😺 Could AGI break the world?

Welcome, humans.

Good news! You can now get “selfie support” from an AI-generated Kylie Jenner (code here). Y’know, if you want to strike “insta-gold” with a “glowy vibe” because “lighting is everything, babe.” (Actual AI Kylie quotes).

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

• Why an AI outage could be worse than the “largest IT outage in history.”
• Perplexity made it easier to get a single link back for its AI search.
• LinkedIn plans to use AI and games to make its platform a "daily habit."
• OpenAI just dodged a lawsuit re: code copyright infringement.

“Biggest IT outage in history” proves we’re not ready for AGI.

NOTE: This is NOT the real engineer; it is actually an AI generated deepfake that went viral… genius!

As you probably know by now, there was a massive cybersecurity fail last Friday.

(With the past week being totally bonkers in news, you’re forgiven if you missed it!)

Here’s the TL;DR—a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike made this happen:

• Grounded 5,000+ flights around the world.
• Slowed healthcare across the UK.
• Forced retailers to revert to cash-only transactions in Australia (what is this, the stone ages?!).

Most major systems were back online by Saturday, albeit with many businesses (airlines, SMBs) still playing catch-up Sunday afternoon.

When the bill comes due, it’ll likely cost over $1B in damages—and I thought that Monday morning Venmo request from my buddy Josh’s bachelor party was expensive!

While this news is technically not AI, it does have big implications for AI.  Let’s do a quick skippity-doo down memory lane to explain:

• Thought Friday was bad? In 1995, there was a bug that could remotely crash every Windows 95 system.

• Why wasn’t this as big of a deal? Cause back then, computers weren’t as integrated into the modern world as they are now.

Today, computers are not only more integrated, but there’s widespread use of one system in particular (hi Microsoft). Many IT experts point to this “excessive centralization” as the root issue.

Translation: when there’s a single point of failure, and a faulty update goes out, everyone’s hit at once.

Here's where AI comes in: Imagine today's AI as a new operating system. In 5-10 years, it'll likely be as integrated into our economy as Microsoft's cloud servers are now. This isn’t that far-fetched—Microsoft is already planning to embed AI into all its programs.

So what if a Crowdstrike-like incident happens with a more powerful AI system? Some experts predict an AI-powered IT outage could be 10x worse than Friday's fiasco.

This is why we need extreme caution when deploying AI in consequential areas like healthcare, transportation, military, or justice. “AGI will fix it” isn't a real solution, and if Friday proved anything, it’s that removing humans from the loop entirely could spell disaster.

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Around the Horn.

Thread: “Those who have used chatGPT to build an app/website/program, what is the coolest thing you've made?”

• Perplexity just made it easier to quickly get a single link back when searching for a specific site.
• A group of programmers dropped their copyright case against OpenAI, but are still pursuing action against Github and Microsoft.
• LinkedIn plans to use AI along with games to make its platform a “daily habit” for users.
• Google is sponsoring Team USA at the Paris Olympics, and it’ll use the opportunity to promote AI features like 3D Google Map view, AI Overviews, and Circle to Search.  

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Monday Meme

A Cat's Commentary.

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