Welcome to the AI Ecosystem Report, featuring practitioner analyst and entrepreneur Toni Witt. This series is intended to deliver the timely intelligence about artificial intelligence (AI) you need to get up to speed for an upcoming client engagement or board meeting.
Highlights
Innovation (00:51)
There have been a series of steps taken by world governments and regulators when it comes to AI and AI safety:
- President Biden issued an executive order pertaining to the safe usage of AI. The executive order touched on how companies building large models must test them thoroughly beforehand and reveal those test results to the public. He addressed deep fakes and weaponry powered by AI.
- With global governance in mind, the United Nations introduced an AI advisory board earlier this fall.
- The EU made headway in passing its own AI safety laws, a rather strict and comprehensive set of AI regulations, which have yet to come out. One topic involves taxing the developers of AI tools, giving them more accountability for the impact of what they create, and setting fines to keep these companies in check.
- The G7 drafted a document tackling issues in AI, which is a voluntary code of conduct. This will, hopefully, influence how the member countries will internally regulate AI.
- Representatives from 28 countries signed a document called the Bletchley Declaration. This lays out how they will collectively navigate the risks and opportunities when it comes to AI and AI safety.
Regulatory uncertainty makes many companies hesitate to build AI in their operations or products. Having more clarity and government regulations could boost the private sector, for instance, dramatically. There’s a lot of pressure to keep innovating and improving AI systems, as governments are considering how to use artificial intelligence in different ways.
Funding (05:26)
Airbnb has acquired startup GamePlanner.AI for around $200 million. Connections and community seem to be part of what they plan to build together.
Airbnb is not new to the world of AI. It announced a new AI feature that, when hosts upload photos of their property, will auto-organize the photos by room. This will make it easier for prospective guests to get a feel for the entire rental property.
The company also added a way for prospective guests to see a summary of what others are saying about a property, similar to how Carmax is using AI for vehicle summaries. Airbnb also mentioned bringing customer service data and conversations into those reviews. These moves will boost reliability.
Generative AI applications will also be integrated into Airbnb, including enhancing search functions and language translations between hosts and guests. The company also wants to use AI to parse through long contracts more effectively, helping users and customer teams.
Solution of the Week (10:53)
Digital Green, a nonprofit, builds technology for farmers and rural communities around the world. For instance, it develops basic data collection tools and software for farmers. It recently announced a new product called Farm.CHAT which is a generative AI-based chatbot that farmers can use to get quick answers about the weather, regulations, crops, and more.
This tool helps farmers build resilience, particularly against climate change, because the chatbot can directly provide weather data and explanations. This has been developed with a startup called Gooey.AI, Indian and Ethiopian governments, Microsoft, and a few other players. It’s trained on call center logs and videos in local languages, so it can generate tet and communicate in the local language of the farmers.
The training data represents years of accumulated real-world experience by other farmers. Now, Farmer.CHAT makes the knowledge more accessible in a single model and interface. This chatbot has the potential to help increase the sustainability and efficiency of farmers across the world.
