Hey Citizens of the World,

Everyone is talking about ChatGPT. And as you can see, we decided to have some fun with it.

It’s like decades of science fiction has finally come true - artificial intelligence that talks to you in natural language and answers almost any question you have.

This kind of generative AI is based on a technology called “large language models”, that scrape the contents of the entire internet to find associations between words, concepts and images.

In just a few seconds, you can create illustrations for business presentations, generate marketing pitches, get ideas to overcome writer’s block or generate new computer code all at a quality typically attributed to experts. And this is just the beginning: ChatGPT-4 launched last month and its exponentially more powerful and we are already seeing mind-blowing results.

Now, if you’re worried about AI - and in some ways you should be - the worst thing to do is ignore it. This is the largest and fastest technological uptake in human history, reaching 100 million users in just 3 months - you need to pay attention!

Artificial Intelligence: The Reframe

Most of our fears about generative AI sound like this: it’s a dystopian machine that will take all our jobs and make our kids dumb – but for most of us, it won’t.

AI is a tool that is made by humans, for humans. It’s designed to work with us and help us- and it will only be as good as the data we give it.

Instead of thinking of it as AI, we like to think of it as using IA – Intelligent Augmentation – a way to complete a variety of tasks efficiently, save time, improve accuracy, and make our lives easier and expand our capabilities.

Check out this video from our cofounders Tane and Gus. It’s a timely reminder of how both technical and human evolution are part of the same story!

Good news you probably didn’t hear about

Everyone had a minor freak out about the future of education when ChatGPT launched but educators are starting to reframe the technology as a golden opportunity to move classrooms beyond the old zombie modes of learning and shift the role of educators from gatekeepers of information to facilitators.

What about healthcare? Well, a Chinese biotech company has used AI to design a potential liver cancer drug in under 30 days while scientists in San Diego have invented an AI-powered ultrasound for the heart that’s the size of a postage stamp. And Google’s AI algorithm for screening for breast cancer performs better than radiologists logging fewer false positives and false negatives.

AI is also one of the top three emerging technologies in conservation, and is currently curbing elephant poaching in Gabon and monitoring animal poaching in protected areas in more than 60 countries.

The technology is an incredible new tool for climate activism. Climate Trace, an international collaboration, uses satellite imagery and AI to identify carbon emissions from every power plant, farm, city, airport, and feedlot in the world. No more places for fossil fuel companies and carbon emitters to hide. Check out the map below!

Give me something cool in under 3 mins!

If you’re searching for ways to look busy…

1. LISTEN to a great podcast on the Evolution of Human Civilization and Superintelligent AI - a deep dive into human nature, evolution and AI’s place in the story of humanity. If you would like a business focused series on AI, we recommend the AI in Business Podcast.

2. READ One Useful Thing. With so much happening in the AI space, it helps to have a trusted guide. For us that’s Ethan Mollick, who's been writing really helpful posts about ChatGPT. If you want to improve your understanding and use of ChatGPT, we highly recommend subscribing to his newsletter.

3. QUOTE this the next time someone freaks out about technology taking all our jobs:

Although ChatGPT is getting all the attention right now, it’s worth noting some of the other players in generative AI. Here are 7 alternatives.

We also suggest Copy.AI, which has a great feature that allows you to catch up on the most important news on a certain topic.

That’s it for this edition. We hope you’re all doing ok out there- it’s a pretty wild ride! And feel free to forward this newsletter onto any colleagues or friends who are struggling with the whole ChatGPT conversation - sharing is caring!

Until next month, take good care,

The Future Crunch Team