According to Bill Gates, AI is the most revolutionary technology produced in years. It’s certainly powering a range of new options for software engineers.
It already feels like staying up to date on AI technology is vital. But things are moving so fast that doing so can feel like a full-time job for even the biggest tech enthusiasts.
With so many announcements and so much information being published on a daily basis, it makes sense to have a shortlist of reliable information sources. We asked our team where they go to learn more about AI: here are some of the top suggestions.
openai.com
You probably know OpenAI as the creator behind ChatGPT. But their repertoire expands beyond that tool to the technology behind it. OpenAI’s mission is to create Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – that is, an AI system which can do pretty much any task without having been specifically designed to do so. Whatever you think of that vision, and of what they’re done so far, they have plenty to say about AI.
The OpenAI research centre is an interesting resource for future gazers and those keen to know what OpenAI believes is coming next. But if you want to stay current on how AI is impacting workplaces today, the company’s blog is the place to go.
While OpenAI provides a particular view, they’re one of the companies making the most noise and these are the best places to stay updated with their developments.
An honorable mention here goes to Google’s long-standing AI blog, which has lived somewhat in OpenAI’s shadow for the past few months but contains a wealth of interesting, if rather technical, information.
MIT Technology Review
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review deals with technology in general, but it has a few content streams explicitly dedicated to AI. These include an editorial AI news section, the In Machines We Trust podcast, and an AI-focused newsletter called the Algorithm.
Whether you want to stay updated with what Google is working on, better understand the potential roadmap for AI evolution, or get an expert prediction on how new developments will filter down into daily-use tech, you can find it here.
Plus, it’s written by a good range of contributors and contains plenty of interviews with a broad spectrum of AI innovators. When read critically, it’s an excellent place to form a balanced view of the latest AI use cases and developments’ commercial, social, and political impacts.
arxiv.org
arxiv.org is a ‘curated research-sharing platform open to anyone’ run by Cornell University. Essentially it’s a huge database of research papers in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. Which means there’s plenty of information on AI.
But it’s not a site for the faint of heart. Many of the reports are highly technical and they’re moderated but not peer-reviewed, so should never be taken as fact. Plus a huge range of content is available, even within the AI section, so finding relevant material can be tricky.
Despite those caveats, if you have the time, interest and technical understanding arxiv.org contains a lot of interesting content, like this (subjective) piece from Microsoft Research.
Lifearchitect.ai
Lifearchitect.ai is the blog of AI expert Dr Alan D. Thompson. Thompson is a world-renowned specialist in the augmentation of human intelligence and advancing the evolution of ‘integrated AI’.
Here, you’ll find plenty of interesting updates, plus opinions on the future of AI, how it can help humanity, how fast AGI will develop, and how it’s likely to be used.
With topics ranging from Brain-Machine interfaces to Alan’s take on the potential implications of ChatGPT, it’s a solid source for people with a technical interest, future-gazers, and those wanting to understand how businesses must prepare to reorient around this new technology.
The author openly admits he leans towards ‘optimistic’ when it comes to the evolution of AI. Which is probably putting it mildly, so it’s worth keeping that in mind. But if you want the views of someone well connected with a current view across the industry, Lifearchitect.ai is a good place to look.
AI Newsletters
A well-curated newsletter is great for digestible information, and there are plenty of good ones dedicated to AI you can subscribe to, including:
- Ben’s Bites – a fairly new yet wildly popular daily dose of AI news with over 100,000 subscribers. You can read these bite-sized updates in a few minutes, though some of the linked articles can be quite in-depth.
- TL;DR – AI, Machine Learning & Data Science – a daily synopsis of the latest and most prominent stories in AI, ML and Data Science. Again, this brief daily update is great for those on a busy schedule but some of the content demands more time.
- The Sequence – with over 160,000 subscribers, The Sequence is hugely popular with the technology community, including professionals from the main AI labs, universities, and enterprises. There’s a fee for long-term access to the full newsletter, or you can access a limited version for free.
When it comes to newsletters, there are countless options, but it pays to spend a little time finding the ones you enjoy and get value from.
Dissenting voices
Balance is often a good thing but it’s not always easy to find less optimistic viewpoints about the state of AI today, but there are some interesting views out there.
Gary Marcus is a leading AI commentator, with two AI start-ups under his belt and a background in cognitive psychology. Gary’s Substack newsletter doesn’t appear in your inbox very often but does provide a strongly argued counter-narrative to some of the hyperbole around AI today.
Yann Lecun, an AI pioneer currently working at Meta, takes a more moderate view. Yann promotes a wide range of new research and technologies via his Twitter feed, but also takes a more nuanced view on the capabilities of today’s AI tech.
Diffblue
As the creators of the only AI for code tool that can autonomously write Java unit tests, our team of AI enthusiasts love to discuss all things AI.
On our blog, you can find articles written by our experts on a range of topics – though unsurprisingly most are based around AI, Java and unit testing.
And for a regular snapshot of everything we’re talking about, plus a range of interesting AI-related stories from around the internet, you can sign up to the Diffblue newsletter.
