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The Duality of AI Productivity: Can It Be a Bad Thing?

OpenAI's Orion AI model to launch soon, Meta partners with Reuters for real-time news, Perplexity fires back at News Corp lawsuit, Adobe calls out creatives on AI and more!

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Everyday AI
October 25, 2024

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“If you want to understand artificial intelligence, get better at understanding human intelligence,” says author and professor of psychology Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.

He joins the Microsoft WorkLab podcast to discuss how AI can help unlock greater human performance.

Learn how work is changing on WorkLab, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Outsmart The Future

Today in Everyday AI
8 minute read

🎙 Daily Podcast Episode: Is it possible to become TOO productive with GenAI? A Microsoft expert breaks down how you can effectively and efficiently use GenAI without losing anything along the way. Give it a listen.

🕵️‍♂️ Fresh Finds: Perplexity reaches 100M search queries a week, Apple offers $1 million to hack its private AI cloud and why Redditors are trying to trick Google AI. Read on for Fresh Finds.

🗞 Byte Sized Daily AI News: OpenAI's Orion AI model set to launch soon, Meta partners with Reuters for real-time news, Perplexity fires back at News Corp lawsuit, Adobe calls out creatives on AI. For that and more, read on for Byte Sized News.

🚀 AI In 5: We show you how you can pull real-time data and visualize it inside Perplexity. Well, when it works. See it here

🧠 Learn & Leveraging AI: How can we use GenAI to become more productive without losing anything important along the way? We break down an expert’s take. Keep reading for that!

↩️ Don’t miss out: Did you miss our last newsletter? We talked about OpenAI's academy for developers, Musk investing in his supercomputer and Cloudflare offering AI content monetization. Check it here!

The Duality of AI Productivity: Can It Be a Bad Thing? 🤔

Can we be too productive with GenAI?

Yeah, we're getting more done—but what are we losing in the process?

And when does efficiency start to harm creativity and well-being and what can we do about it?

Yen Anderson, Copilot Champ, Azure and AI Microsoft, join us as we dig into the duality of AI productivity.

Join the conversation and ask Jordan and Yen questions on AI here.

Also on the pod today:

• Training and evolution of AI use🏋
• Practicality and use of AI in daily tasks 🌤
• AI adoption, productivity, and deep insights 🧠

It’ll be worth your 34 minutes:

Listen on our site:

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Here’s our favorite AI finds from across the web:

New AI Tool Spotlight – TableSprint helps build apps in minutes, Kusho tests backend journeys quickly and Audiomatic finds + generates music & soundFX for your video.

Trending in AI – Perplexity says that it’s now serving 100 million search queries a week.

Apple – Apple is offering to pay security researchers up to $1 million to hack its private AI cloud.

Meta – Meta FAIR has released Meta Open Materials 2024 - a new open source model and dataset.

LinkedIn - LinkedIn reports that it has verified 55 million users in an effort to tackle the rise of AI scams and misinformation.

Google – A new Google survey states that more than 75% of developers rely on AI.

Anthropic - Anthropic has released new research on feature steering AI.

AI Tech - Raspberry Pi has received a new AI add-on to boost its capabilities.

AI Media – Apparently, Redditors are trying to trick Google AI to keep tourists out of the good restaurants.

AI in Society – Here’s how AI is being used to send households impacted by Helene and Milton $1,000 cash relief payments.

1. OpenAI's Orion AI Model Set to Launch Soon 👀

OpenAI is gearing up to unveil its next-gen model, Orion, by December, but this time, access will be limited to select partner companies before a broader rollout. Orion is touted to be significantly more powerful than its predecessor, GPT-4, potentially changing the landscape for AI applications.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is preparing to host Orion on Azure as early as November, indicating a robust collaboration between the two tech giants. With a historic $6.6 billion funding round just closed and some high-profile departures at OpenAI, the upcoming release could redefine AI capabilities and impact how businesses leverage these tools for growth.

2. Meta Teams Up with Reuters for Real-Time News in AI Chatbot 📰

Meta has secured a multi-year agreement with Reuters to integrate real-time news content into its AI chatbot, marking the company's first venture into news partnerships since shifting away from news feeds due to regulatory pressures. Starting today, users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger can receive answers to current events questions, complete with citations and links to Reuters’ articles.

This collaboration reflects a growing trend among AI companies to partner with established news organizations, a necessity as they navigate the challenges of misinformation, especially with the upcoming elections.

3. Perplexity Fires Back in Copyright Clash with News Corp 🔥

In a fiery response to a federal lawsuit from News Corp’s Dow Jones, AI startup Perplexity asserts that traditional media companies are lagging behind in the tech landscape. The lawsuit accuses Perplexity of illegal content copying, but the company argues that this reflects a narrow vision of how information should be shared in a digital age.

Perplexity points out its revenue-sharing partnerships with other publishers and claims that it welcomes collaboration rather than confrontation.

4. Google Photos Introduces AI Editing Disclosure 📸

Starting next week, Google Photos will enhance transparency by adding a notification for photos edited with AI features like Magic Editor and Magic Eraser, now visible in the “Details” section.

While this move aims to address concerns about the lack of visual markers for AI-edited images, critics argue that most users won't check the metadata, which limits the effectiveness of this change. Google acknowledges that this is just the beginning, as they are still exploring options for clearer visual indicators.

