AI for Pros Newsletter
October 9, 2023
Enterprise News
Accenture arming 250,000 with AI A quarter of a million people: that’s more than the population of Richmond, Virginia or seven St. Charles, Illinoises. That’s a lotta tools and training. Accenture is again on the front-foot, as they were with prior market shifts to Digital & Cloud. Their competitors are also moving fast, as the top 10 firms in the IT services industry have collectively committed roughly $17 billion of investment on AI. This space will certainly be an epicenter of AI-based automation and innovation, as the economic incentives are simply too high. We’ll keep you updated on specifically what areas are hot (hint: code generation, design and data) and what specific tools are being used. In the meantime, here’s a good overview on the pace of investment from CNBC: |
NOTABLE PRODUCT INTROS
Amazon’s AI waters now run deep A big question over the past several months has been “What’s Amazon’s AI play?” We now have concrete answers. This past week AWS announced general availability for Bedrock, providing individuals and companies with a fully managed service to make it easier to build and scale GenAI applications. Highlights of the GA release include:
This release comes on the heels of Amazon’s $4 billion investment in Anthropic, setting up a Godzilla Vs. Rodin-scale clash against ChatGPT/OpenAI/Microsoft. |
WHERE SOFTWARE IS EATING WORK
Disappearing designers and artists As we worry about the impact of AI on software devs, writers and consultants, it seems the job-eating wave is already crashing over the design and art communities. Web designer gigs and associated compensation have started to plummet in the past several months as a result of AI. Similarly, something of a panic is taking place in the commercial art space as image generators such as Dall-E and Stable Diffusion are going mainstream. As one freelance artist put it, “My work has been stolen before, but this is a new kind of violating feeling that I haven’t felt before.” |
Tool of the Week
| Gamma AI |
Another presentation to start from scratch? So many hours lost. What if you had your first draft completed in seconds, with the right structure and sequence of slides, key points, and stunning visuals? Check out Gamma (and watch their introductory video) and liberate yourself from PowerPoint purgatory. |
AI JOBS: Content Editor
Humans checking the machines
Freelance postings for AI Content Editors have skyrocketed more than 10,000% this year, according to Fiverr. These roles pay about $100 to $125 per hour in the US for those who can take robotic-sounding first drafts of GenAI output and put a human touch to the communication
AI AND HARDWARE
AR/VR finally getting over the Apple Newton syndrome? Some readers may remember the saga of the Apple Newton PDA and John Sculley (the then CEO of Apple). A remarkable case of “right idea, wrong timing.” The Newton could have had the impact of the iPhone but the supporting technologies simply weren’t ready. The product was DOA. Might this have been the case over the past decade for AR/VR? (Remember “glassholes” wearing their Google Glass?) Yet the promise of AR/VR may finally come to fruition with GenAI. A must-read piece on this from Stratechery. |
AND ONE MORE THING....
| Managing your AI anxiety |
You already had enough to worry about: political upheaval, culture wars, global warming. And now the (potentially more personal and tangible) prospect of AI taking your livelihood away. Scientific American weighed in this week from a psychological perspective. In short, if you’re feeling anxious over AI you’re certainly not alone, and there are coping strategies. |