The State of Large Language Models

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October 03, 2023

In the past few weeks, tech giants have announced a slew of artificial intelligence updates. OpenAI released a "multimodal" version of ChatGPT that can process images and audio as well as text. Google integrated its Bard program into widely-used apps such as Gmail and Google Docs. Meta jumped into the chatbot game with a whole stable of AI characters. And Amazon said it is developing its own AI model, which will be trained, in part, on conversations between Alexa and the humans who use the digital assistant. In this week's lead story, an episode of the Tech Quickly podcast, we break down the latest advances in large language models—and how you can use them.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Artificial Intelligence The State of Large Language Models We present the latest updates on ChatGPT, Bard and other competitors in the artificial intelligence arms race. By Sophie Bushwick,Lauren Leffer

Engineering Streetlights Are Mysteriously Turning Purple. Here's Why Newly purple streetlights might seem innocuous, but they could affect driver and pedestrian safety By Karen Kwon

Climate Change Pipelines Touted as Carbon Capture Solution Spark Uncertainty and Opposition Federal investment in carbon capture could help fight climate change, but this technology is facing fierce opposition By Anna Mattson

Artificial Intelligence What Humans Lose When AI Writes for Us In Who Wrote This? linguist Naomi S. Baron discusses how artificial intelligence threatens our ability to express ourselves By Brianne Kane

Materials Science Controversy Surrounds Blockbuster Superconductivity Claim Will a possible breakthrough for room-temperature superconducting materials hold up to scrutiny? By Sophie Bushwick

Engineering New 6G Networks Are in the Works. Can They Destroy Dead Zones for Good? Next-generation 6G technology could "enable applications that we may not even imagine today" By Tyler Carroll

Artificial Intelligence The Assumptions You Bring into Conversation with an AI Bot Influence What It Says A new study reveals an "AI placebo effect": the same chatbot will respond differently depending on its users' assumptions about artificial intelligence By Nick Hilden

Quantum Computing What's a Qubit? 3 Ways Scientists Build Quantum Computers Scientists are trying to master the basic computing element known as a qubit to make quantum computers more powerful than electronic machines By Katherine Wright

Creativity 'AI Anxiety' Is on the Rise--Here's How to Manage It Rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence have prompted big questions about the future of work and even human creativity. Experts have suggestions for how to manage all these unknowns By Lauren Leffer

Robotics Above-Elbow Bionic Arm Can Control Every Finger Researchers have created the first nerve-controlled prosthetic hand that can be used in daily life By Simon Makin

Computing Don't Blame AI. Plagiarism Is Turning Digital News into Hot Garbage A botched obituary underlines threats from both artificial intelligence and digital plagiarism mills to pollute the news with misinformation By Charles Seife

Physiology Your Body Odor Could Be Used to Track Your Movements or Health Human scent signatures could one day be collected at places like crime scenes and COVID testing sites  By Chantrell Frazier,Kenneth G. Furton,Vidia A. Gokool,The Conversation US

Computing How Can We Trust AI If We Don't Know How It Works Trust is built on social norms and basic predictability. AI is typically not designed with either By Mark Bailey,The Conversation US

Quantum Physics To Move Fast, Quantum Maze Solvers Must Forget the Past Quantum algorithms can find their way out of mazes exponentially faster than classical ones, at the cost of forgetting the paths they took By Ben Brubaker,Quanta Magazine

Computing Does the First Amendment Confer a 'Right to Compute'? The Future of AI May Depend on It We need to figure out if there is a constitutional right to compute By John Villasenor

QUOTE OF THE DAY "A software company sold a New Jersey police department an algorithm that was right less than 1 percent of the time." Aaron Sankin and Surya Mattu, WIRED and The Markup

FROM THE ARCHIVE What the New GPT-4 AI Can Do OpenAI just released an updated version of its text-generating artificial intelligence program. Here's how GPT-4 improves on its predecessor By Sophie Bushwick | March 2023

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