Welcome to The Upgrade

Welcome to my weekly newsletter, which focuses on the intersection of AI, media, and storytelling. A special welcome to my new readers from Black Crow AI, Capital One, Grindstone Agency, and many other top organizations — you’re in good company!

In today’s issue:

• 🗞️ The Week’s Top AI Stories

• 💡Perspective: 1 Year of ChatGPT! 🎊

• 🗓️ January AI Fundamentals Course Now Open! 🎓

• 🎙️The Big Interview: Brand Strategist Miles Hanson on AI in Brand Marketing, and What Gets Lost in the Process

The Week’s Top AI Stories

Open AI: The Aftermath of the CEO Drama

• OpenAI officially announces Sam Altman has returned as CEO & Microsoft gains a non-voting board seat — CNN

• Interview: Sam Altman on being fired and rehired by OpenAI — The Verge

• OpenAI chaos not about AI safety, says Microsoft boss — BBC

• OpenAI’s Custom Chatbots Are Leaking Their Secrets — WIRED

Regulation & Policy

• Klobuchar: OpenAI chaos signals need for regulation — Axios

• AI legal framework needs to promote innovation, senior Google executive says — Reuters

• California Will Temper AI Policy by Studying Industry Impact — Bloomberg Law

Ethics & Safety

• Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers — Futurism

• Doom, Inc.: The well-funded global movement that wants you to fear AI — The Logic

• AI like ChatGPT is generating a mammoth increase in malicious phishing emails — CNBC

Legal & Copyright

• Famous authors' lawsuit against ChatGPT developer gets underway — ABC News

• Artists take new shot at Stability, Midjourney in updated copyright lawsuit — Reuters

In the Workplace

• Amazon Introduces Q, an A.I. Chatbot for Companies — The New York Times

• Two-thirds of Americans say AI could do their job — FOX Business

• AI should make the 4-day work week possible for millions of workers. The question is whether they’ll use the free time for leisure—or more work — Fortune

💡Perspective: One Year of ChatGPT!

OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, and it’s been a wild year since its release. I remember reading the launch-related headlines while on a reporting trip. It seemed too bizarre to be real: an AI-powered chatbot? What did that even mean? I had to know… After returning home several days later, I joined the platform and immediately began kicking the tires on the free research preview of GPT 3.5. Much has changed since then for OpenAI!

The launch heralded a new era in the industry, marked by rapid user growth and widespread adoption. By January 2023, ChatGPT was attracting 13 million daily users, a testament to its widespread appeal. It now boasts over 100 million weekly active users. ChatGPT's success has been primarily attributed to its user-friendly interface, which suddenly made sophisticated AI technology accessible to a broader audience. Its lightning-fast product development has only added to the public intrigue surrounding the company, whose CEO, Sam Altman, was launched from Silicon Valley acclaim to global stardom.

That said, ChatGPT's journey hasn't been without its challenges. The technology has raised concerns about disinformation and fraud, highlighting the ethical complexities and potential risks associated with AI. Its use of copyrighted materials in its datasets, which are shrouded in secrecy but consist of most of the accessible internet, is highly controversial and the subject of various high-profile lawsuits.

Adding to the drama of OpenAI's tumultuous year was the unexpected firing of CEO Sam Altman earlier this month. The exact cause of his sudden dismissal is still unclear and, despite public statements to the contrary, appears to reflect an internal divide regarding AI safety within the company. It serves as a reminder that the industry is still in its infancy, ​​and its future filled with uncertainty. Nonetheless, 2023 has been the year of AI, largely due to ChatGPT.

Here's a detailed timeline of key developments and events in ChatGPT's first year:

November 30, 2022: OpenAI introduces ChatGPT, using GPT-3.5 as part of a free research preview​​.

December 15, 2022: ChatGPT receives general performance enhancements and new features for managing conversation history​​.

January 9, 2023: Improvements in factuality for ChatGPT, and a new feature added to halt response generation mid-conversation​​.

February 1, 2023: ChatGPT Plus, a premium subscription option, is announced, offering less downtime and access to new features​​.

