Upgrading Our AI Quotient. - by Rishad Tobaccowala
Here is a highly curated list of resources that can help us increase our AI Quotient. In the comments section please share resources for the generalist not a technologist (for instance GitHub or Hugging Face) you would suggest to augment those I share below
Ethan Mollick
If there is a single person I would recommend reading and following to be informed about AI it is Ethan Mollick. Ethan is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship, and also examines the effects of artificial intelligence on work and education. Here are two ways to embrace and learn from Ethan:
- His book Co-Existence which you can learn about and get from here. While every chapter is worthwhile you will not be the same after reading AI as a Creative.
- Besides his book, an absolute must is his Substack called One Useful Thing which is free to subscribe to and is available here. A good instance of how mind-blowing this resource is you should click his August 1 post called “On Speaking to AI” and scroll down and listen to the very short audio clips under the section Chat GPT Voice as Agent.
A16Z
Andreessen Horowitz has some amazing resources regardless of your level of sophistication. A key resource is the updated Top50 Gen AI Web products site. See image below. This occasional post not only provides a list but an analysis on what is happening. For instance the rise of creative tools and significant competitors to Chat GPT. As importantly A16z have a number of wonderful podcasts. Here is the one on AI.
The Essential Eight Products To Use
Here are the 8 essential products to use for the person who is not a technologist which will allow one to both access most of the wonders of the new technologies but also stay up to date and smart about the space. The first five would be to subscribe to the first 5 resources in the Top Gen AI Web Products List shared above. Number 1 (ChatGPT) and number 4(Claude) are two massive LLM's you should use for sure and if you can afford to upgrade from free to the paid version ($20 a month each). Given that AI is improving exponentially the paid levels are much more state of the art than the free versions. But if you cannot you will receive the same functionality as paid for free in about 6 to 9 months which is an indication of the leapfrogging between generations and competitors. Google paid 2.7 Billion dollars to acquihire the leaders of the Number 2 most visited product (Character.ai) and has one of them now co-running Gemini. It's a way to personalize a chatbot. Number 3 (Perplexity) hints at the future of search. While there is a lot of angst about copyright issues about this product we can expect many other search competitors including from OpenAI the maker of ChatGPT built on materials licensed from FT, Conde Nast and others. Finally at number 5 (Suno) we can see a future of music creation. This company is also embroiled in copyright issues but is indicative of the direction of music creation. In addition to these five I would recommend Number 12 (Eleven Labs) which is about audio particularly dubbing and voice translation and Number 18 (Mid Journey) for images. A few days ago Mid Journey became much easier to use since you no longer have to have access via Discord. Finally I would recommend using Runway ML which is not on this list to understand how AI is being used to make video including movies simply by typing in text. Watch the video below and also go to the site here and see the movies being made with this tool. These 8 essential products cover 2 major models (ChatGPT and Claude), 2 audio models (Suno and Eleven Labs), a search engine (Perplexity), an image creation tool (MidJourney), a text to video tool (RunwayML) and a character creation and customized chat friend (Character.ai) All of these are accessible globally, easy to use and have free versions.
Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer offers a wonderful free daily newsletter on AI which you can subscribe to here. I read Shelly daily and his newsletter not only quickly covers the key stories of the day but also provides a link to other developments that will keep you updated without you having to hunt and peck all over. Shelly also has a website of free resources as well as paid courses you can access here. One of the reasons I point to Shelly is that he has re-invented himself again and again. Remember those Meow-Mix jingles? Shelly wrote those. He was big in radio, film and TV and then got technology patents for interactive television systems. Today he has become a deep expert in the field of AI. He is a living testament to anybody who says they are too old or it is too late to embrace and lead the future. In addition, it also helps that he is a deep thinker who today runs his own firm and is therefore free to express his beliefs on how AI will revolutionize things without fear but with the wisdom and nuance of someone seasoned.
AI-volution of Culture 2.0
Some of you will remember that last year, I shared access to an event called the AI-volution of Culture hosted by Quilt.AI (I am on their board). The second edition of this event is taking place in New York City on Sep 20. Speakers range from senior execs of large companies (Bel, McDonalds, Estee Lauder, Pfizer etc) to celebrities including Trevor Noah and the incredibly world-renowned chef Massimo Bottura - all discussing AI. This year, I will be co-hosting the event along with the Founders of Quilt.AI. I plan on sharing a preview of my second book in addition to hosting conversations on remaining relevant in the short, middle, and long term. Like last year I have some complimentary tickets available. Here is the event link and the code you can use to avail of the complimentary ticket. Event Link: https://www.quilt.ai/ai-volution-of-culture Code: Rishad
