AI Chatbot Invasion: Are Humans Out of a Job or Just Out of the Loop? And other excerpts.

1. AI Chatbots Take Over App Stores: Are Humans Still Needed?

• The number of AI Chatbot apps with keywords like "AI Chat" or "AI Chatbot" has increased by 1480% year-over-year, with 158 new apps hitting app stores in Q1 2023.

• Downloads for AI-powered apps have increased by 1506% year-on-year, with in-app spending clocking almost $3 million in March 2023, a massive 4184% increase year-on-year.

• Developers are trying to create a native mobile experience for AI chatbot tech and charge users for unlocking unlimited conversations with the chatbot.

• Differentiation is created among AI chatbots by introducing multiple versions of bots with different abilities or moods.

• While the popularity of AI-powered chatbots is rising, analysts are cautious about their staying power, and dubious tools are being introduced in app stores.

2. OpenAI Offers Big Rewards to Hack ChatGPT - But Don't Let It Go Rogue!

• OpenAI has launched a bug bounty program that encourages the public to find and disclose vulnerabilities in its AI services, including ChatGPT.

• Rewards range from $200 to $20,000 for "exceptional discoveries."

• The program excludes rewards for jailbreaking ChatGPT or causing it to generate malicious code or text.

• OpenAI says that such "model safety issues do not fit well within a bug bounty program, as they are not individual, discrete bugs that can be directly fixed."

• Traditional security failures, rather than jailbreaks, are likely to be more of a problem for OpenAI.

3. AI Balenciaga Harry Potter Goes Viral: Is AI the Future of Visual Entertainment?

• Two pieces of AI-generated content featuring the fashion brand Balenciaga have gone viral in the past month.

• A YouTuber, photographer, and AI hobbyist called Demon Flying Fox created a video that imagined Harry Potter as a Balenciaga campaign from the late ’80s or early ’90s, which took him only two days to create using the AI tools Midjourney, ElevenLabs, and D-ID.

• AI-generated media has the potential to offer thrilling and mind-opening possibilities for the future of visual entertainment, but it could also have potentially devastating consequences for art.

• Anyone can experiment with AI and create AI-generated content like Balenciaga Harry Potter, circumventing (or, depending on your perspective, stealing) the creative labour of actors, graphic artists, and filmmakers.

• The future of AI-generated media is already happening, and it's a matter of time before AI spits out an entire feature-length film.

4. ECB Denies Plans for Programmable Digital Euro, Lagarde Prank Goes Wrong

• The ECB spokesperson has stated that any upcoming digital euro will not be programmable money.

• The spokesperson denies that the ECB would set limitations on how, when, and where people may spend a digital euro.

• In a prank interview, Christine Lagarde appeared to suggest that there would be a "limited amount of control" over spending small amounts, but the spokesperson denies this.

• The spokesperson clarified that the ECB would not be able to identify holders or users of digital euros, and this would be done by splitting data between the central bank and digital euro distributors.

• Programmable CBDCs have stirred up controversy within the cryptocurrency community, with concerns over personal liberties and government surveillance.

5. AI startups raking in the dough: AlphaSense raises $100 million and joins the AI funding frenzy!

• AlphaSense raised $100 million in funding from investors, including CapitalG, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Viking Global Investors, valuing the company at $1.8 billion.

• AlphaSense has created an AI-powered market intelligence and search platform to help clients form corporate and investment strategies.

• Google and its parent company Alphabet have shown significant interest in the AI space, with investments in Anthropic and the introduction of its conversational AI tool Bard.

• VC firms and large strategics including Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce continue to invest in generative AI startups.

• Other AI-powered companies that have recently raised large amounts of money include Character.ai and Adept AI.