Finally tried Kotaemon, an open-source RAG tool for document chat!
With local models, it's free and private. Perfect for journalists and researchers.
I put Kotaemon to the test with EPA's Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Accurately answered questions on CO2 percentage in 2022 emissions and compared 2022 vs 2021 data
🛠️ Kotaemon's no-code interface makes it user-friendly. - Use your own models or APIs from OpenAI or Cohere - Great documentation & easy installation - Multimodal capabilities + reranking - View sources, navigate docs & create graphRAG
🌟 Kotaemon is gaining traction with 11.3k GitHub stars
A lot of coverage of the Apple event! I’ve selected a few unique angles and distinctive takes.
**The NYT** - "The iPhone’s limited feature set is emblematic of how Apple is taking a cautious approach to generative A.I." - "Wall Street is enthusiastic about the artificially intelligent phones, with analysts predicting the features could help Apple sell a record 240 million iPhones next year."
**The Guardian** - "Despite the bells and whistles, and being a tech-adopting lot, I bet many of you won’t be lining up to buy it." - One reason is the simple cost of the iPhone 16, which starts at $799. - The adoption of AI into the iPhone could be considered a step change in how the iPhone works. But there may not be a huge hankering to use ChatGPT on your phone."
**The WSJ** - Apple didn’t say when the AI services would be available in China, its second-largest market after the U.S. - The delay puts the iPhone maker at a disadvantage against rivals offering AI services - Huawei held its own announcement in China to release the Mate XT, a three-way foldable smartphone with AI features. - Apple said that the launch of Apple Intelligence was subject to regulatory approval. In China, any generative AI models that could influence public opinion need government approval.
**CNN** - "For an event built around unveiling Apple’s first AI-powered iPhone, there was one striking absence over the two-hour presentation: the words 'artificial intelligence.'" - "But Apple understands something that often gets lost in the bot-pilled bubble of Silicon Valley: Regular people don’t trust AI."
The New York Times did a fun quiz to test your ability to detect whether a video is AI-generated or real. They put Runway, Kling, and Sora to the test.
If you want a clear understanding of the environmental impacts of AI throughout its entire lifecycle, this primer by @sasha@brunatrevelin and @meg is a must-read.
It brilliantly explains which types of impacts occur, when they happen, and why they matter.
Is AI’s impact on elections being overblown? Three researchers think so in this opinion piece published in the MIT Tech Review.
Highlights:
• “AI is being used to try to influence electoral processes, but these efforts have not been fruitful.” • “Why were these initial speculations about AI-enabled electoral interference so off (…) ? The short answer: Because they ignored decades of research on the limited influence of mass persuasion campaigns, the complex determinants of voting behaviors, and the indirect and human-mediated causal role of technology.” • “Yet we should remember that there’s a cost to overreaction based on ill-founded assumptions, especially when other critical issues go unaddressed.”
📉 Nvidia Revenue Jumps 122% in Positive Sign for Tech's A.I. Boom - NYT - $30.04 billion revenue, $16.95 billion net income (up from $6.19 billion a year ago) - Shares in the company fell by as much as 7% in after-hours trading - Nvidia faces production challenges with its new Blackwell chip and growing competition, including from its own customers - Spending on data centers and energy costs to support A.I. is expected to be $1 trillion 👉 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/technology/nvidia-earnings-ai-stocks.html
🏛️ California Legislature Approves Bill Proposing Sweeping A.I. Restrictions - NYT - Bill S.B. 1047 would require AI companies to test their systems for safety before public release and allow the state attorney general to sue for serious harms caused by AI. - Supporters argue it’s necessary to mitigate AI risks, while critics worry it’s excessively focused on catastrophic harms and could jeopardize open-source AI development. - Governor Gavin Newsom has until September 30 to decide on the bill, which could set a national standard for AI regulation if signed into law. 👉 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/technology/california-ai-safety-bill.html
🧑🏫 Generative AI Transformed English Homework. Math Is Next - Gauth app, which can solve math problems from photos, has millions of downloads - Got a low B in high-school level algebra and geometry in tests by Wired. "Likely good enough to satisfy bored students who'd rather spend their time after school doing literally anything else." - The rise of such AI tools challenges educators to rethink their approach to math homework and teaching methods, possibly leading to a shift towards more in-class practice and personalized learning. 👉 https://www.wired.com/story/gauth-ai-math-homework-app/
Anthropic publishes the ‘system prompts’ that make Claude tick - "In its continued effort to paint itself as a more ethical, transparent AI vendor, Anthropic has published the system prompts for its latest models" - They specify that “Claude cannot open URLs, links, or videos, perform facial recognition or identify or name any humans in photos. - "Anthropic is exerting pressure on competitors to publish the same. We’ll have to see if the gambit works." https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/26/anthropic-publishes-the-system-prompt-that-makes-claude-tick/
China’s tech giants splash out on AI despite US restrictions (paywall) - "Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu had combined capital expenditure of Rmb50bn ($7bn) in the first half, compared with Rmb23bn a year earlier. TikTok parent ByteDance (which is private) has also increased AI-related spending" - Nvidia's H100 and upcoming Blackwell series are under US restrictions, but China’s tech giants can buy H20 - Analysts expect Nvidia to ship more than 1mn of the processors to Chinese tech groups in the coming months. https://www.ft.com/content/31bffc48-2ca7-472b-9d53-3deaad2d86ce
MZ "said it was improper for the Biden administration to have pressured Facebook to censor content in 2021 related to the coronavirus pandemic" - "At the time, Facebook’s publicly stated goal was to push millions of people toward Covid-19 vaccines. In his letter, Zuckerberg didn’t indicate whether he had changed his mind about that goal" https://www.wsj.com/tech/mark-zuckerberg-neutral-politics-letter-election-2024-02b86372
🚀 How The Washington Post Uses AI to Empower Journalists 🔍📰
An exciting new example in the world of AI-assisted journalism! The Post has developed an internal tool called "Hayatacker" that's enhancing in-depth reporting. Here's why it matters:
🎥 What it does: • Extracts stills from video files • Processes on-screen text • Labels objects in images
🗳️ First big project: Analyzed 745 Republican campaign ads on immigration (Jan-Jun 2024)
🤝 Human-AI collaboration: • AI extracts and organizes data • Reporters verify and analyze findings
🔎 Thorough approach: • Manual review of all 745 ads • Reverse image searches when context is lacking • Cross-referencing with AdImpact transcripts
💡 Key insight from WaPo's Senior Editor for AI strategy Phoebe Connelly: "The more exciting choice is putting AI in the hands of reporters early on in the process."
