The Batch
Comic where a robot is hiding in a closet during a game of hide-and-seek.
Letters

Why Science-Fiction Scenarios of AI’s Emergent Behavior Are Likely to Remain Fictional: The sudden apparance of “emergent” AI capabilities may be an artifact of the metrics you study

Over the weekend, my two kids colluded in a hilariously bad attempt to mislead me to look in the wrong place during a game of hide-and-seek.
NG YEOL
Letters

An Asian AI Hub-in-the-Making: South Korea is well positioned to become a strong AI hub

Recently I visited South Korea, where I spoke at length about AI with President Yoon Suk Yeol. Based on what I saw there in government, business, and academia, the nation is well positioned to become a strong AI hub.
A graph of model pricing for GPT-4 and Llama 3.1. GPT-4 in March cost $36 per million tokens, GPT-4 Turbo $14, GPT-4o $7.
Letters

Falling LLM Token Prices and What They Mean for AI Companies: The price of using large language models like GPT-4 is falling dramatically. Here’s how AI companies can capitalize on the trend.

After a recent price reduction by OpenAI, GPT-4o tokens now cost $4 per million tokens (using a blended rate that assumes 80% input and 20% output tokens).
Regulate AI Applications, Not Technology: Why the DEFIANCE Act and FTC ban on fake product reviews take the right approach to regulating AI.
Letters

Regulate AI Applications, Not Technology: Why the DEFIANCE Act and FTC ban on fake product reviews take the right approach to regulating AI.

I’m encouraged at the progress of the U.S. government at moving to stem harmful AI applications.
Thailand’s AI Push: How countries that aren’t AI hotspots will benefit from AI advances
Letters

Thailand’s AI Push: How countries that aren’t AI hotspots will benefit from AI advances

When entrepreneurs build a startup, it is often their speed and momentum that gives them a shot at competing with the tech behemoths. This is true of countries as well.
Learning to Code is Easier Than Ever!: Our “AI Python for Beginners” courses use an AI coding assistant to teach programming in a way that’s aligned with where the field is going rather than where it has been.
Letters

Learning to Code is Easier Than Ever!: Our “AI Python for Beginners” courses use an AI coding assistant to teach programming in a way that’s aligned with where the field is going rather than where it has been.

I’m delighted to announce AI Python for Beginners, a sequence of free short courses that teach anyone to code, regardless of background.
How to Brainstorm AI Startup Ideas: Best practices for brainstorming, evaluating, and prioritizing great ideas for AI startups and products
Letters

How to Brainstorm AI Startup Ideas: Best practices for brainstorming, evaluating, and prioritizing great ideas for AI startups and products

Last week, I wrote about why working on a concrete startup or project idea — meaning a specific product envisioned in enough detail that we can build it for a specific target user
Concrete Ideas Make Strong AI Startups: AI startups can move more efficiently and effectively with a concrete product idea than a vague market concept.
Letters

Concrete Ideas Make Strong AI Startups: AI startups can move more efficiently and effectively with a concrete product idea than a vague market concept.

AI’s usefulness in a wide variety of applications creates many opportunities for entrepreneurship.
A graphic of a hand placing a ballot into a box labeled "Vote."
Letters

Threats to Democracy and How AI Can Help: Democracy empowers each citizen to help decide who governs.

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others,” said Winston Churchill.
California’s Proposed AI Safety Law Puts Developers at Risk: California SB 1047 is intended to make AI safer, but its unclear requirements put developers, innovation, and open source in jeopardy.
Letters

California’s Proposed AI Safety Law Puts Developers at Risk: California SB 1047 is intended to make AI safer, but its unclear requirements put developers, innovation, and open source in jeopardy.

I continue to be alarmed at the progress of proposed California regulation SB 1047 and the attack it represents on open source and more broadly on AI innovation.
The World Needs High-Quality AI Education More Than Ever: AI developers need high-quality education and training to keep up with changing technology and gain useful skills. At DeepLearning.AI, we put learners first.
Letters

The World Needs High-Quality AI Education More Than Ever: AI developers need high-quality education and training to keep up with changing technology and gain useful skills. At DeepLearning.AI, we put learners first.

As we reach the milestone of the 256th issue of The Batch, I’m reflecting on how AI has changed over the years and how society continues to change with it.
AI is a Tool, Not a Separate Species: Should AI developers be allowed to train models freely on the contents of the web? The lawsuit by Sony, Universal, and Warner against AI music generators Suno and Udio raises difficult questions.
Letters

AI is a Tool, Not a Separate Species: Should AI developers be allowed to train models freely on the contents of the web? The lawsuit by Sony, Universal, and Warner against AI music generators Suno and Udio raises difficult questions.

On Monday, a number of large music labels sued AI music makers Suno and Udio for copyright infringement. Their lawsuit echoes The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI in December.
Coding Agents Are Evolving From Novelties to Widely Useful Tools: Three research papers offer outstanding ways to use large language models to build coding agents that perform software development tasks automatically.
Letters

Coding Agents Are Evolving From Novelties to Widely Useful Tools: Three research papers offer outstanding ways to use large language models to build coding agents that perform software development tasks automatically.

On Father’s Day last weekend, I sat with my daughter to help her practice solving arithmetic problems.
Welcoming Diverse Approaches Keeps Machine Learning Strong: What technology counts as an “agent”? Instead of arguing, let's consider a spectrum along which various technologies are “agentic.”
Letters

Welcoming Diverse Approaches Keeps Machine Learning Strong: What technology counts as an “agent”? Instead of arguing, let's consider a spectrum along which various technologies are “agentic.”

One reason for machine learning’s success is that our field welcomes a wide range of work.
Blenders Versus Bombs, or Why California’s Proposed AI Law is Bad for Everyone: California’s proposed AI law SB-1047 stifles innovation and open source in the name of safety.
Letters

Blenders Versus Bombs, or Why California’s Proposed AI Law is Bad for Everyone: California’s proposed AI law SB-1047 stifles innovation and open source in the name of safety.

The effort to protect innovation and open source continues. I believe we’re all better off if anyone can carry out basic AI research and share their innovations.

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