👀Control phones with your face and eyes

ALSO: How AI will change jobs

Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes

New studies are showing how important AI will be to the job market, meanwhile younger generations remain more optimistic. And for good reason, as companies like Google showcase all new AI-powered accessibility features. And then we have the massive data trade between Reddit and OpenAI. This is a calm(er) day than most this week, but there’s noteworthy events.

• 👀 Control phones with your eyes.

• 📈 AI is officially THE skill to learn.

• 🫠 OpenAI to train AI on Reddit.

• 🎶 Sony wants its music back.

👀Control phones with your eyes

What happened: Google just enhanced Android’s accessibility features by allowing you to control your phone with gestures and eye movements. While it’s aimed at people with disabilities, anyone can use these.

The details: 

• Project Gameface allows users to control the cursor using facial movements.

• There’s also gestures which perform pre-determined actions.

• The movements are customizable, such as being able to determine how much granular movement is needed to perform an action.

• People with vision impairments can use the phone’s camera to identify objects.

Why it matters: I think this is a wonderful improvement. Accessibility features rarely get the main stage they deserve. But this also has implications for average users too. Devices like the Rabbit R1, though poorly received, used gestures to great effect. We may reach an age when looking at a product on your screen long enough causes you to click it.

🎶 Sony wants AI companies to stop stealing their music. In a letter sent to over 700 tech companies (geez), Sony warned of the legal consequences for training on their music without copyright permission. The letter even asks companies which songs were used to train their AI and how long. But… I doubt any of these tech companies will just admit to a crime.

👋 OpenAI’s superalignment group co-lead, Jan Leike, is leaving the company following Ilya’s departure. Is OpenAI changing for the better?

😆 Google’s image generator still can’t create people. Months after their image generator created black Popes and Asian Nazis, Google showed off their new image generator, Imagen 3. But for now you still can’t generate people. There’s been rumors Google hasn’t fixed the issue (even rumors the bias was done on purpose by members of the team). Meanwhile Meta can’t get over racial stereotypes and struggled with interracial couples. Image generation is going to be biased for a long while.

📈AI is officially THE skill to learn

What happened: Deloitte’s new surveys claims younger generations and corporate CEOs are optimistic about AI. At the same time, CEOs are using AI in new ways to optimize their companies. The end result? AI is a needed skill, and most people know this even if they don’t act on it.

The details:

• A new survey of Gen Z and Millennials reveals greater optimism in younger generations. But that’s just greater optimism, there’s fear and outrage regardless of age group.

• About one-third of Gen Zs and millennials are optimistic about economic improvement.

• About 60% of the 23,000 (age survey) respondents live paycheck to paycheck.

• The general perception of AI increases with use, but so does concern over job safety.

Now for the Corporate Side:

• 80% of CEOs believe AI will improve their profits and performance. They are optimistic about AI despite economic concerns.

• One of their top concerns is keeping up with the technology and getting key staff (who are AI trained). AI-trained staff are a major priority.

• Most companies are busy investing in AI training for employees or investing in new AI systems.

• CEOs are moving beyond automation and using AI to find new insights and increase innovation.

Why it matters: Most people generally fear AI whenever they see it. And there’s good reason; AI will take a lot of jobs. The story both surveys combine to create is a story of adaption. The most desired employees will be those trained to use AI. It’s officially a desired skill.

🫠OpenAI to train AI on Reddit

What happened: Reddit just signed a deal to let OpenAI train on Reddit’s vast database of user data.

The details: 

• OpenAI will access Reddit posts and replies for AI training, meanwhile Reddit itself will gain new AI features.

• There’s a paradox of content; as more online content is written by machines, human-made content is at a premium.

• Sam Altman holds an 8.7% stake in Reddit, whose stock went up 11% after the announcement.

• One of the biggest concerns here is how the company is monetizing your data. AI training will not be the end of it.

• Reddit made a similar deal with Google months prior for their AI models.

• There’s a startup, Vana, dedicated to pooling Reddit’s user data together to allow users to decide what to do with that data. Reddit has since banned Vana’s subreddit.

Why this matters: The move shocks no one who’s paid attention to Reddit’s IPO launch. One of their major strategies is to offer their database as training data for AI. But this brings up privacy concerns. What other forums will sell your data next? And what happens when AI is done training and these companies need another shot of revenue?

🐱 Pets in anime

Source: Midjourney

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