AI News roundup: Microsoft tests privacy focused version of ChatGPT, Slack's generative AI push and more

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Microsoft will offer a privacy enhanced version of ChatGPT for businesses 

According to the online publication The Information, Microsoft is planning to offer the variant on its Azure cloud platform and it will run on dedicated servers where data collected by the chatbot would be separated from the public variant.

• The report said Microsoft is planning to sell the new version "later this quarter". This could end up costing Microsoft a lot of money though, as private isolated servers "could cost as much as 10 times what customers currently pay to use the regular version of ChatGPT".
• OpenAI has also expressed interest in a similar subscription plan for businesses, which would allow them to opt out of data collection from the AI bot.

Slack announces SlackGPT, its push into generative AI

The project is still in development with no specific information on when it will become available to customers.

• The Salesforce-owned platform announced on May 4 that it is introducing SlackGPT, a new conversational AI experience that is natively integrated into the platform with an aim to make the company's productivity capabilities more powerful.
• This includes AI-powered conversation summaries, wherein people will be able to catch up on unread messages on Slack in a single click or provide summaries of audio chats on its Huddle feature. It will also provide writing assistance wherein customers will be able to sharpen their messaging or adjust the tone among others.

Star Wars Day | Explainer: Difference between narrow AI and strong artificial intelligence

May the fourth be with you: ChatGPT, Bard and other artificial intelligence today is lightyears from the Star Wars universe still.

• Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a subset of AI that can generate new content, whereas artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the more ambitious aim of creating a machine with human-like intelligence across a broad range of domains.
• Experts in the field have pointed out that despite the anthropomorphized language we use to discuss generative AI like ChatGPT (it can lie, hallucinate), in truth, generative AI does not think or have intent. Artificial general intelligence will be much closer to human cognition, eventually learning to improve itself.

The US FTC wants to reign in AI using existing laws

The sudden popularity of Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT this year has prompted global calls for regulation amid concerns about its possible use for wrongdoing even as companies seek to use it to enhance efficiency.

• The Federal Trade Commission's chief said the agency was committed to using existing laws to rein in some of the dangers of artificial intelligence, such as enhancing the power of dominant firms and "turbocharging" fraud.
• "Although these (AI) tools are novel, they are not exempt from existing rules, and the FTC will vigorously enforce the laws we are charged with administering, even in this new market," FTC Chair Lina Khan wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times on Wednesday.