⚡️Anthropic lets Claude control your computer 🤖 Pika AI 🚀 Chipotle using AI for HR 💡Why Miles Brundage Left OpenAI 🔦 Bret Taylor

<The Highlights> ⚡️

Sat 10.26.24: Google Preps AI That Takes Over Computers: Google is developing AI that takes over a person’s web browser to complete tasks such as gathering research, purchasing a product or booking a flight, according to three people with direct knowledge of the product. The product, code-named Project Jarvis, is similar to one Anthropic announced last week.

Fri 10.25.24: Meta signs its first big AI deal for news with Reuters: Meta’s AI chatbot will soon begin citing Reuters reporting while answering news-related queries. The two companies have struck what Axios describes as a “multi-year deal” that will allow Meta to use Reuters content for its chatbot responses. The deal is the first of its kind for Meta, in an era of news outlets agreeing to provide their content to AI companies.

Thu 10.24.24: Midjourney launches AI image editor: Midjourney, the hit AI image generation startup founded and run by former Magic Leap engineer David Holz, is wowing users with a new feature unveiled last night: AI image editing. Now, with Midjourney’s new “Edit” feature, users can upload any image of their choosing and actually edit sections of it with AI, or change the style and texture of it from the source to something totally different, such as turning a vintage photograph into anime — while preserving most of the image’s subjects and objects and spatial relationships.

Thu 10.24.24: OpenAI plans to release its next big AI model by December: As we prepare for the 2 year anniversary of the launch of ChatGPT on Nov. 30, according to The Verge, OpenAI plans to launch Orion, its next frontier model, by December 2024. Unlike the release of OpenAI’s last two models, GPT-4o and o1, Orion won’t initially be released widely through ChatGPT. Instead, OpenAI is planning to grant access first to companies it works closely with in order for them to build their own products and features, according to a source familiar with the plan. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman later said that it wasn't true and ‘Fake news out of control’.

Thu 10.24.24: Departing OpenAI leader says no company is ready for AGI: Miles Brundage, OpenAI’s senior adviser for the readiness of AGI (aka human-level artificial intelligence), delivered a stark warning as he announced his departure on Wednesday: no one is prepared for artificial general intelligence, including OpenAI itself (see The Insight below).

Wed 10.23.24: An AI chatbot pushed a teen to kill himself, a lawsuit against its creator alleges. Sewell, a 14-year-old ninth grader from Orlando, Fla., had spent months talking to chatbots on Character.AI, a role-playing app that allows users to create their own A.I. characters or chat with characters created by others.

Tue 10.22.24: Anthropic Release New Version of Claude, Let's It Take Control of Your Entire Computer: It upgraded Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and a new model, Claude 3.5 Haiku, which matches the performance of Claude 3 Opus, our prior largest model, on many evaluations for the same cost and similar speed to the previous generation of Haiku. However, the big news was that via an API, developers can direct Claude to use computers the way people do—by looking at a screen, moving a cursor, clicking buttons, and typing text.

<One To Watch> 🤖

Pika AI

Pika AI is an AI-driven video creation platform that transforms text and images into videos. It offers tools for creating engaging content with advanced features like lip-syncing and special effects.

The platform is designed to be user-friendly, catering to both amateurs and professionals, enabling them to produce high-quality videos without extensive technical skills.

Pika Labs has recently unveiled Pika 1.5, the latest iteration of their  AI video generator, designed to push the boundaries of creativity and realism in video production. This new version introduces groundbreaking tools and enhancements, offering both amateurs and professionals a more dynamic and user-friendly platform for creating high-quality, visually engaging videos. From advanced special effects to hyper-realistic animations, Pika 1.5 opens up new possibilities for digital storytelling.

Learn more about Pika here.

<Getting AI Ready> 🚀

Chipotle’s new AI recruiter aims to cut hiring time by 75%

As Fortune reported, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is rolling out an artificial intelligence assistant that the chain hopes will cut the time it takes to hire workers by as much as 75%.

