Issue 002: "Google: Mr. Pichai, I don't feel so good..."

What's up Woze community! Welcome to issue #2023-002, the second in the books 🔥

Pinch🤏 punch👊, 1st of the month, no returns!

It's been a while since I've said/heard that. But, anyhow!

Today, we're taking a look at:

• Google's 2 year lifeline? 🩺

• The Chinese ChatGPT 🇨🇳

• DeepFake Mania 🎭

• and Personal AI avatars are here 👾

ℹ️ If you find interesting things that I should include, tweet me '🗞 @emergingtechguy' , message me on LinkedIn, OR email me at [email protected] with the '🗞' emoji in the subject line.

Now, get your boards ready and let's ride the tide! 🏄‍♂️

1. Google's 2 year lifeline? 🩺

Google Search: Mr. Pichai (Google CEO), I don't feel so good...

« Trivia: Reply with the name of the movie being referenced - let's see if you get this 👀»

Following from last week's issue on Google's Code Red 🔴 due to the threat posed by OpenAI and ChatGPT, the creator of Gmail has since declared the following:

Buchheit continues the post with a thread that explores the possibility of AI disrupting Google's main bread and butter, that being it's search engine.

From what I can tell, his stance is that AI overall (not ChatGPT in particular) will do to Google, what web search did to Yellow Pages within the next 2 years or so because AI is not quite there yet.

2. The Chinese ChatGPT 🇨🇳

It looks like 2023 will be the year of Artificial Intelligence 🤖 

Baidu, the Google of Asia, is rumoured to launch their own ChatGPT-like product sometime in March.

It will be launched as a standalone application, before merging with Baidu's search engine.

It'll be interesting to see what Google will do, given their recent Code Red 🔴 and the comments by the creator of Gmail.

I'm also interested in seeing how AI algorithms will differ per geography since the values of the teams building these virtually intelligent platforms, is a factor to consider in the AI.

Put it like this.

The intention behind an AI created in America will be differ from the intentions behind an AI created in Asia or Africa.

I'll explore this line of thought and research further.Trust me, I'm not a lunatic... maybe?

If you know someone that could benefit from these emails, forward them this email and tell them to:

3. DeepFake Drama 🎭

BOOM💥

It seems that with every new trend, the bad has to come first - before the good.

And Twitch streamer Atrioc has come to face the bad.

He was recently exposed for paying and watching NSFW deepfake content of female streamers, notably Pokimane and Maya Higa, some who he even knows personally 😬

He has since published a tearful apology.

I would not be surprised if people begin to maintain a low availability of images of themselves to reduce the chances of their face from being misused.

This is an example out of many as to how emerging technology is being misused for nefarious intentions.

Now NFT profile pictures don't seem too bad eh?

On another note, let's talk about ElevenLabs and their recent deepfake situation.

ElevenLabs is an UK-based AI research startup that has made the news after recently releasing their text-to-audio tool.

But not on a good light 😵‍💫

The tool by ElevenLabs works by allowing you to enter some text and then spitting back some output that narrates your input in a human voice.

It was recently used in witchy🧙‍♀️ manner to create a deepfake of Hogwarts wizard, Emma Watson (get it😏)

ElevenLabs' tool was used to clone the voice of actress Emma Watson and recite Hitler's Mein Kampf, and also make "racist remarks" toward US representative AOC, or otherwise Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

I've just used it myself, and the results are quite cool. I'm interested to see what products come out of building on top of this.

You can try it for free through the link below - do note that you have a few uses before it prompts you to create an account.

An idea that popped to mind as to how I would go about building a biz on top of this, is by developing a NaaS - a Narration as a Service startup 👀

A NaaS would allow consumers to listen to their favourite audiobook in the voice of their idols ex. Alex Hormozi.

Here are some business examples:

1. Audiobooks ~ turning written books into audiobooks narrated in the voice of Alex Hormozi.

2. E-learning ~ narrating courses making it easier for consumption e.g. you primary language is Dutch but you use the tool to narrate in other languages to reach a wider audience

3. Podcasts ~ a written script narrated by X e.g a podcast narrated by in the voice of Naval Ravikant.

4. Video voiceovers ~ a service that generates voiceovers for videos, ads and even games!

Prediction: Major deepfake situation in the next 6 months.

I believe this will play factor that causes people to opt to choosing virtual avatars as their go-to identifier that represents them online. Privacy, being a leading component, followed by authenticity and creativity.

Let me jot it down and put an alert for August 1st 2023 to see if this prediction holds true.

And speaking of avatars...

4. Personal AI avatars are here 👾

A step closer to Sword Art Online.

This week, one of the interesting finds I came across is Hyper Online - an avatar company for... avatars!

Hyper Online is a platform that allows you to create Vtubers - think of them as the Fornite "skins" for your virtual persona.It also seems to allows you to stream, and features motion-tracking capabilities that map your movement to your Vtuber.

They brand themselves as being a "mobile avatar social network & content creation suite." (source).

The founder, Aaron Ng, posted a video on Twitter that caught my eye, and I'm sure it'll catch yours too.

In the video, you can see the implementation of personal computer 'avatarisation'.

Imagine how productive you'd be with an interactive avatar as an interface for your personal computer?

Like telling it to manage tasks in the background while you put your focus on a higher priority task?

And even having a personality of its own? That'd be kinda crazy.

I've been keeping up with asian futuristic-themed entertainment content for a while (no degenerate sh#t), and it's interesting to see the IRL application of a concept that many mangas are based upon.

I'll be doing more research into Hyper Online, and other players in the space.

I'll keep you updated ✍️

Developer's Corner

Since last week's update, I've pushed all the relevant changes to GPT2Markdown, my ChatGPT extension that allows you to export your conversations to Markdown format.

Download extension from the Chrome Store

I'll be pushing it to Microsoft's Edge Store, since it seems that some of my users use the Edge browser, and having to manually install every update is not the ideal UX😅

Moving on.

I'm planning to get to work on my new build. It's a beautifier for Twitter content, allowing you to generate visually appealing and attention grabbing cards so that you can cross publish your content on other social mediums like Linkedin.

I'll be posting live updates through my Twitter, and will update my LinkedIn when I do finish building it. I look to launch it on 6th Feb via ProductHunt - we'll see how it goes.

Follow me on my other social profiles if If you want to be keep up with the updates on this build.

Hmmmmm.

I have a feeling I'll create a SaaS built on top of ElevenLabs' tool...

Well, that's it for today, crew 👋

See you next Wednesday :)

Enric (EmergingTechGuy)

P.S. To continue bringing focused value, I have a few questions - Who are you? What do you do? Do you have any questions in relation to emerging technologies?

📬 How did you find today's newsletter issue? Let me know what could be improved by replying with feedback since I read all/most emails.