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My dad asked, "How do I use the AI?" Seems like a good prompt for the week.
What is AI? Artificial Intelligence is a general phrase we use for computers doing things that historically require human intelligence. Deciphering handwritten letters or recognizing speech are classic AI examples. Decision making is another. Netflix uses AI to recommend new shows. Google uses AI to put more profitable ads into your googling. If you've ever watched the next show or searched the internet, you've used the AI.
But 'the AI' everyone is talking about these days is about GPTs and LLMs.
GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. GPT takes an input, uses some math to transforms it, and generates an output. The model equation 3(x) = y is a type of transformer. I give an input of (x) = 2, and it transforms that into an output of (y) = 6.
So how does the GPT transform the input? It's pre-trained! As my friend Joris wrote in The Great Text Predictor, LLMs (Large Language Models) are big math equations designed to statistically predict what should come next. In training, they're fed lots of data, try to guess what should come next, see what comes next, and the equation is adjusted from there. In the end, the model itself doesn't contain the training data (I think), it just contains lots of parameters. My equation above had 1 parameter, GPT4 (released in March of 2023) has 1.8 trillion parameters.
The first 10 minutes of this video by Scott Hanselman is a great non-technical demonstration of how this all works.
A lot of companies are training their own LLMs. Some notable examples:
So how do you use the AI?
As Scott Hanselman says in the video above, we're still trying to figure that out.
If you're interested, click on one of the LLM links above. Try out one of the free services. Think of a question you have or a problem you want to solve, something you'd normally try to figure out with some internet searches, and instead chat with the AI about it like you were chatting with an intelligent friend who was knowledgeable on question. For a lot of the services, you can use the microphone as your input instead of typing. See where that takes you.
Generative AI in a Nutshell by Henrik Kniberg (2024)
I hope you weren't getting too comfortable by Ethan Mollick (2023)
Using GPT-3 to augment human intelligence by Henrik Olof Karlsson (2022)
A guide to prompting AI (for what it is worth) by Ethan Mollick
I applied to the Roots of Progress Fellowship this week. I'd like to write more about AI and education.
I'll probably do it with or without the Fellowship...we'll see how that goes.
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Also, my book is available on Amazon here – or reply to this email and I'd love to gift you a copy.
Grab some time on my calendar to share a story from this week:
Book some time even if you don't know what you want to talk about:
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Until next week,
iamJoshKnox
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