Here's an experiment being run by undergraduate computer science students everywhere: Ask ChatGPT to generate phishing emails, and test whether these are better at persuading victims to respond or click on the link than the usual spam. It's an interesting experiment, and the results are likely to vary wildly based on the details of the experiment. Bruce Schneier is a lecturer and fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and chief of security architecture at Inrupt. His latest book is A Hacker's Mind. Barath Raghavan is a professor of computer science at USC and cofounder of INVISV.

Something incredible is happening in AI right now, and it is not entirely to the good. Everybody is talking about systems such as ChatGPT (OpenAI), Dall-E 2, and Lensa that generate text and images that look remarkably human-like, with astonishingly little effort. These systems can be incredibly fun to play with. Take this example, generated with ChatGPT by Henry Minsky (son of Marvin Minsky, one of AI's founders), who asked ChatGPT to "Describe losing your sock in the dryer in the style of the Declaration of Independence": When in the course of household events, it becomes necessary for one to dissolve the bonds that have connected a sock to its mate, and to assume among the powers of the laundry room, the separate and equal station to which the laws of physics and of household maintenance entitle it, a decent respect to the opinions of socks requires that it should declare the causes which impel it to go missing. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all socks are created equal, and are endowed by their manufacturer with certain unalienable rights.

On May 26, 1995, Bill Gates wrote the famous "Internet Tidal Wave" internal memo at Microsoft. This was a huge wake-up call for the desktop software company at the time. It immediately shifted priorities and resources for Microsoft to go after the nascent World Wide Web. I thought of this "Internet Tidal Wave" moment when I came across a helpful analogy from Hubspot CTO Dharmesh Shah a couple weeks ago: "Netscape was to the Internet what ChatGPT is to Artificial Intelligence. "The Internet existed before Netscape.

On May 26, 1995, Bill Gates wrote the famous "Internet Tidal Wave" internal memo at Microsoft. This was a huge wake-up call for the desktop software company at the time. It immediately shifted priorities and resources for Microsoft to go after the nascent World Wide Web. I thought of this "Internet Tidal Wave" moment when I came across a helpful analogy from Hubspot CTO Dharmesh Shah a couple weeks ago: "Netscape was to the Internet what ChatGPT is to Artificial Intelligence. "The Internet existed before Netscape.

Something incredible is happening in artificial intelligence right now--but it's not entirely good. Everybody is talking about systems like ChatGPT, which generates text that seems remarkably human. This makes it fun to play with, but there is a dark side, too. Because they are so good at imitating human styles, there is risk that such chatbots could be used to mass-produce misinformation. To get a sense of what it does best at its best, consider this example generated by ChatGPT, sent to me over e-mail by Henry Minsky (son of Marvin Minsky, one of AI's foundational researchers).

Something incredible is happening in AI right now, and it's not entirely to the good. Everybody is talking about systems like chatGPT (OpenAI), Dall-E 2, and Lensa that generate text and images that look remarkably human-like, with astonishingly little effort. These systems can be incredibly fun to play with. Take this example, generated by chatGPT by Henry Minsky (son of Marvin Minsky, one of AI's founders), who asked chatGPT to "Describe losing your sock in the dryer in the style of the declaration of independence": When in the course of household events, it becomes necessary for one to dissolve the bonds that have connected a sock to its mate, and to assume among the powers of the laundry room, the separate and equal station to which the laws of physics and of household maintenance entitle it, a decent respect to the opinions of socks requires that it should declare the causes which impel it to go missing. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all socks are created equal, and are endowed by their manufacturer with certain unalienable rights….

Earlier this week an artificial intelligence-powered rapper was dropped from its label (yes, it had a label) after its algorithm learned to use racial slurs in its lyrics. More usefully, a recent AI trial at Queensland's Princess Alexandra Hospital was able to give early warnings as much as eight hours before a patient's condition was predicted to decline. Artificial technology is about to send a "tidal wave" of disruption through the way we work, according to a once-in-a-decade forecast by CSIRO, the national science agency. The federal government is being urged to use the upcoming national jobs summit to "double down" on policies set by the former government to ride that tidal wave, or risk being rode over. AI technology is forecast to replace as much as half of the work that is done today by 2030.

This current year has already ushered in a tidal wave of tech innovations, from the rise of social robots and personal assistants to Amazon Prime's one-day delivery gamble and the proliferation of voice search. The latter alone became a $1.8B retail segment in the US in 2017, and is predicted to rise to around $40B by 2022. Amazon Prime's ability to prioritize Prime subscribers in their supply chain and get them their packages within 24 hours has rocked the world of online retail. Chatbots have been heavily deployed this year too, and are generally well-received by customers who would otherwise have to call or submit forms. But we're more than halfway through 2019, so it's time to ask: What big tech changes are going to affect the way we live and work in 2020?

Microsoft is betting on artificial intelligence (AI) with the creation at the end of September of a new AI and Research Group. This newly formed group brings together Microsoft's research organization and more than 5,000 computer scientists and engineers focused on AI and is now the fourth major division in the company, on par with the Windows, Office and Cloud divisions. Harnessing AI through agents such as Cortana, the company's digital personal assistant Infusing AI into Skype, Office 365 and every other Microsoft application Making cognitive capabilities such as vision and speech and machine analytics available to external developers Using Azure to build a powerful AI supercomputer in the cloud to provide "AI as a Service" Using Azure to build a powerful AI supercomputer in the cloud to provide "AI as a Service" When Microsoft talks of "infusing" every application with AI, it's reminiscent of the famous "Internet Tidal Wave" email Bill Gates sent to all staff in 1995. In it, Gates outlined his desire to focus the company's efforts on the internet with immediate effect and told them to "assign the internet the highest level of importance" in everything that they did henceforth. Is the creation of the AI and research group effectively a "tidal wave" message?

Microsoft is betting on artificial intelligence (AI) with the creation at the end of September of a new AI and Research Group. This newly formed group brings together Microsoft's research organization and more than 5,000 computer scientists and engineers focused on AI and is now the fourth major division in the company, on par with the Windows, Office and Cloud divisions. When Microsoft talks of "infusing" every application with AI, it's reminiscent of the famous "Internet Tidal Wave" email Bill Gates sent to all staff in 1995. In it, Gates outlined his desire to focus the company's efforts on the internet with immediate effect and told them to "assign the internet the highest level of importance" in everything that they did henceforth. Is the creation of the AI and research group effectively a "tidal wave" message?