🤖 AI mind reading, Hollywood on strike, and the death of coding

Good morning and welcome to the latest issue of neonpulse!

Here are the AI headlines making waves:

🌊  Using AI to read minds

🌊  Hollywood goes on strike

🌊  The end of coding as we know it

Let’s get into it!

AI Mind Reading

Scientists have discovered a way to harness the power of AI to read your mind, a breakthrough that could very well put the careers of aspiring psychics at risk.

By having subjects listen to stories while recording their brain activity, the team was able to learn which words and phrases were associated with specific brain patterns, data which allowed them to train an AI model to effectively read the subjects minds.

Because of the method used to measure brain activity, the output from decoder is not an exact word-for-word match, but instead captures the core concept of what the subject was thinking.

A recording of a speaker saying the sentence “I don’t have my driver’s license yet,” for example, gets decoded to “she has not even started to learn to drive yet,” although you can expect the accuracy of decoding to improve over time.

“Our system works at a very different level,” said Alexander Huth, a professor of neuroscience at UT Austin and senior author of the new study.

“Instead of looking at low-level motor activity, our system works at the level of ideas, of semantics, and of meaning. This is the reason why what we get out is not the exact words that somebody heard or spoke, it’s the gist,” he continued. “It’s the same idea but expressed in different words.”

And the most impressive part of the study?

The team was able to accomplish this using a non-invasive fMRI scanner, opening up the possibility that this type of mind reading tech could be integrated into wearable technology (like a set of smart glasses) in the future, allowing you to communicate with others simply by thinking.

This futuristic mind-reading tech has significant implications for people with speech impairments or paralysis, but also raises concerns about “mental privacy,” with researchers concluding the study by advocating for policies that will protect the privacy of our thoughts.

Time to break out those tinfoil hats folks!

Hollywood On Strike

There are no shortage of jobs that are under threat thanks to AI, and screenwriters in Hollywood are no exception.

Writers from the Writers Guild of America are hoping to negotiate with Hollywood studios about the ways that AI can be used in the production of film and TV scripts, yet the way they are going about it may be one of the most short-sighted negotiating moves in history.

In what could be considered the ultimate “have your cake and eat it too moment,” the writers want to be able to use AI tools to help write content, yet do not want the studios to have the ability to use AI on their own…

A dynamic that the major studios are not exactly in love with.

After not being able to come to an initial agreement (no surprise there), nearly 12,000 writers are currently on strike in hopes of negotiating better pay and working conditions, yet streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon have found a simple way to churn out content in their absence: AI.

"The platforms can't afford to just sit and wait for writers to come back to work, so they're looking for creative ways to continue making content," said Andrew Wallenstein, president of Variety Intelligence Platform.

And while there is obvious value in retaining the talents of experienced content creators, I have a feeling that the writers are going to have to back off on their demands if they want to continue having a career in Hollywood.

The Death of Coding

Ever wished you could create the perfect app or website, but lacked the coding skills to bring your vision to life?

Well thanks to the rapid advancements in AI, we're entering an era where no-code platforms will bring your dream app to life without you needing to write a single line of code.

OpenAI's Codex, for example, was designed to understand human instructions and translate them into code, making it easier than ever for non-programmers to bring their dreams to life.

Or as Peter Diamandis, the founder of XPRIZE, puts it: "The power to create applications and software is shifting from highly skilled coders to anyone with a vision and a voice."

By opening up the world of software development to the masses we can expect an explosion of creativity and innovation, and with more diverse perspectives contributing to the tech landscape, it’s likely that we’ll see groundbreaking solutions to pressing global challenges rise up from every corner of the planet.

And as we stand on the cusp of this no-programming revolution, it's exciting to envision a world where anyone can bring their ideas to life, regardless of their coding abilities.

But as to whether we'll see an explosion of world-changing ideas, or will be drowning in a flood of the worst app ideas known to man kind, only time will tell.

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Cool AI Tools

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🔗 TutorAI - Learn anything with the help of AI

AI Resources

🔗 Altimeter Capital CEO on the A.I. arms race - Interview

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