AI is the hottest thing (or bubble, only time will tell). It's everywhere suddenly and nearly everyone (in tech) is trying to figure out how to contribute or how to take advantage of it. What's signal and what's noise? Or as Warren Buffett wrote in his annual newsletter, "the weeds wither away in significance while the flowers bloom."
Welcome to the March 5 Edition of The Digest.
Hallucinations are the trending thanks to the releases of GPT-4 and OpenAI's ChatGPT. Inventing information and presenting it with confidence is not exactly the advancement we've all been waiting for. But, we're optimists here.
While interactive text-based AI is still in its infancy, there is no doubt that AI will have a large impact across many industries. As Krishna Nandakumar writes, "AI will move fastest in industries that: 1) Do not require 100% accuracy, 2) Involve more "knowledge" work, [and] 3) aren't highly regulated." Healthcare is highly regulated but many predict healthcare is one of the industries must ripe for disruption. Link
What does he know that we don't? What can we learn? A few highlights:
• "It’s crucial to understand that stocks often trade at truly foolish prices, both high and low. “Efficient” markets exist only in textbooks."
• "Capitalism has two sides: The system creates an ever-growing pile of losers while concurrently delivering a gusher of improved goods and services. Schumpeter called this phenomenon 'creative destruction'."
Link to highlights. Link to archive of annual Berkshire letters on one of the best websites around.
It ultimately lost to Google but it's idea is exactly what's happening with LLMs today. Yes, another article about AI, it's everywhere and too many great conversations are happening.
Charlie Warzel writes, "But for all the hype, when I stare at these new chatbots, I can’t help but see the faint reflection of my former besuited internet manservant. In a sense, Bing and Bard are finishing what Ask Jeeves started. What people want when they ask a question is for an all-knowing, machine-powered guide to confidently present them with the right answer in plain language, just as a reliable friend would.""Yesterday’s butler has been rebranded as today’s virtual assistant, and the technology is ubiquitous in many of our home devices and phones." Link