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  • 🤖 How Amazon is using AI to make Alexa actually useful

🤖 How Amazon is using AI to make Alexa actually useful

PLUS: The US tries to bar AI from launching nukes

Author

Jameson Zaballos
April 30, 2023

If you think you’re late to the AI revolution, just remember.

Your grandma probably doesn’t use ChatGPT.

Until that happens…you’ve got time.

🤖 Top Stories

🤓 Elon Musk really wants AI regulation

Elon Musk is serious about regulating AI.

Musk met with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) this past week. Details are few.

So few, that all we know is they “talked about the future and AI.”

That’s it.

As we’ve reported, there’s tons of legislation pushing for AI regulation. Musk himself called for it.

Schumer, too, “drafted and circulated a framework that outlines a new regulatory regime that would prevent potentially catastrophic damage to our country while simultaneously making sure the U.S. advances and leads in this transformative technology."

That's a long way of saying "I haven't done anything yet".

As of now, it’s all talk. Once we see a bill hit the senate floor, we’ll listen.

😬 The US wants to make sure that AI can’t launch nukes

Well…at least we automated some human jobs away!

We’ll go on record and say we're fans of this legislation.

It's a bipartisan US bill introduced by three democrats and one republic. It would require human decisions for any nuclear missile launches.

To be clear…the bill is codifying the way things are now. Every nuclear decision requires a human to be “in the loop.”

They’re trying to get ahead of any situation where AI could launch a nuke by itself.

They want to make clear that any new AI can't...do that. Especially as the military is exploring AI options for combat.

This is an issue the government can’t afford to be behind on.

🚀 Amazon wants to beef up Alexa’s AI

Source: Geekwire

Amazon is developing a better LLM for Alexa, said CEO Andy Jassy during an earnings call.

An LLM, for those not in the loop, is a deep learning algorithm. It's really good at understanding, summarizing, and generating text. Just like ChatGPT. Jassy says there’s already one powering Alexa, but he thinks they can do better.

“I think when people often ask us about Alexa, what we often share is that if we were just building a smart speaker, it would be a much smaller investment,” said Jassy during the call. “But we have a vision, which we have conviction about that we want to build the world’s best personal assistant. And to do that, it’s difficult. It’s across a lot of domains and it’s a very broad surface area. However, if you think about the advent of Large Language Models and generative AI, it makes the underlying models that much more effective such that I think it really accelerates the possibility of building that world’s best personal assistant.”

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in most-recent earnings call

Show of hands for how many of us use Alexa for anything other than a timer and weather machine? There are voice assistants in every home, but few real "smart" use cases for them.

ChatGPT showed text-based interfaces are valuable when they’re actually useful.

Amazon sunk billions into Alexa. With this investment, it hopes that it can become the ChatGPT of voice assistants.

😎 AI tools, tips, links

  1. Hollywood screenwriters don’t want AI in the mix. Learn more

  2. AI assistant for all your writing needs. Learn more

  3. Chat with all your files, using GPT. Learn more

  4. AI CEO gives AutoGPT access to his entire financial life. Learn more

  5. Watch ChatGPT transcribe, summarize, and explain a 10-minute YouTube video. Learn more

A more realistic AI-doomer scenario.

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