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Daily Digest #319

Hello folks, ICYMI I wrote a deep dive on how an agency that works with Shopify, Slack, Instacart and Figma uses AI in their business²⁰—plus a behind-the-scenes of how their CEO uses AI characters as thought partners.

Here’s what we have today;

PICKS

1. OpenAI wants to pay publishers. But not too much.³⁸⁸ OpenAI and Apple are negotiating content licensing deals with news publishers to train their AI systems. But according to sources the deal sizes are smaller than the industry expects.🍿Our Summary¹⁸ (also below)

2. Google is preparing a paid version of Bard.³¹⁷ Hidden code on Bard’s website reveals 3 months of Bard Advanced free with Google One and leaks about more upcoming features including GPT-like bots.🍿All the chatter in one place²⁷ (also below)

3. Microsoft is introducing the first major change to PC keyboards in 30 years⁴³⁰ - a dedicated key for its AI assistant, Windows Copilot. Microsoft is confident that AI will be integral to the PC as we go ahead.🍿Our Summary¹⁶

4. OpenAI GPT store is launching next week. From the official brand guidelines⁴²⁴: “Having a GPT’s name end with “GPT” is discouraged, but not prohibited.”

TOP TOOLS

• Rosebud AI⁶¹⁸ - Create games, share and play instantly. Use code HelloHN.

• GPTengineer.app⁵⁴² - Rapid prototyping of web apps using English.

• Captiwiz³⁵⁰ - Create videos with AI-powered captions.

• Spence^600† - AI career copilot. Tailor your talent to future opportunities.

• Scribe by Appblit²⁸⁸ - Readable transcripts with automated sections and headings.

View more →²³⁵

NEWS

• Perplexity raises²⁸³ $73.6 million series B and is now valued at $520M.

• Why did we make GPT Builder⁶⁹² and what is it for?

• Enabling "maximum enterprise utilization²⁷⁸" with AI.

• What we learned about AI and education⁴¹⁷ in 2023.

• Intel intros new leader¹¹⁹ for its data center and AI group.

• Google outlines new methods for training robots¹⁶¹ with video and large language models.

• Doom, dark compute and AI²⁵¹ - using idle devices to run AI.

• A simulation of me - fine-tuning an LLM on 240k text messages⁴²⁵.

View more →¹⁰³

QUICK BITES

OpenAI and Apple are negotiating content licensing deals³⁸⁸ with news publishers to train their AI systems. But according to sources the deal sizes are smaller than the industry expects. Some publishers feel they aren't getting fair value.

What is going on here?

OpenAI deal size for access to publishers’ content is smaller than expected.

What does this mean?

We’re talking about offers as low as $1-5 million annually to some publishers. It’s like getting the assistant a coffee to peek inside the boss’s laptop. Apple is saying the “dinner’s on me” but wants to copy stuff to its hard drive. Basically more flexibility in how it uses the content. Google feels behind in the race (again) but let’s not forget that Google already has TeamViewer access with its products like Google News.

Although OpenAI has made some big-name deals earlier (Alex Springer and Associated Press), more publishers will want to hold out and see how the NYT’s case against OpenAI turns out.

Why should I care?

OpenAI (and other AI companies) will push harder to secure these contracts with publishers to a) get their hands on unique data and b) signal their “friendship” with creators. At the same time, it’s likely that more publisher will sue AI companies over the use of their materials.

I wonder if there’s an opportunity for smaller media houses here to go with the AI companies, instead of against them.

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QUICK BITES

Google is preparing to launch a paid upgrade to its AI chatbot Bard, called Bard Advanced. Google announced Bard Advanced with its Gemini models in December, saying it’ll be launched early this year. Seems like they truly meant early because the production code hidden within the Bard website⁸² highlights many upcoming features.

What is going on here?

Google’s about to release Bard’s paid version with new features.

What does this mean?

It’s likely Bard Advanced will be bundled with Google's storage subscription service Google One, though there’s not much detail on which tiers will have Bard Advanced. Bard Advanced will use Google’s best model yet, Gemini Ultra, which “seemingly” beat GPT-4.⁶

With Bard Advanced there are a bunch of new features that might come:

1) GPT-like bots. These are codenamed Mokoto in the leaks and code screenshots⁸¹ have URL structure as “/bots/create”. These might be custom chatbots like OpenAI’s GPTs.

2) Prompt improvements. A feature called Power Up would expand your simple prompts into advanced, better prompts.

In addition, there’s an inspiration gallery (suggesting prompts and ways to use AI have been a go-to move by Google and Bard) and background images for shared chats. Pure aesthetics and I’m here for it.

Other features like Tasks and Sparkle are also in the Twitter chatter but there’s not much info on them yet.

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