GM Readers! ☀️

Welcome to the 19th issue of Evolving Internet Insights.

Quote of the Week: “We don’t have to pretend the company is always in peril. The company is always in peril, and we feel it.” (Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia) 

Thanks for reading!

Liang and Dan 🙌

🌰 In a Nutshell

• OpenAI is pushing the boundaries of AI and is working on GPT-5 🤖

• Hollywood actors strike resolved after 118 days 🎬

• Nvidia unveils H200 chips and hopes to usher in a new era of AI computing power 🖥️

• Generative AI is already disrupting freelance knowledge work

💾 Byte-sized Stories

This week’s top stories with our insights on top.

1. OpenAI Pushing the Boundaries of AI, Readying GPT-5 🤖

⚡️ TL;DR: Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, shared in an interview with the Financial Times that we are one step closer to “superintelligence.” He also highlighted that OpenAI is currently working on GPT-5, the company’s next gen LLM. When asked if Microsoft would keep investing in OpenAI further (beyond the Microsoft’s $13B investment to date), Altman said: “I’d hope so,” adding “There’s a long way to go, and a lot of compute to build out between here and AGI [(artificial general intelligence)]. . . training expenses are just huge.”

⚡️ So What: When you consider that massive amounts of training data, specialized GPUs, and the crème de la crème of AI researchers are all inputs to LLM-building (and the hottest commodities right now in the industry), it becomes clear why Altman might need continued funding support from Microsoft (and other investors). But what makes investing in this part of the stack mind-boggling is that GPT-5’s specific capabilities remain uncertain until training is complete. Altman said, “until we go train that model, it’s like a fun guessing game for us.” 🤯

⚡️ Zoom Out: With the LLM race heating up with the likes of Anthropic, Google, and Meta (and the collective tens of billions of dollars being invested into these and other efforts), OpenAI has to be aggressive to stay ahead of the curve. What OpenAI has going for it is a willingness (so far) from its biggest backer, Microsoft, to provide the company with anything and everything it asks for, Altman’s dream may be closer to reality than we think.

Read More Here, Here

2. Hollywood Actors Strike Resolved 🎬

⚡️ TL;DR: The SAG-AFTRA union, representing over 160,000 actors, has concluded its longest strike in history (118 days). As we covered in ⚡ Insights 3, the use of AI in Hollywood was a hot button issue, with actors demanding protections against the misuse of their digital likenesses and performances. This final agreement, which ended the strike, includes:

• Mandatory consent approval for creating digital replicas of actors.

• Compensation for actors when their digital replicas or AI scans are used.

• Specific terms for the use of synthetic performers and the protection of deceased actors' likeness.

⚡️ So What: Some union members of SAG-AFTRA feel the deal doesn't go far enough, pointing to potential loopholes and the need for more stringent protections. However, the resolution is a meaningful step forward to addressing the ethical and legal challenges posed by AI. Future negotiations in the industry will likely look to the precedent this agreement sets.

⚡️ Zoom Out: The Hollywood strikes are part of a larger movement in creative sectors as they grapple with the implications of AI. This agreement, along with the Writers Guild of America's earlier AI-related protections, indicates a growing awareness and response to the challenges AI poses to creative professions. These developments are occurring amidst broader discussions and legislative efforts regarding AI's impact on employment, privacy, and misinformation in society. 

Read More Here, Here, Here

P.S. Our next Brainfood Issue will deep dive into a trend we are seeing around how gen AI is enabling hyper-personalization.

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3. Nvidia Unveils H200: A New Era in AI Computing Power 🖥️

⚡️ TL;DR: Nvidia has introduced the H200, a top-of-the-line GPU chip designed for AI applications. This chip is a significant upgrade compared to the popular H100. This new chip features 40% more memory bandwidth and 80% more memory capacity than its predecessor. That is a lot of new juice 🧃!

⚡️ So What: As we covered previously in ⚡ Insights 5, the ever-increasing demands for faster, more efficient processing of large quantities of data needed in AI training and development is what is fueling chip manufacturers like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD to pull ahead in this GPU race. While everyone sees the improvements from the H200, it is anyone’s guess how long it will take to manufacture a critical mass of these chips and who/what companies will get them and when.

⚡️ Zoom Out: Nvidia's launch of the H200 is part of a broader strategy to maintain its leadership in the high-performance computing race against competitors like Intel and AMD. The company is not only enhancing its existing GPU lineup but also exploring future technologies such as quantum computing. In short, Nvidia wants to be a leading player in more than just hardware.

Read More Here, Here, Here

📊 Let’s Get Graphic

One visual we couldn’t stop thinking about.

Generative AI is Already Disrupting Freelance Knowledge Work

⚡️ Takeaway: A recent study on gen AI’s impact on the labor market showed that freelance workers, particularly copywriters and graphic designers, saw a drop in the number of projects and earnings.

While many predicted that in the long term gen AI will disrupt knowledge work before manual work, it is already happening today, albeit in a few sectors of work.

Foundational technologies like gen AI are forcing all parts of the economy to reinvent themselves. Remember, AI Won’t Replace Humans — But Humans With AI Will Replace Humans Without AI.

🐇 Down the Rabbit Hole

Some deeper dives to help you get smarter on emerging tech.

1. Nvidia Is Always in Peril: Jensen Huang highlights how despite Nvidia’s success the company is always in a “fighting for survival” mode given the rapid evolution of the AI industry. 

2. Teachers Struggle to Implement AI: Report highlighting how despite the promise of gen AI in education, teachers need more support to implement gen AI technologies in classrooms

3. Has gen AI peaked?: Deep dive highlighting some of the issues forthcoming with gen AI, such as the rise of gen AI data potentially overshadowing human generated data

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