Generative AI & Intelligent Virtual Beings - Issue #412 April 20th, 2023

The tech giant Google is planning to add AI – Artificial Intelligence – to its business model. As reported by the New York Times, the company is working on a new AI-based search engine able to predict what you’re looking for, basing its information on your previous searches and the moment when you began using the search engine.

In the meantime in Europe, investors and business owners are concerned about the new proposed law to regulate generative AI. The AI Act is only a draft so far, but it already classifies different levels of risks in the use of generative AI, and the cases labeled as “unacceptable risk” – like the use of facial recognition – could be totally banned. Investors and business owners are concerned because this might mean that the European Union won’t be able to compete with the US and China, posing a serious risk to a regulated development of artificial intelligence.

As we discussed in our previous newsletters, top CEOs, researchers, and tech leaders recently signed an open letter where they ask to pause AI development, since it might threaten the future of the whole society. Sam Altman, CEO of the popular company OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) – addressed the topic, saying that he agrees on the need for guidelines, but assessing that the open letter wasn’t the best way to reach this goal.

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Douglas Rushkoff, professor of Media Theory at the City University of New York (CUNY), addresses the generative AI topic and AI ethics by affirming that regulation is necessary for the correct development of artificial intelligence. Many tech experts and CEOs – including Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google – recently talked about how risky AI can be if not used properly. Rushkoff said that to properly regulate AI it is not necessary to change what artificial intelligence does, but to regulate how people use it.

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Also the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, showed his appreciation for ChatGPT, after asking the AI chatbot to prepare a script to compute the public transit time between two coordinates, and then asking the chatbot to deliver more data and reference resources. The element most appreciated by Buterin is the capability of ChatGPT to shorten the distance between professional users and amateurs, thus eliminating entry barriers.

AI NFTs might be the next frontier in business. The Singapore-based generative AI firm Mindverse is launching a product, in its Beta version, that will allow people to train AI beings with industry-specific knowledge, in order to turn them into business helpers – for what concerns sales and delivery of products and services. The firm was able to mix the benefits of AI and blockchain technology: these intelligent beings can be used as NFT avatars, so users will be able to deploy them in different Metaverses.

The same is happening in the banking industry. Asia is for sure benefiting from the different benefits provided by generative AI: in Japan, three huge financial groups are including AI chatbots to carry out internal tasks, create reports and better assist clients.

Also Goldman Sachs could start using this technology, but the top bank is maybe going to train its own AI chatbot: this was suggested by Goldman Sachs CIO, Marco Argenti, in an email to the engineering staff – which constitutes a huge part of the workforce of the bank.

The African fintech Kredete launched its AI-based lending platform on April 16th, during an event held in Victoria Island. The new platform will also deepen the accessibility to different financial solutions, education and credit.

OpenAI and ChatGPT are also revolutionizing the fintech space. Fintech companies can use the AI chatbot especially to improve consumers’ experience. Moreover, the AI tool can help to manage everyday tasks and give people more direct answers.

To get back to our discussion on how financial groups and banks are benefiting from generative AI, FinTech Weekly describes how this revolution is already taking place.