James Wang’s Student Portfolio for Programming & Robotics 8/9 2023/2024.
Note: Blocks containing embed code will be on the post, as this is a step required for the website to work.
OBS Walkthrough
The Future, Too Early: The Humane Ai Pin
The Humane Ai Pin, released in early 2024 after being announced on November 10, has made waves in the technology industry. Humane’s pilot project, the Ai Pin, is a small wearable device that is meant to take the place of a smartphone. It has a small projector that can project onto your hands but mostly operates through speech. The device, costing $950 CAD, is backed by Sam Altman and OpenAI and uses ChatGPT to back the AI the pin relies on. The Ai Pin still has several features locked and “coming soon”, and has seen issues with limited functionality and slow response times (as the AI has to go to the Cloud to generate responses).
Read My Opinion
I think that the Human Ai Pin is simply put, a device that seriously lacks basic capabilities. It’s camera is low quality, it is plagued by slow response times, is often incorrect, has terrible battery life and can’t access many everyday apps. If the Human Ai Pin is meant to replace a smartphone, I should be able to order Doordash or communicate with my friends through Instagram. The Ai Pin doesn’t let me do that right now. The Humane Ai Pin was made to communicate with large language models – not apps. Even then, it doesn’t do it very well, with some responses being blatantly wrong. Additionally, note that the pin is expensive. For $950, I can get smartphones with pretty high specifications. If the pin was $200, I would consider the limited functionality to be more acceptable, however, the pin is comparable to other phones. That’s the nail in the coffin. Why spend a thousand dollars on a pin with limited functionality when I can just take my phone out and access a much better experience? The Ai Pin is trying to use the technology of the future in our present day, and this ambitious attitude creates a product that is fundamentally flawed.
ChatGPT-4o: What’s in Store?
On May 14th, 2024, ChatGPT parent company OpenAI released its newest version of its popular generative AI service, ChatGPT. Called GPT-4o, for Omni, OpenAI’s newest flagship model, costing $20 CAD per month for users, has shown the unprecedented speeds at which generative AI has developed. GPT-4o has the ability to go beyond just texting, it now has the ability to interpret audio and use vision like never before. In demonstration videos posted by OpenAI, you can see popular figures like Sal Khan interacting and learning things like Mathematics via ChatGPT’s audio functions. The plethora of videos posted by OpenAI have garnered millions of views combined and show the GPT-4o’s unprecedented ability to prepare individuals for interviews, sing, or tell dad jokes – all in a conversational and audio-based format. The real-life nature of the voice has raised concerns about online safety.
GPT-4o has not come without controversy however, with popular actress Scarlett Johansson claiming that one of its voices mimicked her likeness. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has vowed that the voice does not mimic her, however has said that the company will discontinue the usage of the voice.
Read My Opinion
As a subscriber to GPT-4o, I am surely biased in favour of ChatGPT. I totally believe that AI is our future and its time to adapt. However, that does not mean I am not aware of the threats it poses to our safety. Generative AI and its unprecedented rate of growth threatens our safety online through things like fraud and misinformation. I think that Artificial Intelligence needs to be open to growth and innovation, as it is our future. However, governments need to pass restrictions and guidelines to ensure the growth of these platforms does not outpace our security features. AI is a wonderful tool, but it is also a devastating one when it gets into the wrong hands.