5. Adobe's Bold AI Move: Creators, Adapt or Get Left Behind 😮

In a recent interview, Adobe's executives made it clear that the company is fully committed to generative AI, leaving traditional methods behind for creators who resist the shift. Vice President Alexandru Costin emphasized that artists unwilling to embrace AI may struggle in an evolving creative landscape, while President David Wadhwani noted that innovation is key to success in both the short and long term. With generative AI tools rapidly gaining traction among users, Adobe risks losing artists who feel alienated by this technological transformation.

6. Disney To Unveil New AI Initiative 🐭

Disney is gearing up to unveil a significant AI initiative aimed at transforming its creative processes, particularly in post-production and visual effects, according to TheWrap. While details remain scarce, the plan reportedly involves hundreds of employees and may also touch on theme parks, though not in a way that directly interacts with customers.

This move follows a similar strategy by Lionsgate, illustrating a broader industry trend towards harnessing AI technology amidst ongoing debates about its implications for creative jobs.

Perplexity's Real-Time Data Trick

There’s some updated functionality inside Perplexity that no other LLM can do right now.

Perplexity can now pull real time data and visualize it.

We show you how to do it. Kinda. (It’s a bit finicky, TBH. But still pretty impressive.)

🦾How You Can Leverage:

Ever wish you had VIP access to a Microsoft employee that’s trained thousands of Microsoft employees on AI? 

Welp…. that’s what our livestream audience had access to on today’s show. 

Yen Anderson has trained more than 16,000 of her colleagues on using its internal LLM, Copilot. 

And she shared her expert insights on an important — but not often discussed — topic: the duality of AI productivity. 

Yen is a Copilot Champ, Azure and AI at Microsoft, and joined us today on the Everyday AI show. 

Yes, generative AI such as Microsoft's Copilot has made the dream of enhanced productivity possible, taking over mundane tasks and letting us humans shine in our creative genius.

Butuuuuuuu every coin has two sides.

Cuz AI can amp up your productivity levels to like 11.5, but that can be straight up exhausting.

If you missed this convo, don’t worry. 

We’re breaking it all down for you here. 

Ready to find that AI zen? 

Sames. 

Let’s get it. 

1 – List for human. List for AI. 🗒

Here’s a gem right off the bat: Yen said to create a list of all your works. Create two columns — one for tasks and projects that you want to keep and one for Large Language Models, like ChatGPT or Copilot. 

Sounds simple enough. 

Yet, this is a step many people skip over and can actually help prevent burnout from being TOO productive. (We’ll get to that later.) 

Try this: 

Here’s the reality y’all – AI is drastically changing how we work. And it can be super weird at times, especially the deeper you dive and the smarter AI systems get. 

An additional tip from Yen on this? Guard those tasks that give you joy, even if AI can do that task better/faster than you. 

(Real tip: this is me, Jordan writing this. Not AI. Even though I could train ChatGTP to do this for me in 8 seconds and you’d never know the difference, writing every day brings me a side dish of joy. So guard that joy and gobble it up. Cuz we’re about to get suuuuper productive……) 

2 – Boost productivity and mindfulness 🧠

You know we’re gonna get the good stuff from the smartest AI peeps in the world. 

That’s what we do. 

So, what’s Yen’s secret sauce for staying ultra productive but not legit burning out? 

Even while working at one of the largest employers at the globe and training thousands of her colleagues on their own Copilot tech? 

She clones herself. Not like Jordan did, but with Copilot. 

Ok….. and not an actual clone. She just sends her Copilot where she can’t be. 

So when her Copilot is out recording the mundane, Yen can focus on being more mindful. 

Balance achieved. 

Try this: 

If your org is all in on Microsoft 365 Copilot across the biz, then you’re in for a treat with this one. 

As with most fast-moving companies, Yen often finds herself double- or triple-booked on her calendar. 

She could try and stretch herself too thin. Or, re-watch records. Or, try and pull double duty. 

Naaaaah. Not with AI as your Copilot. 

Yen said she zones in on the most important aspects of her day, and sends her Copilot to meetings she can’t attend. So instead of having to rewatch recordings of a handful of meetings each day, she can instead just ask her Copilot teammate: 

“Sup Copilot shorty? What did I miss? Catch me up in bullet points of what went on today and any takeaways I need to know. And throw in some 90s rap references for added flair.” 

(Full disclosure, that’s not her actual prompt but….. yeah, you can definitely personalize and customize your knowledge consumption with how you prompt Copilot.) 

Here’s the guide on how you can send your Copilot to your meetings in Microsoft teams. 

And here’s another gem on how you can delegate your don’t—wanna-dos to Copilot. 

3 – Insights over tasks 💡

Can AI summarize that terribly dry and incomprehensibly long email from Bill in accounting? 

Yes. 

(Also, Bill, just ask for my timesheet dog. Don’t need the Declaration of Accountapendence.) 

Can AI gobble up your SOPs and follow-up emails? 

You betchya. 

But Yen cautions us all to not stop there. 

If you’re a high-motor professional with a lot of drive, AI can actually get you into overdrive, Yen said. 

Try this: 

You gotta sometimes pump the brakes, and change how you look at Artificial Intelligence. 

Instead of having GenAI constantly help you achieve more, you should use it to achieve better. 

Yen gave some simple examples: have Copilot help you improve your schedule. Or, have Copilot help you find better methods for working. Or using it to monitor your energy levels. 

She even suggests scheduling AI breaks in-between heavy AI work to avoid over-dependence and burnout. 

Ya know…. Go touch the grass? 

We covered this topic in a different way, but how you can turn ChatGPT into a higher-level thought partner and not just a checklist checker-offer. 

⌚

Numbers to watch

39%

According to a new Google survey, 39% of developers don’t trust AI-generated code

Now This …

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