Weekly Review 10 January 2025
Some interesting links that I Tweeted about in the last week (I also post these on Mastodon, Threads, Newsmast, and Bluesky):The expanding use of AI in war: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/ai-driven-idf-operations-in-gaza-spark-debate-over-civilian-impact/G4J7PXUUMJFRTPHOJTK3GNLE2Q/AI is making surgical robots more capable: https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360537238/robots-are-learning-how-perform-complicated-surgery-watching-videosReturn to office mandates will fail, people don't want to spend hours of their lives every day commuting to do something they can do from home. So they'll just get new jobs: https://www.informationweek.com/it-leadership/why-most-return-to-office-mandates-will-failCriminals are more and more interested in accessing and using AI in their activities: https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/29/llm_supply_chain_attacks/AI is still being used to interfere in elections: https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/1/24333522/us-sanctions-iran-russia-election-interferenceFederated computing, where learning is carried out locally, is one approach to protecting patient privacy in applying AI to healthcare: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/02/apheris-rethinks-the-ai-data-bottleneck-in-life-science-with-federated-computing/How an AI Council can help make an organisation's AI projects successful: https://www.informationweek.com/it-leadership/building-an-ai-council-to-drive-the-2025-tech-revolutionThe energy demands of AI are now distorting local power grids: https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/29/ai-data-centers-could-be-distorting-the-us-power-grid/Of course AI will be used to manipulate people online, it's already happening and there's money to be made from doing it: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/30/ai-tools-may-soon-manipulate-peoples-online-decision-making-say-researchersSpear phishing with AI: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/01/ai-generated-phishing-emails-are-getting-very-good-at-targeting-executives/Still no word on when a tool to deny creators' content to AI companies will be available: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3630987/openai-still-hasnt-released-tools-to-deny-data-collection.htmlOpenAI releases its newest model, with more API options coming: https://devclass.com/2024/12/18/openai-releases-api-o1-model-with-function-calling-and-vision-features-previews-new-sdks-for-java-and-go/The infrastructure an organisation needs to invest in for AI: https://www.datasciencecentral.com/infrastructural-necessities-for-building-and-deploying-enterprise-scale-ai/Apple is navigating a tricky path in bringing AI to healthcare: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3630872/health-ai-how-apple-can-boost-public-health.htmlHow AI can help fight climate change in 2025: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/02/2025-will-be-the-year-climate-tech-learns-to-love-ai/Honestly I'm surprised that AI is only just now being used in dating apps, I thought it would have been applied long ago: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/30/dating-apps-prepare-to-launch-ai-features-to-help-users-find-loveElsevier is particularly bad in terms of prioritising profit over quality, but a lot of these issues are going to affect other journals, particularly the use of AI in the editorial process: https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/12/journal-editors-resign-to-protest-ai-use-high-fees-and-more/Generative AI might still be getting lots of money thrown at it, but the bigger the bubble, the bigger the bang when it bursts: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/03/generative-ai-funding-reached-new-heights-in-2024/A copper deposit identified by AI is moving towards commercial exploitation: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/02/kobold-used-ai-to-find-copper-now-investors-are-piling-in-to-the-tune-of-537m/The question is, what advantages do AI PCs have over using AI in the cloud? https://www.computerworld.com/article/3630588/ai-pcs-get-the-latest-news-and-insights.htmlThe strategies to align financial data with AI: https://www.bigdatawire.com/2025/01/03/financial-services-struggle-to-align-data-with-ai-goals/AI Instagram accounts have been left up for a long time, it seems: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/01/instagram-users-discover-old-ai-powered-characters-instantly-revile-them/Using AI to assist with budget planning: https://www.informationweek.com/machine-learning-ai/let-ai-help-you-plan-your-next-it-budgetThe 2024 AI hype index: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/31/1108640/ai-hype-index-apple-google-deepmind-openai-meta/
