The Rise of Generative AI: Revolutionizing Innovation and Enhancing Human Collaboration

Alexander Loth speaking at German Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) on March 24, 2023.
The Rise of Generative AI (photo by Bernd Vellguth)

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting a talk for the German Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The session sparked lively discussions and elicited numerous thought-provoking questions from our engaged audience.

Following the talk, I was inspired by a conversation to leverage the power of GPT-4 and create an automatically generated summary of the Microsoft Teams transcript. This approach not only streamlines information sharing but also showcases the practical applications of advanced AI technology.

Below, I will share the key insights generated by GPT-4 and also include some captivating images from the event:


In my talk, I drew inspiration from my book Decisively Digital, which discusses the impact of AI on society. I shared about the innovative projects underway at Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab. In light of GPT-4’s recent launch, I also highlighted our mission to leverage technology to benefit humanity.

Alexander Loth presenting his book Decisively Digital
AI’s impact on society discussed in Decisively Digital: From Creating a Culture to Designing Strategy. John Wiley & Sons. (photo by Gerhard Müller)

By harnessing Generative AI, we can stimulate the creation of innovative ideas and accelerate the pace of advancement. This cutting-edge technology is already transforming industries by streamlining drug development, expediting material design, and inspiring novel hypotheses. AI’s ability to identify patterns in vast datasets empowers humans to uncover insights that might have gone unnoticed.

For instance, researchers have employed machine learning to predict chemical combinations with the potential to improve car batteries, ultimately identifying promising candidates for real-world testing. AI can efficiently sift through and analyze extensive information from diverse sources, filtering, grouping, and prioritizing relevant data. It can also generate knowledge graphs that reveal associations between seemingly unrelated data points, which can be invaluable for drug research, discovering novel therapies, and minimizing side effects.

“Now is the time to explore how Generative AI can augment our thinking and facilitate more meaningful interactions with others.”

At the AI for Good Lab, we are currently employing satellite imagery and generative AI models for damage assessment in Ukraine, with similar initiatives taking place in Turkey and Syria for earthquake relief. In the United States, our focus is on healthcare, specifically addressing discrepancies and imbalances through AI-driven analysis.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion centers on fostering digital equality by expanding broadband access, facilitating high-speed internet availability, and promoting digital skills development. Additionally, we are dedicated to reducing carbon footprints and preserving biodiversity. For example, we collaborate with the NOAH organization to identify whales using AI technology and have developed an election propaganda index to expose the influence of fake news. Promising initial experiments using GPT-4 showcase its potential for fake news detection.

Alexander Loth: "We live in a rapidly changing world, facing big challenges."
“We live in a rapidly changing world, facing big challenges.” (photo by Gerhard Müller)

While ChatGPT currently cannot crawl websites directly, it is built upon a training set of crawled data up to September 2021. In the near future, the integration of plugins will empower ChatGPT to perform real-time website crawling, enhancing its ability to deliver relevant, up-to-date information, and sophisticated mathematics. This same training set serves as the foundation for the GPT-4 model.

GPT-4 demonstrates remarkable reasoning capabilities, while Bing Chat offers valuable references for verifying news stories. AI encompasses various machine learning algorithms, including computer vision, statistical classifications, and even software that can generate source code. A notable example is the Codex model, a derivative of GPT-3, which excels at efficiently generating source code.

Microsoft has a long-standing interest in AI and is dedicated to making it accessible to a wider audience. The company’s partnership with OpenAI primarily focuses on the democratization of AI models, such as GPT and DALL-E. We have already integrated GPT-3 into Power BI and are actively developing integrations for Copilot across various products, such as Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and Teams. Microsoft Graph is a versatile tool for accessing XML-based objects in documents and generating results using GPT algorithms.

Hardware, particularly GPUs, has played a pivotal role in the development of GPT-3. For those interested in experimenting with Generative AI on a very technical level, I recommend Stable Diffusion, which is developed by LMU Munich. GPT-3’s emergence created a buzz, quickly amassing a vast user base and surpassing the growth of services like Uber and TikTok. Sustainability remains a crucial concern, and Microsoft is striving to achieve a CO2-positive status.

Despite its potential, GPT-3 has also garnered criticism due to its dual-use nature and potential negative societal repercussions. Some concerns include the possibility of automated hacking, photo manipulation, and the spread of fake news. To ensure responsible AI development, numerous efforts are being undertaken to minimize reported biases in the GPT models. By actively working on refining algorithms and incorporating feedback from users and experts, developers can mitigate potential risks and promote a more ethical and inclusive AI ecosystem.

Moving forward, it is essential to maintain open dialogue and collaboration between AI developers, researchers, policymakers, and users. This collaborative approach will enable us to strike a balance between harnessing the immense potential of AI technologies like GPT and ensuring the protection of society from unintended negative consequences.

