AI Pioneer Geoffrey Hinton Regrets Life's Work and Quits Google to Speak About Risks

Geoffrey Hinton, one of the "Godfathers of AI," has quit his job at Google to speak freely about the risks of AI, stating that he regrets his life's work. Hinton won the "Nobel Prize of computing" for his work on neural networks and played a pivotal role in the current boom in artificial intelligence.

He expressed concerns about bad actors using AI for harmful purposes and the spread of misinformation. Hinton is also worried about the possibility of AI eliminating rote jobs and even humanity as AI starts to write and run its code.

Rapid Rundown

• 📰 "Godfather of AI" Geoffrey Hinton quits Google to speak freely about AI risks and expresses regrets about his life's work.

• 🤖 Hinton is concerned about bad actors, the spread of misinformation, and the possibility of AI eliminating jobs and humanity.

Chatbots in China Walking on Political Eggshells

China’s AI chatbots have strong censorship. Unlike OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Chinese bots have taboo topics and guardrails. It's like playing a game of "What can I say without getting blocked?" But it's not just about avoiding sensitive keywords, these bots are programmed to avoid discussing anything politically sensitive to the Chinese government or Communist Party.

One bot even had a pop-up message saying it was “inconvenient” to respond to prompts on human rights issues or Taiwan. Another bot described Xi Jinping as an “outstanding leader” but suggested he takes time to make decisions due to pressures.

It’s not easy for Chinese AI upstarts to balance improving their product with keeping tight control of what it says. With extensive constraints, it makes you wonder how competitive China can be in the US-China tech rivalry.

Rapid Rundown

• 🤖 China’s AI chatbots have strong censorship and avoid discussing anything politically sensitive to the Chinese government or Communist Party.

• 🤔 With extensive constraints, it makes you wonder how competitive China can be in the US-China tech rivalry.

NFTs Meet Robin Hood: Blend by Blur Lets You Borrow Crypto Using NFTs as Collateral

Blur, the NFT marketplace that recently overtook OpenSea as the most popular venue for trading digital artwork collectibles (sorry OpenSea), announced on Twitter that it’s launching an NFT lending service. Customers can use the service, called Blend (not to be confused with the smoothie maker), to borrow cryptocurrency by posting NFTs as collateral.

Blend won’t have any fees (yay!), taking from the same playbook that helped Blur become so popular with NFT traders. Blur said it developed the new lending service with employees from crypto venture capital firm Paradigm.

It’s surprising for Blur to launch a lending product given that several cryptocurrency lending companies have collapsed in the past year. Regulators have gone after firms offering crypto lending by alleging that these products are unregistered securities. Several other startups like Arcade and NFTfi also let customers borrow crypto using NFTs as collateral. Let’s hope Blur has better luck.

Rapid Rundown

• 👨‍💼 NFT marketplace Blur launches Blend, an NFT lending service with no fees, using NFTs as collateral.

• 🚀 Developed with Paradigm, it competes with Arcade and NFTfi, aiming to avoid the fate of collapsed crypto lending companies.

Tools & Apps

Canvas -- Understand your startup using powerful analytics

Toddle -- Build professional web apps with no code and no limits

Landing AI -- Make beautiful websites in seconds with AI

Fabra -- Embedded data import for SaaS

Where to Post Your AI App -- 100+ directories to list your AI app

Articles & Resources

Boomer explains why millennials are having a hard time at work: 'It's a lot harder than it was' -- A retiring Boomer shared on Facebook how difficult it is for Millennials and Gen Z to find jobs, and the negative effects on their well-being.

Navigating comms and PR -- Former head of comms at Substack discusses navigating communications and PR.

More and more Americans don't want electric cars -- A JD Power survey found that the percentage of Americans who say they're "very unlikely" to buy an electric vehicle (EV).

Poking around OpenAI -- Will Larson explores the use of embeddings to supplement user prompts with OpenAI's latest LLMs.

How to think about video and SEO -- Kevin_Indig explains how videos can help organic visibility and dispels common myths.