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Daily Digest #348

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Hello folks, we’re launching a marketing-specific version of Ben’s Bites which will be sent once a week. You can read the first edition here⁸⁹⁰.

here’s what we have today;

PICKS

1. I wrote a deep dive on how IgniteTech is rolling out AI internally⁶¹ — they implemented a really interesting system to encourage learning and engagement and folks who didn’t engage were told they’d be leaving the company. It’s a really fascinating behind-the-scenes of how companies are radically changing because of AI.

2. Slack’s first set of AI features is going live for enterprise users.⁵⁵⁰ Slack's new AI means less time lost hunting for buried information and more time getting work done. Think personalized AI-powered search, instant channel recaps, and thread summaries at your fingertips.🍿Our Summary¹⁷ (also below)

3. Disrupting malicious uses of AI by state-affiliated threat actors.³³¹ Some wild stuff here. Know those state-sponsored groups that doomers keep freaking about? Well, some of them were using OpenAI’s AI models for shady cyber stuff and guess what? They got the axe.🍿Our Summary¹³ (also below)

4. OpenAI is building a web search product⁵⁰⁹ in partnership with Microsoft. Just quoting this tweet²⁴² I saw: OpenAI’s supposedly got eyes on a smartphone, GPU factories, Agent OS and now web search. Either they are feeding friends at The Information wrong things or they are way too ambitious.

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NEWS

• Newsprint acquires the Daily Nugt¹⁹⁴ (AI-powered curation newsletter)

• How to find your next big idea⁵⁵⁴ hiding on the internet.

• How designers⁴⁰⁰ can get the most out of AI tools.

• How Zapier uses assertions to evaluate tool usage¹⁶¹ in chatbots.

• Salesforce to invest in Together AI at a $1B valuation.²⁴⁴

• a16z invests $10M in Upstash¹⁹⁷ - The serverless data platform.

• Your comprehensive guide to evaluating LLM applications.³⁸⁵

• Keyframer by Apple ³⁴⁵- Animating static images (SVGs) with natural language.

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QUICK BITES

Slack’s first set of AI features is going live for enterprise users.⁵⁵⁰ Slack's new AI means less time lost hunting for buried information and more time getting work done. Think personalized AI-powered search, instant channel recaps, and thread summaries at your fingertips.

What is going on here?

Slack’s upgrading from AI integrations it tested in 2023 to get some native AI features.

What does this mean?

Ask natural questions (like you would someone who knows your org), and Slack AI spits out precise, source-cited answers. No more scrolling through mountains of messages to find your answer.

For skim-reading channels, you can get an AI-generated recap of any channel for that "need-to-know" lowdown. Add in summaries and key points to distil long threads with countless replies and what-ifs. You can jump right in where it matters. Saves a ton of time!

Slack is hosting the LLMs that power these features on their own infrastructure (no deets on whether there’s GPT-4 under the hood). But the guarantee is that doesn't share customer data or use it to train any AI models. Your company's info stays securely inside Slack.

But what if you were already using cool AI apps? Those will stay integrated seamlessly into Slack with even more on the way!

Why should I care?

Get this: Slack's testing shows up to a whopping 97 minutes saved per person each week by using this AI. That's regained time for the work that really matters. Slack AI also cuts through your company's info overload, giving you the power to make informed decisions quickly, even on stuff you missed.

This rollout is starting with enterprise users (paid add-on, English only for now). You can request access⁹¹ to Slack’s AI features and talk to their sales team.

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QUICK BITES

Hey, some wild stuff here. Know those state-sponsored groups that doomers keep freaking about? Well, some of them were using OpenAI’s AI models for shady cyber stuff and guess what? They got the axe.³³¹

What is going on here?

OpenAI busted five state-backed groups misusing their AI services for their cyber ops. The good news is, their results were pretty limited as far as advanced cyberattacks go.

What does this mean?

OpenAI caught groups from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia messing around with AI to find open-source information, researching targets, translating documents finding, coding loopholes and spinning up some code-quickies. OpenAI and Microsoft shut them down and used Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence to track their activities.

OpenAI says that their models actually aren't super useful for complex cyberattacks (yet). But a separate research doing rounds on Twitter showed that GPT-4 based agents can hack websites¹²⁵.

Why should I care?

AI tools are sweet, but – no surprise – bad actors will try to misuse them. State-backed hackers are serious business. OpenAI’s approach of flagging sus activities and disabling access works for now, but critical web infra should brace itself for more attacks aided by AI.

And no doomers, the solution isn’t to pause AI. It’s to have more vigilant checks and stress-testing security systems. You don’t stop running if the road is thorny, you get good shoes.

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