Reddit sells user-generated content to unknown AI company, Mark Zuckerberg says tech layoffs are ‘natural reaction’ and could continue into 2024, US continues to invest in chip production, OpenAI presents a new video-amazing text, “Sora.”
And now we finally see it – the first mention of “Chief AI Officer”
All about the “Oh my God, kill me now” edition of the hashtag trend. I’m your host, Jim Love. His CIO for IT World in Canada and his TechNewsDay in the US.
Someone at Google must be saying, “Are you kidding me?” Google announced its new Gemini AI product, which was supposed to be a quantum leap and a real threat to OpenAI’s dominance, especially since Google was asserting its dominance in the multimedia space.
And last week, Open AI announced Sora. In case you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a text-to-AI model that can generate one-minute videos of him that will blow your socks off. It’s incredible in terms of its realism and how it solves so many problems with existing AI-generated videos.
But apparently, Sora has sparked significant debate within the AI community, particularly regarding understanding and simulating models of physics. Critics, including prominent figures from Meta, Google, and the broader AI research community, have raised concerns about whether Sora’s generative capabilities truly capture the complexity of the physical world.
In addition to criticizing the accuracy of the videos Sora produces, AI scientist Gary Marcus and others have questioned the underlying AI model’s approach to video composition. Meta’s Yann LeCun and his Google counterpart pointed out that creating realistic-looking videos does not necessarily mean the system understands physical reality.
LeCun contrasts Sora with Meta’s V-JEPA model, which analyzes interactions between objects in videos, suggesting a deeper level of understanding beyond mere production.
The discussion extends to the very foundation of Sora, which uses a transformer architecture similar to the GPT model. OpenAI believes this foundation can simulate the real world and support the quest for artificial general intelligence (AGI). But critics argue that Sora’s current capabilities may not fully capture the nuances of physics, and some describe its output as lacking real-world precision. There are some too.
Despite these criticisms, Sora supporters like Jim Fan, senior research scientist at NVIDIA, defend the model’s approach. Fan proposes that Sora learns its physics engine implicitly through vast amounts of video data, challenging the reductionist view that models simply manipulate pixels without understanding them. . This perspective highlights a broader debate about what it means for AI to “learn” or “understand” concepts like physics.
As the AI community continues to explore these questions, Sora represents a seminal moment akin to the “GPT-3 moment” of 2020, illustrating the potential and limitations of current AI technologies. While skeptics and supporters alike debate Sola’s understanding of physics, the development of the model and the debate it sparks is an important step toward more sophisticated AI systems that can simulate and interact with the real world. This is a great step.
This ongoing debate not only highlights the challenges in developing AI models that can accurately model physical reality, but also highlights the collaborative and competitive nature of AI research, with each new advancement We’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
Source: Analytics India Magazine, [OpenAI Sora Ignites Physics Debate](https://analyticsindiamag.com/openai-sora-ignites-physics-debate/).
Reddit has signed a major deal with an unnamed leading AI company, allowing it to use vast amounts of user-generated content for AI training purposes. The deal, reportedly worth $60 million a year, is part of Reddit’s broader strategy to increase value ahead of its much-anticipated initial public offering.
This is part of an emerging trend in which companies are formalizing arrangements to access and use web data to train AI models and receive compensation for it.
Traditionally, AI companies like OpenAI have trained sophisticated language models by scraping data from the web, often without explicit permission from content creators or website owners. Ta.
However, with increased scrutiny of data usage practices, there is a shift towards securing formal contracts that give AI companies legal access to valuable data sources.
For example, Apple was reported last year to be negotiating deals worth at least $50 million with multiple media companies to use archived news articles for AI training.
The deal with Reddit marks an important step in this direction, but the focus on user-generated content also moves it into more controversial territory. Reddit’s terms of service may legally allow such use, especially given the history of user and moderator outcry over decisions seen as prioritizing revenue over community interests. The reaction from the platform’s user base remains to be seen.
The development comes on the heels of Reddit’s controversial decision to restrict access to its API, which had a devastating impact on popular third-party client apps. The move sparked widespread backlash from the Reddit community, many of whom took action to try to block ad sales on the content.
We look forward to hearing the response from the Reddit community.
Source: 9to5Mac, [Reddit user content being sold to AI company in $60M/year deal](https://9to5mac.com/2024/02/19/reddit-user-content-being- sold/).
During a recent discussion on the Morning Brew Daily podcast, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared insight into the wave of tech industry layoffs in 2024, largely due to pandemic-era He said this was due to a natural readjustment after the sharp increase in employment.
Zuckerberg said many companies, including Meta, have significantly expanded their workforces during the coronavirus pandemic, driven by a temporary boom in e-commerce and remote work. But as the world began to return to pre-pandemic norms, these companies found themselves overstaffed and under financial stress, leading to widespread layoffs.
