The Big Bad FTC is Looking into AI

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Your gateway to discovering the world of Artificial Intelligence!

This week, an AI tool grabbed the spotlight by making predictions about the teams that will emerge victorious in today's NFL conference championship games and, ultimately, the SuperBowl winner in a few weeks. Despite my frequent use of AI, I don't need it to tell me this answer; I'm already confident that Taylor Swift's boyfriend's team will be the one holding the trophy.

On another wintery evening, this newsletter is brought to you in partnership with my heating pad and hot chocolate!

A sneak peek of what’s below:

• What is transfer learning for AI?

• The FTC announces its first major inquiry into AI

• Lofty wants real estate agents to have a great year

• Get creative: There's a snowman in desperate need of a vacation!

What is Transfer Learning?

Turning AI topics into a walk in the park, not a mind-boggling maze

Transfer learning is a crucial AI technique that applies knowledge gained from solving one problem to a different (but related) problem.

To illustrate this, imagine you're an expert pianist looking to start playing another instrument. You already have the skill of knowing how to read sheet music, so you can apply that to learning your second instrument. You would be significantly ahead of someone who is picking up an instrument for the first time and has never read any sheet music before.

AI transfer learning works just like this, especially in the common application of image recognition. For example, a model training autonomous driving cars how other cars look while on the road would use a large general dataset of vehicles images – cars, trucks, ATVs, planes, etc. That same model could then refocus on identifying different types of vehicles - like planes - if you wanted it to. The data exists and is already labeled, so it just takes some slight adjustments to refocus around the new vehicle type.

This approach of learning is particularly valuable in AI machine learning, because developing a model from scratch requires time, extensive data and computational resources - not to mention big sums of cold hard cash!

Why is this important?

Transfer learning not only enhances the learning process in AI but also helps to find new applications across various AI domains. As discussed in last week's newsletter, deep learning forms the foundation for many AI tasks, but transfer learning can act as a catalyst, accelerating the pace of AI development and innovation.

However, it's important to acknowledge that while transfer learning offers numerous advantages, there is a potential downside worth mentioning. There's a risk of less desirable and/or erroneous information being carried over to new projects if they exist in the original training set. This could lead to unexpected outcomes or inaccuracies in AI models, emphasizing the importance of careful data curation and quality control when applying transfer learning.

AI News Flash

Catch the latest AI news that is making all of the headlines this week!

FTC Inquiry into AI

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated its first inquiry into the recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and major cloud service providers. The action, announced this week, targets five major companies: Alphabet (Google's parent company), Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic (OpenAI competitor).

With all of the big headlines lately centered around AI and its fair use, this inquiry shouldn't surprise anyone. The FTC's focus is to understand the strategic rationale and implications of these investments and partnerships. They will be examining how these companies operate and how relationships impact the competitive landscape in the field of AI. AKA, they'll be doing their job!

Why does this matter?

The FTC Chair emphasized the importance of safeguarding fair competition in a rapidly evolving AI sector. The Commission's study is intended to deepen its understanding of business practices in AI and this very public move by the FTC shows there is increased scrutiny of the industry, especially at the intersection of large tech firms.

At the end of the inquiry, we'll likely see another large senate hearing on AI with CEOs and other company leaders being invited (read: required) to join the conversation.

Other Stories We're Following:

• SAP is following a trend of large companies lately - restructuring 8,000 jobs to be more AI-focused

• The U.S reached a joint venture deal with Japan on Artificial Intelligence drones

AI Company Spotlight

Explore trailblazing companies that are shaping our digital future

Lofty

Lofty, formerly known as Chime, aims to revolutionize the real estate sector with its AI Assistant, custom-tailored to assist real estate agents in enhancing their house-selling efficiency.

Their AI model focuses on increasing lead conversion rates, by supporting the entire buying and selling process. This includes helping clients with scheduling appointments and showings, and engaging in long-term campaigns to nurture cold leads into potential clients.

The assistant notifies clients about interested leads and organizes them efficiently using AI-powered grouping and tagging. It integrates seamlessly with smart planning, offering a flexible approach to handling various client interactions and requirements. Its 24/7 operation across multiple channels ensures that no leads are missed, which is vital in a fast-paced real estate market.

With integration capabilities that extend to platforms like Facebook Messenger, the AI Assistant maintains a consistent presence across different communication channels. This feature is particularly beneficial for real estate professionals who need to stay connected with their clients and leads through various mediums like websites, text messaging, and social media.

And now that I know someone created a real estate tool focused on helping real estate agents sell houses, I'm going to be on the lookout for one that helps people buy a house too…so if you know of an AI tool that can magically just give me a cool $300k, let me know!

Get Creative with AI

Practice using AI and unleash creativity with your new collaborator

Copy the prompts below and paste them into ChatGPT, BingAI, Google Bard, or your generative AI tool of choice and let AI work its magic. Share your results with us…and take it a step beyond the initial prompts and see what you can create!

Text-based

• If [your favorite fictional character] were your next-door neighbor, what interactions and adventures would you share with them?

Visual-based*

• Create an image of a snowman dressed in a colorful Hawaiian outfit, complete with stylish sunglasses. Beside the snowman is a suitcase, implying it's ready for vacation. The background should be a snowy landscape to emphasize the snowman's vacation-ready look.

Visit us on Instagram and Twitter to see how our examples turned out!

*Visual-based examples are for users of Dall-E, BingAI, or premium users of ChatGPT - may require paid subscription.