Innovative AI - Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on businesses.
Amazon's AI Blueprint: Alexa at the Forefront of Gen AI Innovation
This week in Innovative AI
Innovative AI Shorts:
MIT's Multi-AI Collaboration Boosts Fact-Checking Accuracy in Language Models
Striking a Balance: Managing AI Innovation to Avoid Shadow IT Risks
Why Humans Struggle to Trust AI: Insights from Cyber Intelligence Expert
Executives’ Highlight: Amazon's AI Blueprint: Alexa at the Forefront of Gen AI Innovation
Prompts for your Organization: Midjourney to produce advertising (backgrounds) in certain art styles; ChatGPT for analyzing and reproducing a writing style:
Overview: Center for Deep Tech Innovation Events
Tools to try out: OneAudio.ai
Innovative AI Shorts
MIT's Multi-AI Collaboration Boosts Fact-Checking Accuracy in Language Models
Researchers at MIT have developed a new method to improve the factual accuracy of language models using multiple artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Language models have been known to generate unreliable information due to biased or incorrect training data. To address this challenge, the MIT team introduced a collaborative approach where multiple AI models fact-check each other's answers. By prioritizing the accuracy of responses over the consensus of the models, the system can enhance the overall factuality. The method has been tested on several datasets and resulted in a significant increase in accuracy. This breakthrough holds great potential for improving the reliability and trustworthiness of language-based AI systems in various applications.
Striking a Balance: Managing AI Innovation to Avoid Shadow IT Risks
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been gaining significant traction in various industries, revolutionizing the way businesses operate. However, as AI continues to expand its reach, concerns have emerged regarding its potential to become the next "shadow IT." This term refers to technology initiatives that are implemented within organizations without the approval or oversight of IT departments, posing security and compatibility risks. As outlined in a recent Forbes article, AI's ease of accessibility and the ability for individual departments to adopt AI solutions without proper IT involvement raises questions about governance and control. Organizations must strike a balance between encouraging innovation and ensuring that AI implementation is guided by IT protocols to mitigate potential risks and foster a secure and integrated technological environment.
Why Humans Struggle to Trust AI: Insights from Cyber Intelligence Expert
In a recent interview with Fast Company, cyber intelligence expert Steve Grobman discussed the reasons why humans still struggle to trust artificial intelligence (AI) systems. While AI algorithms and technologies have shown remarkable advancements, Grobman emphasized the importance of human oversight in understanding and interpreting AI-generated insights. He highlighted the need for transparency, explainability, and accountability in AI systems to build trust among users. According to Grobman, the lack of transparency and the "black box" nature of AI algorithms make it difficult for humans to trust the decisions made by AI systems, particularly in sensitive areas such as healthcare and criminal justice. He concluded that there is still a long way to go before humans can fully trust AI and that the key lies in developing AI systems that are transparent, interpretable, and accountable.
Amazon's AI Blueprint: Alexa at the Forefront of Gen AI Innovation
In today's fast-paced tech world, Amazon truly shines as a leader in innovation, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI). A prime example of their innovation is Alexa. Introduced in 2014, Alexa started as an ambitious idea on a whiteboard and has since become a common part of many households. It's now found in more than 500 million devices and plays a pivotal role in countless daily interactions - revolutionizing the way many of us communicate/use with technology.

While Alexa is indeed impressive, Amazon's AI efforts extend well beyond it. Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud division, has played a significant role in advancing AI capabilities. A prime illustration of this is AWS itself, which provides a comprehensive set of AI services designed to meet various requirements. Take SageMaker, for example; it equips developers with user-friendly tools for effortless machine learning. Then there's Rekognition, which offers advanced analysis of images and videos, and Comprehend, which delves deep into natural language processing. These tools have not only revolutionized how developers approach AI but have also opened the door to innovative applications across various industries.
Now why are we focusing on Amazon in this week’s Innovative AI newsletter? Well, because there is news on recent developments of Amazon that we consider highly interesting. So have a read!
Recent Developments and the Rise of Alexa
Amazon's dedication to transforming voice technology has always apparent considering the recent developments with Alexa. Yet, the introduction of generative AI into Alexa represents a major stride toward making the voice assistant's interactions more human-like.
During a recent press event held in Arlington, Virginia, Amazon unveiled a generative AI update for Alexa. This update is designed to work with all Echo products released since 2014.
The update promises the following enhancements:
Conversational Fluidity: Alexa will now be able to resume conversations without the need for a wake word, making interactions feel more natural.
Learning User Preferences: Alexa will adapt and learn from user interactions, tailoring its responses based on individual preferences.
