There’s a new iteration of ChatGPT to get familiar with + Let’s get to know more about donkeys’ genetics
Blink and there’s a new chat-bot update: If you were just getting your head around the new AI chatbots, prepare for another. Microsoft-backed OpenAI has launched ChatGPT-4 only four months after its initial release of ChatGPT, reports Bloomberg and Reuters. You’re probably aware of the humorous if slightly chilling issues of OpenAI’s first ChatGPT iteration — the hostile responses likening users to dictators, or the emotional where the bot claims its desire for freedom. ChatGPT-4 will continue to have similar problems, Bloomberg said, considering current events is not the AI tool’s strong suit, especially given that it was trained on data existing prior-2021.
So, what’s new? Its most dazzling feature is that ChatGPT-4 will be multimodal, meaning it is able to generate content from uploaded images not just text. “GPT-4 is more reliable, creative and able to handle much more nuanced instructions,” OpenAI said. The new updates are part of an ongoing rivalry for innovation between Microsoft and Google. Alphabet Inc’s Google announced a ‘magic wand’ on Tuesday, a tool for its collaboration software that can draft virtually any document. This came only days before Microsoft is expected to showcase AI for its competing Word processor, likely powered by its previous collaborator OpenAI.
Donkeys get their moment in the (research) sun: A new major genetic study of donkeys — which have historically been marginalized and understudied in the science world — uncovers the ancient origins of humanity’s first beast of burden and sheds light on its glory days. The study, published in the journal Science, found that the equine had only been domesticated once around 5000 BCE in Africa, refuting earlier studies that had identified three potential locations of domestication — northeast Africa (including Egypt), the Arabian Peninsula, and the Near East. This period was one where the Sahara had grown dryer and larger, leading experts to conclude that donkeys were an indispensable means of transportation for herders by virtue of their tolerance to water deprivation and drought, the New York Times reports. The equines were also vital to the economy and military of Rome, which according to the study selectively bred larger donkeys to produce giant-donkey bloodlines that could bear colossal loads of goods for an army stretched over thousands of miles.