AAIA's AI Beat Newsletter: The week's news, Chapter President Spotlight: Boaz Ashkenazy

In today’s newsletter:

• Recent AI news stories that caught our (and Perplexity AI’s!) eye

• Chapter President Spotlight: Boaz Ashkenazy, AAIA Seattle, Washington, USA Chapter

• Become an AAIA member

AI in business and the enterprise news:

Here’s what Perplexity AI said were notable news stories over the last week:

• The 2024 AI Index Report from Stanford University (Stanford University, April, 2024)

  • Download the full report

  • “The AI Index report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data related to artificial intelligence (AI). Our mission is to provide unbiased, rigorously vetted, broadly sourced data in order for policymakers, researchers, executives, journalists, and the general public to develop a more thorough and nuanced understanding of the complex field of AI.”

• Anthropic announces update to its Responsible Scaling Policy (Anthropic, October 15, 2024)

  • “This update introduces a more flexible and nuanced approach to assessing and managing AI risks while maintaining our commitment not to train or deploy models unless we have implemented adequate safeguards. Key improvements include new capability thresholds to indicate when we will upgrade our safeguards, refined processes for evaluating model capabilities and the adequacy of our safeguards (inspired by safety case methodologies), and new measures for internal governance and external input. By learning from our implementation experiences and drawing on risk management practices used in other high-consequence industries, we aim to better prepare for the rapid pace of AI advancement.”

• DataStax looks to help enterprises stuck in AI ‘development hell’, with a little help from Nvidia (VentureBeat, October 15, 2024)

  • “According to DataStax the new platform can reduce AI development time by 60% and handle AI workloads 19 times faster than current solutions.”

  • “Time to production is one of the things we talk about, building these things takes a bunch of time,” Ed Anuff, Chief Product Officer at DataStax told VentureBeat. “What we’ve seen has been that a lot of folks are stuck in development hell.”

• Parents sue school in Massachusetts after son punished for using AI on paper (ABC News, October 15, 2024)

  • “When the student's AI use was discovered, he was given detention, and his grade was negatively impacted, according to the family.”

  • “In a federal court filing, the family alleged the teen would "suffer irreparable harm" as a result of the incident, noting he was "applying to elite colleges and universities given his high level of academic and personal achievement."”

  • “The filing accuses the school of a lack of clarity in its rules about AI use, saying the school handbook did not "have any established rules, policies or procedures for not only the use of artificial intelligence, but what any administrators, faculty or students should do when encountering its use."”

• G7 Toolkit for Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, October 15, 2024)

  • PDF download

  • Abstract:  “This Toolkit is a comprehensive guide designed to help policymakers and public sector leaders translate principles for safe, secure, and trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) into actionable policies. AI can help improve the efficiency of internal operations, the effectiveness of policymaking, the responsiveness of public services, and overall transparency and accountability. Recognising both the opportunities and risks posed by AI, this toolkit provides practical insights, shares good practices for the use of AI in and by the public sector, integrates ethical considerations, and provides an overview of G7 trends. It further showcases public sector AI use cases, detailing their benefits, as well as the implementation challenges faced by G7 members, together with the emerging policy responses to guide and coordinate the development, deployment, and use of AI in the public sector. The toolkit finally highlights key stages and factors characterising the journey of public sector AI solutions.”

• Two AI-related viral topics that will (may?) amaze and delight, H/T to Kate Carter of Mia AI for sharing these with us:

  • Create a podcast with 2 people talking about your resume using Google’s NotebookLM (you will need to be logged in to your Google account):

    • Go to Google’s NotebookLM

    • Click the “Create” button

    • Upload a PDF of your resume

    • Click the “Generate” button in the “Audio Overview > Deep dive conversation” section on the “Notebook guide” page

    • Wait a couple of minutes

    • The “Audio Overview” box will have an audio file in it called, “Untitled notebook” that you can play by clicking on the play button or download as a .wav file that you can then save, play it whenever you want on your computer, convert to an MP3 file, share with others

  • The one question you need to ask ChatGPT right now

AAIA Chapters updates: We’ll be introducing a Chapter President to you each week.  This week, we feature Boaz Ashkenazy, AAIA Chapter President for Seattle, Washington, USA:

Company and position: CEO and Co-founder, Augmented AI

Bio:

As the CEO and Co-Founder of Augmented AI, Boaz Ashkenazy is helping to transform the workplace of the future through the strategic deployment of AI in business operations.

Boaz brings a unique perspective that draws on his experience at Meta, where he played a role in developing internal tools to boost employee productivity. Previous to Meta he was the co-founder of a series of emerging tech startups in the design, e-commerce and remote meeting space.

As one of the driving forces behind Augmented AI, Boaz is committed to establishing a premier AI-first solutions provider that empowers businesses to harness generative AI for optimizing their core business workflows.

Boaz is also the creator and host of the Shift AI Podcast, which is syndicated through Geekwire. The podcast serves as a platform for spotlighting thought leaders who are pushing the boundaries in AI and the future of work.

Email Boaz Ashkenazy at:  [email protected]

Our list of AAIA Chapters continues to grow!  If you live in a Chapter city/region and would like to get involved, email your city’s/region’s Chapter President.