😺 Will AI take your job?

PLUS: the 5 tools companies are using to build AI

Welcome, humans.

Today, we're diving deep into the numbers, so dust off those old TI-84 calculators from '07—the ones you preloaded with formulas for those in-class math tests!

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

  • Most people are using AI at work, but companies are still experimenting.

  • 77% of companies have started adopting AI.

  • AirBnB paid $200M for a startup to boost its AI efforts.

  • YouTube will disclose videos that include synthetic content.

Will AI take your job?! It’s not a simple yes/no…

Will AI take your job?

The Neuron's answer might be less satisfying than a simple 'yes' or 'no': it really depends.

It depends first on what your job is. AI in its current form excels at individual tasks. A Retool survey of >1,500 tech workers revealed that 88% of them are leveraging AI for:

  • code/query assistance (48%).

  • copywriting (33%).

  • debugging (32%).

  • data analysis (30%).

The good news is that most roles are more about workflows—engineers write code AND analyze data AND write emails.

So far, AI has mostly boosted productivity for white-collar workers, rather than forcing them to update their LinkedIn bios to ā€œopen for workā€.

But some jobs are more single-task roles.

One study found that right after ChatGPT launched, there was a decrease in freelance writing gigs AND their pay rate.

And yes—AI will be only able to do more white-collar jobs over time. But, AI doing more of our jobs ≠ widespread job loss.

A little historical context...

In 1900, 36% of the US employed population worked in agriculture. Today, that number is 1.2%, and unemployment is <4%.

Why it matters: Yes, AI will take jobs, but it’ll also create new ones. The best thing you can do today is learn how to work closely with AI in your field. (case in point: 63% of tech employers now favor folks who can code with AI rather than just knowing how to code).

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You're not alone in your AI concerns–businesses are right there with you.

Retool found that while 77% of companies have started adopting AI, most are still in the early stages.

One reason is companies don’t actually know what to use AI for—35% of companies are entering AI to ā€œkeep up with trendsā€ and 31% to ā€œkeep up with competitorsā€.

Talk about some serious FOMO!

For the ones who do know what to use it for, it’s sorta the same stuff we’ve been hearing: in-product features (30%), customer support (26%), Q&A chatbots (26%), etc.

And those companies are grappling with challenges like AI accuracy (cited by 39%), data security concerns (33%), and cost issues (28%).

It’s giving gold rush vibes: everyone’s panning for gold in the same rivers, but some days feel rocky.

The front-runners in AI integration are mostly using OpenAI’s hosted models, like GPT-4. A small minority are taking the plunge into more custom models with tools like:

  • Hugging Face (26%).

  • LangChain (18%).

  • AWS Bedrock (12%).

  • LlamaIndex (8%).

  • Weights & Biases (8%).

Around the Horn.

  • The recent evaluation ranking models on their hallucinations seemed to have its own flaws.

  • A Chinese AI startup called 01.AI reached unicorn status in <8 months and outperforms Llama on some metrics.

  • YouTube updated its AI policies to include discloses for ā€œaltered or synthetic contentā€.

  • A team made OpenAI’s speech recognition model ā€œWhisperā€ 6x faster.

Wednesday Wirings.

  1. Airbnb bought Gameplanner AI, an AI stealth startup, for ~$200M.

  2. Tabnine, a private AI coding assistant, raised $25M.

  3. Atlas, a platform to create 3D content with AI, raised $6M.

  4. Ozone, an AI-powered video editor, snagged $7M.

  5. DeepInfra, a cheap way to run AI models using an API, secured $8M.

We curated the top 27 tools you need for work in our ā€œTop Tools For Businessā€!

A Cat's Commentary.

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