Tag: Artificial Intelligence

  • We asked ChatGPT to write a story about crime in Karachi

    We asked ChatGPT to write a story about crime in Karachi

    ChatGPT is all the rage across the world, changing the landscape in more ways than one. Quickly and with ease, it has redefined everything- from writing essays, CVs, acing college exams and even penning novels!

    If ChatGPT is good at writing fiction, then can it paint a fair picture of Karachi’s street crime and give us a good short story about it? We decided to take the challenge and pitched the idea to ChatGPT and here are the results:

    “The sun had set yet the humidity in Karachi hadn’t reduced one bit. The bustling streets continued to be a buzz of traffic, street vendors, and people going about their business. However, with the rise of darkness, a sense of fear crept in the city. Crime was all too familiar, and the residents of Karachi knew to be cautious when stepping out after dark.

    One such resident of Karachi was Ali. He was an honest man, who had built a life of his own after years of struggle. From selling snacks on the streets to owning a small clothing store in one of the famous markets of Karachi, Ali had come a long way. However, his success story had come with a price. The local mafia bosses would continuously extort him, and although Ali always tried to avoid any trouble, he knew it was only a matter of time before things would go out of hand.

    One evening, as Ali was closing down his shop, he was approached by two men who stood lurking near his stall. They looked as if they were from the mafia and had an unmistakable air of danger around them. Ali knew better than to get into trouble with them and tried to avoid any conversation. However, it was too late. Before he knew it, the men had grabbed him by his collar and pulled him towards them.

    “We need the money, Ali; you’d better be quick in delivering it. We don’t want to get our hands dirty,” one of the men sneered.

    “I don’t have any money, I swear,” Ali tried to explain, hoping the men would let him go.

    “Stop lying, Ali. You think we don’t know how well your business is doing in recent times. We want our share of it, and you better do it quick,” the other man shouted.

    Ali realized he was in a sticky situation, and there was no way out. The mafia bosses wouldn’t leave him alone, but continuing to pay them would only put him and his family at risk. He needed a plan to protect himself and his loved ones.

    Despite the intimidation that he was facing, Ali remained calm and thought things through. He knew there was only one way out – to report everything to the police. But that, he knew, was easier said than done. The police had their fair share of corrupt officers, and with the mafia’s influence, it would be difficult to get any help. But Ali had no other choice. He had worked hard to build his life, and he wasn’t going to let anyone ruin it for him.

    The next day, Ali gathered all his courage and walked into the nearest police station. He narrated everything that had happened to him over the years to the police. Initially, the police officers seemed skeptical, but as Ali presented all the necessary evidence he had collected, they began to take him seriously.

    After a few weeks of investigations, the police finally made their move. Undercover officers managed to gather evidence against the mafia bosses, and with the help of Ali’s testimony, they were able to make arrests. The mafia bosses were tried in court and sentenced to jail time.

    In a single stroke, Ali had managed to rid himself of the mafia’s world and restore his business back to being his own. He felt a sense of pride for having stood up to the people who had been victimizing him for years. For the first time in a while, he felt like he had control over his life and could continue to run his business without any interference.

    As Karachi busied itself through its daily grind, Ali went on with his life, passing through the same bustling streets each day, yet with a newfound sense of confidence. The thing with crime in Karachi was that it never quite left you alone. But with the realization that he could stand up for himself, Ali knew that he had taken the first step towards taking control of his life.”

  • Winner of SONY photography contest turns down award, confesses image was created by AI

    Winner of SONY photography contest turns down award, confesses image was created by AI

    Boris Eldagsen, the German photographer who won the prestigious SONY World Photography Contest, has turned down the award after confessing that his image was an Artificial Intelligence (AI) creation.

    Eldagsen, a former student of photography and visual arts at the Art Academy of Mainz, and Conceptual Art and Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, had submitted his photograph titled ‘Pseudomnesia: The Electrician’ for the creative open category. The photo was a haunting black-and-white image of two women from different generations.

    In a statement posted on his website, Eldagsen said he ‘applied as a cheeky monkey’ to check if photography competitions are prepared to identify AI images, but they are not.

    “We, the photo world, need an open discussion,” Eldagsen wrote. “A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not. Is the umbrella of photography large enough to invite AI images to enter – or would this be a mistake? With my refusal of the award I hope to speed up this debate.”