This tool showcases how AI can augment journalistic capabilities without replacing human insight and verification. It's a powerful example of technology enhancing, not replacing, traditional reporting skills.
- Figure’s new humanoid robot leverages OpenAI for natural speech conversations Figure has unveiled its latest humanoid robot, the Figure 02. The most notable addition this time out arrives by way a longstanding partnership with OpenAI, which helped Figure raise a $675 million Series B back in February, valuing the South Bay firm at $2.6 billion. https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/06/figures-new-humanoid-robot-leverages-openai-for-natural-speech-conversations/
- World’s Five Leading Chipmakers Have Now Promised U.S. Investment The Biden administration award up to $450 million in grants to a South Korean chipmaker, SK Hynix, to help build its new chip facility in Indiana The US now has commitments from all five of the world’s leading-edge semiconductor manufacturers to construct chip plants in theUS with financial assistance from the administration https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/business/economy/chipmakers-promise-investment.html
Great work by Finegrain: Erase any object from your image just by naming it. Shadows or reflections will also be adjusted accordingly! finegrain/finegrain-object-eraser
Journalists, this is a must-read for your career evolution. I just read @ndiakopoulos on "The Impact of Generative AI on Journalistic Labor". Here are my 5 takeaways:
🚀 LLMs could make 83% of reporter tasks and 76% of editor tasks way more efficient. "It’s important to emphasize that these figures are fundamentally about augmentation rather than automation".
🧩 Four emerging job clusters to consider: AI-doers, AI-users, AI-strategizers, and AI-reporters. Where do you fit?
🌊 US newsrooms "will need people (1) who have the skills to use the current generation of LLMs and (2) who can develop the bespoke software to unlock their full potential, particularly if building new in-house tools". Get ahead of the curve.
🔑 Key takeaway: upskill in AI. It's not just about using tools, but understanding how to integrate them into your workflow.
📚 News orgs "would be wise to accelerate hiring and invest in upskilling their existing workforce". Take advantage or seek out learning opportunities.
Journalists: What AI skills are you planning to develop? How might this reshape your role?
Barefoot developer experiment: AI-powered app creation with my poor coding skills 🧠💻
I recently discussed the "barefoot developer" concept - using AI to build apps for specific needs without coding expertise. Decided to put it to the test. 🔬
🍅⏲️ The challenge: Create a menu bar Pomodoro app for my computer to boost my focus. Previous attempt? Messy. 🤯 The twist: I've never coded in Swift. ⚡️ The result: 30 minutes. No joke. Elegant, functional, and shareable.
Key takeaways: 🚀 AI-assisted development is evolving rapidly 🧩 Domain expertise + AI tools can yield impressive results 🌐 This approach democratizes app creation
🤔 What's your take on AI-powered development? Have you experimented with it?
Aspen Institute's wake-up call for journalism: Embrace AI or risk obsolescence 📰🤖
"Every new technology comes with risks—it's how the media industry responds that determines how (or whether) news providers can prevail." — Vivian Schiller Bonus: In need of ideas for AI projects? The report is a goldmine of real-world experiments. Here are some lesser-known innovations:
📊 Spotting patterns: Semafor uses chatbots to assess newsroom performance 📜 Extending reach: Politico summarizes state and federal legislation with AI 🎙️ Transformation: Washington Post uses AI-generated voices for newsletter narration 🏀 Comprehensive coverage: Richland Source covers 10,000 Ohio high school sports games yearly with AI 🔑 Summarization: Gannett adds AI-generated bullet points to stories 🌍 Translation: Finnish broadcaster Yle built an AI tool to reach Ukrainian immigrants 🎥 Internal info: AP's Merlin tool pinpoints key video moments 🗳️ Civic engagement: Spotlight PA's AI assistant answers election questions 🗣️ Personalization: Baltimore Times customizes health news with AI voice readers 🎯 Targeted ads: NYT's AI tool aligns content with advertisers' focus 💼 Conversion: WSJ uses ML to boost subscription renewals
Feeling overwhelmed by the AI model release frenzy? 🤯 You're not alone!
I built this simple tool to help us all keep up: - Filter recent models from the 🤗 Hub - Set minimum likes threshold - Choose how recent you want to go
🤖💡Just tried out @m-ric 's new LLaMA-3.1 70B agent for data analysis. Impressive stuff.
🚢📊 Fed it the Titanic passenger dataset with minimal instructions. The agent autonomously dug in, tested hypotheses, and reached some intriguing conclusions:
"Lower class passengers less likely to survive, slight negative correlation with age, and positive correlation between fare price and survival."
📈It even generated charts to visualize the findings!
🧠💼 Great potential for business intelligence, research, and decision-making when we can just upload datasets and let AI agents loose on them.