Some interesting links that I Tweeted about in the last week (I also post these on Mastodon, Threads, Newsmast, and Bluesky):
- The expanding use of AI in war: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/ai-driven-idf-operations-in-gaza-spark-debate-over-civilian-impact/G4J7PXUUMJFRTPHOJTK3GNLE2Q/
- AI is making surgical robots more capable: https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360537238/robots-are-learning-how-perform-complicated-surgery-watching-videos
- Return to office mandates will fail, people don't want to spend hours of their lives every day commuting to do something they can do from home. So they'll just get new jobs: https://www.informationweek.com/it-leadership/why-most-return-to-office-mandates-will-fail
- Criminals are more and more interested in accessing and using AI in their activities: https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/29/llm_supply_chain_attacks/
- AI is still being used to interfere in elections: https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/1/24333522/us-sanctions-iran-russia-election-interference
- Federated computing, where learning is carried out locally, is one approach to protecting patient privacy in applying AI to healthcare: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/02/apheris-rethinks-the-ai-data-bottleneck-in-life-science-with-federated-computing/
- How an AI Council can help make an organisation's AI projects successful: https://www.informationweek.com/it-leadership/building-an-ai-council-to-drive-the-2025-tech-revolution
- The energy demands of AI are now distorting local power grids: https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/29/ai-data-centers-could-be-distorting-the-us-power-grid/
- Of course AI will be used to manipulate people online, it's already happening and there's money to be made from doing it: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/30/ai-tools-may-soon-manipulate-peoples-online-decision-making-say-researchers
- Spear phishing with AI: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/01/ai-generated-phishing-emails-are-getting-very-good-at-targeting-executives/
- Still no word on when a tool to deny creators' content to AI companies will be available: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3630987/openai-still-hasnt-released-tools-to-deny-data-collection.html
- OpenAI releases its newest model, with more API options coming: https://devclass.com/2024/12/18/openai-releases-api-o1-model-with-function-calling-and-vision-features-previews-new-sdks-for-java-and-go/
- The infrastructure an organisation needs to invest in for AI: https://www.datasciencecentral.com/infrastructural-necessities-for-building-and-deploying-enterprise-scale-ai/
- Apple is navigating a tricky path in bringing AI to healthcare: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3630872/health-ai-how-apple-can-boost-public-health.html
- How AI can help fight climate change in 2025: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/02/2025-will-be-the-year-climate-tech-learns-to-love-ai/
- Honestly I'm surprised that AI is only just now being used in dating apps, I thought it would have been applied long ago: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/30/dating-apps-prepare-to-launch-ai-features-to-help-users-find-love
- Elsevier is particularly bad in terms of prioritising profit over quality, but a lot of these issues are going to affect other journals, particularly the use of AI in the editorial process: https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/12/journal-editors-resign-to-protest-ai-use-high-fees-and-more/
- Generative AI might still be getting lots of money thrown at it, but the bigger the bubble, the bigger the bang when it bursts: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/03/generative-ai-funding-reached-new-heights-in-2024/
- A copper deposit identified by AI is moving towards commercial exploitation: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/02/kobold-used-ai-to-find-copper-now-investors-are-piling-in-to-the-tune-of-537m/
- The question is, what advantages do AI PCs have over using AI in the cloud? https://www.computerworld.com/article/3630588/ai-pcs-get-the-latest-news-and-insights.html
- The strategies to align financial data with AI: https://www.bigdatawire.com/2025/01/03/financial-services-struggle-to-align-data-with-ai-goals/
- AI Instagram accounts have been left up for a long time, it seems: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/01/instagram-users-discover-old-ai-powered-characters-instantly-revile-them/
- Using AI to assist with budget planning: https://www.informationweek.com/machine-learning-ai/let-ai-help-you-plan-your-next-it-budget
- The 2024 AI hype index: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/31/1108640/ai-hype-index-apple-google-deepmind-openai-meta/
