AI as air traffic controller

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Today we will discuss-

• 🤩Google invests $20M in responsible AI research

• ✈️UK researchers develop AI to improve air traffic control

• 🤖AI could replace human musicians, alarms Queen's Brian May

• 🤩9 fantastic AI tools you might not have heard of

All this and more - Let's dive in!

👩‍🍳What’s cooking in the newsroom?

Google launches $20M grant program to support ethical development of AI

🫡News - Google and its philanthropic arm, Google.org have taken a new initiative named 'Digital Futures Project' which will support research on the responsible development of AI with a fund of $20 million.  

🤖What will the project focus on? The Digital Futures Project will focus on a number of important issues related to AI, such as fairness, bias, misinformation, security, and the future of work.

Google hopes to fund independent researchers who are studying how AI can be used to make the world a safer and more equitable place, and to help people prepare for the jobs of the future.

🤔How many companies have received the grant so far? Organizations that have already received grants under the fund include - Aspen Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for a New American Security, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for Security and Technology, Leadership Conference Education Fund, MIT Work of the Future, R Street Institute and SeedAI.

🧑‍🎓Any interesting point? The launch of Google's project comes at a time when the CEOs of some of the world's largest tech companies are preparing to meet for an "AI Forum" hosted by US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in Washington, D.C. on September 13. The event’s aim would be to discuss policies around artificial intelligence.

UK researchers develop AI-powered air traffic control system

📰News - UK researchers have created a computer model of air traffic control wherein AI system would be responsible for making all of the decisions about where to route aircraft, how to space them out, and when to give them clearance to take off and land.

The system, known as Project Bluebird, is a partnership between National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the Alan Turing Institute, and Exeter University. It is funded by the UK government through UK Research and Innovation.

🫣How was it trained though? The researchers used the airspace over England to train the AI systems on data from 10 million flights. Thus, making it the most complete database of its kind.

There is a plan to test the system in real life in 2026 - the researchers will let the AI agents control planes based on real-time air traffic data. If the tests are successful, the system could be used to help air traffic controllers and eventually replace them.

👩‍🏫Reasons to involve AI in air traffic control? The technology can direct aircraft along more fuel-efficient routes to reduce the environmental impact of aviation. It can help to cut delays and congestion, particularly at busy airports. It will also relieve the workload on human air traffic controllers, who take three years to train.

Queen's Brian May warns of AI's potential to disrupt music industry

📻News - Legendary guitarist Brian May has expressed concern about the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the music industry. In a recent interview, May said he believes that AI could "massively disrupt" the music scene within the next year.

🥺What’s his major concern? May is worried that the rapid development of AI in the artistic area will make it difficult to distinguish between music created by AI and humans. He believes that this could lead to a situation where AI-generated music becomes so indistinguishable from human-created music that it becomes impossible to tell the difference.

However, the musician acknowledges the potential benefits of AI. He believes that AI can be used to solve some of the world's most pressing problem. But he is of the opinion that AI also has "huge" potential to "cause evil" within "politics and world domination for various nations."

👿Conclusion - Interestingly, May is not the only musician to have expressed displeasure towards AI. Earlier this year, famous singer Dolly Parton outrightly rejected the idea of performing as a hologram during a press conference and questioned the use of AI in music.

👩🏼‍💻What else is happening?

• Over half of Americans think AI could spread misinformation for 2024 election results

• The Federal Trade Commission is setting its sights on generative AI

• We won’t cut China out of AI summit over spying scandal, UK says

• Nvidia's dominance in AI chips deters funding for startups

• Large mammography study suggests AI is equivalent to radiologists for double reading of exams

👨‍🏫Did you know?

• It is projected that self-driving cars can reduce taxi waiting time by 88% and by 2050, these cars will also be able to reduce accidents on the road by approximately 90%.

• Developed at the University of Tennessee, a robot popularly known as "Nautilus" was used to help locate Osama Bin Laden in 2011 and quickly gained recognition afterward.

• Boasting approximately 66,000 different skills, Amazon's Alexa surpasses all other voice assistants in terms of its wide array of abilities.

👩🏼‍🚒Discover mind-blowing AI tools

1. FindYourTriggers - An AI-powered journaling tool that helps users create self-awareness by identifying and processing their triggers

2. Buildshare - A tool that helps developers generate Twitter announcements for their products when they release new code

3. VideoDubber - An AI-powered tool that allows creators to translate their videos into multiple languages

4. DrugCard - An AI-enabled data intelligence platform designed to streamline drug safety routines in the pharmacovigilance industry

5. Gummy Search - Allows users to find, organize, and search communities on Reddit

6. Artisse - An innovative AI-powered photography app that allows users to create personalized and hyper-realistic self-photos

7. Drafts AI - An AI-powered SEO engine that helps users grow their website's organic traffic

8. Unreal Speech - A text-to-speech tool that offers a cost-effective solution for converting text into spoken audio

9. Avaturn - Allows developers to create realistic and customizable 3D avatars for their metaverse, game, or app

🌟Prompt engineering tips

• Be patient and open to feedback - The model is still learning, so it is important to be open to feedback. If you are not satisfied with the results, let the model know and try to provide more information or examples.

• Avoid overloading - When crafting prompts for any chatbots, try and avoid overloading prompts with too many concepts or instructions. While it's good to experiment, overloading prompts can potentially overwhelm and confuse the model, leading to less accurate responses.

• Use humor - A little bit of humor can go a long way in making your prompts more interesting and engaging. Just be careful not to use too much though, or the model may not be able to understand what you are asking.