AI is changing education forever! Plus Google and MS continue their battle

Greetings, fellow AI enthusiasts!

Another busy day, and lots to talk about!

Those of you investing in AI companies must have your heads spinning.

There are definitely overtures of the crypto bubble. Though, admittedly, the AI bubble is quite different in nature.

Crypto failed to produce the sweeping changes that its evangelists claimed. In part, it was because most people failed to even understand the blockchain, let alone how it would change their lives. Crypto is still a thing, but the tech behind it has not penetrated as deeply as many predicted.

AI is different because it is produces much more tangible evidence of its potential. And it delivers value in such a fast and direct manner. I love seeing my friends’ and family members’ faces when I generate images using SDXL or show them what ChatGPT can do. Or my partner when I showed her how to use LLMs for lesson planning and summaries to give her students.

I remember how my mom would spend hours typing reports of meetings for her job. She would also spend hours helping me transcribe my papers (I was always a last-minute kind of guy!). Now, AI could do these kinds of things in literally minutes. Seconds even.

And these are just basic, everyday, busywork tasks. The industrial possibilities are even bigger. The sky truly is the limit, and we are going to see some immense changes in how we work and study in the next few years.

Without further ado, here are today’s headlines!

1. AI Robots: Coming Soon to Your Home?

2. 7 ways in which AI could change education in 2024 (and beyond)

3. Google Really Wants to Get Back in the AI Race

4. Another AI Unicorn in the Making?

5. Is Microsoft's new mini-LLM the real deal? Or more fluff?

AI Robots: Coming Soon to Your Home?

Tesla released some startling footage of its Optimus robot. Musk's car company has been hard at work at producing what it calls a "general purpose, bi-pedal, humanoid robot capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring."

Considering Musk has claimed to be scared of AI, it is interesting that he would pioneer the production of an AI robot. If you haven't seen the demo, it is worth watching (trigger warning: might either excite you or scare you. Me: I want one to clean my kitchen daily).

7 ways in which AI could change education in 2024 (and beyond)

We all know that AI is changing education forever. But what will happen beyond the ChatGPT effect?

Edward Montalvo points out seven big ways in which education will be impacted. Two of my favorites are 5. (teaching students AI literacy, a major necessity starting NOW!) and 7. (Custom GPTs built by educators. More difficult, and technical, but of IMMENSE value). 

Here is his list (read link for the full explanations):

1. Professional Development
2. Formal AI Policy
3. Open-Source Tool Development
4. Frameworks for Teaching AI
5. AI Literacy, Competencies, and Standards
6. AI-Powered Adaptive Learning Systems
7. Custom GPTs Built By Educators

Google Really Wants to Get Back in the AI Race

After apparently sitting on its laurels on AI for some time (despite being the godparents of AI), Google is trying to counterpunch. Last week, it was Gemini; this week, they are announcing Imagen 2. Google claims this is their most powerful text-to-image generator.

So far, the sample images they provide seem pretty spectacular. However, after the recent Gemini fake video debacle, many people will wait and see for themselves how good it is. Sadly, it is currently only available for Google Cloud Vertex AI users 😞

Another AI Unicorn in the Making?

Attention, those of you who like to “Buy! Buy! Sell! Sell!” That is, AI investors. Could this company be the next AI unicorn? Here’s why you should pay attention.

Essential AI just raised $56.5 million in Series A funding. It seems like the real deal when investors include: AMD, NVIDIA, Google, and more (!!!).

This San-Fran-based company wants to improve human-computer interaction with its full stack of products that promises to improve automation and reduce monotonous work. It claims its product can revolutionize an entire workforce by scaling the empowerment of workers.

The start of something big?

Is Microsoft's new mini-LLM the real deal? Or more fluff?

The newly released Phi-2 claims to beat Llama 2, Mistral, Gemini Nano, and others in benchmarks. But we've seen many companies (ahem, Google!) exaggerate their claims and manipulate scores. Microsoft claims that Phi-2 is special because it is smaller and can be deployed with fewer resources.

That’s it for today’s digest. Tune in tomorrow, and have a great day!

Joaquin

the intelligist.ai