AI treats depression

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Today we will discuss-

• 🗽NYC unveils AI action plan for responsible innovation

• 👾China's Baidu launches Ernie 4.0 to rival GPT-4

• 🩺AI chatbots may improve depression treatment

• 😱11 amazing AI tools you might not have heard of

All this and more - Let's dive in!

👩‍🍳What’s cooking in the newsroom?

New York City releases action plan for responsible use of AI technology

🤖News - On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams and Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser unveiled the "New York City Artificial Intelligence Action Plan," aiming to solidify the city's leadership in the responsible use of cutting-edge AI technologies.

The plan lays out 37 key actions, with 29 of them set to be started or completed within the next year.

✨What are some of these key actions? 

• Among others, the establishment of an AI governance framework that acknowledges AI risks such as bias and discrimination, is first on the agenda.

• The city will also set up an external advisory network to talk with stakeholders from different sectors about the opportunities and challenges brought about by AI.

• The administration will focus on developing AI knowledge and skills within the city government to ensure that city employees can effectively and responsibly engage with and contribute to AI initiatives.

• An annual AI progress report will also be published to inform the public about the city's advancements and AI implementations.

🫣What's more? As part of the new phase of the MyCity Portal, the Adams Administration is introducing the city's first AI chatbot. This chatbot aims to assist business owners in saving time and money by swiftly delivering trustworthy, actionable information from over 2,000 NYC business web pages and articles.

China’s Baidu unveils latest version of its Gen AI model Ernie to rival GPT-4

☕News - Chinese technology giant Baidu revealed Ernie 4.0, its latest generative AI model, claiming it matches the capabilities of ChatGPT maker OpenAI's GPT-4 model.

ERNIE 4.0 is now available to invited users through ERNIE Bot. Enterprise customers can request access for API testing via the Baidu Qianfan foundation model platform.

🤩What's new? Baidu's CEO, Robin Li, stated that ERNIE 4.0 has been significantly upgraded in its abilities for understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory. He emphasized that these four core abilities are the foundation of AI apps, and they create endless opportunities for new ideas and improvements.

The ERNIE Bot, driven by ERNIE 4.0, showcased these abilities by understanding and responding to complex human queries, generating diverse content like text, images, and videos from simple prompts. It also demonstrated reasoning skills by solving complex geometry problems, and displayed the memory function by continuously expanding a story with new information.

Interestingly, China stands at the second position globally with 130 large language models, making 40% of the world's total.

AI chatbots outperform doctors in following depression treatment guidelines

👨‍🔬News - According to a study conducted by a team of researchers in Israel, AI chatbots such as ChatGPT might be better at following depression treatment standards than human doctors.

The study published in the journal Family Medicine and Community Health, compared the responses of ChatGPT versions 3.5 and 4 to those of 1,249 French primary care doctors. It evaluated their responses to hypothetical patients with varying characteristics like gender, socioeconomic status, and symptoms, including mild to moderate depression.

🤓What were the findings?

• In cases of mild depression, ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4 advised psychotherapy in 95% and 97.5% of cases, while primary care doctors recommended psychotherapy in only 4.3% of cases, prescribing drugs 48% of the time and a combination of psychotherapy and medication in 32.5% of cases.

• In severe depression cases, 44.5% of doctors suggested a combination of psychotherapy and drugs, while ChatGPT 3.5 and 4 recommended this in 72% and 100% of cases, respectively.

• Regarding medication recommendations, ChatGPT-4 favored exclusive antidepressants in 74% of cases, and ChatGPT-3.5 in 68%, while human doctors preferred a combination of antidepressants and anxiolytics/hypnotics in 67.4% of cases.

😬So what's the final verdict? According to the researchers, chatbots have the potential to improve primary care decisions as they were seen to be free from gender or social class biases that are often present in human decision-making. However, additional research is necessary to improve AI recommendations for severe cases and address potential risks and ethical concerns that may arise from their use in practice.

👩🏼‍💻What else is happening?

• Florida bar weighs whether lawyers using AI need client consent

• AI could cause a financial crash within a decade, warns SEC head

• 42% of Australian businesses are using AI in e-commerce, study finds

• UK lacks necessary capital investment and computing power to lead in generative AI, say Cambridge Researchers

• YouTube introduces new AI-powered ads that let brands target special cultural moments

🍹Unusual AI use cases

• AI plant crossbreeding - AI algorithms can suggest innovative plant crossbreeding strategies to create unique species. Monsanto is a well-known agricultural biotechnology corporation that employs AI to propose novel plant cross breeding approaches, leading to the creation of new plant species with desirable traits.

• AI bartender - AI can craft unique cocktails by analyzing flavors and ingredients and also adapt drinks for themed events like sci-fi conventions. An example of this is Makr Shakr's robotic bartender, which uses AI to suggest personalized recipes.

• AI furniture design - AI algorithms can be trained to prioritize both comfort and aesthetics in furniture design. Autodesk, a renowned software company, employs AI to craft functional and creative furniture designs.

👩🏼‍🚒Discover mind-blowing AI tools

1.  Sparktrade - An AI-powered stock analysis and prediction platform that helps investors and traders make informed decisions

2. SRead - A tool that uses AI to help users read and comprehend articles and books

3. Kamoto.AI - An intuitive platform that allows users to create, train, and monetize AI characters and personalities

4. TimeToTok - An AI-powered tool that provides insights and suggestions to help TikTok creators grow their accounts

5. Zaplify - A platform that helps sales teams find relevant prospects and reach out to them automatically

6. Op - A data analysis tool that combines spreadsheets, code notebooks, and AI-code generation to make data analysis easier

7. AINiro - An AI chatbot platform that offers custom ChatGPT chatbots for various purposes such as customer service, e-commerce, and lead generation

8. Teno Chat - An intelligent Discord bot designed to join voice channels, listen, and transcribe meetings

9. Pool Planner AI - A tool that uses AI to help visualize and plan the construction of a pool in a backyard

10. Pezzo AI - An open-source platform that allows users to build, test, monitor, and deploy AI models efficiently

11. Rask.ai - An AI-powered tool that provides automated voiceover, captions, and translation services for videos

📺AI-based series

• Raised by Wolves (2020-2022) - The series is set in a distant future where Earth has been ravaged by war and religious conflicts. It follows two androids, Mother and Father, who are tasked with raising human children on a remote, desolate planet called Kepler-22b. The show challenges viewers to consider the potential for AI to play a parental and nurturing role in the survival of the human race.

• Lost in Space (2018-2021) - This show follows the story of the Robinson family, who encounter a mysterious alien robot on an unknown planet after their spaceship veers off course. The series is full of fun and surprises.

• Osmosis (2019) - It is a French science fiction series that revolves around a dating app called 'Osmosis,' that claims to find users their perfect match by a revolutionary AI algorithm. The show explores themes of love, technology, ethics, and the potential consequences of a world where people rely on algorithms to find their soulmates.