Five Top Tech Takeaways: MBAs vs AI, Bitfinex Hacker Comes Clean, and Big Open AI and Google Bard Updates

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EY Unveils Fruits of $1.4 Billion Artificial Intelligence Investment: 

Consulting firm EY has invested $1.4 billion in artificial intelligence and developed its own large language model, EY.ai EYQ, marking the latest in a series of substantial AI investments by professional services companies. EY plans to train its 400,000 employees on AI and will continue to refine its AI model, focusing on ensuring privacy and data security. This investment follows similar commitments from peers like KPMG, Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte, reflecting a broader trend in the industry. The firm aims to alleviate uncertainties surrounding AI implementation and offer comprehensive solutions, addressing the growing demand for AI strategies among corporate technology leaders. The EY.ai platform embeds AI in new and existing products, providing a structured path for effective AI deployment at scale.

Tech Entrepreneur Admits to Being Hacker in $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist: 

Ilya Lichtenstein, a tech entrepreneur from New York, has confessed to orchestrating one of the largest crypto heists in history, involving the theft of bitcoins now valued at billions of dollars from crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016. Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder the stolen digital currency and defrauding the U.S. The stolen bitcoins, initially worth about $71 million, have surged in value to $4.5 billion. Federal prosecutors have recovered over $4 billion of the stolen funds, and Lichtenstein is cooperating with the government to recover the remaining amount. Despite their criminal activities, the couple maintained a high profile, with Morgan even writing a column for Forbes and pursuing a career as a rapper under the name Razzlekhan. (Do note that her music is terrible and cringe-worthy.)  Lichtenstein faces up to 20 years in prison, while Morgan faces up to five years for each of her two charges. (Source: WSJ)

Generative AI Outshines Wharton MBAs in Idea Generation

A study conducted at the Wharton School compared the innovative idea generation of MBA students to ChatGPT, a large language model. The study found that ChatGPT could generate ideas more quickly and, on average, of higher quality than the students. When market tested, the average purchase probability of a human-generated idea was 40%, while it was 47% for untrained ChatGPT and 49% for trained ChatGPT. When considering only the top 10% of ideas, 35 out of 40 were created by ChatGPT. This suggests that generative AI models like ChatGPT can be a valuable source of innovative ideas, shifting the bottleneck in the innovation process to evaluating rather than generating ideas. The study advocates for a collaborative approach where AI serves as a co-pilot to human innovators, ensuring a thorough exploration of possible solutions. (Source: WSJ)

AI Foundation Models: UK Government's Initial Report 

The UK government has published an initial report on AI foundation models (FMs).  FMs are pivotal in transforming industries, offering enhanced products, services, and breakthroughs in various domains. The document emphasizes the importance of competition, adherence to consumer and competition laws, and considerations for safety, data protection, and intellectual property rights.  It emphasizes the need for responsible AI practices to ensure ethical use and mitigate potential risks. The report provides a framework for policymakers, researchers, and industry stakeholders to navigate the complex landscape of AI. It also advocates for a collaborative approach involving leading FM developers, innovators, government, and regulators, with an update on principles and adoption due in early 2024 (Source: UK Government, Engadget).

OpenAI's ChatGPT Updates:

OpenAI has introduced several new capabilities to ChatGPT. Users can now interact with ChatGPT through both text and voice, allowing for more dynamic conversations. Additionally, ChatGPT has gained the ability to perceive visual information, enhancing its utility.

OpenAI has also introduced DALL-E 3, a significant improvement from DALL-E 2. This new version can generate higher quality images from the same prompts, providing better visual representations. This feature is available through the ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20 a month. Subscribers will have exclusive access to this advanced feature.

DALL-E 3 can also generate letters, a significant accomplishment for AI image generators. It has overcome previous limitations, now being able to accurately generate images of fingers and hands, which had been problematic. Furthermore, it excels in text-based prompting, putting it ahead of the competition, including models like Mid Journey. (OpenAI, OpenAI)

Google's Bard Updates:

Google's Bard has received a massive update, enhancing its chatbot capabilities.  The updates include integration with Google’s suite of tools like YouTube, Google Drive, and Google Flights, allowing users to ask Bard to plan trips with real flight options or summarize documents from Google Drive. Bard can now communicate in multiple languages and has new fact-checking capabilities, allowing users to verify the accuracy of its responses with a “double check” button, highlighting areas where Google Search results confirm or differ from the chatbot’s statements. This feature aims to counter AI “hallucinations,” where the AI makes confident but incorrect statements. Users can also link Gmail, Docs, and Google Drive to Bard for personalized assistance, with the assurance that their personal information will not be used for training Bard or for targeted advertising. The updates reflect Google's ongoing efforts to advance consumer-facing AI technologies and enhance user interaction with generative AI across its services.

Canadians should note that Google Bard is currently not available in Canada, and there is no indication of when it will be released in the country. (Source: Google, CNN, BNN)

 

Author: Malik Datardina, CPA, CA, CISA. Malik works at Auvenir as a GRC Strategist who is working to transform the engagement experience for accounting firms and their clients. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent UWCISA, UW, Auvenir (or its affiliates), CPA Canada or anyone else. This post was written with the assistance of an AI language model. The model provided suggestions and completions to help me write, but the final content and opinions are my own.