Insights on AI from EmTech Digital London: Key Takeaways

Join us at EmTech Digital on May 22-23, 2024, at the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We have an impressive lineup of speakers, including Nick Clegg from Meta discussing elections and misinformation generated by AI. OpenAI researchers who developed the video-generation AI Sora will share their insights on how generative AI will revolutionize Hollywood. Max Tegmark, an MIT professor advocating for AI safety, will discuss the progress made and how to enhance the safety of powerful systems. We also have top scientists from Google, OpenAI, AWS, MIT, Nvidia, and more joining us. Readers of The Algorithm can enjoy a 30% discount with the code ALGORITHMD24. We look forward to seeing you there!

In the realm of robotics, researchers at Oregon State University and the University of California, Berkeley have been making significant progress. Oregon State University has successfully trained a humanoid robot named Digit V3 to walk, carry objects, and move them between locations. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have been working on teaching Digit to walk in unfamiliar environments while carrying different loads without falling over. Both groups are utilizing sim-to-real reinforcement learning, an AI technique, to train two-legged robots like Digit. This method is believed to lead to more reliable and robust machines capable of safely interacting with their surroundings and learning more efficiently.

As AI continues to evolve, there is a call to retire the term “user” due to the proliferation of AI technology. AI tools that were once referred to as bots are now being given titles like “copilot,” “assistant,” and “collaborator” to emphasize a sense of partnership rather than automation. With AI acting as a partner, there remains a question about how to describe the human counterpart. This shift in terminology reflects the changing landscape of human-AI interaction.