Most People Probably Won't Notice When Artificial General Intelligence Arrives
Some say OpenAI's o1 models are close to artificial general intelligence.
AI is advancing rapidly, but most people might not immediately notice its impact on their lives. Take OpenAI's latest o1 models, which the company officially released on Thursday as part of its Shipmas campaign. OpenAI says these models are "designed to spend more time thinking before they respond." Some say o1 shows how we might reach artificial general intelligence— a still theoretical form of AI that meets or surpasses human intelligence — without realizing it.
"Models like o1 suggest that people won't generally notice AGI-ish systems that are better than humans at most intellectual tasks, but which are not autonomous or self-directed," Wharton professor and AI expert Ethan Mollick wrote in a post on X. "Most folks don't have a lot of tasks that bump up against limits of human intelligence, so won't see it."
Artificial general intelligence has been broadly defined as anything between "god-like intelligence" and a more modest "machine that can do any task better than a human," Mollick wrote in a May post on his Substack, One Useful Thing.
He said that humans can better understand whether they're encountering AGI by breaking its development into tiers, in which the ultimate tier, Tier 1, is a machine capable of performing any task better than a human. Tier 2, or "Weak AGI," he wrote, are machines that outperform average human experts at all tasks in specific jobs — though no such systems currently exist. Tier 3, or "Artificial Focused Intelligence," is an AI that outperforms average human experts in specific, intellectually demanding tasks. While Tier 4, "Co-intelligence," is the result of humans and AI working together. Some in the AI industry believe we've already reached AGI, even if we haven't realized it.
More about the emergence of artificial general intelligence
What Do People Use AI models For?
Despite the rapidly-growing popularity of large language models, until now we’ve had little insight into exactly how they’re being used. Claude insights and observations, or “Clio”, is our attempt to answer this question.
Clio is an automated analysis tool that enables privacy-preserving analysis of real-world language model use. In this video, members of Anthropic's Societal Impacts team—Deep Ganguli, Esin Durmus, Miles McCain and Alex Tamkin—discuss the development of Clio, what they found, and the importance of this research.
Klarna CEO Says The Company Stopped Hiring A Year Ago Because AI 'Can Already Do All Of The Jobs'
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is all-in on artificial intelligence at the fintech company. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Siemiatkowski said he's "of the opinion that AI can already do all of the jobs that we as humans do."
"It's just a question of how we apply it and use it," he said.
Klarna is a payment service that offers consumers "buy now, pay later" options. According to its website, the company is connected with more than 575,000 retailers.
The increased attention around AI has raised concerns about how it will affect careers and the workplace. A 2023 report by McKinsey & Company estimated that 12 million American workers will have to change occupations by 2030 as AI technology develops.
During the interview, Siemiatkowski said Klarna stopped hiring last year. "I think what we've done internally hasn't been reported as widely. We stopped hiring about a year ago, so we were 4,500 and now we're 3,500," Siemiatkowski said. "We have a natural attrition like every tech company. People stay about five years, so 20% leave every year. By not hiring, we're simply shrinking, right?"
Siemiatkowski said his company has told employees that "what's going to happen is the total salary cost of Klarna is going to shrink, but part of the gain of that is going to be seen in your paycheck."
More on Klarna’s AI workforce on Business Insider
AI, Society, And Our World Order | LSE
Artificial Intelligence is not only a generational technology, but also a general purpose technology—one that has outsized potential to transform societies and economies globally.
How should we use AI to not only better understand the world, but organise, develop, and elevate it?
Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn and Inflection AI, and author of Superagency, will be discussing all of this and more with LSE President and Vice Chancellor Professor Larry Kramer.
Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash Ushers In A New Era Of Real-Time Multimodal AI
Google’s release of Gemini 2.0 Flash this week, offering users a way to interact live with video of their surroundings, has set the stage for what could be a pivotal shift in how enterprises and consumers engage with technology.
This release — alongside announcements from OpenAI, Microsoft, and others — is part of a transformative leap forward happening in the technology area called “multimodal AI.” The technology allows you to take video — or audio or images — that comes into your computer or phone, and ask questions about it.
It also signals an intensification of the competitive race among Google and its chief rivals — OpenAI and Microsoft — for dominance in AI capabilities. But more importantly, it feels like it is defining the next era of interactive, agentic computing.
This moment in AI feels to me like an “iPhone moment,” and by that I’m referring to 2007-2008 when Apple released an iPhone that, via a connection with the internet and slick user interface, transformed daily lives by giving people a powerful computer in their pocket.
More analysis of Google’s multi-modal Gemini 2.0 Flash on Venture Beat
The $2 Billion AI Startup That Could Replace Coders | Scott Wu: Cognition
Backed by $200 million in funding, 28-year-old Scott Wu and his team of competitive coders at Cognition are building an AI tool that can program entirely on its own, like an “army of junior engineers.” Interesting new insights from this young AI visionary.
This Marketing Exec Restructured His Job Around AI. Here’s Why
Nearly seven years ago, Michael Mendenhall joined TriNet as the HR and payroll firm’s senior vice president, chief marketing officer and chief communications officer. His charge was to rethink their marketing and comms strategy—from the brand identity down to the org chart. Since 2017, unaided brand awareness has grown 800 percent and aided awareness has nearly doubled, according to the company.
Nowadays, Mendenhall is looking to help TriNet get its arms around AI, the ongoing boom of which has swept marketing into uncharted waters. He’s also one of 16 business leaders across the entrepreneurial sector recognized as part of Inc.’s 2024 Best in Business year-end coverage.
Looking back at 2024, what did you achieve at TriNet that you’re most proud of?
The restructuring of our entire organization around the advent of AI and the large language model. We did that really quickly and rapidly, we embraced it, and it really started to mitigate some of the pains people were having in search, in SEO, with people now searching through AI platforms. The search terms had to be redefined.
We had to quickly build an organization around content — content is going to be king in the AI world—to start to establish ourselves as the authority online. We redid our whole team to reflect this.
How would you summarize TriNet’s marketing strategy?
The first thing we do is we listen to the customer. For us, the customer is everything. And you have to understand that these customers are entrusting their people to us, so it becomes really important that you have trust. We don’t take that lightly. So we always focus on them, and we’re always looking at and listening to our customers. What are they saying? Are many of them having the same issue? What do they like and dislike? You’re constantly looking at your product, what you have to offer, and you’re tweaking.
More on restructuring TriNet around the advent of AI
TSMC’s New Arizona Fab! Apple Will Finally Make Advanced Chips In The U.S.
On 1,100 acres in the Arizona desert north of Phoenix, a newly completed 3.5-million-square foot building is making history as the most advanced chip fabrication plant on U.S. soil.
It’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s first of three Arizona fabs, which will total a $65 billion investment when they’re complete at the end of the decade.
Apple has committed to being the site’s largest customer. Full production has been delayed until 2025, but pilot production has begun.
CNBC got an exclusive first look at the fab, where TSMC chairman Rick Cassidy says the project is “dang near back on the original schedule.”
Thats all for today, however new advancements, investments, and partnerships are happening as you read this. AI is moving fast, subscribe today to stay informed.