcoin is again on the rise
Market manipulation could be the cause. (The Guardian)
+ El Salvador's bitcoin holdings remain low, but they are slowly declining. (Bloomberg $+ Crypto regulation will be on the agenda at the next G7 summit. (Reuters)
4 Secret Pentagon intelligence leaked by a meme team
Authorities are trying to figure out how classified documents were obtained. (NYT $)
+ These contain intelligence collected by the NSA, CIA and other agencies. (NY Mag $).
5 We are learning more about dark matter
It has been mapped by researchers in unprecedented detail. (BBC)
6 Safe Abortion Pills
Contrary to what pro-life groups might have you believe. (Vox)
7 What does the rise in generative AI mean for porn?
It is becoming easier to create erotic pictures that people will pay for. (WP $)
+ AI can't tell if pictures are AI-generated. (WSJ $)
+ AI music is now infiltrating streaming services. (FT $)
+ ChatGPT is fueling an influx of spam on Reddit. (Motherboard)
+ Lensa, the viral AI avatar app, undressed my without my consent. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Underground wells are the latest batteries
They are amazingly good at storing heat energy. (Wired $)
+ This geothermal startup demonstrated that its wells could be used as an underground battery. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Why Big Tech's platforms can't be replaced
Twitter users continue to log on despite the wild six-months that have passed. (NPR)
What is 10 TikTok's latest trend? Water
Watertokers are now turning to complex syrup concoctions for their daily water intake. (Fast Company $1)
Quote for the Day
"I wish that I could just shoot these programs down."
An anonymous Chinese videogame artist expresses frustration over AI models that generate images and force workers to work longer hours in order to compete with the Rest of World.
This is the dominant AI-generated artist. He's not happy.
September 2022
Polish digital artist Greg Rutkowski uses traditional styles to create dreamy landscapes. His unique style is used in many of the most beloved fantasy games worldwide, such as Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering.
He's a big hit in the new age of text-to image AI generation. His name is one the most frequently used prompts in Stable Diffusion, an open-source AI art generator.
This program and others are open-source, but they were built using images taken from the internet. Sometimes without proper attribution or permission. They raise questions about copyright and ethics. Artists like Rutkowski are fed up. The full story is available here.
–Melissa Heikkila
You can still enjoy nice things
This is a place to find comfort, joy and distraction during these crazy times. (Have any suggestions? Drop me a note or send me a tweet. )
+ The little things in life are what make a difference. Here's how experts do it.
+ Cloudflare's wall lava lamps, hail!
+ This pixelated hoodie is only $2,500, but I am not certain.
+ Forget all you know. A rainbow isn't actually an arch. It's a circle.
+ The deepest living fish in the world has a sweet little face.
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By: Rhiannon Williams
Title: The Download: ChatGPT’s impact on schools, and Elon Musk’s AI plans
Sourced From: www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/12/1071401/download-chatgpt-impact-on-schools-and-elon-musks-ai-plans/
Published Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2023 12:10:00 +0000
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