Now showing items tagged AI

Creatives are at a crossroads.

A few months ago, a letter signed by over eight-thousand authors made the news as it asked the leaders of companies like Microsoft and Meta not to train their AI systems on the authors’ work without consent or compensation. Published by the Author’s Guild and signed by names like Margaret Atwood and James Patterson, the letter made the case that real authors have worked to produce the intellectual property which is being used to feed the AI, and should be appropriately compensated.[1]

Technology often advances faster than the infrastructure and regulations needed to support it. As AI tools have proliferated exponentially over the past year, the legal issues of intellectual property, copyright and plagiarism have only become more complex. As big companies are profiting of the creative work of people who have spent decades committed to their craft, the ethical injustices are clear.

Since the advent of ChatGPT last year, few things have dominated the public discussion in the tech and business world more than generative AI and chatting with robots. This comes as no surprise considering how genuinely revolutionary the technology is and radically fast the uptake has been within the public.

Comparing ChatGPT’s success to other major companies gives some indication of how monumental it has been. Within 5 days it had reached 5 million users – for Netflix, acquiring this customer base took 3.5 years.

However, ChatGPT is not even the tip of the iceberg when compared what else is out there and what else there is to come. There are over 11,000 AI apps built on language models like ChatGPT, which successfully achieve tasks all the way from planning logistics to creating artworks.

But beyond ChatGPT, AI is already serving us across many arenas of life, all the way from serving as a round-the-clock doctor to keeping online customers happy customers.

While the world of travel has been the industry perhaps most disrupted in the last couple of years, it is set for more disruption in the years to come – but in some of the most striking and novel ways. With the capabilities of technology invading every facet of travel all the way from the transit to the destinations themselves, we are set to see our travel plans change more dramatically than we may think in the coming years.

The most futuristic of the changes set to take over our travel plans comes with our flight paths and planes. The advent of air taxis is upon us, and while they may take a while to overtake our current commercial travel conventions, they may be the new normal sooner than we think.

Across the board, organisations are changing. Post-pandemic workplace practices, changing tech trends and generational shifts are impacting the way organisations must run and respond to the world. Local governments are not exempt from the trends dominating the workplace and the world at large, which represent a whole new set of opportunities, or threats, for those paying attention.

Here are 5 trends local governments need to watch.

The fashion industry’s history of highly homogenised models has been an object of wide criticism for years now. Companies have made clear efforts to diversify the identities and appearances of the models representing their brands in order to more inclusive of the wider population.

Recent integration of AI within some of the world’s big fashion brands is seeing the diversification of models and the representation of customers become a much more viable reality. In partnership with AI company Lalaland.ai, Levi Strauss & Co is trialling a new approach to modelling their denim, using AI fashion models in place of humans.

The tech world is off to a great start this year with the famously ground-breaking and mind-blowing tech convention, CES, presenting some breakthrough innovations. The Las Vegas megashow is known for showcasing the most futuristic and quirky of the tech world’s inventions, and this year’s event lived up to its reputation.

Here are some of the most promising gamechangers.

If you have been anywhere close to LinkedIn or business news over the past few weeks you would have encountered the conversation surrounding ChatGPT. Launched in November 2022 by OpenAI and stirring up the tech world since, this new AI chatbot is unparalleled in its capacity to seem truly human. Able to carry out flawlessly natural conversations, as well as replicate the language of humans across a range of contexts, this technological innovation and its many applications are raising some serious questions.

While current trends like the Great Resignation are placing powers in the hands of employees, the technological advancement that the pandemic accelerated is highlighting the many industries that are increasingly vulnerable to disruption. The lockdowns and distancing measures of the past few years have resulted in more and more businesses embracing automation, and recent technological developments reveal just how few jobs are immune to the effects of automation.