Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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3d white room with opened door. Brick wall

Is ChatGPT a Dead End?

There is still no known path to Artificial General Intelligence, including ChatGPT.

I want to talk more about Large Language Models (LLMs) and ChatGPT, as it’s all anyone asks me about when I give talks, either in Europe or here in the States. It doesn’t matter where. It’s always ChatGPT. Not self-driving cars. Not robotics. It’s the tech that Sam Altman dissed as “cloning human speech” that has apparently captured everyone’s attention. If I don’t talk about it, I’m not talking about AI. Got it! So I’ll talk about it. Garden Pathing AI Not to go all Altman on everyone, but I think LLMs are nothing but a “garden path” technology. Let me explain. In linguistics, a garden path sentence is one that starts out grammatically, but leads the reader to a dead-end. The Read More ›

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Chat with AI or Artificial Intelligence. Young businessman chatting with a smart AI or artificial intelligence using an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI.

Okay, Never Mind. Sam Altman Returns to OpenAI

The OpenAI CEO is back after a brief absence.

Last week, we reported on Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI and his consequent relocation to Microsoft. At the time it all seemed like a done deal. The board of directors at OpenAI agreed to oust Altman, and days later, the former ex-CEO was offered the opportunity to head up Microsoft’s AI development. That’s all changed now. After an intense corporate battle, Altman is back at OpenAI. The former board of directors at OpenAI ridded Altman on the basis of his apparent lack of candidness in his communication, and they refused to comment on the matter further. However, Altman is back at the helm and with a new board of directors. It’s been a busy weekend. Much of the details on Read More ›

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3d abstract render of blue glass cubes in grid forming data trend

Sam Altman Out at OpenAI, Microsoft Picks Him Up

Will Microsoft become the prime leader in the AI movement, and what will be the future of OpenAI?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Altman was "shocked" that he was ousted at OpenAI. But, he also fostered a close connection with Microsoft. Read More ›
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Julie Love at COSM 2021 interviewed by Jay Richards

Microsoft’s Julie Love on Quantum Computing

How might quantum computing change the technology in the future?

In today’s featured video from a past COSM conference, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards interviews Julie Love, Director of Quantum Computing Business Development at Microsoft, about how quantum computing differs from classical computing and what the future holds for this technology. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) COSM is an exclusive national summit on the technologies remaking the world as we know it. The mission of the conference is to stimulate debate and deliberation amongst industry leaders, illuminating the synergy between Seattle and the world and providing a scene of civilized conversation and exchange. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at Read More ›

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A futuristic glowing quantum computer unit, 3d render

Quantum Computing: What Does it Change?

Microsoft's Julie Love discusses the myths and challenges of quantum computing

in today’s featured video from the 2022 COSM conference, Dr. Julie Love, Director of Quantum Computing Business Development at Microsoft, describes the challenges of quantum computing, exposes some of the myths regarding the technology, and describes the types of applications that quantum computers are best suited to address—including clean combustion, energy, and water, and energy efficiency. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author Read More ›

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Side view of a humanoid head with blue and yellow eyes and vibrant neon neural network, representing futuristic technology and artificial intelligence. Generative AI

Revisiting the Mission of Mind Matters

Robert J. Marks on why Mind Matters (still) matters

Originally posted in 2018. Mind Matters is a podcast and a news and commentary site where “artificial and natural intelligence meet head-on.” That’s a great slogan, but what does it mean? As your host for the podcast part of the site, I thought I’d take advantage of my role to talk you about some of our exciting plans for both the podcast and the online journal (the latter to be edited by science journalist Denyse O’Leary). Here’s a quick run-down: Topics Mind Matters will track the latest developments in applied AI and technology. How will AI continue to augment human performance and abilities? What are the latest innovations of AI? And how does AI affect you? How is AI applied in pricing Read More ›

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Business brainstorm, online video meeting, virtual conference with multiracial colleagues. African American man communicate with business partners by video call uses laptop and app, work from home

Digital and Physical Spaces for Work and Play

What is the future of work?

A panel featuring top execs at Microsoft, Plus, OTOY, and Rec Room discusses the future of work and play in both physical and digital spaces. Where will they occur and what will they look like? And what are the implications for productivity, privacy, security, and human fulfillment? We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author of Life After Capitalism: Read More ›

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AI robot tutor reading with a teenage boy

The End of the Search Engine?

Bill Gates thinks AI will someday replace traditional search engines

Bill Gates thinks AI will destroy search engines. In the wake of artificial assistants, searching the “traditional” way will get thrown out as the internet totally transforms; nonetheless, it might take a while for AI to fully replace search engines like Google or Microsoft’s Bing. Until then, tech companies will keep trying to implement GPT-like systems into their search systems. Microsoft is already aggressively pushing for this. When you search for something through Microsoft Edge, the chatbot’s response is the first thing to pop up. Victor Tangermann reports at Futurism, Gates has been bullish on the topic of AI for a while now. Just last month, he told an audience during a keynote speech that AI could eventually teach kids how Read More ›

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Aerial view of Tokyo cityscape with Fuji mountain in Japan.

