🚕 Uber gets intuitive

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Greetings, fellow humans. 👋

This is Not A Bot - the newsletter about AI that was definitely not written by AI. I’m Haroon, CEO of Autoblocks and founder of AI For Anyone, and I share the latest news, tools, and resources from the AI space.

Happy Thursday! If you’re feeling tired this am, here’s a LeBron James quote for you: “Tired…is only in the mind. If you tell yourself you’re tired, you will be tired.”

I’m not sure if that helps at all, but hey, worth a shot.

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🧵 In today's edition:

• 🚕 Uber gets intuitive

• 🎬 Hollywood writers fight back

• 🎶 Plex launches GPT-powered playlists

• 🤑 AI Fundraising News

🤖 Top AI News

🚕 Uber gets intuitive

If there are two things we value above all else, it’s time & convenience.

Uber is making a play that might be a winner on both fronts…or be considered extremely creepy - you decide.

The rideshare company filed a patent for a technology that can predict user habits using AI. Here’s the overview:

• The app will utilize user data to predict how and when users interact with the app.

• For instance, if you go golfing every Saturday at 7 am, Uber will pick up on that and have a ride ready to go at your house by 7 am.

• The app looks at user activity and tracks personal sensor data like geolocation, barometer, and accelerometer readings, to name a few.

Yep, the data privacy alarms are going off in my head too. But this seems to be a familiar pattern:

• Visa uses AI to predict when users stop using their credit cards so they can entice them with rewards.

• Netflix uses AI to create customized ‘watch next’ recommendations. Although sometimes, they are meh at best.

Uber focusing on convenience may be the thing that pushes them to the next level, but here lies the classic dilemma - do you prioritize convenience or privacy?

Read more: Yahoo Finance

🎬 Hollywood writers fight back

Writers sit at the heart of Hollywood, but with AI’s rapid rise, they are worried about their jobs - and rightly so.

Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are going on strike this week in hopes of starting a conversation with studios re: AI’s place in Hollywood.

Their goal is simple: to regulate the use of AI in the industry. Their submitted proposal includes points like:

• Establishing a baseline pay for writers

• Ensuring that AI can’t write or rewrite literary material and can’t be used as source material

• Making sure material can’t be used to train AI models

Given how quickly chatbots have progressed, these requests aren’t outrageous. Bots can pass the bar and medical licensing exams, so assuming it can eventually threaten writers’ livelihoods is not a stretch.

Writers understand that AI can be a helpful tool, but here’s their biggest issue: Many of them are currently being asked to rewrite AI-generated content to improve quality and tone for substantially less money. This situation has obviously not gone down too well with the WGA.

So what does the future of Hollywood look like in a world with AI? Will writers have creative autonomy, or will they be paid peanuts to babysit a chatbot?

Read more: Mashable

🎶 Plex launches GPT-powered playlists

I have a confession to make - I am a serial playlist creator. I have one for every mood, every setting, and every season of every year since 2019. I may have a problem…

But, tbh, curating a playlist takes time, primarily due to lack of discoverability.

Plexamp, the music player created by PlexLabs, is attempting to make this process smoother by tapping into ChatGPT (surprise!) with its latest update: Sonic Sage.

The app lets users create their own playlist simply by describing what they want to hear in plain English. Here are some examples I’d like to try:

• “Drake when he thinks he’s British.”

• “Running away from my problems at 160mph.”

The app also offers the ability to “travel back in time to rediscover oldies” or use various DJ modes.

Lowkey, this sounds like an awesome tool.

Caveat: You need to have an OpenAI account, as well as a TIDAL subscription. Ahhh, more money, of course.

Give it a go, and tell us what you think!

Read more: TechCrunch

🤑 AI Fundraising News

AI-powered supply chain startup Pando lands $30M investment

OpenEnvoy raises $15M to Grow AP Automation Solution

🗞️ Byte size: AI article summaries

Disclaimer: AI is (partially) used to summarize these articles.

Databricks acquires AI-centric data governance platform Okera [TechCrunch] - Databricks has announced its purchase of AI-focused data governance platform Okera, which uses an AI-powered system to classify, tag, and apply rules to personally identifiable information with a focus on metadata using a no-code interface. (Read more)

Meta warns Facebook users about malware disguised as ChatGPT [Mashable] - Meta warns Instagram and Whatsapp users about malware disguised as ChatGPT, which forces users to install spyware after downloading malicious browser extensions that seem to offer AI chatbot functionality. Once downloaded, bad actors can take control of accounts and bypass security measures. Be careful, everyone! (Read more)

🐦️ Tweet of the day

If you ever need to summarize huge texts, here is an excellent tool 📚

And that does it for today's issue.

As always, thanks for reading. Have a great day, and see you next time! ✌️

— Haroon: (definitely) Not A Robot and @haroonchoudery on Twitter