Funston Brief (Issue No. 16)
This month, our featured commentary discusses Apple's AR headset and generative AI regulation while offering several actionable items that SMB CEOs can implement in their companies.
The spotlight was on hardware at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference this past Monday. Apple introduced the Vision Pro, a high-end AR headset that aims to enhance productivity and further immerse users in the digital world. Despite some appealing use cases, the big question remains: has Apple discovered a groundbreaking application for the device that justifies its steep cost and encourages daily usage? The recent AI frenzy around ChatGPT has given us valuable insight into how consumer excitement should look like. After nearly seven months since its launch, 12 percent of Americans have already integrated ChatGPT into their work routines. Despite the increasing presence of AI in the workplace, most employees do not believe that AI can completely replace their jobs, and they do not currently harbor significant fears about it. Instead, workers view tools like ChatGPT as general-purpose technologies that amplify their productivity and creativity. More and more voices are arguing for strong and early regulation in this space. In the US, the Biden administration is divided on the best approach to regulating AI technology. Some advocate for the EU's assertive regulatory stance, while others express concerns that excessive regulations could place the United States at a disadvantage. Additionally, several US regulatory agencies jointly issued a statement regarding generative AI, while the EU is working hastily to draft new legislation.
ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS.
How does the sudden explosion in AI affect data and data businesses? Abraham Thomas, who has written several excellent posts on data businesses, examines how the industry will alter with the arrival of AI.
Key Insight: One of the key takeaways from this article is that it will become more crucial to track which information originates from humans and which is the result of algorithms as AI tools start interacting with one another (not that the median quality of human outputs is necessarily higher, but people do have a reputational investment in the claims they make, whereas LLMs do not). Link
Microsoft’s Azure AI Studio lets developers build their own AI ‘copilots’: To create unique "copilots" for use in the workplace, Microsoft introduced Azure OpenAI Service, which will allow enterprise users to mix a model like GPT-4 with proprietary company data.
Key Insight: According to Microsoft, a "copilot" is a chatbot program that employs AI to help with tasks like writing a sales pitch or creating visuals for a presentation. This AI is often used to generate text or images. Creating a copilot in Azure AI Studio begins with choosing a generative AI model like GPT-4. The copilot is then given a "meta-prompt," or a fundamental explanation of the copilot's responsibility and expected behavior. To keep track of a user's dialogue and respond with the relevant context and awareness, cloud-based storage can be added to AI copilots made with Azure AI Studio. Copilots can access data and other services from third parties thanks to plug-ins. Link
EAR TO THE GROUND.
Podcast Episode: Odd Lots - AI, Software, and the End of the Tech Boom
Guests: Stewart Butterfield
Takeaway:
Best known for co-founding Slack and his seminal essay “We Don’t Sell Saddles Here,” Stewart has had a front-row seat to several major inflection points in tech. Now we're at another turning point for the tech industry. Layoffs have occurred across the space, and AI is putting traditional business models into doubt. On this episode, co-hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway speak with Butterfield about his experiences and thoughts on the proliferation of AI and what’s next for software businesses dealing with major layoffs and existential threats.
“I think companies will go all the way [on AI]. Over the last 100 years the pace at which jobs become obsolete has definitely increased. [The role of a software engineer] will be different. Just like with any new wave of technology there will be a massive augmentation and people will end up moving higher up the value chain.”
- Stewart Butterfield, Co-Founder of Slack
1.2B Euros
Meta has received a 1.2 billion euro fine from the EU for sending customer data to the USA. In short, the EU has concluded that because the USA (and most other countries) do not have sufficient "equivalent" protections against governmental monitoring for user data, EU user data cannot be "transferred" abroad. Link
PROFILE.
Carina Chocano profiles Duolingo founder Luis von Ahn in The New Yorker. One interesting feature is that von Ahn's early work focused on crowdsourcing data that machines couldn't generate independently, like reading distorted words in scanned books. However, it has since moved away from that kind of work even though it's gotten much trendier. Duolingo was originally a more collaborative platform but has become more of a one-to-many product than a peer-to-peer one - in two-sided networks, there's one side that's typically harder to manage, and some companies end up solving that by building one side themselves. Enjoy the profile!
“I want the poor person in Guatemala to be able to learn with very high quality,” von Ahn says. “The only way I know how to do that is with A.I.”
ON MY RADAR.
A team of scientists has produced a groundbreaking breakthrough using a Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI model comparable to ChatGPT to reconstruct human thoughts from functional MRI (fMRI) records with up to 82% accuracy. According to the researchers, this unheard-before degree of precision in reading human thoughts from non-intrusive signals opens up a wide range of scientific possibilities and prospective uses in the future. Link
About
Funston Brief is a newsletter by Funston Capital, LLC. We’re an investment company located in San Francisco, CA looking to acquire an already profitable and growing tech-enabled business. If you or anyone you know is interested in selling a business, don't hesitate to contact me at alex@funstoncap.com!
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