E43: AI Scouting Report – Part 1 of 3: Fundamentals [Bonus YouTube Episode]

Head to a special YouTube presentation with visual aides (https://youtu.be/0hvtiVQ_LqQ), where Nathan Labenz synthesizes the core fundamentals of AI as simply, clearly, and literally as possible. Nathan's aim is to impart the equivalent of a high school AP course understanding to listeners in 90 minutes. This special episode is in part brought to you by Athena. You can use Nathan’s referral link (http://athenago.me/nathan-labenz) for a free first month of Athena services for qualified customers. We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com. RECOMMENDED PODCAST: The HR industry is at a crossroads. What will it take to construct the next generation of incredible businesses – and where can people leaders have the most business impact? Hosts Nolan Church and Kelli Dragovich have been through it all, the highs and the lows – IPOs, layoffs, executive turnover, board meetings, culture changes, and more. With a lineup of industry vets and experts, Nolan and Kelli break down the nitty-gritty details, trade offs, and dynamics of constructing high performing companies. Through unfiltered conversations that can only happen between seasoned practitioners, Kelli and Nolan dive deep into the kind of leadership-level strategy that often happens behind closed doors. Check out the first episode with the architect of Netflix’s culture deck Patty McCord. https://link.chtbl.com/hrheretics Questions or topics you want us to review for Part 2? Email [email protected] The Cognitive Revolution is a part of the Turpentine podcast network. Learn more: Turpentine.co TWITTER: @CogRev_Podcast @labenz (Nathan) @eriktorenberg (Erik) SPONSOR: Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of ALL eCommerce in the US. And Shopify's the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries. From their all-in-one e-commerce platform, to their in-person POS system – wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With free Shopify Magic, sell more with less effort by whipping up captivating content that converts – from blog posts to product descriptions using AI. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/cognitive This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at [email protected].

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Nathan Labenz?

  Hello and welcome back to the cognitive revolution. Today, we're changing up the format and I'm presenting part one of my AI scouting report for June 2023. The AI scouting report is my attempt to zoom out from all the day-to-day AI news and hype and help you focus on what really matters. I'm synthesizing the most important concepts and trends that I have obsessively studied for the last two years so that you can begin to engage with AI research, products, and discourse with a new level of sophistication.

• 0:36Nathan Labenz?

  This is the first edition of the AI scouting report and it comes in two parts. Part one, which I'm presenting today, aims to cover the core fundamentals of AI as simply, clearly, and literally as possible. Starting with a headline summary of current general-purpose AI capabilities, and then surveying how modern AIs are designed and trained, what the big capability unlocks have been, and what we know about how they work and what they truly understand.

• 1:06Nathan Labenz?

  I'll consider it a huge success if you come away with the equivalent of a high school AP course-level understanding of machine learning fundamentals. I've curated a bunch of the very best graphs, illustrations, and figures that I've seen, and I hope to explain them so that they make as much of an impression on you as they have on me. To do that in just 90 minutes is ambitious, and I do need the help of visual aids. So for this reason, the AI scouting report will be a YouTube series. We'll continue to post short, audio-only episodes to the podcast feed to announce each new episode as it's released, but you will need to watch the video to get the full experience.

• 1:48Nathan Labenz?

  Part two of the AI scouting report, coming soon, will cover AI as it interfaces with the world. The latest trends in fine-tuning, agent design, and memory systems, as well as market dynamics, economic impact and societal fallout, AGI timelines, live players, and the outlook for AI safety.

• 2:11Nathan Labenz?

  Before getting started, I also want to share that the AI scouting report is brought to you in part by Athena. Athena is an executive assistant services company that pairs EAs in the Philippines with startup executives and other opportunity-rich, time-poor clients around the world. If you're a regular listener to the Cognitive Revolution, you know that I've mentioned my AI advisory work with Athena a couple of times over the last few months. But what I haven't told is the backstory of how I originally started with Athena as a client two and a half years ago while I was still CEO of Waymark. I matched with a woman named Therese and we started with typical EA tasks: email and calendar management, social media, ad hoc research projects.

• 2:54Nathan Labenz?

  She did well, and I got a lot of projects done that I simply wouldn't otherwise have been able to get to. But things got really interesting when we made the move to generative AI. I found that the same core qualities that made Therese a strong EA: natural organization, high attention to detail, a sense for the importance of outlier data points, facility with software, tolerance for some repetitive tasks, ability to balance speed and accuracy, the curiosity to ask why, and the inclination to be proactive, all of these made her a natural AI operations pro as well. So, over the last two years, working on our time zone, Therese has built a variety of critical data sets, has developed tons of prompts, fine-tuned and validated more than

• 3:39Nathan Labenz?

  100 custom models, maintained dozens of elaborate spreadsheets, and pitched in in many other ways. At this point, it's no exaggeration to say that she's become a core part of the Waymark team. And it was this experience with Therese that inspired me to think about working with Athena as an AI advisor, to see if I could help the company replicate this success story across its unique client base. I've been advising the company for about six months now, with a focus on foundational AI education for EAs, and the creation of a task automation practice within Athena. We've now developed an AI 101 core skills class that covers prompting and savvy shopping.

• 4:20Nathan Labenz?

  We've extended many of the Athena delegation playbooks with AI prompts, and we've developed some early task automation best practices and templates as well. Fun fact: the first audience, after my wife Amy, to watch this AI scouting report was, in fact, a group of 200 Athena EAs.

• 4:40Nathan Labenz?

  One of Athena's core values as a company is always long term. That, of course, is a bit tricky in this crazy, fast-moving AI environment, but the company is investing in the human capital needed to ride the AI wave. And we're planning to share our experiments, findings, and automation templates with clients as much as possible along the way. Like everything in AI right now, it's still a work in progress and subject to all sorts of change. But we do feel at this point that we are as well-positioned to help clients ride the AI wave as any EA company in the world. Now, to be totally upfront, this service definitely isn't for everyone. It runs $3,000 a month, and that's enough to fund a strong salary in the Philippines,

• 5:22Nathan Labenz?

  enough, in fact, to recruit management-level talent that will work on your time zone and really integrate and fully support your life and team.

• 5:33Nathan Labenz?

  Athena is willing to invest in listeners of the Cognitive Revolution by offering a first month of service entirely free for qualified customers. To claim this offer, you can visit my personal referral link. That is athenago.me/nathan-Labenz. That's athenago.me/nathan-Labenz. Of course, we'll place a link in the show notes as well. Now, without further ado, follow the link to our YouTube channel for my AI scouting report from June 2023.