THE A.I. ERA BEGINS RIGHT NOW

Konrad and Cai discuss the artificial intelligence (AI) era. Previously, AI had existed in three realms. The first was academic: A seminal paper demonstrating the power of neural networks, a key underpinning of GPT and other large language models (so named because they can scan, translate and generate text) was published more than a decade ago. The second was demonstrative: Deep Blue created an arms race of stunts, with Alphabet's DeepMind unit ultimately creating juggernauts in chess and the ancient board game Go. The third was incremental: apps like Gmail, which works without AI but is better with features such as autocomplete. What none of these had was the magic of playing with the technology firsthand that made Stability such a breakthrough. Now, generative AI has exploded. As Stability proliferated, OpenAI had already decided to shelve ChatGPT to concentrate on domain-focused alternatives, saving the interface for a bigger later release.