Hsieh Forbes Column on Automation Bias and Medical Misdiagnosis

My latest Forbes column is out: "How 'Automation Bias' Plus Artificial Intelligence Can Lead To Medical Misdiagnoses".

Takehome point: The machine does NOT always know where it's going!

Parents Posting Embarrassing Kid Videos

"The First Social-Media Babies Are Growing Up -- And They're Horrified"

I'm not a parent, so I've never had to wrestle with the issue of whether or not to post videos of offspring online. But I can see why some kids today aren't very excited about the social media posting decisions their parents made a few years ago

In the United States, parental authority supersedes a child’s right to privacy, and socially, we’ve normalized sharing information about and images of children that we never would of adults. Parents regularly divulge diaper-changing mishaps, potty-training successes, and details about a child’s first menstrual period to an audience of hundreds or thousands of people. There are no real rules against it. Social-media platforms have guidelines for combatting truly inappropriate content—physical abuse of minors, child nudity, neglect, endangerment, and the like. But uploading non-abusive content can be damaging, too, according to kids whose lives have been painstakingly documented online.

Lawyer Uses ChatGPT, Hilarity Ensues

That awkward moment when a lawyer uses ChatGPT to draft a legal brief, and it's full of citations to non-existent cases. 

From the court order: "Six of the submitted cases appear to be bogus judicial decisions with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations."

Clothes, Please

"Georgia officials remind people to wear clothes in their digital driver's license photo"

No Needle Measles Vaccine

"Promising early data on a measles vaccine delivered via sticker"

Mosquito Cloth

"New clothing fabric blocks mosquito bites and provides comfort". (Via H.R.)

Temperate Exoplanet

Nature: "Here we report the discovery of a temperate Earth-sized planet orbiting the cool M6 dwarf LP 791-18."

Age Verification Vs. Privacy

"Online age verification is coming, and privacy is on the chopping block"

Microsoft Excel ESports

"Excel esports on ESPN show world the pain of format errors"

VR Smell

"How to bring scents to the metaverse"

Wire EDM Explained

Video: "How these impossibly thin cuts are made"

Personalized iPhone Voice

"Your iPhone's AI brain will soon be able to speak in your voice"

Iceland Ice Caves

"The Otherworldly Ice Caves of Iceland"

 

Pocket AI

"AI in your pocket: ChatGPT officially comes to iPhone with new app". (Via H.R.)

New Brain-Body Mapping

"Study Unlocks the Mind-Body Connection, Updates Long-Established Brain Model"

 

Hollywood And AI

"Hollywood writers and studios battle over the future of AI 

From the article: "The problem here seems to be that we thought that creativity, per se, was the last bastion, the line in the sand, that would stop machines from replacing someone's job..."

Evolutionary Success

"One of Evolution's Biggest Moments Was Re-created in a Year"

Google's Non-Moat For AI

"What does a leaked Google memo reveal about the future of AI?" 

"The barrier to entry for training and experimentation has dropped from the total output of a major research organisation to one person, an evening, and a beefy laptop," the Google memo claims. An LLM can now be fine-tuned for $100 in a few hours. With its fast-moving, collaborative and low-cost model, "open-source has some significant advantages that we cannot replicate." Hence the memo's title: this may mean Google has no defensive "moat" against open-source competitors. Nor, for that matter, does OpenAI.

If this assessment is true, regulations like those being proposed by the EU will do little to stop the spread of so-called "high-risk AI".

Not Funny In China

"China fines comedy troupe $2m for joke about the military".

The US is far from perfect. But at least comedians here can still make fun of government slogans without being fined millions of dollars.

AI Regulation Update

"Amended EU AI Act Takes Aim at American Open-Source AI Models and API Access": 

If passed, the act would ban [OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and IBM] from providing API access to generative AI models in the EU, and would sanction American open-source developers and software distributors, such as GitHub, if unlicensed generative models became available in Europe...

Any model made available in the EU without first passing extensive and expensive licensing would subject companies to massive fines of the greater of €20,000,000 or 4% of worldwide revenue. Open-source developers, and hosting services such as GitHub, would be liable for making unlicensed models available.

Kyles Galore

"What Do You Call 2,326 Kyles in One Place? A World Record."

Fooling Wikipedia

"A Bored Chinese Housewife Spent Years Falsifying Russian History on Wikipedia"

Moonwalker Shoes

"Moonwalkers: These AI-powered shoes will have you walking 250% faster". (Via H.R.)

Favorite Employee Perk

"A poll conducted last year for Trusaic, a software firm, asked American workers what perks they would like to see introduced: the top answer was hangover leave."

Nuclear Fusion Update

James Pethokoukis: "Is nuclear fusion going to arrive way sooner than expected?"

AI Therapists

"Is the world ready for ChatGPT therapists?"

Chinese In Sweden

"Young Chinese Love Everything About Sweden. Except Living There."

Moose Munching At Movies

"Watch a Moose Walk into an Alaskan Movie Theater, Eat Popcorn, and Leave"

ChatGPT And Academia

"A Doctor Published Several Research Papers With Breakneck Speed. ChatGPT Wrote Them All."

In short, radiologist Som Biswas of U. Tenn used ChatGPT to write 16 papers in 4 months. 5 of them have been published in 4 different journals: 

"'Health care is going to change. Writing is going to change. Research is going to change,' Biswas said. 'I’m just trying to publish now and show it so people can know about it and explore more.'"

Reverse ATMs

"Reverse ATMs take bills, dispense cards as stores go cashless"

Secret Female Chinese Language

"Nüshu: China's secret female-only language"

Throughout history, women in rural Hunan Province used a coded script to express their most intimate thoughts to one another. Today, this once-“dead” language is making a comeback.

Brydge Fail

"The downfall of Brydge: iPad keyboard company folds, leaving staff unpaid and customer orders unfulfilled"

AI Vs. McKinsey

Ted Chiang: "Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey?"

AI Chatbot Encouraged A Suicide?

"Man ends his life after an AI chatbot 'encouraged' him to sacrifice himself to stop climate change"

Housel Wisdom

Nice collection of "Some Things I Think" by Morgan Housel.

I especially liked, "The most valuable personal finance asset is not needing to impress anyone."

Final Brain Activity

"Surges of activity in the dying human brain could hint at fleeting conscious experiences"

Robot Stability

"Stone-hearted researchers gleefully push over adorable soccer-playing robots". (Via H.R.)

AI Doom (Or Not)

I'm seeing lots of discussion about "AI doom" these days. Here are a couple of the better articles on either side of the issue. (I lean towards the "not doom" camp myself.) 

Sarah Constantin: "Why I am Not An AI Doomer" 

Max Tegmark: "The 'Don't Look Up' Thinking That Could Doom Us With AI"

AI + Robotic Dog

"ChatGPT-AI, Google tech, give voice to Boston Dynamics' robot dog". (Via H.R.)

Bionic Eye Update

"A Bionic Eye That Could Restore Vision (and Put Humans in the Matrix?)"

Bone Graft Update

"Scientists invent safe bone graft materials made out of eggshells". (Via H.R.)

Hsieh Forbes Column: Promises, Perils, And Predictions For Artificial Intelligence In Medicine

My latest Forbes column is out: "Promises, Perils, And Predictions For Artificial Intelligence In Medicine: A Radiologist's Perspective"

iPhone Security Tips

WSJ: "We Hope Your iPhone Never Gets Stolen. But Just in Case..."