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☕️ Modeling All Life's Molecules with AlphaFold 3
Big tech companies are all on the move this week, with the highlight of the week being AlphaFold 3 from the team at Google DeepMind, giving protein researchers a massive leg-up. Meanwhile, OpenAI has its hands full with an AI-powered search and research into explicit content generation, and Apple goes from "yay" with its M4 chips for AI to "nay" with the commercial for it. Join us at AI Tangle as we untangle this week's happenings in AI.
THE BIG AI STORY
In a recent blog article from the AlphaFold team at Google DeepMind comes AlphaFold 3, a new version of their transformative machine learning model that predicts the shape and behavior of proteins. AlphaFold 3 brings some much-needed extra accuracy to the model, but most importantly, AlphaFold 3 can now predict interactions with other biomolecules, making it far more versatile. Though the technology is still a work in progress, AlphaFold has made huge strides since its launch in 2018.
What's new about AlphaFold 3?
AlphaFold 3 allows researchers to create interaction models, a system that models interactions between internal parts, the lack of which is something that researchers have been hamstrung by. It also allows researchers to simulate multiple molecules at once, which cuts the time requirement of some processes down from weeks or months to an instant. Google DeepMind is currently offering it via AlphaFold Server, a free, fully hosted, and easily usable web application, making the model available for non-commercial use.
6 QUICK HITS
OpenAI is set to announce an AI-powered search product, potentially rivaling Google and AI startup Perplexity, on Monday, according to two sources familiar with the ongoings. This product would be an extension of ChatGPT, which will enable the model to directly pull information from the web and include citations. Despite ChatGPT's international and industry-wide success, it has struggled with providing real-time web information, which the company is trying to rectify.
In a pre-recorded live stream from its headquarters in Cupertino, California, Apple showcased the latest iterations of the iPad Air and Pro tablets with the latter equipped with the company's M4 chip. Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, stated that the chip is "extremely well suited" for AI applications. Additionally, it boasts four times the performance of its predecessors equipped with the M3 chip. However, the commercial that came along with the iPad Pro, called "Crush!," is sparking controversy.
Though Apple's recent iPad Pro's capabilities look immensely impressive, the "Crush!" commercial that came with it faced equally immense backlash. The creative community especially criticized the ad for suggesting technology can replace human creativity and make it obsolete. Many high-profile individuals also chimed in, such as Hugh Grant, who called it a "destruction of the human experience," along with others like filmmaker Ed Solomon and journalist and producer Cheo Hodari Coker.
Microsoft is reportedly developing a GPT-4-based generative AI model for U.S. intelligence agencies that operates offline, making it the first LLM to get deployed in such a secure setting. The system, which allows secure conversations with a chatbot similar to ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, is designed to analyze top-secret information without connectivity risks. Still, due to inherent design limitations of AI language models, there are concerns that it could "hallucinate" and potentially mislead officials if not used properly.
Amazon's latest venture is Bedrock Studio, a platform for organizations to experiment with generative AI models, collaborate, and build generative AI-powered apps, available as a public preview. The web-based app is part of Amazon's Bedrock tooling and hosting platform and allows users to play around with LLMs from all over, including Meta, Cohere, Mistral, Anthropic, and more.
OpenAI is reportedly exploring the possibility of allowing its AI technology to generate explicit (NSFW) content, including ChatGPT, according to a draft document laid out by the company this Wednesday. OpenAI hopes this helps them understand user and societal expectations of model behavior in this area. However, concerns were immediately raised about the misuse of AI for creating explicit content without consent, something that OpenAI's usage policies heavily prohibit.
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AI READ & WATCH
Transforming Personal Lives, Not Just Work (13-min read)
The AI industry is predominantly creating safe-to-use, hinged chatbots that help people and companies with productivity. However, Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times, believes that AI companionship is an unutilized part of the industry, going into depth about his experiences and thoughts.
Is AI Actually Underhyped? (8-min watch)
Eric Schmidt, Schmidt Future co-founder, Special Competitive Studies Project co-founder, and former Google executive chairman and CEO, joins CNBC's "Squawk Box" to discuss the state of the AI arms race, the potential of AI technology, AI disinformation, the fate of TikTok, American competition with China, and more.