💬 I tried Hugging Face's new Chat Assistants and was blown away.

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Hi Everyone 🙏,

Whether you're staying dry on the West Coast or keeping warm on the East Coast amidst today's extreme weather conditions, the tech world is experiencing its whirlwind of developments. HuggingFace's latest chat assistant sets a new benchmark for AI, challenging the necessity of ChatGPT. Meanwhile, Microsoft is advancing its foothold in AI-driven news generation, and cybersecurity alerts rise as hackers increasingly intercept calls. Stay tuned as we delve into these pivotal shifts in technology.

Let’s dive in…

• Microsoft's AI to Partner with Semafor Amidst NY Times Lawsuit

• I tried Hugging Face's new Chat Assistants and was blown away.

• Are Your Calls being intercepted by hackers using AI?

Our Sections:

• 📰 News and Trends

• 🤔 What Does that even Mean? Term of the Day (Natural Language Generation)

• 💰 Follow the Money

• 🧰 AI Tools of the Day (Prompt Generators)

📰 AI News and Trends

• The obscure government algorithms making life-changing decisions about millions of people around the world (Wired)

• Napster, yeah it still exists, brings ChatGPT in to make your next playlist (Route)

• EU countries vote unanimously to approve AI Act (Iapp)

• IBM - not Microsoft, Google, or OpenAI — tops the list of firms with the most AI-related U.S. patent applications over the last five years. (Axios)

• The White House weighs in on the AI copyright debate for the first time (BI)

🌐 Other Tech news

• Jeff Bezos to Up To $8.5 Billion in Amazon Stock In Next Year (InvestorPlace)

• What Vision Pro shipping times tell us about the demand for Apple's XR headset (ZDNet)

• Is the End of TikTok Near? Some believe it has become a wasteland (NYT)

• Louis Vuitton Launches an LV Diamonds Collection that is traceable from mine to store via blockchain (Hypebeast)

• Apple quietly Ramped Up Autonomous Vehicle Testing Last Year (Wired)

• FTX seeks permission to sell 8% stake in Anthropic to repay creditors (Theblock)

Microsoft's AI to Partner with Semafor Amidst NY Times Lawsuit

Microsoft's partnership with Semafor to incorporate artificial intelligence in news production marks a pivotal moment for journalism, blending AI's rapid analytical capabilities with human editorial insight to create diverse, in-depth news stories. This collaboration, set against the backdrop of a significant lawsuit from the New York Times, highlights the dual-edged nature of AI in journalism: its capacity to enrich reporting with broader perspectives and efficiency, against concerns over copyright infringement, potential job displacement, and the integrity of news content. As the industry navigates these opportunities and challenges, the outcome could redefine news creation and consumption, balancing technological innovation with the fundamental values of journalism.

I tried Hugging Face's new Hugging Chat Assistants and was blown away.

This free, open-source alternative to OpenAI's custom GPTs, emphasizes user customization and a broad selection of backend large language models (LLMs) including those from Mistral and Meta.

This initiative enables the creation of personalized AI chatbots without the subscription costs associated with OpenAI's service, which ranges from $20 to variable enterprise pricing. While it offers significant cost savings and model flexibility, Hugging Chat Assistants currently lack some features found in OpenAI's GPTs, such as image and logo generation. At least I was not able to generate images, if you can, please let us know how. The model does have access to the web.

If you don’t have a HugginChat account, just open one and try it. This free model is truly outstanding and allows you to use the largest open-source models in the market today at no cost.

The launch highlights the open-source community's capacity to provide competitive and accessible AI tools, challenging the dominance of proprietary models and expanding the ecosystem of AI development.

💰 Follow The Money

• $13.5M raised by Podcastle, a podcasting platform that has boosted its product with various generative AI-driven features.

• $1.2M obtained by Energy Source, a Brazil-based startup offering solutions for the repair, reuse, and recycling of lithium batteries.

🤔 What Does that even Mean? Term of the Day

Natural Language Generation (NLG): A subfield of AI that converts data into plain English content, enabling computers to write reports and summaries.

Example: A financial analysis firm uses NLG to automatically generate quarterly earnings reports. The system inputs numerical data on revenue, expenses, and profits, and outputs comprehensive reports detailing the company's financial performance in easily understandable language, ready for publication and investor review.

📰 Publications I am currently reading and recommending:

• TubeFilter - Get all Creator Economy News in one email.

• 1-Minute Question - Based on Neuroscience Science Practices to rewire your brain for success.

• How Brands Win - Distills the strategies behind great brands. And gives you actionable insights for your business.

Are Your Call being intercepted by hackers using AI?

A recent discovery, termed "audio-jacking," reveals how attackers can use generative AI to intercept and alter live audio conversations without detection. Scammers can divert funds or manipulate information by seamlessly replacing words like "bank account" numbers with fraudulent ones during a call. This technique combines speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and voice cloning technologies, making it challenging to notice the alterations.

How to Protect Yourself:

1. Verify Information: Repeat and paraphrase critical information during calls to confirm its accuracy. Ask the receiver to check they have the correct info.

2. Update and Secure: Regularly update software and use strong passwords to prevent device compromise.

3. Choose Security: Utilize trusted devices and services, enhancing your defense against potential attacks.

This advancement underscores the importance of vigilance and updated security practices in the era of AI-driven cyber threats. Audio-jacking has been detected during calls to financial institutions, medical phone calls, and other calls where sensitive information is being communicated.

🧰 AI Tools of the Day

Prompt Generators

• PromptPal - A directory of prompts.

• Public Prompts - A collection of High-Quality prompts.

• Data Fit - ChatGPT Prompts Community.

• OPP - Ordinary people’s prompts: Create ChatGPT prompts for everyone.