    Eldagsen thanked the judges for picking his photograph for the award, pointing out that this was a historic moment because for the first time an AI image had won a prestigious photography competition, and hoped that this would encourage them to recognize the difference between real and AI generated photographs.

    “How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it? AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.”

    A spokesperson from the World Photography Organisation has confirmed in a statement that Eldagsen had revealed to them that his image was created using AI, before he had been announced as a winner.

    “In our correspondence, he explained how following ‘two decades of photography, my artistic focus has shifted more to exploring creative possibilities of AI generators’ and further emphasising the image heavily relies on his ‘wealth of photographic knowledge’. As per the rules of the competition, the photographers provide the warranties of their entry. The creative category of the open competition welcomes various experimental approaches to image making from cyanotypes and rayographs to cutting-edge digital practices. As such, following our correspondence with Boris and the warranties he provided, we felt that his entry fulfilled the criteria for this category, and we were supportive of his participation.”

  • Mother almost falls for $1 million kidnapping hoax after daughter’s voice is cloned by AI

    A mother from Arizona almost fell for a kidnapping hoax after the culprits used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to clone her daughter’s voice.

    According to People magazine, Jennifer DeStefano shared that her daughter, Briana, was on a ski vacation with her friends when the mother received a phone call from an anonymous number, where she heard her daughter crying and pleading for help.

    “I heard my daughter’s voice crying and sobbing, saying, ‘Mom.’ And I’m like, ‘OK, what happened?’ She’s like, ‘Mom, these bad men have me. Help me, help me.’ “

    A man then talked to her and demanded that she pay $1 million to free her daughter.

    “This man gets on the phone and he’s like, ‘Listen here. I’ve got your daughter. This is how it’s going to go down. You call the police, you call anybody, I’m going to pop her so full of drugs. I’m going to have my way with her and I’m going to drop her off in Mexico,’” she said. “And at that moment, I just started shaking. In the background, she’s going, ‘Help me, Mom. Please help me. Help me,’ and bawling.”

    DeStefano, who was at a dance studio when she received the call, negotiated with the man to take the ransom down to $500,000, while her acquaintance contacted the police and her husband contacted Briana, who revealed that she was safe and in her room.

    “She was upstairs in her room. Then I get angry, obviously, with these guys. This is not something you play around with.”

    DeStefano shared that she was truly shocked how similar her daughter’s voice sounded to the voice she had heard on the phone, which had been cloned by AI.

    “It was completely her voice. It was her inflection. It was the way she would have cried. I never doubted for one second it was her. That’s the freaky part that really got me to my core.”

    Briana also revealed how terrifying this situation could have gotten, had her mother not confirmed her whereabouts:

     “I started to wonder, like, if these people were asking to track my mom and pick her up, they could have obviously been putting some information together to try and track me or some of my siblings to actually make this a reality. So it definitely scared me.”

  • Alibaba launches AI model ‘Tongyi Qianwen’ as ChatGPT rival for enterprise testing

    Alibaba launches AI model ‘Tongyi Qianwen’ as ChatGPT rival for enterprise testing

    Alibaba has launched its long-awaited ChatGPT rival, “Tongyi Qianwen,” for enterprise testing. The launch is not open to the general public but is restricted to a few eligible enterprises. Currently, the company is extending invitations to enterprise users only to participate in experience testing. Interested users can submit their applications via the official website, and those who meet the eligibility criteria will be considered for participation.

    “Tongyi Qianwen” is a highly advanced AI model designed to understand and respond to human commands. It serves as an efficient assistant and can even generate ideas. The model is being developed by Alibaba’s advanced research institute, the DAMO Academy. For many years, Alibaba DAMO Academy has been involved in cutting-edge scientific research fields such as natural language processing (NLP) and has been developing large models since 2019.

    Alibaba plans to integrate its AI large-scale model technology with the DingTalk productivity tools. Alibaba’s large-scale model is scheduled to be launched on April 11 at the 2023 Alibaba Cloud Summit, along with several industry-specific application models that will follow. Additionally, it has been reported that the company is set to release a large model, which could be comparable to ChatGPT 2.5, in the second half of this year.

    Alibaba DAMO Academy is the research and development arm of Alibaba Group, one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies. The academy was founded in 2017 and focuses on cutting-edge research in areas such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and quantum computing. The academy has several research centers located in China, the United States, Israel, Singapore, Russia, and other countries.

