Stay Up-to-Date on Humanistic Artificial Intelligence! January Edition
TD Publishing’s Monthly Update on Artificial Intelligence.
TD Publishing, a company that provides artificial intelligence educational programs, offers a monthly newsletter sharing the latest advancements in artificial intelligence to keep non-tech professionals and students up-to-date.
Each monthly newsletter will provide 3-4 informative articles and podcasts, which are expected to take 30-60 minutes to read through. Below is the January edition, written by Craig Gordon, founder of Don’t Count Us Out Yet and co-founder of TD Publishing.
If you would like to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by TD Publishing, please email jay@tdfactfind.com.
Dear Readers,
Welcome to TD Publishing’s third monthly edition of our newsletter, which we have renamed “The Humanistic Artificial Intelligence Monthly Update.” This title is more aligned with our goal of helping non-tech professionals and students understand the development of AI and how to use it. We believe in making AI the right way to use for all. As promised, we will keep it brief and relevant to you, hopefully saving you tons of time staying up-to-date!
NOTE: Some of the links mentioned are behind paywalls, which we are subscribed to. If you want to read, but are unable to, please send us a note and we can share the piece with you.
1. Are you kidding us? You expect us to do what to stay up-to-date with AI developments?
As expected when a year ends, many writers, blogs and so-called experts give you their best of reviews for staying up-to-date on certain areas. Artificial intelligence in particular, although a new area, had many reviews this year. We mentioned last month how overwhelming it was to consume the vast amount of information pouring in on new developments, what is important, and how to use AI and its tools. Sure enough, the surge of information at the end of the year was just another example of how much noise and time one would need to spend reading and listening to all the recommendations. Consider the following: Michael Spencer wrote about the top newsletters covering AI on Substack and came up with a list of 41 newsletters...
No way... I couldn’t read 41 even if I wanted to, let alone be able to digest what is good, what is noise or what is redundant on an ongoing basis. Add to that another newsletter’s 124 best tutorials to master AI and you have more than two months worth of full-time work just to stay current.
To us that is crazy, which is why we print this monthly newsletter trying to give you the best of new ideas and thoughts in a 30-60 minute read. Yes, we will miss some of the big ideas, but we will keep you at the cutting edge without spending your whole life doing it. By the way, after reading this stuff for two months, you would be obsolete with all you missed.
2. It’s not just us anymore... Major decision makers in tech companies are starting to say you don’t need computer science degrees to work for them.
Speaking of making artificial intelligence humanistic and usable in careers for critical thinking professionals and students, don’t just take our word for it, listen to what the head of technology at IBM said in a December 2023 year-end speech. You don’t need a computer science degree anymore to work in tech at IBM. Additionally, LinkedIn vice president Aneesh Raman said the same thing in November 2023.
3. We are getting interested in the open system AI generative language Mistral
Enough on how to learn about AI and trends for non-tech professionals; let’s take a look at some real AI developments. First, almost all of you have probably seen in the national media how the New York Times is suing OpenAI for unauthorized use of their materials to make a profit. The core reasoning for this has to do with OpenAI systems, where all code and developing the code can be shared with anyone, versus proprietary, where it is secret and under one corporate umbrella. We are getting more and more interested in an open system AI company based in France, Mistral AI, which is getting adopted fast in a number of areas just for that reason. People who develop AI products, but want to let anybody look under the hood and perhaps improve it. It is worth watching how Mistral AI does, as it could be a big competitor to Google and OpenAI, as well as the first big one based outside the U.S. besides China’s government effort, which means different cultural influences.
4. Synthetic Data is Coming of Age
There is a belief that training large language models on synthetic data might be as necessary as real life examples. Want an example of why? Well, if you have ever raised a child and made up a make believe answer to a question they asked (such as “why is there air?” and Bill Cosby answered to pump up volleyballs), that is synthetic data. The ability to discern better answers might come from looking for not just existing data and cleaning it, but smaller sample sizes of synthetic data tailored to train for better answers. OK, maybe the pump up volleyball example is a stretch, but you get the idea... Interesting thoughts on how AI might develop like humans next.
5. Will new tools to help AI gain consciousness come this year?
Finally, and we have talked about this in an earlier newsletter, defining consciousness for AI and what it will take for AI to get it is a must. Without answers or new approaches, we will probably limit AI to just mimicking what humans can do instead of really creating themselves. Here is a good article touching on the issues that can arise from creating an artificial consciousness, especially for you armchair philosophers out there. It seems we are going to have to deal with AI processes being able to experience pleasure and pain and really be human like intelligence or wise to deal with something like mortality.
That’s it for this month... We could have gone on and on, but we’ll leave that to the people who are trying to spend all their working hours on keeping up with AI. Happy New Year from the TD Publishing staff! See you in February’s edition.
If you would like to subscribe to TD Publishing’s monthly newsletter and stay up-to-date on advancements in artificial intelligence, please email jay@tdfactfind.com.
Best,
Craig, Jay, Jeffrey, Ariana and all of the freelancers who helped us.