Issue #5 - You are not going to use 19 years of Gmail conversations to create an AI clone of my personality, are you?

March 24, 2023
Free Edition
In This Issue
  • Somebody has a copy of everything you said in the last few years and could eventually create an AI clone of you
  • Non-tech people start to realize that AI can do a better job than their worst employees
  • OpenAI researchers take a look at the job market and say “uh-oh”
  • In 1980, the US employed 750,000 typists
  • Middle managers and executives: your days are numbered
  • When you feel like you are falling in love with AI you should really have a cold shower
  • Anthropic’s Claude AI is in charge of the jokes this week

P.s.: This week’s Splendid Edition of Synthetic Work is titled The Perpetual Garbage Generator and it’s focused on how AI is impacting the Publishing industry.

The Splendid Edition of Synthetic Work is a weekly report written by a former Fortune 1000 tech executive and Gartner analyst on:

  • how your peers are using AI in your industry (Education, Finance, Government, Health Care, Media & Entertainment, Tech, etc.)
  • what are life-changing AI tools that can enhance your productivity at work (tested or used by me personally)
  • why and when to use specific techniques (like prompting) to improve your interaction with the AI
  • how you can use AI to perform tasks that matter in your profession
If it sounds interesting, consider a paid membership (or upgrading your existing membership): https://synthetic.work/subscribe
Intro

First monthiversary of Synthetic Work. I’m blown away by the number of people the subscribed (both the Free Edition and the Splendid Edition).

You have really good taste.

So, thank you to all the moms of all the people that have subscribed. You have gossiped about this newsletter well beyond my expectations.

And given that we are talking about this: the Discord server I set up for the paying members of Synthetic Work is slowly coming alive. That’s my biggest joy. To see like-minded people coming together and discussing what’s in the newsletter or sharing ideas on the new things that emerge every day.

That is so cool. Or, as I’m told teenagers here in the UK say now: “Cold.”

(now you see why large language models are still struggling)

If I’ll have a chance, and it’s financially sustainable, I plan to offer a GPT-4 bot for all the Discord members. And maybe, with time, other AI models, too.

Synthetic Work seems the appropriate neutral territory where to experiment with text/image/video/audio/music generation.

First, we need to wait for OpenAI to unlock the new API and allow us to use the version of GPT-4 that has the new outsized memory (“context window” in technical jargon).

Alessandro

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