⚡ 4 AI Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity

1. 🌐 For website creation: Build stunning AI-powered websites in seconds. (link)

2. 💼 For job application: Save time and let AI apply for jobs on your behalf. (link)

3. ✍️ For summarization: Record your ideas, and watch them transform into clear summaries instantly. (link)

4. 🌟 For content creation: Make personalized video content with realistic AI avatars. (link)

🤖 3 AI Discussions That Will Change How You Think About Things

1. AI Is Starting To Scare Me

2. ChatGPT, AI, and the Crazy Future That Already Happened

3. An interview with a "free-thinking" artificial intelligence

📰 2 Must-Read AI Stories

🔏 2023 Midyear Cyber Security Report: The Effect of Generative AI Misused

Check Point Research's latest cyber threat report exposes an alarming 8% global increase in weekly cyber attacks in Q2 2023, marking the largest spike in two years. The report highlights cybercriminals blending next-gen AI with traditional tactics like USB devices to maximize impact.

Deets:

• Ransomware attacks surged, with 48 groups hitting over 2,200 victims in H1 2023.

• Criminals are weaponizing AI for phishing emails, keystroke-logging malware, and basic ransomware code generation.

• In H1 2023, Lockbit3 ransomware attacked 20% more victims than H1 2022.

• 95% of businesses have not updated security, leaving them highly vulnerable.

• Hacktivism is rising, with new group Anonymous Sudan targeting western organizations.

Takeaway: This escalation highlights AI's dual nature - promising yet perilous. Its benefits manifest only when governance and ethics lead progress. For now, generative AI looks increasingly like an alluring toy placed in the hands of spiteful toddlers. There is much work ahead.

🧠 The First Wave Of Brain Microchips

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and UC Berkeley have made a groundbreaking achievement in the realm of brain-computer technology. They have successfully enabled a paralyzed stroke survivor, named Ann, to communicate through a digital avatar using a brain implant and artificial intelligence.

Deets:

• Researchers implanted electrodes on Ann's brain to intercept speech signals. It then decoded these brain signals into words and facial expressions.

• Using a special algorithm, they were able to synthesized the woman's voice before she had an accident using a wedding recording.

• With the help of Speech Graphics software, they made the avatar move and speak like a real person. It even mimics Ann's facial expressions.

• This is the first time that speech or facial expressions have been synthesized from brain signals. And it's fast, folks, because it can decode the signals into text at 80 words per minute.

• The team aims to develop a wireless version of this AI model to enhance independence and to help more people with similar issues.

Takeaway: Will wireless chips one day monitor our thoughts? Could tech firms access our inner voices? What does it mean to be human if AI mediates how we talk?

For now, let's celebrate progress but stay vigilant. Tech this powerful demands careful ethical oversight. Our shared humanity must guide where ingenuity takes us next.

🦉 1 Insight from Ash

Last week, we delved into the ethical quandaries posed by automated mass surveillance. Today, let's talk action: How do we translate our concerns into meaningful impact?

In a world where generative AI can be both a lifesaver and a weapon, it's no longer sufficient to be passive consumers of technology. We need to be active stakeholders. From petitioning for regulations that ensure AI ethics to voting with our wallets by supporting companies with responsible AI practices, our choices matter.

Start a dialogue, question the applications, and scrutinize the ethics behind AI in your workplace, community, and home. Remember, technology itself is a tool—it's our collective responsibility to ensure it becomes an instrument for equitable progress, not a device for indiscriminate harm.

I’m saying this but honestly any consumer intervention is futile. Consumers are either too stupid or too lazy to do anything and governments / brands won’t change.

The real insight is to go rogue, create multipe identities, go off the grid, f the system.

🤩 ++More Things You Don’t Want to Miss (BONUS)

🍿 ++ Shows I’ll be watching this weekend

1. 📺 Star Wars: Ahsoka: Former Jedi knight Ahsoka Tano investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy. (link)

2. 📺 Foundation: A complex saga of humans scattered on planets throughout the galaxy all living under the rule of the Galactic Empire. (link)

3. 📺 Retribution: While driving with his two kids, a man receives a phone call from an unknown assailant who claims there is a bomb in the car. (link)

🛠️ AI Toolbox

• Subtxt: Is the always ready and massively intelligent writing partner of your dreams. (link)

• Pollinations: Use artificial intelligence to produce art. (link)

• AI Doc GPT: Fully integrated with Google Docs for easy and accessible use with a Google account. (link)

• Summary Box: State-of-the-art AI, which is capable of abstractive summaries. (link)

• Remove.bg: Remove image backgrounds automatically in 5 seconds with just one click. (link)

• DocuChat: A fast and simple way to get document answers using chatbots powered by GPT-3. (link)