Today in AI: Is Gemini worth the hype? McDonald’s plans ‘Ask Pickles’ bot; AI likely to create more jobs than it kills

Your daily dose on the developments in AI

The artificial intelligence arms race is in full swing, and companies are not shying away from throwing some punches with their latest product launches. Built from the ground up, Gemini boasts 'multi-modality,' allowing it to understand and work with different types of data simultaneously, including text, code, audio, images, and video.

• Google DeepMind states that Gemini surpasses GPT-4 on 30 out of 32 standard performance measures, though it's important to note that the margins are narrow.
• While the company has successfully presented a 'Jetsons' dream to the public, concerns about its accuracy are now taking centre stage.

Fast-food chain McDonald's, which was one of the early adopters of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI), will widen its use of the latter with a new chatbot — 'Ask Pickles'.

• The bot, which is yet to be rolled out, is expected to boost productivity by resolving the queries of workers, while also providing them with a quick guide on addressing the tasks at hand.
• The company is using a large amount of information, derived from its manuals to data generated by restaurant equipment, to train the chatbot.

AI is likely to create more jobs than it will kill, and one of the reasons is that the technology could induce both rapid and continuous reallocation of work, argues Bloomberg columnist Clive Crook.

• One innovation likely to be crucial if societies are to capitalise on the transition to AI is “microcredentials”, Crook said, adding that these are modules of training that can be bundled into a “macro-credential” such as a degree; they can also denote specific vocational skills, and in that form lubricate mid- or late-career job-to-job mobility.
• In building out this idea of lifelong learning, companies and colleges will have to take the initiative, but public policy can promote and coordinate their efforts, improving accreditation and helping would-be students find the right offerings, the columnist opined.