The AI Pulse

Issue #13 — 16th December 2024

Editor: Alan Brown

Welcome to the latest edition of The AI Pulse for Digital Leaders. An expertly curated collection of essential articles, commentaries, and news stories from reputable sources. Do you know anyone who might be interested in AI Pulse. Have some news or looking to partner? Just get in touch at: [email protected]

Highlights in this edition include:

Europe trails the rest of the world in AI adoption

For regulating AI, the key is getting the balance right

Energy-hungry AI is already harming health – and it's getting worse

AI for Good

Wired believes that the opportunity for AI for good has arrived—if it can be redirected toward where it’s needed most.

MIT Sloan considers how AI-empowered citizen developers are helping to drive digital transformation .

Gallup’s “Culture of AI Benchmark Report” concludes that Europe trails the rest of the world in AI adoption . The problem is not a lack of capital, but one of organisational culture.

Why AI-powered digital twins could speed up drug discovery , according to the BBC.

IEEE Spectrum describes how AI is driving India’s next agricultural revolution with apps providing personalized advice to small farmers.

Bias and Ethics

Wired considers the problems of human misuse of AI, reminding us that AI creates what it’s told to, including inventing evidence and sowing doubt over public misdeeds.

AWS has issued a guide to responsible use of AI that offers useful recommendations across all phases of the AI lifecycle.

Nature reports that publishers are selling academic journal papers to train AIs — and making millions of dollars in the process.

Computerworld asks if AI will soon be helping doctors to decide if you live or die.

Cyber Security

Forbes predicts how AI and machine learning will shape digital protection in 2025.

A new report from the Future of Life Institute has 7 AI experts evaluate the safety practices of the 6 biggest AI tech companies. Spoiler Alert: The results are not encouraging.

Janes reports that the Pentagon has rolled out new AI Rapid Capabilities Cell to fast-track use of GenAI technology across the US DoD.

Data & Decision Making

IDC asked 330 key government procurement decision makers across 10 markets about their work to produce a playbook for government AI procurement.

Harvard is releasing a massive free AI training dataset funded by OpenAI and Microsoft.

HBR reminds us of the irreplaceable value of human decision-making in the age of AI.

An article in Nature asks if the AI revolution is running out of data, what can researchers do ?

Innovation & Collaboration

Deloitte's 16th Annual Tech Trends report reveals AI is quickly becoming foundational to the modern enterprise. It details 6 AI trends shaping businesses today.

InfoWorld considers whether public cloud providers current success and growth with AI is sustainable as costs rise and viable alternatives turn enterprises away.

Google takes us inside the Google Quantum AI lab to learn about how quantum computing works.

A World Economic Forum (WEF) report looks at how GenAI can be used to speed up clinical trials to fast-track therapeutic innovations.

Productivity & Efficiency

McKinsey report that only a few leading banks are generating material value from their investment in AI transformations.

HIMSS and WebMD’s Medscape have surveyed clinicians, nurses, and executives at medical organizations about how they’re using AI , and why early adoption pays off.

Deloitte reports that as the tech function shifts from leading digital transformation to leading AI transformation, leaders are redefining the future of IT.

Regulation and Compliance

TechRadar believes that the UK can lead the way with AI by balancing regulatory oversight and innovation.

Experts in discussion at Wharton believe that for regulating AI the key is getting the balance right to avoid blocking innovation.

BCG considers how CEOs can navigate the new geopolitics of GenAI and why getting it wrong can kill your company.

Sustainability

TechRadar reports that Google's next data centers will be built alongside wind and solar farms.

New Scientist believes that energy-hungry AI is already harming health – and it's getting worse .

The Guardian reports that Ireland’s AI-fuelled cloud storage boom threatens Irish climate targets, according to a study funded by Friends of the Earth.

User Experience

MIT researchers are using LLMs to convert machine-learning explanations into readable narratives that could help users make better decisions about when to trust a model.

Sloan Management review asks whether AI’s boost to worker productivity comes at the cost of human creativity and originality.

Workforce & Skills

A new report from the Little Hoover Commission provides an AI strategy for the state of California that recommends all state workers are trained in AI.

Politico reports that staff at the Alan Turing Institute is in open revolt and have issued a letter expressing no confidence in its management team.

An excellent summary from Ethan Mollick of when to use AI…and when not to.

ComputerWorld reviews a Deloitte study and concludes that AI in the workplace is forcing younger tech workers to rethink their career paths.

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