Hello, fellow humans! Here’s another of our limited Saturday Daily Briefs. While it’s focused on AI, it’s curated, written, and edited by actual people.
Got some questions about AI you’d like answered? Or just some AI hallucinations you’d like to share? Email us anytime. Enjoy!
Here’s what you need to know
China widened its lead over the US in AI patent filings. That comes as Baidu and Alibaba are racing to monetize AI products, underscoring the country’s determination to achieve domination.
The Biden administration is expected to sign its long-awaited AI executive order on Monday. Reports show that the order will require advanced AI models to undergo assessments before they can be used by federal employees.
OpenAI is launching a “Preparedness” team to mitigate the risks of AI models as they become more capable over time. The ChatGPT maker believes that AI systems will be smarter than humans one day.
University of Chicago researchers proposed “poison pills” to help content creators protect their work from being used to train AI. The method manipulates training data to introduce unexpected behaviors when used without consent.
We’re getting the “generative AI is a job killer” narrative all wrong
This week, employment site Indeed published a report evaluating the jobs most exposed to (or impacted by) generative AI—and how artificial intelligence could change, rather than kill, careers. The report collected over 15 million job postings to evaluate the skills that employers commonly include—more than 2,000 in total—along with which could be performed or assisted by ChatGPT.
Interestingly, the report stressed that race, gender, and other demographics aren’t what’s driving AI exposure. It comes down to occupations, job titles, and locations in which certain demographics tend to concentrate.
Grete Suarez talked to Indeed economist Cory Stahle, who pointed out that this study could be telling us that, as workers, we need to learn how to use AI as an important work skill. He admitted that the number of Indeed job postings asking for generative AI skills this August were small—0.05% is, indeed, very small—but that’s why the exposure numbers are so important to note. It’s about the long game.
Pop quiz: The race to the startup top
Which two startups are the only ones with a higher valuation than OpenAI’s projected $80 billion?
A. Shein and Stripe
B. SpaceX and ByteDance
C. Canva and Databricks
D. Epic Games and Revoult
Find the answer here, and some thoughts on whether OpenAI and other firms are about to kick off the next wave of public tech giants.
Microsoft’s humans have a lot to say
1 million: Users paying for Microsoft’s chatbot Copilot
3,000: Organizations using Copilot for business, up 40% quarter over quarter
29%: Year over year increase of revenue from Microsoft’s cloud unit
$10 billion: How much Microsoft has invested in OpenAI
And they just kept on talking! Read everything that Microsoft said about AI on its quarterly earnings call this week.
Other great AI reads
📹 Can AI really fix bad video connectivity?
😔 Google Cloud’s big bet on generative AI disappoints as business customers pull back on spending
☁️ Amazon’s AI cloud dominance is getting chipped away by rivals
🤓 Chatbots might disrupt math and computer science classes. Some teachers see upsides
⚠️ Beware of the futurists, especially in the age of AI
Ask an AI
Quartz’s Gabriela Riccardi had two things this week: Adobe Photoshop and a dream—a dream to see how Photoshop’s AI tool Firefly stacked up against an actual real-world scenario. Based on reports of Amazon hiring 67% more workers for this year’s holiday rush as compared to last year, she used Firefly to reconfigure a warehouse floor to account for an influx of brown boxes.
Things went well in our fake warehouse at first, until they didn’t—and in a way Lucille Ball probably never imagined. Check out Gabby’s full Firefly journey.
For a look at another increasingly complicated logistics matter, check out our latest Weekend Brief, which this week looked at the lengthier, twistier supply chains crisscrossing the world. The Weekend Brief is for our paid members, and delivers an analysis about the issues affecting the global economy, every Saturday.
Members also get our Sunday Reads email, with the best articles from Quartz and elsewhere to get your week started right! You can get both by becoming a member—and take 20% off!
Our best wishes for a very human day. Send any news, comments, cardboard boxes, and to [email protected]. Reader support makes Quartz available to all—become a member. Today’s AI in Focus Daily Brief was brought to you by Michelle Cheng, Morgan Haefner, Gabriela Riccardi, and Susan Howson.