Novelist Haruki Murakami: Writing Involves Trust

Writing powerful literature is a human endeavor written for a human audience

I just finished a book by the renowned Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami called Novelist as a Vocation. Murakami is the author of 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and Kafka on the Shore, among many others. As a young novelist myself, I wanted to learn a professional’s thoughts on the trade and also get a sense of his philosophy of writing, which in the age of AI, feels increasingly valuable. Most of the book was composed during or before 2015 but was just published last year, and is basically a compendium of essays on the novel-writing process, how Murakami got started, and the broader literary landscape. Connecting With Readers Murakami’s thoughts on his readership and audience particularly stood out to me. He confesses Read More ›

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TV News studio - recording and broadcasting media in a modern set design with blue background for journalists. Generative AI

Media and Tech Companies Continue to Struggle

Vice reportedly is opting for bankruptcy, while Meta's metaverse flounders

According to a report from The New York Times, Vice Media Group, the entertainment outlet, is expected to file for bankruptcy. The news arrives amid considerable downsizing in the once leading media giant. Vice has long been known for its outreach to younger audiences and popularizing itself on social media platforms. Buzzfeed also recently announced the closure of its news division. After years of edgy and “irreverant” reporting, it seems the act is over. Other major technology companies are cutting expenses and laying off employees. With Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the woes seem to amount to the failed metaverse project, which was apparently was supposed to be so groundbreaking that it merited a makeover of the company name. With its vague Read More ›

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people standing around big data cloud

Godfather of AI: I Regret What I’ve Done

The AI arms race will blur fact and fiction, says Geoffrey Hinton

Geoffrey Hinton, often regarded as the “godfather of AI,” sat down with The New York Times and shared his concerns over the new arms race in artificial intelligence. Hinton was instrumental in AI research and is considered a pioneer in the field. Hinton revealed his departure from Google, where he worked for over a decade. Since the debut of ChatGPT-3 in November of 2022, Google has been struggling to maintain its longtime search engine dominance, trying to infuse an AI chatbot into its own search feature, alongside competitors like Microsoft. “I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” Hinton said. Hinton thinks that the proliferation of artificially contrived images, text, etc., will Read More ›

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Top view serene weary female lying on desk in modern office. Mugs of beverage and different documents locating on it. Job and fatigue concept

Work: The New Path to Self-Actualization

With layoffs plaguing Big Tech companies, how should employees start viewing their work?

The pandemic changed the way we work, with more people opting for online or “hybrid” schedules, office buildings emptying, and boundaries between work and other aspects of life starting to get blurred. But what is the general attitude towards work in the United States? According to Simone Stolzoff, author of the forthcoming The Good Enough Job, Americans are turning to their careers like people used to turn to religion: for meaning and a sense of self-worth. This new secular religion is called “workism.” In an interview with Wired, Stolzoff said, [Workism] is treating work akin to a religious identity. It’s looking to work not just for a paycheck but also for a community, a sense of identity and purpose and Read More ›

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Robert Marks at The Daily Caller

Despite the confidence in new AI coming from Big Tech executives, it makes quite glaring mistakes

Robert J. Marks wrote a piece at The Daily Caller this week on artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, and the manifold problems of new AI systems like Google’s Bard and older ones such as Amazon’s Alexa. Despite the confidence in new AI coming from Big Tech executives, it makes quite glaring mistakes, although Marks believes AI has its genuine uses and benefits. Snapchat’s chatbot “My AI” gave advice about how to hide the smell of pot and alcohol to someone posing as a disgruntled teenager. Microsoft’s Bing bot professed its love for a tech journalist. A Google app made egregiously racist errors. ChatGPT is also politically biased despite claiming neutrality. Marks writes, Many warn of the future dangers of artificial intelligence. Many Read More ›

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Artificial intelligence ai chat bot idea hands holding a phone against a blurred abstract background chatbot providing website support. Generative AI

The Bard is Beginning to Sing

Google has unleashed its own bot. Does that mean they're in the running in the AI race now?

Google has officially made its AI chatbot “Bard” available in the United States and the UK, notching their place in the artificial intelligence “arms race” that has taken the tech world by storm since OpenAI released its GPT-3 program last November. Microsoft released its own bot just a few weeks ago, though it immediately heralded concern for its unpredictable mannerisms and even “creepy” behavior, as described by Kevin Roose from The New York Times. “Google’s had a rocky AI journey after being caught out by the runaway success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot,” write a team of contributors at Forbes. This all begs the question: is Google really prepared to be a leader in this field? It may be a forefather Read More ›

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Computer Eye

The Metaverse was a Bust. Will AI Save the Day?

