🔮 Weekly Dose of AI: “…new AI tools have emerged that threaten the survival of human civilisation from an unexpected direction”
Palantir brings LLMs to war / AI is disrupting freelancers / Yuval Harari is concerned about the end of civilisation
Good morning,
This is your weekly thoughtful exploration of the latest developments in AI.
Let’s get to it.
👀 What to read/watch
1️⃣ Palantir Demos AI to Fight Wars But Says It Will Be Totally Ethical Don’t Worry About It
“What Palantir is offering is the illusion of safety and control for the Pentagon as it begins to adopt AI.”
Human rights experts have worried about AI powered autonomous robots for ages, but now new LLMs are being integrated into battlefield decisions. The secretive, quasi-governmental organisation Palantir has demonstrated Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), building GPT-4 like models into private military networks.
In the demo, a ChatGPT-style chatbot is used to order drone reconnaissance, generate plans of attack, and organise the jamming of enemy communications. Palantir says it will make this platform available to ‘an initial group of customers in the coming weeks’.
I would guess that would include Ukraine.
2️⃣ I’ve Never Hired A Writer Better Than ChatGPT’: How AI Is Upending The Freelance World
“ChatGPT has thrust the freelance world into disarray, and companies like UpWork and Fiverr stand to lose a lot”
Lots of people are worried about the impact of AI on jobs, and tools like ChatGPT are starting to cause problems in freelance marketplaces such as Upwork.
It’s not just that freelancers are being replaced by AI, but also that job postings are being increasingly spammed by ChatGPT written proposals. But also, even when a freelancer is hired, there are now stories of clients accusing freelancers of using ChatGPT to complete tehir work for them and demanding refunds.
Generative AI is proving to be a huge headache for freelancers and freelance marketplaces.
3️⃣ Yuval Noah Harari argues that AI has hacked the operating system of human civilisation [Archive link]
“…new AI tools have emerged that threaten the survival of human civilisation from an unexpected direction”
Even as many people are very excited about new AI tools, myself included, Yuval has a pretty sobering take. In fact, he goes to far as to say it could bring “potentially the end of human history”. That’s pretty sobering stuff.
I think the questions he pose in this piece are absolutely critical for understanding the future impact of AI.
“What will happen to the course of history when AI takes over culture, and begins producing stories, melodies, laws and religions?”
I remain optimistic that AI can be harnessed for good (this is Definite Optimism after all), but Yuval raises questions we should all be concerned about.
💼 Jobs to consider
🛠️ Engineering
Hayden Ai is hiring a Deep Learning Engineer
Inworld is hiring a AI/ML Data Engineer
The Wild Neighbors Database Project is looking for an AI/ML Engineer
🦺 AI Safety
The Alan Turing Institute is hiring a Research Assistant
Cisco is hiring a Program Manager for Responsible Artificial Intelligence
Sony is hiring a Research Intern AI Ethics
👨👩👦 Product and Management
ByteDance is hiring an AI Senior Product Manager
Procore is hiring a VP, Data Intelligence
Anthropic is hiring a Chief of Staff
💰 Companies that have raised funds
OpenAI raised another $300m at a $27-29bn valuation.
DeepHow a company that turns technical knowledge into training videos, raised $14 million in Series A funding.
Pinecone, a vector database company creating long-term memory applications for AI, raised $100 million at a $750 million valuation.
Alison, which uses AI to analyse creative work such as typeface characters, colors, sounds, and text, raised $5.1m.
I hope you enjoyed the digest this week. Let me know what you think by hitting reply or one of the feedback buttons below.
Until next week
Jamie
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