⚙️ Layoffs

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Bot Buddy
October 18, 2023

Good morning. LinkedIn and Citigroup just finished another round of layoffs pushing totals to nearly 1,400 and 7,000, respectively. Oh, and Stack Overflow too…

In today’s newsletter:

  • 🤖 AI's Growing Role: A Deep Dive into Stack Overflow's Recent Layoffs

  • 🚀 Launching Spotlight Moments: YouTube's AI-Powered Ad Suite

  • 🎸 Riffusion: The Chainsmokers-Advised App Making Waves in AI Music

  • ⚠️ GPT-4: More Trustworthy but Also More Susceptible to Toxicity

  • 🍎 Apple Ecosystem: Setapp Report Reveals 42% of Mac Users Use AI Apps Daily

  • 🤖 Fighting Fire with Fire: Reality Defender Uses AI to Detect Deepfakes

 NEWS

Stack Overflow's Layoff Wave: What it Means for the AI Ecosystem

Midjourney

Stack Overflow, a cornerstone platform for the global development community, recently announced a significant reduction in its workforce, laying off 28% (100 individuals) of its staff. This downsizing comes just one year after a massive hiring push that doubled the company's size to over 500 employees. Prashanth Chandrasekar, the CEO of Stack Overflow, mentioned the primary cuts would occur in the "go-to-market organization," which had been the largest team, along with supporting teams and other unspecified groups. The layoffs coincide with a boom in generative AI, which has permeated various technology sectors, including coding.

Stack Overflow has been feeling the pinch from the rise of AI-generated coding answers. In December of the previous year, the platform imposed a temporary ban on AI-generated answers. This decision led to a months-long strike among the site's moderators, which was only resolved a couple of months back in August. Developers are increasingly relying on AI for coding assistance which poses a formidable challenge for a platform built around human expertise and community-driven solutions.

Interestingly, the company has taken a strategic pivot, announcing it will now charge AI companies to train their models on its site. While the specifics are still not announced, this will be a significant shift in Stack Overflow’s approach toward AI and is likely a more direct effort to monetize the vast pool of coding solutions and discussions that have accrued on the platform over the last 15 years.

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NEWS

Spotlight on AI: YouTube's New Advertising Game-Changer

In the realm of advertising, AI has long played a role in targeting audiences and serving ads, but YouTube is pushing the envelope even further. The video-sharing platform recently introduced a new AI-driven advertising package called Spotlight Moments, aimed at identifying popular videos associated with specific cultural or trending events, such as Halloween or the Oscars. The goal is to allow advertisers to serve ads across these videos, maximizing their reach. Marketing giant GroupM has already jumped on board, signaling the industry's interest in such next-gen advertising solutions.

This move is just one in a series of AI-centric initiatives YouTube has been unrolling. Other offerings include Video Reach and Video View campaigns, both of which also harness Google's AI technology. The efficacy of these new methods is nothing short of impressive. According to YouTube, advertisers who leveraged Video Reach Campaigns with in-stream, in-feed, and YouTube Shorts saw a 54% increase in reach at a 42% lower cost per thousand impressions (CPM). Meanwhile, Video View campaigns delivered 40% more views with a 30% lower cost-per-view. This data showcases the transformative potential AI has in the realm of digital advertising.

Colin and Samir, a popular creator duo (who happen to also be one of our favorites in the podcast space), recently sat down with Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, for an interview where they chatted about the future of AI on the YouTube platform. Definitely worth a listen 👇

Our team had some arguments about the quality of Monday’s real or not… Turns out those of us who thought it was too obvious were largely correct…

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🎸 Riffusion: The Chainsmokers-Advised App Making Waves in AI Music

Developers Seth Forsgren and Hayk Martiros have commercialized their AI-generated music platform, Riffusion, after raising $4 million in seed funding. Advised by The Chainsmokers, Riffusion's upgraded free-to-use app lets users describe lyrics and musical style to generate "riffs" that can be shared. The app uses a model trained on spectrograms and natural language prompts to create music. Concerns have been raised about the potential for copyright infringement with AI-generated music, but Forsgren states that Riffusion is not designed to recognize or replicate famous artist names or songs.

⚠️ GPT-4: More Trustworthy but Also More Susceptible to Toxicity

A new Microsoft-affiliated paper studies the "trustworthiness" and toxicity of large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and its predecessor, GPT-3.5. The research indicates that although GPT-4 usually scores higher in trustworthiness, it is more susceptible to "jailbreaking" prompts that are maliciously designed to elicit toxic or biased responses. The paper also reveals that GPT-4 can potentially leak sensitive data like email addresses. Microsoft, which uses GPT-4 in its Bing Chat chatbot, confirmed that the identified vulnerabilities do not affect customer-facing services and that remedial measures have been implemented.

🍎 Apple Ecosystem: Setapp Report Reveals 42% of Mac Users Use AI Apps Daily

A new report by app subscription service Setapp reveals that 42% of Mac users are using AI-based apps daily, while 63% believe these apps offer more benefits than non-AI apps. Developers are also embracing AI, with 44% having incorporated AI or machine learning in their apps and another 28% planning to do so. The survey, which included 1,241 U.S.-based Mac users, indicates that AI is becoming a significant part of users' daily workflows. Popular AI-augmented apps among users include TypingMind, Notion, and Grammarly, among others. The report also noted that subscriptions are more popular than one-time app purchases.

🤖 Fighting Fire with Fire: Reality Defender Uses AI to Detect Deepfakes

Reality Defender, a startup focused on detecting deepfakes, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by DCVC. Founded by former Goldman Sachs VP Ben Colman, the company aims to double its 23-member team and enhance its AI content detection models. Reality Defender originally started as a nonprofit but pivoted due to the growing threat and commercial demand for deepfake detection. With generative AI tools becoming more accessible, the volume of deepfakes is rising, posing a risk on social media platforms and beyond. Reality Defender offers API and web app solutions and claims to have a more accurate detection rate compared to competitors.

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