AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser

As our quick appetizer, a quick dispatch from the Sundance Film Festival, where AI was seemingly *everywhere*.

For our entrée, we speak with Hilke Schellmann, author of the new book "The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired and Why We Need to Fight Back Now."

If you have a job, or will some day get a job, or know someone with a job, this is a topic relevant to you.

Link to The Algorithm:
https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Decides-Hired-Monitored-Promoted/dp/0306827344/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Hilke on Twitter/X:
https://twitter.com/HilkeSchellmann

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What are the most important stories in AI right now? Today we chat with Sharon Goldman, Senior Writer at Venture Beat, who covers all things artificial intelligence.

Sharon and I get into:

Why the race for training data is so crucial in the future development of AI (2:30); why so much hinges on The New York Times vs. Open AI (12:40); the looming wars between Open AI and Anthropic and XAI and others (31:00); the potential coolness (and terror) of AI hardware (35:00); and much much more.

Sharon Goldman on Twitter/X:
https://twitter.com/sharongoldman

Sharon Goldman’s author page at Venture Beat:
https://venturebeat.com/author/sharongoldman/

Inc Magazine’s “4 Ways to Get AI Savvy in 2024,” featuring….the podcast AI-Curious!
https://www.inc.com/amanda-pressner-kreuser/4-ways-to-get-ai-savvy-in-2024.html

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We all know AI has tons of potential, but how do you *actually* use ChatGPT in your daily life?

Sam Stevens is the cofounder of Catalist AI, an AI-powered project management assistant. She’s also the writer of the “Prompt and Circumstance” newsletter, where she shares hyper-pragmatic tips and tricks for how to get the most out of ChatGPT and other AI tools.

So in this episode, we go deeeeeep into the practical, concrete, actual ways that you can use ChatGPT in your day-to-day life.  This is useful for beginners and pro-users alike, as Sam drops a ton of helpful strategies.

We cover: 

Using ChatGPT as a thought partner (3:40); ChatGPT for personal project managet and schedule optimization (4:50); the benefits of giving AI super-specific context (15:50); how and why to use AI to help analyze content (23:30); using AI to step up your LinkedIn game (28:30); how to use ChatGPT as a thought partner and for “rubber ducking” (30:00); favorite prompt engineering strategies and tips and tricks (32:40); Sam reveals her global system prompts (35:30); the goal of her new start-up Catalist AI (38:30) and much more. 

To get on the waitlist for Catalist AI:
www.catalistai.com

Prompt & Circumstance newsletter:
https://promptandcircumstance.beehiiv.com

The "too online" AI/web3 newsletter that Sam also writes:
BoysClubWorld
https://boysclub.vip/brandnew/

Sam Stevens on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthastevens01/

Sam Stevens on Twitter/X:
https://twitter.com/SamJStevens

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As deep fakes get easier and the truth gets murkier, how will AI impact the 2024 election?

We’re joined by election expert David Becker, the founder and Executive Director of the non-partisan and non-profit Center for Election Innovation & Research. David is also the co-author of “The Big Truth: Upholding Democracy in the Age of The Big Lie.’”

David breaks down the many aspects of AI and the 2024 election, including: The current state of play of election integrity and why they’re more secure than you might think (5:15); what most concerns him about how AI-enabled mischief could muck things up (14:30); how deep fakes could cause problems (21:00); why disinformation could be a problem *post* election (36:45); why in 2024 the LEFT might be the victim of a disinformation campaign and wrongly think that the election was “stolen” (39:30); and finally what we can do to protect and inoculate ourselves against AI-fueled misinformation (45:00).

David Becker on Twitter/X:

https://twitter.com/beckerdavidj

The Center for Election Innovation and Research

https://electioninnovation.org

Election Official Legal Defense Network:

https://eoldn.org

David’s book, “The Big Truth”:

https://thebigtruthbook.com

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Where is AI headed next year?

I curated some of my favorite AI predictions -- and give a few of my own -- from some of the year-end AI roundups and prediction articles.

We cover deep fakes, further AI integration into business, the 2024 election, AI going mobile, and much more.

AI prediction articles referenced in the pod:

The Economist:

https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2023/11/13/generative-ai-will-go-mainstream-in-2024

PWC:

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/ai-analytics/ai-predictions.html

Axios

https://www.axios.com/2023/12/27/ai-predictions-tech-trends-2024-openai-chatgpt

Yahoo Finance

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2024-predictions-how-ai-will-impact-everything-in-healthcare-162535006.html

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So what did we learn about AI in 2023? What are the most important trends?