The virtual recruiter, known as Ava Cado, will be available at the chain’s more than 3,500 restaurants in North America and Europe by the end of the month, the company announced Tuesday. The fall is Chipotle’s second busiest recruiting period of the year, following the March-to-May sales sprint it calls “burrito season.” 

The company said Ava will collect applicants’ information, answer their questions about the company, book meetings and send offers to candidates selected by humans. The goal is to take those administrative tasks off managers’ to-do lists so they can focus on running the restaurants.

The system “operates as if we’ve hired additional administrative support for all our restaurants,” Chipotle Chief Human Resources Officer Ilene Eskenazi said, according to the statement.

Powered by conversational AI from tech firm Paradox, the AI assistant can speak in English, Spanish, French and German. It’s Chipotle’s latest move into automation, following tests of robots that expedite avocado mashing and burrito bowl assembly.

<The Insight> 💡

Why I’m Leaving OpenAI and What I’m Doing Next by Miles Brundage

Miles Brundage is a prominent figure in the field of artificial intelligence policy and research. He has played a significant role at OpenAI since he joined in 2018 as a Research Scientist and later became Head of Policy Research and Senior Advisor for AGI Readiness. He was instrumental in developing the organization's external red teaming program and publishing influential work on AI's societal implications. His work focused on responsible deployment of AI technologies and shaping OpenAI's policy strategies

--

I’ve been excited about OpenAI as an organization since it was first announced in December 2015. After the announcement, I stayed up all night writing down thoughts on the significance of it. Even before that, around 12 years ago, I decided to devote my life to something in the rough vicinity of OpenAI’s mission (ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity).

So leaving what is essentially my dream job – advising OpenAI executives and the OpenAI board on AGI readiness – was not an easy decision, and I’m sure some folks will have questions about it. I answer several such questions below in the hope that it leads to more accurate discussion of my departure and various related topics. 

The TL;DR is: 

• I want to spend more time working on issues that cut across the whole AI industry, to have more freedom to publish, and to be more independent; 
• I will be starting a nonprofit and/or joining an existing one and will focus on AI policy research and advocacy, since I think AI is unlikely to be as safe and beneficial as possible without a concerted effort to make it so; 
• Some areas of research interest for me include assessment/forecasting of AI progress, regulation of frontier AI safety and security, economic impacts of AI, acceleration of beneficial AI applications, compute governance, and overall “AI grand strategy”;
• I think OpenAI remains an exciting place for many kinds of work to happen, and I’m excited to see the team continue to ramp up investment in safety culture and processes;
• I’m interested in talking to folks who might want to advise or collaborate on my next steps.

<Spotlight> 🔦

Bret Taylor, CEO & Co-Founder @ Sierra

Bret is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sierra. Most recently, he served as Co-CEO of Salesforce, and was President and Chief Operating Officer leading Salesforce’s global product vision, design and development, and go-to-market strategy. A respected software engineer and executive with an impressive history of building widely used and loved products, Bret was previously the co-founder and CEO of Quip, the innovative collaboration platform Salesforce acquired in 2016. Prior to founding Quip, Bret served as the Chief Technology Officer of Facebook and saw the company through its successful IPO in 2012. Credited with the invention of the “Like” button, Bret joined Facebook in 2009 after it acquired his social networking company, FriendFeed. Prior to FriendFeed, Bret started his career at Google, where he co-created Google Maps.

Bret is a member of OpenAI and Shopify's board of directors. He graduated from Stanford University in 2003 with a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science and now lives in the Bay Area.

<Capital> 💰

• Legal tech startup Genie AI just raised $17.8 million in a Google Ventures-led round
• Read AI lands $50M in new funding as it strives to become everyone’s AI copilot

<What's Ahead> ⏭️

• Oct. 28 - 30: TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco, CA
• Nov. 6 -7: Financial Times Future of AI Summit in London, England
• Nov. 11 - 14: WebSummit in Lisbon, Portugal
• Dec. 3: AI Trailblazers Growth Summit in New York, NY
• Dec. 5: Ad Council Public Service Award Dinner in New York, NY
• Jan. 7 - 10: CES in Las Vegas, NV

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