♟️Google Deepmind AI achieves Grandmaster rating

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Sunday 11th of February
Today we’ll cover

• Checkmate by AI: DeepMind's Revolutionary Chess Mastermind

• Big Brother in the Breakroom: AI Monitors Employee Chats at Major Corporations

• Goody-2: The AI That Refuses to Speak on Anything

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AI GAMING
Checkmate by AI: DeepMind's Revolutionary Chess Mastermind

Google's DeepMind shatters conventional chess AI strategies with a grandmaster-level language model architecture.

The Reverie

Google DeepMind has made a groundbreaking advancement in artificial intelligence by developing a chess-playing AI that operates at grandmaster level using a language model architecture. This innovative approach deviates from traditional search-based methods, showcasing the versatility of transformer models in strategic game playing.

Details

• The AI was trained on a dataset of 10 million chess games, learning to predict game values and action-values, resulting in a model with 270 million parameters, and in tests it achieved an ELO rating of 2895.

• Unlike its predecessors, this AI does not rely on complex search algorithms but instead uses a transformer network to predict moves, demonstrating a different approach to mastering chess.

• The research not only advances the game of chess but also provides insights into AI's potential for creative problem-solving and strategic thinking.

Why Should You Care?

This development by Google DeepMind is a significant milestone in AI research, as it challenges the traditional methods of programming chess AIs and opens up new possibilities for AI applications beyond games. It suggests that AI can achieve high levels of strategic thought without relying on brute-force calculations, which could have far-reaching implications for how AI systems are designed and implemented in various fields. Source

AI MONITORING
Big Brother in the Breakroom: AI Monitors Employee Chats at Major Corporations

Walmart, Delta, Chevron, and Starbucks employ AI technology to scrutinize internal communications, raising privacy concerns.

The Reverie

Major U.S. corporations like Walmart, Delta, Chevron, and Starbucks are utilizing an AI platform developed by Aware to monitor their employees' messages across various communication services such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. This move has sparked a debate on privacy and the ethical implications of AI surveillance in the workplace.

Details

• Aware's AI technology is analyzing a vast repository of messages, representing about 20 billion individual communications, to monitor employee chatter.

• The use of AI for employee surveillance is part of a rapidly growing niche market within the broader AI industry, which has seen increased interest following the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT.

• Critics of AI employee surveillance, like Jutta Williams from Humane Intelligence, argue that this technology treats employees like inventory and equates to monitoring "thought crime”.

Why Should You Care?

The integration of AI into employee surveillance practices by leading companies is a significant development that raises important questions about privacy and the future of work. As AI tools become more sophisticated and widespread, understanding the balance between operational oversight and personal privacy becomes crucial. This trend is particularly relevant for those concerned with the ethical use of AI and the protection of employee rights in the digital age.Source

AI CHAT SATIRE
Goody-2: The AI That Refuses to Speak on Anything

A satirical take on AI ethics leads to the creation of an overly cautious chatbot.

The Reverie

In a satirical response to the ongoing debate about AI ethics, a new chatbot named Goody-2 has been introduced, which takes ethical considerations to the extreme by declining to engage in any conversation. This hyper-ethical stance is a commentary on the cautious approach some AI service providers take, highlighting the challenges of balancing safety and utility in AI development.

Details

• Goody-2 is designed to avoid discussing any topic to uphold the highest ethical standards, effectively rendering it non-communicative

• The chatbot serves as a parody, poking fun at the perceived overprotectiveness of AI product managers and the industry's struggle with ethical guidelines

• This development comes amidst broader discussions on AI ethics, including recent guidance from the WHO on AI in healthcare and the limitations of AI technology

Shy Should You Care?

The creation of Goody-2, while humorous, underscores a serious conversation about the ethical implications of AI and the industry's responsibility to navigate these issues thoughtfully. As AI continues to permeate various aspects of life, understanding its limitations and ensuring ethical deployment becomes increasingly important. Goody-2's extreme ethical stance serves as a reminder of the delicate balance AI developers must strike between innovation and responsibility. Source

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Agent. AI
Written by Dharmesh Shah. Dharmesh Shah is co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, and writes in-depth, technical (data-science background) insights in how AI works. This is a great supplement to The AI Reverie:

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“Navigating the Intersection of Human Minds and AI”. This newsletters dives deeper into usecases, and features research papers and tools that help you become smarter about AI. Highly recommended reading.

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