Zuckerberg emphasized that the layoffs are not a direct result of technological advances such as artificial intelligence, but rather a response to over-expansion during the pandemic.
Despite the increased focus on AI and automation, with companies such as SAP and Cisco announcing layoffs amid AI development efforts, Zuckerberg said Meta’s decision to cut jobs It was made clear that AI did not play a major role. Instead, his goal was to create a leaner, more agile company that could do its best work.
Meta underwent four layoffs between November 2022 and May 2023, particularly affecting thousands of employees within its Metaverse division.
Tech sector layoffs in 2024 will affect thousands of workers around the world, although they are not as widespread as in 2023. With more than 39,000 reported layoffs in January and February alone, and companies such as Google saying they intend to cut more jobs, the industry is bracing for the possibility of further layoffs.
Zuckerberg’s comments may be a pragmatic and more mature understanding of running a company like Meta, but they confirm the modern ethos that employees are essential. I say this not as a moral judgment, but as a fact. This is a sobering fact as we move into a world where the impact of AI and automation is yet to be felt in the workforce of the future.
Source: ITPro; [Mark Zuckerberg: Tech layoffs in 2024 have been a natural response to pandemic-era overhiring](https://www.itpro.com/business/business-strategy/mark-zuckerberg-tech-layoffs-in-2024-have-been-a-natural-response-to-pandemic-era-over-hiring).
The Biden administration has announced major investments in the semiconductor industry, providing $1.5 billion to GlobalFoundries to boost domestic production of computer chips in New York and Vermont. The move is part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and represents a strategic effort to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing sector, which is critical to a wide range of technologies from military equipment to consumer electronics. There is.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo emphasized the importance of chips made by GlobalFoundries, noting their role in powering advanced military equipment, electric vehicles and enabling faster internet connectivity. The funding will support the construction of a new advanced chip factory in Malta, New York, work with General Motors to ramp up production at the existing Malta factory, and revitalize a facility in Burlington, Vermont. Masu.
These projects are expected to create 1,500 manufacturing and 9,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years. In addition, GlobalFoundries will dedicate $10 million to employee training and provide construction workers with a $1,000 annual child care stipend, highlighting the company’s commitment to supporting its employees.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a key architect of CHIPS and the Science Act, emphasized the critical role of semiconductor technology in the U.S. economy and national security.
In a world where Taiwanese companies control more than 50 percent of chip production and 20 percent of chips are produced in Taiwan, the ever-present tension between China and the island nation it claims is This may have a lot to do with new policies. We are focused on building chip production in the United States.
Source: Associated Press; [Biden admin providing $1.5 billion to GlobalFoundries to make computer chips in New York and Vermont](https://apnews.com/article/computer-chips-biden-new-york-schumer-globalfoundries-fe69bb214354695769dd615de4f9c221).
Okay, sorry, no, I’m not, but I’m Canadian so I have to say that. I saw this as the title of a recent white paper. “Does your business need a “Chief AI Officer”?
Spoiler alert. The answer is no. We don’t need another “chief” or anything. This is just out of control.
look. We have a chief information officer. This is truly an executive level job. You can call it a chief technology officer or a chief information officer. Well, actually I think so. Because we’ve been working for years to bring people at the board table who are responsible for technology and its strategic use in the business.
We have worked to foster the idea that technology and its applications, not individuals, are as strategic as finance, marketing, human resources, and operations.
And we couldn’t resist. We had chief digital officers, chief information security officers, and chief data officers, and now we have people talking about chief AI officers.
The problem is that if every title you touch on technology is some sort of “best”, it cheapens the actual C-levels.
No other department within the company does this. There is no chief compensation officer in the human resources department. Finance doesn’t have a chief spreadsheet officer, and manufacturing doesn’t have a chief robotics officer. Or maybe someone tried something and probably got laughed out of the room when they did it.
Every year, it seems like everyone is trying to invent new C-level positions in IT. And they promote it and hype it – and frankly, the people who try to play these roles are probably crazy. The expectation of reaching the C-suite level leaves many people completely unprepared.
If you think this is a “diss” to any of these people, you’re wrong. I have a lot of respect for people with specialized skills and knowledge. I think they should be well compensated and well respected in their fields of expertise. And that should happen anywhere on the org chart.
But IT’s Achilles heel has always been hype. The latest technology, the latest threats, the latest this and that…
The C level requires a strategic perspective that connects technology to the future and performance of the business.
If a company loses it, it will suffer big losses. So, if there are 5-6 C-levels vying for an executive seat, all the titles with a capital ‘c’ will be replaced with a lowercase ‘c’. And if you’re not careful, that will include the actual capital C of her CIO or CTO (take your pick).
And if you lose it, you lose the champion at the boardroom table. No one benefits from it. Not people working in technology and IT in the digital world, not companies or their shareholders.
Counteract that with a new C-level title. and take a seat behind a key spot at the executive table.
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Thank you for your attention. Have a great Tuesday!