Between trip, end-of-year tasks, the approaching holidays, and different hysteria, I haven’t provide you with an article this month. So right here’s a fast listing of issues which have amazed me not too long ago.
Are we digital but?
I’m removed from the primary particular person to seek out NotebookLM superb, and I definitely gained’t be the final. I did a easy experiment: I pointed it at two of my latest posts, “Suppose Higher” and “Henry Ford Does AI.” Each the abstract and prompt questions NotebookLM supplied have been fairly good: They went past merely commenting on the 2 items and acquired into the connection between the 2. However what blew me away was the podcast it generated: an eight-minute dialogue between two artificial individuals who sounded and engaged. (Right here’s an outline of among the strategies Google places to make use of to make it occur.) Was it 100% appropriate? No, however actually, if a human summarized my articles, I’d in all probability discover a couple of issues to complain about.
Be taught quicker. Dig deeper. See farther.
Being Google, after the preliminary expertise, the consumer interface was greater than a bit clunky. After I needed to return to the podcast a couple of days later, I needed to play “guess what to click on” manner an excessive amount of. (Trace: Would you guess that you’ll want to click on on “Pocket book Information”? Why doesn’t the podcast participant seem by default?) However that’s actually a really minor drawback.
Fashions utilizing computer systems
Anthropic’s pc use API is now obtainable in beta. Beta is correct—there’s clearly so much occurring right here that’s harmful and simply abusable. But it surely’s additionally loads of enjoyable, and it factors towards a brand new route for AI growth.
In essence (and I could have the essence improper), pc use lets you inform Claude methods to use a pc: browsers, editors, shells, something that may have a consumer interface on a display screen (and probably extra). Anthropic offers a demo as a Docker container, so you may run it safely. As soon as the container is working, you can provide Claude an issue to resolve; it should work out methods to resolve that drawback, and use the container’s digital Linux pc to do the work. For instance, you might ask it to fill out a spreadsheet with information it collects from web sites. Claude will do all the press, copying, and pasting for you.
Is that this revolutionary? My first response was “Large deal, I can add a file to GPT and use it to browse the online for me.” In precept that’s true, though ChatGPT doesn’t enable net shopping and file importing in the identical dialog. What’s actually new? Take into consideration the monstrous immediate you’d have to get GPT to learn a spreadsheet, discover out what information was lacking, search for that information on the internet, and generate a brand new up to date spreadsheet. It wouldn’t be easy. With pc use, most of that complexity disappears.
Does it actually disappear? We’ll discover out as we get additional in. We’re nonetheless on the stage the place hallucinations and misbehavior are cute somewhat than important. It’s simple for Claude to be misled into deciphering one thing on a random web site as a immediate. It will likely be a area day for immediate injection assaults. And I can think about loads of enhancements. Laptop use at the moment works by taking screenshots and delivery them to Claude, which computes the place to click on. That appears extremely awkward, particularly on condition that many functions have accessibility affordances that may make the screenshotting pointless.
For now, loosen up and take a breath. Don’t use pc use for something critical but—it’s vital to heed Anthropic’s many warnings. However it’s best to play with it and take into consideration what it means. An automatic framework for testing net functions, Selenium++? A software for negotiating with on-line distributors? We’re a lot nearer to an agent-filled world the place we ask a pc what to do and it does it for us.
Might this be the tip of CRM?
Considerably alongside the identical traces: Sam Lessin posted on Twitter (I gained’t name it X) a couple of very intelligent and helpful hack. He exported a few years of electronic mail, used GPT to extract key elements, and uploaded it to NotebookLM (sure, once more), which permits him to ask questions on his conversations over the previous decade. Who did I discuss to? Why? What are the matters we talked about? That’s all helpful info.
Sam argues that that is the tip of structured buyer relationship administration (CRM) software program. I gained’t provide an opinion for traders or founders, however his course of resonated with me instantly. I’ve labored with many authors and potential authors over the a long time, and my electronic mail contains conversations with 1000’s of individuals. So after I wish to ask a query like “I wish to perceive extra about DDOS; who ought to I discuss to?” my first step is to go to Gmail and begin looking out. Electronic mail is my CRM system; I’ve by no means used a industrial CRM product.
Sadly and sarcastically, Gmail’s means to go looking is kind of poor. Utilizing it for contact administration, although it may be made to work, isn’t nice. Can I simply ask NotebookLM? Completely.
Electronic mail-based CRM may even be a superb startup thought, although it’s arduous to think about succeeding long-term. There wouldn’t be a lot of a “moat” to guard a startup towards bigger corporations—like Google itself. I can simply think about Google constructing this type of AI-enabled search immediately into Gmail. They have already got all the info.
That’s it for this month. That wasn’t so dangerous—perhaps I ought to do that extra usually.