February 7, 2023: Microsoft announces ChatGPT-powered features coming to Bing​​.

February 9, 2023: A faster Turbo version is introduced to Plus users​​

February 13, 2023: Updates to free plan’s performance and the international availability of ChatGPT Plus​​.

March 1, 2023: Launch of ChatGPT API for developers to integrate ChatGPT functionality in their applications​​.

March 14, 2023: OpenAI releases GPT-4 in ChatGPT and Bing, promising better reliability, creativity, and problem-solving skills​​.

March 14, 2023: Anthropic launches Claude, a ChatGPT alternative​​.

March 20, 2023: A major ChatGPT outage affects all users for several hours​​.

March 21, 2023: Google launches Bard, its ChatGPT alternative​​

March 23, 2023: OpenAI begins rolling out ChatGPT plugin support, including Browsing and Code Interpreter​​.

March 31, 2023: Italy bans ChatGPT for collecting personal data and lacking age verification during registration​​.

April 25, 2023: OpenAI adds new ChatGPT data controls, allowing users to choose which conversations are included in training data for future GPT models​​.

April 28, 2023: ChatGPT service resumes in Italy after OpenAI meets the Italian Garante's demands​​.

May 3, 2023: Users gain the ability to turn off chat history and export data​​.

May 12, 2023: Early access to experimental web browsing and third-party plugins for Plus users​​.

May 15, 2023: Launch of the ChatGPT iOS app, allowing users to access GPT-3.5 for free, with ChatGPT Plus users able to switch between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4​​.

May 16, 2023: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appears in a Senate subcommittee hearing on AI oversight, discussing the need for AI regulation​​.

May 23, 2023: Microsoft announces that Bing will power ChatGPT web browsing​​.

May 24, 2023: Pew Research Center releases data showing that 59% of American adults know about ChatGPT, with only 14% having tried it​​.

May 25, 2023: OpenAI, Inc. launches a program to award $100,000 grants to researchers for developing a democratic system for determining AI rules​​.

May 31, 2023: ChatGPT Plus users can access over 200 ChatGPT plugins​​.

July 6, 2023: The Code Interpreter feature is released in beta to Plus users, expanding the functional capabilities of ChatGPT.

July 19, 2023: Plus customers receive increased message limits for GPT-4, allowing for more extensive interactions.

August 28, 2023: Launch of ChatGPT Enterprise, offering advanced features and security for enterprise users.

September 25, 2023: Beta release of voice and image input capabilities, further expanding the interactive abilities of ChatGPT.

October 16, 2023: Integration of DALL·E 3 in beta, enabling image generation from text prompts.

October 17, 2023: The browsing feature moves out of beta for Plus and Enterprise users.

November 6, 2023: Introduction of customizable versions of ChatGPT, called GPTs, at OpenAI’s DevDay, designed for specific tasks.

November 17, 2023: Sam Altman is fired as CEO of OpenAI, with Board Chair Greg Brockman resigning in protest and CTO Mira Murati appointed interim CEO​​​​ before being fired for siding with Altman.

November 20, 2023: Amidst failed negotiations with OpenAI's board and support from staff, Altman is announced to join Microsoft with a new AI research team​​. Emmett Shear is made OpenAI CEO.

November 21, 2023: After intense negotiations and OpenAI staff threatening to join Sam at Microsoft, Altman is rehired as CEO of OpenAI. A new temporary board is formed including Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo.

November 21, 2023: The voice feature in ChatGPT is made available to all users​​.

Sources: OpenAI, Search Engine Journal

Do you remember where you were when you first heard about ChatGPT? What were your first impressions? Let me know!

🗓️January AI course dates released!🎓

The first cohort of AI Fundamentals for Professional Communicators and Marketers wrapped up. It was a phenomenal cohort of media executives, brand managers, communications directors, and journalists!

Here’s what one student had to say about the course:

“I had a great experience. Peter is superb at walking through concepts and getting the students involved. I really liked that there was a strong emphasis on getting a lot of hands-on application of tools. Even if you've already been playing with AI for a while, I'd recommend his course to ensure you have a strong foundation to build on.”

