AI Miners are Powering Telsa's Next Fleet

PLUS: Microsoft Bids Bye to AI Ethics Board

Morning brains,

Today we’re digging underground, mourning Microsoft’s ethical experts being sent home, and looking at new therapists priced at $0/hour.

This is Bot Eat Brain and you’re reading your daily munch of AI News.

Here’s what we’ve got:

  • Miners are using AI to find EV batteries🔋

  • Microsoft axes ethics team as tech layoffs continue🦸

  • AI Therapists are here, and they’re here to stay 🤖

FEATURE

AI Miners Hunting Lithium Batteries🔋

As demand for EV cars continues to boom and self-driving cars get closer to mainstream adoption, lithium batteries are in hot demand with a $12 trillion market gap💵.

But Lithium’s also really difficult to find and make good cells from, which is why the industry’s biggest players are now looking to AI for help.

KoBold Metals chopper scanning for Lithium

So how’s it work? Imagine a bunch of really smart AI bots sitting around a table, trying to come up with the perfect lithium alloy. They're running simulations, analyzing data, and arguing over the best combination of metals.

When they settle on the perfect blend, they create alloys that are stronger, lighter, and more durable than anything we've ever seen before.

With the help of their geological predictive models then, scientists get to pinpoint vast ore deposits without ever having to pick up a shovel.

KoBold Metals’ predictive model, for example, uses data points from 100+ years of scanning. It follows up by tagging potential areas of high ore concentration before real people discover deposits and get drilling.

Our Prediction🔮: Complex predictive models powered by AI (that we don’t even understand) are going to take over most industries by the end of the decade.

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IN OTHER NEWS

Microsoft Lays off AI Ethics Experts🫂

This week, Meta and Microsoft concluded another wave of layoffs as big tech continues to brace itself for slow revenue growth, axing 10,000 employees each.

In the list of employees let go, was Microsoft’s entire suite of AI ethics experts.

Naturally, the move has left people concerned about what this means for the implications of the company's future AI products.

While Microsoft still has an Office of Responsible AI, employees say the ethics and society team played a critical role in ensuring that responsible principles were actually reflected in the AI products that shipped.

Microsoft says that it’s still committed to developing with caution, even without a dedicated team to oversee the process. In other news, the company has replaced its fire extinguishers with bowls of water and a note saying ‘please don't set the building on fire.’

Our Take: We get it. Sometimes, big organizations have to say no. But with its increasing investment in AI, Microsoft needs to do a far better job outlining how it’s stopping its bots from going rogue and placing our brains on their menus.

A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA

The Rise of AI Therapists 🤖

The future of therapy is looking a little less human and a little more robotic as startups like SarahTheTherapist and Koko are using OpenAI’s GPT models to democratize mental health access for thousands of people at $0/hour.

Bots like Sarah even claim to detect emotions and react accordingly - calming you down with white beach sounds when the bot sees you crying and hyping you up when you’re feeling more cheery.

They’re early-stage prototypes today, but more complex versions of these bots are going to be free of interpersonal bias and undue wait-times.

Why It Matters: There is a conversation to be had about new risks and the parasocial danger of digital imposters. In the meantime though, AI therapists are going to take over the industry fast (and they won’t be judging us for ordering takeout multiple nights in a row).

YOUR DAILY MUNCH 😋

Startup News

ChatGPT Killers: AI-powered startup “Together” is developing open-source chatbot kits that look to rival GPT-4.

Adept AI: Startup building an AI bot that can take the steering wheel with your computer’s interface just raised $350 Million.

Research

Microsoft’s MathPrompter: use large learning models for complex mathematical reasoning.

AI Relighting: use neural networks to create realistic lighting and compositions for 3D scenes.

Tools

Chat Thing: Turn Notion Workspaces into specialized AI chatbots.

Khanmigo: Khan Academy’s AI-powered learning guide.

Social Bee: Get AI-generated Social Media posts in seconds. For free.

Today's AI-Generated Art Show 🖌️


Until next time 🤖😋🧠

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