Microsoft is counting on it, investing billions into AI research and development

Just a couple of years ago, the metaverse was taking the tech world captive with grandiose promises of revolutionizing the internet and representing the future of human interaction. Microsoft was among the moguls who embraced the metaverse project with open arms, only to face the harsh fact that the technology was underdeveloped, investors were skeptical of its viability, and a massive swath of the American public seemed simply uninterested in the product. But, it was new technology. It was exciting. It was supposed to be the future. Now, Microsoft is hailing AI as the destiny of the internet, again with the sort of optimism that directed their love affair with virtual reality. The company has jumped the gun and sought Read More ›

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Businessman holding a light chatbot hologram intelligence AI. Digital chatbot, chatGPT, robot application.Chat GPT chat with AI Artifice intelligent developers digital technology concept.

Does New A.I. Live Up to the Hype?

Experts are finding ChatGPT and other LLMs unimpressive, but investors aren't getting the memo

Original article was featured at Salon on February 21st, 2023. On November 30, 2022, OpenAI announced the public release of ChatGPT-3, a large language model (LLM) that can engage in astonishingly human-like conversations and answer an incredible variety of questions. Three weeks later, Google’s management — wary that they had been publicly eclipsed by a competitor in the artificial intelligence technology space — issued a “Code Red” to staff. Google’s core business is its search engine, which currently accounts for 84% of the global search market. Their search engine is so dominant that searching the internet is generically called “googling.” When a user poses a search request, Google’s search engine returns dozens of helpful links along with targeted advertisements based on its knowledge of the Read More ›

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introduction to the metaverse universe. Man wearing augmented reality glasses for future technology. transition to the virtual world.

More Bad News for the Metaverse

Virtual reality projects are losing steam across the tech industry in the wake of layoffs and investor skepticism

Big tech companies across the spectrum, including Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, are scaling back on virtual reality research and development. The technological demands of the metaverse are more advanced than CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg have anticipated, and employees are feeling the impact. Microsoft recently laid off 10,000 workers, cutting funding from the lab responsible for the production of its mixed-reality “HoloLens.” The army was originally in the works to use the Microsoft lens for aids in combat and training, but the technology has since been labeled as “dangerous and poorly designed.” Meta laid off 11,000 employees last November and continues to struggle to gain interest and traction for its ambitious metaverse project. A report from Insider notes that a combination Read More ›

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Scared businessman hiding behind a pc

Found! ChatGPT’s Humans in the Loop!

I am the only writer I’ve been able to discover who is suggesting ChatGPT has humans in the loop. Here is a series of telling excerpts from our last conversation…

The new ChatGPT chatbot has wowed the internet. While students revel in the autogenerated homework assignments, the truly marvelous property of ChatGPT is its very humanlike interactions. When you converse with ChatGPT you could swear there was a human on the other end, if you didn’t know better. For all intents and purposes, ChatGPT has achieved the holy grail of AI and passed the Turing test, on a global scale. Always quick to snatch a deal, Microsoft is currently in talks to spend a mere $10B to acquire half “the lightcone of all future value.” However, things are not always what they seem. Previously, I pointed out aspects of ChatGPT that implied humans were helping craft the chatbot’s responses. Now, Read More ›

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Quantum Physicist Julie Love to Speak at COSM 2021

She fell in love with physics in high school, and continues to pursue that love today at Microsoft

She may not be a household name, but Dr. Julie Love works with technology that could have massive implications on our economy, in our industry and agriculture, and on society at large: Quantum computing. At this year’s COSM conference in Bellevue, Washington, Love will be addressing quantum computing and the question, “Does it change everything, or anything?” First, what exactly is quantum computing? “Quantum computing applies the properties of quantum physics to the processing of information,” Love explains in a Youtube series produced by Microsoft exploring the impact of the technology. “This exponentially faster and more powerful computing will accelerate the development of new sustainable materials, improved healthcare, methods to address food production, and combat climate change.” You can watch Read More ›

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Downton Bellevue, Washington with Mt. Rainier

Meet Gurdeep Pall, Microsoft Executive and COSM 2021 Speaker

Pall has flourished as a developer and a leader in the world of artificial intelligence and speech recognition

“I believe the world is ready for autonomous systems,” says Gurdeep Singh Pall, a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. Pall will be joining the impressive lineup of speakers at COSM 2021 this November. Pall has been with Microsoft since 1990 – a long and fruitful thirty-one years in which he rose from a software design engineer to the Corporate VP for the Information Platform and Experience team. In that time, he has worked on several noteworthy projects, including Windows NT 3.1, Windows XP, Skype for Business (now Teams), and many others. Pall was born in Chandigarh, India. In later adolescence, he considered following in his Brigadier father’s footsteps by joining the Indian army. “There was something inside me that kept Read More ›