Enhanced Responsiveness: The voice assistant will respond more quickly, ensuring a smoother conversational experience.
Opinion Sharing: In a fun twist, Alexa will even offer opinions on topics like movies.
Have a look at an interview with Amazon Senior Vice President of Devices and Services David Limp, giving an outlook on future services and privacy settings in the video below:
Generative AI is at the heart of creating fresh content in response to user queries. In practical terms, this means that Alexa can now generate responses that make conversations feel as though you are interacting with another human. Dave Limp, Amazon's Senior VP of Devices and Services, demonstrated this capability by asking Alexa about his favorite football team without explicitly stating its name - showcasing Alexa's ability to remember past interactions and respond in a contextual manner.
But Amazon has not stopped at improving Alexa's software; they've also made strides in updating their hardware lineup to complement these advancements. They recently introduced the Echo Hub, priced at $180, which is a wall-mounted touchscreen designed for controlling various smart devices within a home. When combined with Alexa's enhanced capabilities, this device promises to make managing a smart home more intuitive.
We are inching closer and closer to the futuristic worlds we've only seen in science fiction movies. Depending on the movie, this can be quite thrilling or a bit disturbing.
However, Amazon's commitment goes even beyond individual users. They've taken steps to provide new developer tools, enabling companies to collaborate with their extensive language model. For instance, Amazon has partnered with companies like BMW to develop conversational in-car voice assistant capabilities, extending the reach of their technology into various industries and applications.
Hence, we are pretty excited to witness the (further) developments to come. Speaking of which:
The Future Outlook and Collaborations
It seems that Amazon has found it most important player in the AI game. And its name is Alexa. Aiming to make Alexa as conversational and knowledgeable as the iconic 'Star Trek' computer, Alexa is on a path to becoming a truly personalized assistant, capable of understanding user preferences and context with incredible accuracy.
In order to improve Alexa’s functionalities, Amazon introduced tools like the Dynamic Controller and Action Controller. They enable third-party products (like lightning devices) to interact with Alexa more naturally. This means that users will actually be able to make requests like "Alexa, make it look spooky in here" without needing to set up complex routines or scenes.
Reading through all these updates and improvements, you inevitably think about the challenges and dangers they can pose. Amazon has done the same.
As Alexa becomes more integrated into people's lives, Amazon must ensure that it remains trustworthy, particularly with regard to data integrity. Therefore, Amazon is emphasizing its commitment to user privacy and security - how far this will be given remains for a future edition of Innovation AI.
Prompts for your Organization
Midjourney to produce advertising (backgrounds) in certain art styles:
”Tom Collins, Henri Matisse style, textured brushstrokes, purist, minimal, lithograph style”
ChatGPT for analyzing and reproducing a writing style:
“Can you analyze the below content for writing style, tone, length, spacing, language and words so this can be used to generate future content in a similar style.”
For the example I used the abstract of an academic paper I wrote with my colleagues a few years back - if interested here is a link to the full paper: Meta-View of Blockchain Technology Tensions in Organizational Implementation and Use
Overview: Center for Deep Tech Innovation Events
As some of our readers might know, we offer a series of webinars on the topic of AI (and other technologies in the near future).
Below you find a list of upcoming webinars:
Wednesday, October 4, 2023, 4:00 p.m. (CET) - Prompt Engineering for Business Transformation: A Workshop
more to come!
For more content, feel free to visit our YouTube channel and LinkedIn
Tools to try out: OneAudio.ai
OneAudio.ai is a digital tool designed to transform voice recordings into clear and organized summaries, making it an ideal solution for generating notes, blog posts, emails, and other content. The platform offers features such as automatic rewriting of notes, bookmarking capabilities for easy access to important notes, unlimited storage and recording time for supporters, an integrated text editor that allows for comprehensive formatting, and the ability to produce summaries in over 20 languages. Furthermore, to ensure the highest quality of results, OneAudio incorporates the advanced capabilities of both GPT-3 and GPT-4 OpenAI models.
Eventually, we come to the end of this newsletter. Stay tuned for the upcoming editions, where we will keep informing you about the latest developments and applications of AI for business and beyond.
Midjourney to produce advertising (backgrounds) in certain art styles
”Tom Collins, Henri Matisse style, textured brushstrokes, purist, minimal, lithograph style”
ChatGPT for analyzing and reproducing a writing style:
“Can you analyze the below content for writing style, tone, length, spacing, language and words so this can be used to generate future content in a similar style.”
For the example I used the abstract of an academic paper I wrote with my colleagues a few years back - if interested here is a link to the full paper: Meta-View of Blockchain Technology Tensions in Organizational Implementation and Use