#011 Exclusive Feature - Baidu Launches China’s First Public AI Chatbot, Why Companies Will Not Let You Know About Using GenAI ?, The $1 Billion Saudi Initiative to Extend Human Lifespan.
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⭐ AI BYTE 1 📢 : Baidu Launches China’s First Public AI Chatbot Ernie Bot, And Its Free (Unlike ChatGPT)
Are you ready to chat with Ernie Bot, the first public AI chatbot in China?
Baidu, the Chinese search engine and AI giant announced on Thursday that Ernie Bot is now fully available to the general public via its official website and an app.
Ernie Bot is a Generative AI model that can produce text and images in response to user queries and prompts, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Ernie Bot is powered by Baidu’s foundation model ERNIE, which stands for Enhanced Representation through kNowledge IntEgration.
ERNIE is a pre-trained language model that can understand complex semantics and generate natural and coherent texts. Baidu claims that ERNIE outperforms ChatGPT and other AI models in several natural language processing tasks, such as machine translation, sentiment analysis, and question answering.
By releasing Ernie Bot publicly, Baidu hopes to collect massive real-world human feedback that will help improve ERNIE.
Baidu CEO Robin Li said that Generative AI models have huge potential for various applications, such as education, entertainment, health care, and e-commerce.
He also expressed his optimism about the AI regulations issued by the Chinese government earlier this month, which he described as "more pro-innovation than regulation".
Ernie Bot is not the only AI chatbot in China. Two other AI companies, Baichuan and Zhipu AI, also launched their own AI language models on Thursday.
However, Ernie Bot is the first one to be fully open to the public, which gives it an edge over its competitors. Ernie Bot also has a unique feature that allows users to customize their own chatbots based on their preferences and needs.
If you are curious about Ernie Bot, you can try it out on its official website or download its app from China’s app stores.
You can also watch a video of Ernie Bot generating text and images on YouTube. Ernie Bot is currently only available in Chinese, but Baidu plans to expand it to other languages in the future.
AI BYTE 2 📢 : Companies Will Use Generative AI. Not Sure They Will Tell You About It
⭐ Google DeepMind recently released a new tool called SynthID, which can identify images generated by Google Cloud’s text-to-image generator, Imagen.
SynthID works by adding a watermark to the images, which can be scanned to assess the likelihood that they were created by Imagen. This is a step towards ensuring the authenticity and accountability of Generative AI content.
However, not all companies may want to disclose when they use Generative AI content to their customers. Some may argue that as long as the content is accurate and relevant, the source doesn’t matter.
Others may say that disclosing the use of Generative AI could build trust and transparency with their customers.
There are also legal and ethical implications of using generative AI content, especially when it is based on public data or models that may contain copyrighted material.
Companies should be aware of the potential risks and liabilities of using generative AI content without proper attribution or consent.
As a technology expert, I believe that companies should use Generative AI responsibly and ethically.
They should consider the context and purpose of using generative AI content, and disclose it when it is appropriate and necessary.
They should also ensure the quality and accuracy of the content, and avoid using it for misleading or harmful purposes.
AI BYTE 3 📢 : The Billion-Dollar Saudi Initiative to Extend Human Lifespan (Non-AI).
⭐ If you are a scientist who studies aging, you may have heard of Hevolution Foundation, a Saudi nonprofit that aims to develop new treatments for aging.
Hevolution has allocated more than a billion dollars a year to this effort, which could dramatically expand the global funding for longevity biology.
Hevolution’s Chief Executive, Dr. Mehmood Khan, says that much of the initial grant money is likely to end up at universities and startups in the U.S., where scientists are trying to develop treatments that slow, prevent or even reverse the aging process for humans.
Hevolution doesn’t conduct its own research but instead works with established institutions to pump money into underfunded areas of study.
Hevolution’s mission is to have a global impact, as Saudi Arabia looks to expand its influence around the world under its 37-year-old leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Crown Prince has staked his credibility on boosting quality of life for a now overwhelmingly young population and building new industries away from oil.
The prospect of a huge surge of funding into the field of aging, whose budgets pale in comparison to research on diseases like cancer, is causing a stir among scientists who study aging.
Some institutions and individual researchers have been hesitant to establish ties with an absolute monarchy that brooks no dissent domestically and was spurned by the West after the killing and dismemberment of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
However, some organizations have accepted Saudi funding and partnered with Hevolution, such as the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), a U.S. nonprofit that has received $7.76 million in funding from Hevolution.
AFAR’s Executive Director, Stephanie Lederman, says that they want to fund this science because it’s really important for the human race.
Hevolution has also contributed $7 million to Norn Group, another U.S. nonprofit with a grant program for longevity research. Norn Group’s President, Martin Borch Jensen, says that he pushed past the Saudi ties because the organizations share a common goal of improving human health and flourishing.
Since starting operations in July 2022, Hevolution has dispersed less than $20 million. Khan expects that to ramp up toward $1 billion within the next two to four years.
Initially, more of that money will go to research, but eventually, the goal is for a roughly even split with investments into antiaging startups.
Hevolution’s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Felipe Sierra, ran the aging biology division at the U.S. National Institute on Aging for more than a decade.
He says that Hevolution wants to expand the field globally and pursue as many promising opportunities as possible, such as identifying biomarkers to track aging and funding early large-scale human trials for existing repurposed drugs to treat aging.
If Hevolution’s claims turn out to be true, it could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in physics history and lead to revolutionary changes in electronics and health.
