The CIA's new AI tool...

It’s Thursday, which means we are serving up the freshest news in the AI space. Grab your coffee, and let’s get to it! ☕️

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CIA CREATING A NEW AI TOOL 🦾

Everyone is jumping in on AI, and now it is getting into the hands of CIA agents. 👀

What’s up? The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plans to deploy its very own ChatGPT-style AI bot to enhance investigations.

How will this work? Critics have previously criticized the CIA's methods for processing public data as "slow." In response, the new AI tools promise to offer CIA agents not only access to the original sources of information but also the convenience of a chat feature for querying and obtaining answers. This tool will enable CIA investigators to tap into the wealth of open-source intelligence. Particularly, it will be instrumental in sifting through vast troves of public information to uncover vital leads for ongoing investigations at a depth and breadth unachievable by humans. Randy Nixon, the director of the CIA’s open source enterprise, highlights the need to utilize as much data as possible, from “newspapers and radio, to newspapers and television, to newspapers and cable television, to basic internet, to big data, and it just keeps going.”

Who will use the tool? Though many of the details about the tool have not been disclosed, the AI-powered tool is expected to be accessible across all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and military-run agencies very soon.

THE WRITERS STRIKE IS FINALLY OVER 🙌

The strike is over! So our SpongeBob reference is too. 😕

What’s up? Our story earlier in the week mentioned that the historic Writers Guild of America strike was closing in on an end. Well, the picket signs have officially been taken down in the wake of a new contract.

What is the new deal? The contract has multiple facets, each of which are quite significant. Significant pay increases are in the offer, particularly for high-budget subscription video on demand and streaming films. These boosts underscore the value of human content creators despite the growth of AI. The crown jewel of this agreement, however, is the safeguarding of human content from AI. The contract explicitly forbids AI from generating or altering literary material, safeguarding the creative domain of writers. The WGA also reserves the right to contest any exploitation of writers' material for AI training purposes, a pre-emptive move in the face of evolving AI regulation.

Want to know something else? Previously, Hollywood operated in the dark about project performance, directly affecting compensation based on how well a project did. But with the new contract, studios are obligated to furnish the WGA with precise streaming data, including hours streamed domestically and internationally for high-budget, self-produced content. This move prevents studios from concocting misleading metrics and rankings. While certain data may remain confidential due to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), the WGA can still present aggregated data, offering a far more detailed and illuminating view of the streaming industry than ever before. As a result, streamers will find it increasingly challenging to falsely tout a project's success or blame lack of interest for show cancellations when concrete numbers tell a different story.

FED-EX EMPLOYS NEW AI-POWERED ROBOT 📦

A friend who works for FedEx told me how to tell a decent joke … It's all about the delivery. 😅

What’s new? Dexterity AI, a cutting-edge robotics firm, has joined forces with FedEx to find a more efficient way to load packages into FedEx Ground trailers.

What are they doing together? Central to the partnership is the employment of Dexterity AI's mobile robot innovation, named DexR. DexR can autonomously navigate to the rear section of trailers and effortlessly establish a connection with the conveyor system responsible for feeding packages directly from the sorting mechanism. What distinguishes DexR further than typical loading/unloading robots is its remarkable capacity to execute "generative wall planning" within milliseconds, evaluating numerous possibilities for constructing walls that optimize space utilization. Moreover, these robots benefit from AI-driven "force control," endowing them with the ability to recognize heavier boxes and lighter boxes, allowing for the gentle arrangement of boxes into densely packed walls. This exciting collaboration was unveiled at the "Unlock the Dock" event held in San Francisco, where DexR made its debut.

TASTE-TEST THURSDAY 🍽️

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