Alexander Loth is discussing Microsoft‘s responsible AI principles: fairness, reliability & safety, privacy & security, and inclusiveness, underpinned by transparency and accountability.
Microsoft‘s responsible AI principles: fairness, reliability & safety, privacy & security, and inclusiveness, underpinned by transparency and accountability. (photo by Gerhard Müller)

GPT-3.5 closely mimics human cognition. However, GPT-4 transcends its forerunner with its remarkable reasoning capabilities and contextual understanding. GPT models leverage tokens to establish and maintain the context of the text, ensuring coherent and relevant output. The GPT-4-32K model boasts an impressive capacity to handle 32,000 tokens, allowing it to process extensive amounts of text efficiently. To preserve the context and ensure the continuity of the generated text, GPT-4 employs various strategies that adapt to different tasks and content types.

One of GPT-4’s defining features is its robust foundation in common sense reasoning. This attribute significantly contributes to its heightened intelligence, enabling the AI model to generate output that is not only coherent but also demonstrates a deep understanding of the subject matter. As GPT-4 continues to evolve and refine its capabilities, it promises to revolutionize the field of artificial intelligence, expanding the horizons of what AI models can achieve and paving the way for future breakthroughs in the realm of generative AI.

Comparisons between GPT-4 and GPT-3 show the superior performance of the former in various tasks. Finally, I will present the results of my live Twitter poll asking the audience about the feasibility of achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Nearly half of the respondents are of the opinion that AGI is achievable within the next five years.

Alexander Loth discussing the results of the live Twitter survey: 47.8% predict the emergence of AGI is possible within the next 5 years
Results of the live Twitter survey: 47.8% predict the emergence of AGI is possible within the next 5 years (photo by Bernd Vellguth)

In the near future, advanced tools like ChatGPT will elucidate intricate relationships without requiring us to sift through countless websites and articles, further amplifying the transformative impact of Generative AI.

I appreciate the opportunity to share my insights at the German Chapter of the ACM.


The slides of my talk are available on ResearchGate.

Did you enjoy this GPT-generated summary of my talk?

Leveraging GPT-4 to generate a summary of my talk was an exciting experiment, and I have to admit, the results are impressive. GPT was able to provide a brief overview of the key takeaways from my talk.

Now, I would love to hear about your experiences with GPT. What are your experiences with GPT so far? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this LinkedIn post:

GPT-4 Launches Today: The Rise of Generative AI from Neural Networks to DeepMind and OpenAI

GPT-4 launch illustrated with Stable Diffusion (CC BY-SA 4.0)
GPT-4 launch illustrated with Stable Diffusion (CC BY-SA 4.0)

With today’s launch of OpenAI’s GPT-4, the next generation of its Large Language Model (LLM), generative AI has entered a new era. This latest model is more advanced and multimodal, meaning GPT-4 can understand and generate responses based on image input as well as traditional text input (see GPT-4 launch livestream).

Generative AI has rapidly gained popularity and awareness in the last few months, making it crucial for businesses to evaluate and implement strategies across a wide range of industries, including e-commerce and healthcare. By automating tasks and creating personalized experiences for users, companies can increase efficiency and productivity in various areas of value creation. Despite being in development for decades, it’s high time for businesses to apply generative AI to their workflows and reap its benefits.

Before you dive into GPT-4, let’s take a quick look back at the evolution of generative AI…

The history of generative AI begins in the late 1970s and early 1980s when researchers began developing neural networks that mimicked the structure of the human brain. The idea behind this technology was to assemble a set of neurons that could pass information from one to another with some basic logic, and together the network of neurons could perform complicated tasks. While minimal advances were made in the field, it remained largely dormant until 2010, when Google pioneered deep neural networks that added more data, hardware, and computing resources.

In 2011, Apple launched Siri, the first mass-market speech recognition application. In 2012, Google used the technology to identify cats in YouTube videos, finally reviving the field of neural networks and AI. Both Google and NVIDIA invested heavily in specialized hardware to support neural networks. In 2014, Google acquired DeepMind, which built neural networks for gaming. DeepMind built AlphaGo, which went on to defeat all the top Go players, a pivotal moment because it was one of the first industrial applications of generative AI, which uses computers to generate human-like candidate moves.

In 2015, OpenAI was founded to democratize AI and was established as a non-profit organization. In 2019, OpenAI released GPT-2, a large-scale language model capable of producing human-like text. However, GPT-2 sparked controversy because it could produce fake news and disinformation, raising concerns about the ethics of generative AI.

In 2021, OpenAI launched DALL-E, a neural network that can create original, realistic images and art from textual description. It can combine concepts, attributes, and styles in novel ways. A year later, Midjourney was launched by the independent research lab Midjourney. Also in 2022, Stable Diffusion, an open-source machine learning model developed by LMU Munich, was released that can generate images from text, modify images based on text, or fill in details in low-resolution or low-detail images.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022 as a fine-tuned version of the GPT-3.5 model. It was developed with a focus on enhancing the model’s ability to process natural language queries and generate relevant responses. The result is an AI-powered chatbot that can engage in meaningful conversations with users, providing information and assistance in real-time. One of the key advantages of ChatGPT is its ability to handle complex queries and provide accurate responses. The model has been trained on a vast corpus of data, allowing it to understand the nuances of natural language and provide contextually relevant responses.