— Pete Pachal, founder of Media Copilot & former tech editor at Mashable and PCMag

The next cohort starts in mid-January 2024. What are you waiting for? Let’s chat if you’d like to learn more! Email me at [email protected] or sign up for a time on my calendar.

🎙️Interview: Brand Strategist Miles Hanson

This week, I spoke with Miles Hanson, Founder & CEO of branding consultancy BrandThrive, about his perspective on AI & marketing.

Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Peter: Tell me about what you do at BrandThrive.

Miles: At BrandThrive, my role is to help brands clarify their story, strategy, and design, crafting a simple and scalable “brand ecosystem,” as I like to call it. I specialize in brand identity, strategy, and web design, ensuring that brands communicate effectively and resonate with their audience across every medium.

Peter: What AI tools have you used in your branding and marketing work?

Miles: I've used Midjourney a lot for featured images and thumbnails and stuff like that. That's been really fun because before, remember, you'd go onto Unsplash and scroll through all these images. You’d recognize a few of them. You would try to find one that fits the topic, which didn’t always work out. Now, you can create your own wild visuals from scratch, have your specific brand prompts, and stick to that. The style I’ve been playing with lately is retro or 90s colors. I don't know why, but it just keeps it a little bit more consistent instead of just random crazy photos.

I’ve also played with good old ChatGPT. I like inputting in a bunch of brand materials like a website or social copy and then asking, “What's the brand voice here?” It can help you stay on track instead of wandering off and sounding like a different brand or, you know, making an offering that's not on brand. So many people that I meet are idea people, and they're super creative. They have all these different ideas, so their brand constantly changes. It can be hard to grow a brand that way. So throwing those materials and brand-related prompts into ChatGPT to help you assess brand voice is so simple but so helpful!

Peter: What are you most excited about regarding the potential of AI in your professional workflows?

Miles: Building a second brain fascinates me in terms of AI’s potential because my brain's full all the time with so much going on in my business. I think AI has an incredible ability to hold and organize information, provide the right information, and then help you make decisions based on that.

I don't necessarily do that at this current moment, but I know that that's going to be a huge part of this tech. I'm really excited about that because there's so much information out there, and, as creatives, we don't organize it well. I'm sure if we took a journey through your or any random person's computer and how they organize things, you'd be like, how do you even find what you're looking for? It’s a mess, right? So, I feel like that's where AI has a lot of potential. I'm excited to see how that evolves.

Peter: In terms of storytelling, what are some of your ethical concerns when it comes to these new GenAI tools being widely available?

Miles: If you're using AI to replace your own thinking and your own stories, that sucks. You can tell when that happens, and that's not really helping anyone because that's just random information. But it has benefits if you're using it to augment your own story to help you tell a story more clearly, more concisely, or more persuasively. It's a supplement, you know?

As far as ethics go, I think it's gonna be really interesting. What will keep someone from having AI tell all these stories, right? How are we gonna know if this is a true story or not? But then you could argue, well, maybe it doesn't matter. A story is a story. I foresee a stamp on every piece of content that says if it’s made by AI or by a human. And if it's made by a human, I think that might increase the value. It's an interesting question that I haven't thought enough about. Things are just moving so fast!

Peter: What do you see as overhyped or underhyped now in AI and media?

Miles: At some point, we're trying to automate, streamline, and scale all the things, all the time. That’s everywhere. And it's not inherently bad, but it leads to nothing but more content and information. And you know, luckily, the algorithms try to filter out the best stuff, but the best stuff to the algorithm isn't always the best stuff for the core of humanity.

I think what's overhyped from my perspective is the automated content-at-scale mentality. You know, write a hundred posts from one prompt. That sucks. It sucks the human out of it, and a lot of times, it sucks the story out of it, and that's what really matters. That is the art, and I think art is one of the most important things that we risk losing in all this. I'd say art is underhyped because we're so focused on content. If you removed art, our society would basically crumble. I know that sounds ridiculous, but that's what I believe. And there's a lot of experts that would agree with that.

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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