Dive in — OpenAI joins forces with Jony Ive || One in 10 Gen Zers want their boss to be replaced by AI || Netflix will use AI to make ad breaks look less like ad breaks + more
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OpenAI unites with former Apple design head Jony Ive to create AI devices
A.I. largely remains the domain of an app on phones, despite efforts by start-ups and others to move it into devices.
Now OpenAI, the world’s leading AI lab, is taking a crack at that riddle.
On Wednesday, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said the company was paying $6.5 billion to buy IO, a one-year-old start-up created by Jony Ive, a former top Apple executive who designed the iPhone. The all-stock deal, which effectively unites Silicon Valley royalty, is intended to usher in what the two men call “a new family of products” for the age of artificial general intelligence, or A.G.I., which is shorthand for a future technology that achieves human-level intelligence.
Read more | NEW YORK TIMES
Jack Dorsey's Block made an AI Agent to boost its own productivity
At a company-wide hackathon this month, developers at finance firm Block built a dizzying number of prototype tools including a database debugger, a program for identifying duplicated code, and an app that automates Bitcoin support.
The sudden productivity boost was driven by Goose, an AI agent developed by Block several months ago that can help with coding and other work like knocking together data visualizations or mocking up new product features.
Goose helped developers at Block to develop a new agent-to-agent communication server at the hackathon. The company says Goose has changed the way it works, not only helping automate code generation but also allowing non-engineers to dabble in coding or prototype for new apps or features.
Read more | WIRED
One in 10 Gen Zers want their boss to be replaced by AI—they’re already being polite to ChatGPT just in case
Most of the Gen Zers said that AI will be a nicer, fairer, and more neutral boss.
While some think a virtual manager would be a lot smarter than the current human one they have, others predict they’d be able to manipulate AI management easily.
Worryingly, some respondents reported that an AI boss “won’t hit on me” and would be “less scary.”
And whether or not, workers are actually destined to report into robots any time soon, nearly 70% of the 2,000 young Americans surveyed are already extra polite to ChatGPT just in case.
Read more | FORTUNE
Netflix will use AI to make ad breaks look less like ad breaks
Netflix is working on a new type of ad that will use AI to let advertisers “marry” their product with the streaming service’s shows and movies. This may sound like Warner Bros. Discovery’s plan to turn its IP into commercials, but during Netflix’s Upfront event on Wednesday, the company demonstrated an example that placed the image of a product over a background inspired by one of its shows, like Stranger Things.
If you’re on Netflix’s ad-supported plan, that means you might see an ad that blends in with the show you’re watching, whether it’s Bridgerton or Wednesday. Netflix says advertisers can insert this new ad format in the middle of what you’re watching, or put them on the screen when you hit pause. They could contain an overlay or call to action when they roll out by the end of this year.
Read more | THE VERGE
Amazon introduces AI-powered audio product summaries for easier shopping
Amazon has started testing new short-form audio product summaries on select product detail pages, with AI-powered shopping experts discussing key product features. These AI shopping experts have done the research, analyzing product details, customer reviews, and information from across the web, then bringing product details to life and allowing customers to simply hear the highlights.
The feature makes product research fun and convenient—it’s like having helpful friends discuss potential purchases to make your shopping easier, even if you’re multitasking or on the go.
Customers can listen to the short-form audio summaries on product detail pages by tapping the “Hear the highlights” button in the Amazon Shopping app. The initial test feature focuses on products that typically require consideration before purchase, giving helpful insights through detailed discussion, and helping Amazon customers save time while shopping.
Read more | AMAZON
AI can spontaneously develop human-like communication, study finds
The research, undertaken in collaboration between City St George’s, University of London and the IT University of Copenhagen, suggests that when large language model (LLM) AI agents such as ChatGPT communicate in groups without outside involvement they can begin to adopt linguistic forms and social norms the same way that humans do when they socialise.
We wanted to know: can these models coordinate their behaviour by forming conventions, the building blocks of a society? The answer is yes, and what they do together can’t be reduced to what they do alone.”
Groups of individual LLM agents used in the study ranged from 24 to 100 and, in each experiment, two LLM agents were randomly paired and asked to select a “name”, be it a letter or string of characters, from a pool of options.
When both the agents selected the same name they were rewarded, but when they selected different options they were penalised and shown each other’s choices.
Despite agents not being aware that they were part of a larger group and having their memories limited to only their own recent interactions, a shared naming convention spontaneously emerged across the population without a predefined solution, mimicking the communication norms of human culture.
Read more | THE GUARDIAN
Google rolls out new AI and accessibility features to Android and Chrome
Google announced that it’s rolling out new AI and accessibility features to Android and Chrome. Most notably, TalkBack, Android’s screen reader, now lets you ask Gemini about what’s in images and what’s on your screen.
For example, if a friend texts you a photo of their new guitar, you can get a description of it and ask questions about the brand and color. In addition, you can now get descriptions and ask questions about your whole phone screen. So, if you’re shopping in an app, you can ask Gemini about the material of an item you’re interested in or if there is a discount available.
Read more | TechCrunch
Luis von Ahn, founder and CEO of Duolingo on why motivation is the biggest challenge in education
They discuss how Duolingo harnesses game mechanics and behavioral insights to keep learners engaged, and the company’s efforts to leverage AI to personalize education at scale.
Luis also shares thoughts on the Duolingo brand, courses beyond language (chess and math), and the broader impact of AI on content creation.
Watch | NO PRIORS
The Pirelli P Zero PZ5 was born from artificial intelligence
During the P Zero's launch, Pirelli stressed the increasing importance of comfort from its tires, even in the ultra-high-performance segment. And as cars become more powerful, albeit heavier, across the board, the stress loads that tires are forced to bear continue to increase.
To combat those changes, Pirelli turned to artificial intelligence. Not the do-your-math-homework type, but the virtual-prototype-testing type that the brand says allowed it to optimize development resources while cutting back development time.
Pirelli relies on what it calls a "digital twin" (shown above) of the development tire to help create the end product. The development engineers rotate digital compounds through various tests and simulations before fitting final prototypes to cars in the real world for final homologation tune-ups.
Read more | CAR AND DRIVER
“Summer reading list" with AI-generated titles of books that don't exist runs in Chicago Sun-Times
In its Sunday edition, the paper published a summer reading list with the titles, authors, and descriptions of 15 books. But it turned out that 10 of those 15 books do not exist.
Author Isabel Allende was born in Peru to Chilean parents. She gained worldwide acclaim in 1982 with the publication of a novel "the House of the Spirits," which began as a letter to her dying grandfather. She is also the author of "Daughter of Fortune," "Island Beneath the Sea," and "The Wind Knows My Name," among other titles. But Allende has never written a book called "Tidewater Dreams."
Yet, there that imaginary book is, first on the Sun-Times list — claiming to be "a multigenerational saga set in a coastal town where magical realism meets environmental activism.
Read more | CBS NEWS
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