Today’s launch of GPT-4 marks a significant milestone in the evolution of generative AI!

This latest model, GPT-4, is capable of answering user queries via text and image input. The multimodal model demonstrates remarkable human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks, indicating the potential for widespread adoption and use. One of the most significant features of GPT-4 is its ability to understand and process image inputs, providing users with a more interactive and engaging experience.

Users can now receive responses in the form of text output based on image inputs, which is a massive step forward in the evolution of AI. Depending on the model used, a request can use up to 32,768 tokens shared between prompt and completion, which is the equivalent of about 49 pages. If your prompt is 30,000 tokens, your completion can be a maximum of 2,768 tokens.

Token Limits of GPT Models
Token limitations of GPT models with real-world scenarios

Bing has already integrated GPT-4 and offers both chat and compose modes for users to interact with the model. With the integration of GPT-4, Bing has significantly enhanced its capabilities to provide users with more accurate and personalized search results, making it easier for them to find what they are looking for.

The disruptive potential of generative AI is enormous, particularly in the retail industry. The technology can create personalized product recommendations and content, and even generate leads, saving sales teams time and increasing productivity. However, the ethical implications of generative AI cannot be ignored, particularly in the creation of disinformation and fake news.

To sum up, generative AI is here to stay, and companies must evaluate and implement strategies swiftly. As generative AI technology advances, so do the ethical concerns surrounding its use. Therefore, it is critical for companies to proceed with caution and consider the potential consequences of implementing generative AI into their operations.

Are you already using generative AI for a more productive workflow?

What improvement do you expect from GPT-4 in this regard? I look forward to reading your ideas in the comments to this LinkedIn post:

Authenticity in Photography: Samsung’s Moon Shots Controversy and the Ethics of Synthetic Media

Side-by-side comparison of the original capture and the synthesized version
Side-by-side comparison of the original capture and the synthesized version: Generative AI technology adds texture and details on moon shots, blurring the line between real and synthesized images.

Generative AI has made waves around the world with its ability to create images, videos, and music that are indistinguishable from human-made content. But what happens when this technology is applied to photography, and the images we capture on our devices are no longer entirely real?

While Samsung claims that no overlays or texture effects are applied, a recent Reddit post suggests otherwise. The post provides evidence that Samsung’s moon shots are “fake” and that the camera actually uses AI/ML to recover/add the texture of the moon to the images.

The use of AI in photography is not new, as many devices already use machine learning to improve image quality. But the use of generative AI to create entirely new images raises ethical questions about the authenticity of the content we capture and share – especially when the photographer is unaware that their images are being augmented with synthesized content.

What do you think about the use of generative AI in photography? Is it okay for a phone to use this technology to synthesize a photo, or is it crossing a line?

Join the conversation on LinkedIn:

Decisively Digital is the #1 Best-Selling Computers & Technology Industry Book on Amazon

Decisively Digital is an Amazon Best Seller
Decisively Digital is an Amazon Best Seller

What a great start to the new year: I am absolutely thrilled and grateful that my book, Decisively Digital, is the #1 best-selling Computers & Technology Industry book on Amazon!

When I first started writing this book, I had a strong belief in the message that I wanted to share with the world. I wanted to share my insights and experiences on how businesses can harness the power of digital technologies to drive growth and success by interviewing thought leaders from a variety of industries.

I hope that Decisively Digital will continue to inspire and empower readers to embrace the digital age and harness the full potential of technology for their own businesses and organizations. Thank you again for all of your support, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Feel free to spread the word:

Join the #bookaweekchallenge for a Chance to win a copy of Decisively Digital

Join the #bookaweekchallenge with 7 days of Decisively Digital
Join the #bookaweekchallenge with 7 days of Decisively Digital

My book Decisively Digital: From Creating a Culture to Designing Strategy (➡️Amazon) is guest at Christina Stathopoulos and her #bookaweekchallenge on LinkedIn. Join Christina as she reflects on her journey through the book with several LinkedIn posts.

Christina’s posts can be found further down this blog along with a variety of interesting comments and opinions. Feel free to join the discussion on LinkedIn! You also have the chance to participate in our raffle and win one of three copies of Decisively Digital! Good luck!

Now I’ll turn it over to Christina, who kicks off the challenge with the following introduction to Decisively Digital (day 1):

No one can argue that today’s business landscape is DIGITAL, you’ve got to stay ahead of the curve or you’ll quickly fall behind. It’s Digital or… Disappear.

Jam-packed with insights, this book includes 24 interviews with leaders of the digital revolution covering:

💻 Digital Culture & Modern Work (day 2)
📊 Data Democracy & Analytics (day 3)
☁️ Big Data Processing & Cloud Computing (day 4)
🤖 Artificial Intelligence (day 5)
📳 Process Automation, Blockchain & IoT (day 6)

Plus:

💡 Wrap-up and Raffle (day 7)
🎁 Announcement of Winners (day 8)

Day 1: 🚀 Introduction to Decisively Digital

Day 2: 💻 Digital Culture & Modern Work

Continue reading “Join the #bookaweekchallenge for a Chance to win a copy of Decisively Digital”