ChatGPT Passes Turing Test, OpenAI Co-Founder Launches New Venture, and IMF’s AI Preparedness Index

Welcome to SV-AI (Silicon Valley - Accelerates Innovation), my newsletter focused on the responsible development and deployment of innovations strengthening California's global competitive edge. Please subscribe to receive upcoming editions. Here, I’ll share tech policy news and leadership insights that you need to know and how technologies, like Artificial Intelligence, are being used IRL. In this edition, I’ll share how AI is becoming harder to distinguish from human beings online, what VCs are looking for in AI startups, and the growing AI preparedness gap between large and small economies.  

AI 101 

In past editions, I’ve shared research on the growing demand for AI skilled workers.

Today, I thought I’d share some free online courses to help you up-level your AI connected skillset and understanding of this powerful technology.

• AWS offers 100 courses and resources for learners with free and low-cost options
• Google AI for Everyone is a self-paced course for those interested in learning about real-world applications 
• Harvard has a popular Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python course focused on the computer science behind AI 
• Intel offers dozens of free online courses to advance its goal of providing 30 million people with AI skills by 2030 
• IBM’s AI Foundations for Everyone is broken down into three courses and includes AI career advice from experts 
• UC Davis Professor Martin Hilbert uses case studies to help students understand AI concepts in his online class,  Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics
• University of Pennsylvania’s AI for Business focuses on data analytics and people management 

A huge shout out to Fortune for the recommendations! Please share in the comments if you have completed any of these courses or perhaps if there are others that you would suggest. 

UC San Diego’s AI Turing Test 

With AI rapidly advancing, the Department of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego decided to test whether people can distinguish between ChatGPT and a human when interacting online. 

The controlled test (based on the famous Alan Turing test) saw 500 participants engage in a five-minute online conversation with either a human or one of three AI systems. Afterwards, they were asked to explain if they thought they were speaking with a human or AI.

The results indicated that AI has improved to the point where it can be difficult to know what is AI and what is human. 

I think the study underscores the need for transparency when using AI. In order to build and maintain trust with customers, organizations will need to make it clear when someone is interacting with AI versus talking to another human, especially as models continue to advance. 

Read the whole story in TechRadar. 

New AI Startup Focuses on Safety 

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever made waves this week when he announced his newest venture. The former chief scientist at OpenAI launched a new company, Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), which aims to prioritize safety over commercialization. 

Unlike OpenAI, the startup will follow a for-profit model. But Sutskever said the focus will be to avoid “distraction by management overhead or product cycles” so that the company can “scale in peace.” 

The AI startup space is continuing to explode, making competition for venture capital fierce.

Business Insider picked the brains of leading venture capitalists to find out what they are looking for when investing. According to those investors, startups focused on infrastructure, unstructured data, and revolutionizing software development will turn the most heads in the current market.

It will be interesting to see if these start up founders are afforded the space to "scale in peace" though my experience is that market and investor demands, particularly for rapidly evolving technologies, do not often have such flexibility (absent significant capital raised and/or a very comfortable runway).  

IMF Releases AI Preparedness Index  

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently reviewed how prepared different parts of the world are for artificial intelligence. The index analyzed 174 economies based on their digital infrastructure, human capital, labor policies, innovation, integration and regulation.

The results show a widening gap between wealthier nations and those with less developed economies. 

In his latest post, SVLG’s SVP Peter-Leroe Muñoz explains, “Wealthier nations will likely feel the most labor disruption from artificial intelligence, largely because they have more jobs that can be replaced by the technology. On the flipside, they are better positioned to reap the productivity and industry-creating gains of the innovation. Lower income nations have fewer skilled-jobs to be impacted by AI, but also fewer opportunities to capture its enhancements.”

The report concludes – and I wholeheartedly agree –  by advising policymakers in advanced economies to focus on investing in training for workers and prioritizing AI innovation and integration. 

AI IRL 

The City of San Jose got the Wall Street Journal treatment this week for its embrace of AI to make government more effective.

Khaled Tawfik, San Jose’s chief information officer, sat down with reporter James Hagarty to shed light on how the city is approaching the use of AI – from identifying potholes to drafting memos to interacting with citizens. 

I highly recommended you give it a read for many reasons.

But one quote stuck out to me – Tawfik states, “We have to understand [AI] is not really mature. And we have to use it as an adviser, not as the solution.” 

I agree, because I see today’s AI best viewed as a tool to support how we work and interact.

Ultimately, humans remain critical to ensuring that AI’s output is accurate, effective, and responsible. 

Read the piece here. 

Final Thoughts 

In the tech industry, it can be easy to focus on the shiny new products or initiatives out there. But in my experience as CEO of SVLG, the actual people behind these efforts are just as interesting. Photographer Laura Morton recently immersed herself in the community behind the AI revolution. Her images capture the creativity, diversity, excitement, and collaboration that is fueling today’s technology industry in the Silicon Valley and Bay Area.

This is a great piece and you can view her work in the Washington Post.  

And finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to Justin Femmer, Monica Nayer and the team at PwC for co-hosting our amazing Responsible AI Roundtable last week. And a big thank you to all the incredible speakers we heard from including San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Ben Petrosky of Google, Leila Banijamali of Symbium, and Peter Leroe-Muñoz of SVLG.

I learned a lot and enjoyed the status report on San Jose's strategy and tactics to establish a leading AI ecosystem and hearing from experts on the ground about the challenges and opportunities for promoting responsible AI.

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