Welcome to The Upgrade

Welcome to the latest edition of my weekly newsletter focused on the intersection of AI, media, and storytelling. A special welcome to my new readers from Future in Review, Stanford, Votelight and many other outstanding organizations — you’re in good company!

In today’s issue:

• The Week’s Top AI Stories 🗞️

• 👨🏼‍💻 My Online Course: AI Boost⚡️— Seats are going fast!

• 🎧 Your Audio Masterclass: My Top AI Podcast Recs

The Week’s Top AI Stories

Gen AI Tools

• Inside Apple’s Big Plan to Bring Generative AI to All Its Devices — Bloomberg

• Details of Google’s ChatGPT Competitor, Gemini, Leaked — Bedros Pamboukian (Medium)

• Amazon brings conversational AI to kids with launch of ‘Explore with Alexa’ — TechCrunch

  

  Amazon Echo Dot brings kids conversational AI. Credit: Amazon

• Riley Reid Launches Site for Adult Performers to Create AI Versions of Themselves — Futurism

Regulation & Policy

• White House to unveil sweeping AI executive order next week — The Washington Post

• AI Experts Call For Policy Action to Avoid Extreme Risks — TIME

• UK risks scandal over ‘bias’ in AI tools in use across public sector — The Guardian (Opinion)

Ethics & Safety

• Google Bard AI appears to be censoring Israel-Palestine prompt responses — VentureBeat

• AI-generated child sexual abuse images could flood the internet. Now there are calls for action — The AP

• These Prisoners Are Training AI — WIRED

Privacy & Security

• This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI — MIT Technology Review

• FCC aims to investigate the risk of AI-enhanced robocalls — Tech Crunch

Legal & Copyright

• Google's new image verification tool combs metadata to find context and sniff out AI fakes — Engadget

• Universal Music sues AI startup for copyright infringement over song lyrics — CNBC

In the Workplace

• Will generative AI transform business? — The Financial Times

• Every American corporation will be transformed by A.I., says Dyanmic Funds' Noah Blackstein — CNBC

Spots are filling up for my online course!

AI Boost for Professional Communicators and Marketers covers the essentials of Generative AI for media and marketing professionals with novice and beginner-level experience with AI tools. The live 90-minute sessions will take place on Tuesdays, Nov. 14th, 28th, and December 5th, at 7pm ET / 4pm PT. Want to level up your AI knowledge before 2024? Sign up today!

🤖 AI/Tech Podcast Recommendations 🎧

Here are some of my favorite podcast mini-series about AI! Listen to better understand how AI works, what we still don’t know, and where it may be headed.

Freakonomics: How to Think About AI (3-part Series)

• Part I: Can AI Take a Joke?

• Part II: New Technologies Always Scare Us. Is A.I. Any Different?

• Part III: A.I. Is Changing Everything. Does That Include You? 

Endless Thread (WBUR): Good Bot, Bad Bot (6-part Series)

• Part I: Mental health and bot therapy

• Part II: The future of bots in government

• Part III: Life, death and AI

• Part IV: The toxicity of Tay

• Part V: Bots that speak the language of love better than you do

• Part VI: The quest to build machines like us

Unexplainable (Vox): The Black Box (2-part Series)

• Part I: We don’t know how AI works…

• Part II: In AI We Trust?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great weekend!

If you liked this edition, please share it with someone who might enjoy reading it. 📧 

Don’t be shy—hit reply if you have thoughts or feedback. I’d love to connect with you!

Until next week,

Peter

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