Weekly Review 19 July 2024

Some interesting links that I Tweeted about in the last week (I also post these on Mastodon, Threads, Newsmast, and Bluesky): 

1. It's not the sentient or high-end AI that's really affecting the world, it's the mundane smart assistants: https://www.nextplatform.com/2024/07/11/ai-for-the-masses-is-already-here/
2. How can we assess the impact AI has on the profitability or otherwise of an organisation? https://www.informationweek.com/software-services/assessing-ai-s-impact-on-developers-and-the-bottom-line
3. ChatGPT is not conscious, no matter what a big chunk of its users think: https://futurism.com/the-byte/most-users-chatgpt-conscious
4. This bill won't stop people using AI generated fakes, or using others' work without permission, but it might help to build trust for those who do not do these things: https://dataconomy.com/2024/07/12/to-fight-ais-copycat-games-the-copied-act-proposes/
5. Potential roles for AI in the hospitality industry: https://dataconomy.com/2024/07/10/does-your-hotel-need-ai-exploring-the-future-of-hospitality/
6. Vision, sound, text, these aren't different things to an AI like they are to people. To an AI, they're all just numbers with no understanding of what the numbers represent: https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/11/are-visual-ai-models-actually-blind/
7. It appears that the court is treating AI as a tool used to create inventions, rather than an inventor in itself: https://devclass.com/2024/07/10/german-court-rules-ai-output-can-be-protectable-ups-stakes-for-machine-generated-code/
8. More on the safety concerns around how OpenAI is developing general AI: https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/12/24197142/openai-safety-concerns-agi
9. This is worrying. If Microsoft can create an AI speech generator that is so realistic people can't tell it's AI, other, less principled, people could also: https://www.extremetech.com/internet/microsofts-ai-speech-generator-is-too-realistic-to-release-researchers
10. What's next? Using AI to translate the gurgles babies make? Wasn't there a Simpson's episode about that? https://dataconomy.com/2024/07/11/ai-dog-bark-analysis-research/
11. How many layers of AI do we need to monitor AI? https://www.computerworld.com/article/2514199/ai-managing-ai-that-is-monitoring-ai-what-could-possibly-go-wrong.html
12. Don't replace customer service people with AI, customers really don't like it: https://futurism.com/the-byte/people-hate-ai-customer-service
13. Generative AI helps less creative people be more creative, but is less helpful for naturally creative individuals. In other words, it's a tool to help creativity, rather than a creative thing itself: https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/12/experiment-finds-ai-boosts-creativity-individually-but-lowers-it-collectively/
14. More on how generative AI can help less creative people: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/12/ai-prompts-can-boost-writers-creativity-but-result-in-similar-stories-study-finds
15. The EU's AI act is coming into effect: https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/12/eus-ai-act-gets-published-in-blocs-official-journal-starting-clock-on-legal-deadlines/
16. Using AI to improve antenatal care in developing countries: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/12/i-am-happy-to-see-how-my-baby-is-bouncing-the-ai-transforming-pregnancy-scans-in-africa
17. Is anyone surprised that a big company is skimping on safety testing in the rush to get a product to market? AI companies are not immune to this: https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-accusations-promise-test-ai
18. More on the proposed law to protect creators from having their work used as AI training data without their consent or compensation: https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/12/new-senate-bill-seeks-to-protect-artists-and-journalists-content-from-ai-use/