To make sense of this wild new space, I’m joined by tech strategist and AI consultant George Kamide, who’s also the co-host of the cybersecurity podcast, “Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks.”

George and I cover:

The public’s “first contact” with generative AI, and why that seems to be plateauing (03:00); the merits of “tuning” a model, and what it will take to get that mainstream (07:00); the biggest AI trends in business from 2023 (17:30); whether AI will “take all the jobs” (20:30); why we are *already* in the age of synthetic reality and misinformation (25:20); the trends of multi-modality and integration and AI agents (39:00); and why 2024 might involve the “trough of disillusionment” (50:30).

This was a fun wide-ranging conversation - enjoy!

Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks podcast
https://www.bareknucklespod.com

Ikea case study referenced by George:
https://www.reuters.com/technology/ikea-bets-remote-interior-design-ai-changes-sales-strategy-2023-06-13/

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You get a FaceTime from a loved one. They're in trouble. Big trouble.  Their life is in danger. They need you to Venmo you $, they have no choice.

Except...it's not them you're FaceTiming with, it's an AI-enabled deepfake that can talk to you real-time.

Welcome to the fun world of AI phishing and cyberattacks!

Christian Seifert, a veteran cyber-security expert (he used to head up cyber-security at Microsoft, and now he's Researcher in Residence at the Forta network), joins the show to unpack these kinds of risks. How worried should you be? How grim will the future get?

We cover:
How AI makes it easier for personalized scams and fakes (2:30); why AI security needs to be baked into the tech and tools we use today (8:30); why “prompt injections” pose a risk and what we can do about it (18:00 ); how AI agents could cause mischief as a type of “super virus” (20:00); whether he prefers open-sourced or closed-sourced AI development for AI safety (25:00); why Christian is cautiously *optimistic* that the future will bring an advantage to AI safety defenders (26:30); and recommendations to the listener of how they can minimize AI risk (29:30); and a surprise twist that AI is making the jobs of cyber-security... paradoxically easier? 

The Forta Network:
https://forta.org

Christian Seifert on Twitter/X:
https://twitter.com/cseifert

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Now it's time for the flip side of AI.

What could go wrong?

Daniel Colson is the Executive Director of The AI Policy Institute, which has a mission of helping policy-makers create smart regulation. They also conduct polling to better understand how Americans are thinking about AI.  Daniel, at heart, is a tech optimist, but in this episode he breaks down the reasons that AI makes him pause. 

We cover: The different categories of AI risk, including malicious use by bad actors, AI-arms race dynamics between states, Super-AIs going off the rails, and the less obvious ”organizational risks” (04:30); Insights from his polling on how Americans are thinking about AI (31:00); Regulation that Daniel hopes to see (40:00).

The AI Policy Institute:
https://theaipi.org

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Send in the clones. They're here. 

Don Bosco is the founder and CEO of BHuman, a start-up that is, well.... creating human clones. For real! Don has cloned himself and he can easily clone you. (Digitally, at least.)

So why the cloning? Don views this as a way for him to get more done in his own life -- his clone can knock out all the pesky online things he doesn't want to do. We cover a LOT of ground in this episode, including: The benefits of having a clone, and how it can help for businesses (3:00); what having a digital clone actually looks like in practice (5:40); why he is now CREATING 35 MILLION CLONES!! (24:10); the risks and ethics and downside of cloning (29:00); and how Don thinks that cloning ourselves, paradoxically, helps us be more human (55:00).

This episode was a blast to record. Hope you enjoy.

BHuman:
https://www.bhuman.ai

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When the AI hype began in earnest, "marketing and advertising" was one of the industries seen as most likely to be disrupted. 

This is already happening. Enter Deniz Ozgur, partner at AI marketing firm Evercopy, and one of Forbes' "30 Under 30" for her groundbreaking work in retail and ecommerce. 

Deniz shares how AI is *already* effective at generating both marketing content and even campaigns, and gives predictions on how it will change the industry going forward. (The theme: Personalization, personalization, personalization.)

Deniz is also the co-founder of Space Runners, an AI/fashion company, which lets users inject their own personalized creations into pre-existing brands. (Back to that theme: Personalization.) 

And before that, we'll get some thoughts on the true meaning of Thanksgiving from someone who knows all about human gratitude: ChatGPT.

Evercopy:
https://www.evercopy.ai

Space Runners:
https://spacerunners.com

Deniz Ozgur on Forbes' 30 Under 30
https://www.forbes.com/profile/deniz-ozgur/?sh=7251c738432f

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