Upgrading Our AI Quotient.

The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past. Edition 211.

Here is a highly curated list of resources that can help us increase our AI Quotient.

In the comments section please share resources for the generalist not a technologist (for instance GitHub or Hugging Face) you would suggest to augment those I share below

1. Ethan Mollick.

If there is a single person I would recommend reading and following to be informed about AI it is Ethan Mollick

Ethan is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship, and also examines the effects of artificial intelligence on work and education.

Here are two ways to embrace and learn from Ethan

a) His book Co-Existence which you can learn about and get from here . While every chapter is worthwhile you will not be the same after reading AI as a Creative.

b)Besides his book an absolute must is his Substack called One Useful Thing which is free to subscribe to and is available here

On speaking to AI

A good instance of how mind blowing this resource is you should click his August 1 post called “On Speaking to AI” and scroll down and listen to the very short audio clips under the section Chat GPT Voice as Agent.

Here is a second instance of how amazing his Substack is. In this exercise he uploaded to Claude 3.5 ( Anthropic’s competitor to Open AI and Gemini) the pdf of the first world war novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” and asked it to remove the squid. There is no squid in this novel but Ethan kept insisting. Click on the picture below so you can read what transpired. It will blow your mind.

These two simple exercises which will take you five minutes will probably change how you think about AI as much as any consultant deck or all day conference.

2) A16Z.

Andreessen Horowitz has some amazing resources regardless of your level of sophistication.

A key resource is the updated Top50 Gen AI Web products site which you can find here. See image below. This occasional post not only provides a list but an analysis on what is happening. For instance the rise of creative tools and significant competitors to Chat GPT.

As importantly A16z have a number of wonderful podcasts. Here is the one on AI.

3) The Essential Eight Products To Use.

Here are the 8 essential products to use for the person who is not a technologist which will allow one to both access most of the wonders of the new technologies but also stay up to date and smart about the space.

The first five would be to subscribe to the first 5 resources in the Top Gen AI Web Products List shared above.

Number 1 (ChatGPT) and number 4(Claude) are two massive LLM;s you should use for sure and if you can afford to upgrade from free to the paid version ($20 a month each). Given that AI is improving exponentially the paid levels are much more state of the art than the free versions. But if you cannot you will receive the same functionality as paid for free in about 6 to 9 months which is an indication of the leap frogging between generations and competitors.

Google paid 2.7 Billion dollars to acquihire the leaders of the Number 2 most visited product (Character.ai) and has one of them now co-running Gemini. Its a way to personalize a chat bot.

Number 3 ( Perplexity) hints at the future of search. While there is a lot of angst about copyright issues about this product we can expect many other search competitors including from OpenAI the maker of ChatGPT built on materials licensed from FT, Conde Nast and others.

Finally at number 5 (Suno) we can see a future of music creation. This company is also embroiled in copyright issues but is indicative of the direction of music creation.

In addition to these five I would recommend Number 12 (Eleven Labs) which is abut audio particularly dubbing and voice translation and Number 18 (Mid Journey) for images. A few days ago Mid Journey became much easier to use since you no longer have to have access via Discord.

Finally I would recommend using Runway ML which is not on this list to understand how AI is being used to make video including movies simply by typing in text. Watch the video below and also go to the site here and see the movies being made with this tool.

These 8 essential products cover 2 major models ( chatGPT and Claude), 2 audio models ( Suno and Eleven Labs), a search engine ( Perplexity), an image creation tool( MidJourney), a text to video tool ( RunwayML) and a character creation and customized chat friend (Character.ai)

All of these are accessible globally, easy to use and have free versions.

4. Shelly Palmer.

Shelly Palmer is a friend of mine and offers a wonderful free daily news letter on AI which you can subscribe to here.

I read Shelly daily and his newsletter not only quickly covers the key stories of the day but also provides a link to other developments that will keep you updated without you having to hunt and peck all over.

Shelly also has a website of free resources as well as paid courses you can access here.

One of the reasons I point to Shelly is that he has re-invented himself again and again.

Remember those Meow-Mix jingles? Shelly wrote those. He was big in radio, film and tv and then got technology patents for for interactive television systems. Today he has become a deep expert in the field of AI. He is a living testament to anybody who says they are too old or it is too late to embrace and lead the future.

In addition it also helps that he is a deep thinker who today runs his own firm and is therefore free to express his beliefs on how AI will revolutionize things without fear but with the wisdom and nuance of someone seasoned.

5. What Next?

While What Next? a podcast I host covers topics far broader than AI, almost every recent episode has discussed how AI is impacting different fields of business from learning to commerce to writing to Asian SuperApps and we have had over a dozen world class AI experts from all over the world as guests discussing the space including an episode where AI tried to replace me! ( Will the real Rishad Tobaccowala please stand up)

This weeks episode has a world renowned cyber security and AI expert from Israel who spent years in the Israel Defense Force open our eyes about what AI is going to do to cybersecurity.

All episodes are free to listen to and are also free of any advertising or promotion. They are are professionally recorded and tightly edited to a little over 30 minutes and are available on every major platform in the world.

Here are the Spotify and Apple links:

Spotify:

Apple:

Feel free to add key resources you believe help people who are not steeped in technology become smarter in the AI in the comments section.

AI-volution of Culture 2.0

Some of you will remember that last year, I shared access to an event called the AI-volution of Culture hosted by Quilt.AI (I am on their board).

The second edition of this event is taking place in New York City on Sep 20. Speakers range from senior execs of large companies (Bel, McDonalds, Estee Lauder, Pfizer etc) to celebrities including Trevor Noah and the incredible world renowned chef Massimo Bottura - all discussing AI. 

This year, I will be co-hosting the event along with the Founders of Quilt.AI.

I plan on sharing a preview of my second book in addition to hosting conversations on remaining relevant in the short, middle and long term. 

Like last year I have some complimentary tickets available. Here is the event link and the code you can use to avail of the complimentary ticket. 

Event Link: https://www.quilt.ai/ai-volution-of-culture

Code: Rishad

Rishad Tobaccowala is an author, speaker, educator and advisor.