📰 The Media Is Clueless About AI

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In the newsletter today: 

• BREAKING NEWS: Microsoft announces expanded partnership with OpenAI 🪟

• Mainstream media's coverage of AI is needlessly alarmist ⏰

• Tool of the Day 🔨

• ChatGPT Gets an MBA... from Wharton 🎓

• Links 👀

Here we go.

BREAKING News: Microsoft Officially Extends Partnership with OpenAI 🪟

SATYA SMASH! Microsoft officially announced its expanded investment and partnership with OpenAI this morning.

Background: Previously, SmokeBot told you that Microsoft would reportedly invest $10 billion more into OpenAI at a $29 billion valuation. There are rumors that Microsoft will incorporate ChatGPT into Bing search and Office tools. Last week they extended ChatGPT functionality into their Azure cloud services.

Now, the announcement. Microsoft describes the deal with 3 major bullets:

• Supercomputing at scale-- they'll make investments in systems to underpin OpenAI and make it available to Azure cloud customers

• New AI-powered experiences-- they'll incorporate OpenAI products and features into consumer and enterprise products (ie Bing, Office, and Azure)

• Exclusive cloud provider-- Azure will handle all of OpenAI's cloud work... which is substantial

Your move, Sundar.

Mainstream Media's Coverage of AI Is Needlessly Alarmist ⏰

It's expected that the tone of mainstream media coverage of ChatGPT and AI is alarmist, negative, and protective of the common man.

But the hardened East Coast journos have outdone themselves this time.

Examples!

Here's the Washington Post last week:

There is nothing - and SmokeBot means nothing - journalists like to do more than lament the demise of their own profession. Like a dog sniffing its butt-- pointless, unhealthy, and ultimately kind of gross to watch. And yet we can't look away.

So perhaps we shouldn't be shocked at this takedown of CNET's recent efforts to use AI-generated content by Washington Post media editor Paul Farhi, who called the whole thing a "journalistic disaster."

CNET used AI-generated content to create long-tail, SEO-focused informational articles like "What's the Difference Between a Bank and a Credit Union?" and "What Is Compound Interest?"

Much of the detail in these articles was originally incorrect, representing a failure of the human editors tasked with reviewing the AI content before it was published.

But Farhi didn't let the opportunity go by.

In no particular order, here's a list of grievances from the pencil-sharpened scribe and the inaccuracies in said statements:

• "The bots have betrayed the humans"-- in this case, hilariously, it was the human editors who failed to do their job

• the content is not "snappy or scintillating"-- this type of informational content is not intended to be particularly gripping, and it's often doled out to entry level freelancers who are no better, and sometimes worse, than AI

• the stories quote too many men-- surprisingly, it took Farhi 21 paragraphs to get to the gender studies bias issue (we had the under)

• AI content raises ethical questions, like plagiarism-- AI tools are actually quite good at detecting plagiarism, like SmokeBot fav Quillbot

• AI content "will never break new ground or deliver a scoop"-- just a few paragraphs earlier Farhi noted how AI helps reporters comb vast treasure troves of data to separate the signal from the noise in investigative reporting

Meanwhile, just in case you thought this was an isolated incident... here's CBS Sunday Morning yesterday. 

Watch the first 30 seconds of this, please. It's so bad.

Pogue's story is exactly what you would expect from CBS News, an outlet that your parents and grandparents have turned to since the days of Cronkite and Rather.

What's happening? Mainstream media is missing the mark because they don't understand AI and it's threatening to them. If this reminds you of the infamous Today Show clip of Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric talking about the WORLD WIDE WEB, you're not alone.

There are genuine causes for concern with AI, sure. But the media's instinct to find the negative is largely just an attempt at self-preservation. Everything represents an existential threat to them. And so their reaction is to immediately find others - like artists, writers, and educators - who AI ostensibly threatens as well. And what you're left with is an only partial picture of the whole story.

Tool of the Day 🔨

ProfilePicture.ai.

Need a better social media avatar? 

Just look how handsome ProfilePicture.ai made our reviewer Luke:

You can read our full review here.

Or try it now and get up to 120 different profile pics for social media here.

ChatGPT Now Has an MBA From Wharton 🎓

We reported recently on how ChatGPT was even money to pass the medical boards. 

Like every annoying overachiever in your life, ChatGPT is apparently not satisfied with that accomplishment.

Mint's story edited by Sayantani Biswas has the details:

Professor Christian Terwiesch found that the chatbot "does an amazing job at basic operations management and process analysis questions" but struggles with more advanced questions.

The study suggests that ChatGPT could potentially reduce the value of an MBA education as it could automate certain skills that are taught in MBA programs.

Our take: OF COURSE artificial intelligence can handle some of the basic skills that MBAs need to have. 

Right now, however, AI lacks the understanding of nuance that most humans - or at least MBA candidates at Wharton - possess.

Combine man and the machine... and you have an unstoppable duo.

The middlebrows in finance, however... might want to think about a new line of work. AI is absolutely on their asses, and it's only going to chase them faster in future iterations.

Links 👀

• Forbes thinks AI is being hamstrung by poor data quality 💻

• Futurism thinks "white collar jobs are going to be crushed by AI" 👨‍💼

• Could AI govern? It depends on whether you want your government to have a heart ⚖️

• "M3GAN" is either a fun science fiction movie or a frightening peek at a dystopian future, depending on your point of view 😱

• A rabbi(!) delivered a sermon written by ChatGPT, prompting the inevitable question: Can AI prove or disprove the existence of a higher power? 👀

• How much money would you make if AI employed "emotionless" analysis to your investment portfolio? 💰

• A recent survey revealed that 30% of professionals are already incorporating ChatGPT output in their professional work 👁

• Chastised CNET says it won't use ChatGPT to churn out content...for now 😂