What Developments in AI did we have in Q1 of 2024? Let’s Review.

We’re coming to the end of April. In the corporate world, we’re already a month into Q2 (The second quarter of the year) but what exactly has happened from January to March?

There’s a lot to catch you up on. Here are some of the top moments in Artificial Intelligence that you need to know about.

1. The UN passes the first global AI Resolution for safe use of AI.
2. Microsoft debuts their smallest AI model
3. OpenAI’s GPT Store launched
4. The launch and growth of FigureAI

Let’s jump straight in

The UN passes the first global AI Resolution for safe use of AI.

In mid-March, the UN general assembly laid down some laws (Referred to as a resolution) promoting the safe and ethical development of AI technologies worldwide. This is a landmark event as it marks the first time that global standards have been established for AI.

According to AINews; Key aspects of the resolution include:

• Raising public awareness about AI’s benefits and risks
• Strengthening investments and capabilities in AI research and development  
• Safeguarding privacy and ensuring transparency in AI systems
• Addressing diversity and bias issues in AI datasets and algorithms

Given we have seen a lot of the negative effects of unethical use of AI technology, this is a great step in the right direction to ensure that the use of AI is beneficial to individuals and communities, and it also encourages individual governments to regulate its use, for example, in the US, current president Joe Biden approved an executive order to develop a national AI initiative that highlights both safety and security.

Microsoft debuts their smallest AI model

A lot of SMEs, businesses and startups are at a loss with identifying how they can incorporate AI technology into their ecosystems. Microsoft attempted to fix this, by recently developing and debuting the Phi-3-mini, a lightweight AI model that seeks to perform lightweight tasks such as social media content creation as efficiently as other models on the market twice its size. Whilst technically having launched in April, we’re here now so we may as well talk about it, right?

Developed to help businesses with less resources, the Phi-3 family of open AI models are described by Microsoft to be the “most capable and cost-effective small language models (SLMs)”. It is also said that “Phi-3-mini demonstrates strong reasoning and logic capabilities, making it a good candidate for analytical tasks.”. The Phi-3 family makes for a great entry to AI for SMEs looking to stay ahead of the quality-cost curve.

OpenAI’s GPT Store launched

In January 2024, the GPT Store was launched by OpenAI, allowing developers and enthusiasts alike to have clearer and more customisable access to popular custom versions of ChatGPT. With new GPTs (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) being featured every week, the GPT store covers industries and categories such as DALL.E, programming and education, and is comprised of submissions developed by OpenAI partners and community.

As awesome as that is for organisations and developers, the GPT store still seems to be a no-man’s land around April 2024, as according to ZDnet; “TechCrunch found a variety of GPTs that violate copyright rules, try to bypass AI content detectors, impersonate public figures, and use jailbreaking to circumvent OpenAI’s GPT policy.”

It may be necessary for some finer tuned moderation to take place in order for the diamonds and gems within the store to truly shine amongst the spam, but soon enough, the GPT store could be a viable location for finding useful and helpful GPTs.

The Launch and growth of FigureAI and their humanoid robot Figure 01

Figure AI, led by CEO Brett Adcock, has developed a commercial humanoid robot, Figure 01, in less than a year, and they’re not stopped there. They have also recently been rumoured to have Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia backing them up the startup as well to commercialise the robots. Perhaps we’ll see Figure 01’s in our homes sooner rather than later.

At 5’6” in height, 60KG (That’s about 132lbs) and a payload of 20KG, FigureAI’s first commercially-viable autonomous humanoid robot, Figure 01 is bringing the us a step closer to the utopia (or dystopia depending on what your stance is…) that is an autonomous future. According to the figure.ai website, they have engineered humanoids such as Figure 01 in order to “address drastic labour shortages, and reduce the number of workers in unsafe jobs”, which is a noble cause as I’m sure most would agree. We personally can’t wait for Figure 01 to become commercially available and help us with some of our workload!

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I hope that tickled your curiosity! If you are not yet satisfied, here are some other bits of news from earlier this year that you may be interested in:

1. Oxford Union invites an AI to debate the ethics of its own existence
2. Microsoft AI opens London hub to access ‘enormous pool’ of talent
3. Large language models could ‘revolutionise the finance sector within two years’ – AI News
4. How one volunteer stopped a backdoor from exposing Linux systems worldwide – The Verge

And that’s all for now! If this type of information interests you, let us know! Follow us on our social media (Not sure where to find it? Here’s the full list: Web3sy Linktree

Until next time!

Web3sy.

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Sources:

1. UN passes first global AI resolution
2. Microsoft Debuts Smallest AI Model as AI Eludes Small Businesses
3. Meta Unveils Llama 3 — 10 Key Facts About The Advanced LLM
4. General Assembly adopts landmark resolution on artificial intelligence | UN News
5. January news roundup: What’s new in the world of AI?
6. Figure Status Update – OpenAI Speech-to-Speech Reasoning
7. Figure AI
8. Microsoft launches lightweight AI model | Reuters
9. Tiny but mighty: The Phi-3 small language models with big potential – Source
10. Introducing Phi-3: Redefining what’s possible with SLMs | Microsoft Azure Blog
11. Introducing the GPT Store
12. OpenAI’s GPT store is brimming with promise – and spam | ZDNET