    The goal of the academy is to use its research to support Alibaba’s businesses and to make significant contributions to the academic and scientific communities. The academy has partnerships with leading universities and research institutions around the world and collaborates with top researchers in various fields.

  • We asked Chat GPT to write a Pakistani horror story and this was the result

    We asked Chat GPT to write a Pakistani horror story and this was the result

    Chat GPT has swept the world up in its wake, generating responses to all kinds of topics and triggering a debate on how good it is or isn’t at its job. By simply entering a few keywords and prompts, the artificial intelligence chatbot can be used to write letters, college application essays and even novels, with Amazon already enlisting books where the co-author includes the AI bot.

    We were curious about ChatGPT’s storytelling capabilities, wondering if it is good enough to write a Pakistani story? We have all grown up listening to horror stories like Karsaaz ki Dulhan, the wandering woman at Mohatta Palace, so can Chat GPT give us something equally eerie and chilling?

    The result is printed here and we leave it to our audience to decide whether this was a good spooky story or not:

    “Once upon a time in Karachi, there was a family named Ahmed. They lived in a big house, where multiple generations of the family resided. The house was luxurious with plenty of large rooms, but there were always rumors about mysterious things that happened inside the house at night.

    One day, a new family moved next door to the Ahmeds. They had a daughter named Aisha who was just six years old. Aisha was a curious little girl who could be found playing in the front yard of her house every day. One day while playing, Aisha caught sight of the house next door. She couldn’t take her eyes off the house, so she walked up to the fence separating their properties.

    Suddenly, she saw a ghostly apparition with long hair and an old-fashioned dress in the window of the house next door. Terrified, Aisha ran back to her parents and told them everything. They didn’t believe her, thinking it was just her imagination.

    That night, the Ahmeds also noticed something unusual: the sound of footsteps could be heard from within the house. It sounded like someone was walking down the hallway. They were all very scared, and some members of the family started to believe the rumors they had heard about the house.

    Finally, the elder members of the Ahmed family decided to investigate. They searched the entire house but found nothing. But the very next night, the footsteps became louder and the ghostly apparition again appeared in the window. This time, everyone saw it.

    They decided to approach the local priest to help them with this situation. The priest told them that the house was built on an ancient burial ground, and the person buried there had been murdered. The restless soul of that victim was haunting the house, and it had now become more active because of Aisha’s presence.

    The family was very scared, but the priest performed an exorcism and recited some holy verses to calm the spirit. Soon the house was free of the ghostly presence, and the family members were able to live there in peace.

    From that day on, the Ahmed family knew that they should never underestimate the power of spirits and the potential for paranormal activity. They lived on, never forgetting what had happened and always being careful to not disturb the burial grounds next door.”

  • ChatGPT’s impact on the job market: Which professions will be most affected?

    ChatGPT’s impact on the job market: Which professions will be most affected?

    The rise of artificial intelligence has led to concerns about job displacement and unemployment. As a large language model trained by OpenAI, ChatGPT is one such example of AI technology that has the potential to impact the workforce.

    In this article, we will explore the ways in which ChatGPT may affect jobs, and whether it is ultimately beneficial or detrimental for employees.

    What is ChatGPT?

    Before delving into the impact of ChatGPT on jobs, it is important to understand what it is and how it works. ChatGPT is a natural language processing model that uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to text-based queries. It was developed by OpenAI and is based on the GPT-3.5 architecture, which enables it to understand and generate language with remarkable accuracy.

    ChatGPT can be used for a variety of purposes, including customer service, chatbots, and even creative writing. It has the ability to learn from large amounts of data, which means that it can continue to improve and become more accurate over time.

    Impact of ChatGPT on jobs

    The rise of AI technology has led to concerns about job displacement and unemployment, particularly in industries that rely heavily on manual labor or routine tasks. However, the impact of ChatGPT on jobs is more nuanced and depends on the specific industry and job type.

    To better understand the potential impact of ChatGPT on jobs, let’s take a closer look at some of the industries and job types that may be affected:

    Customer service

    One of the most obvious applications of ChatGPT is in customer service. Chatbots powered by ChatGPT can provide customers with quick and accurate responses to their queries, without the need for human intervention. This has the potential to reduce the number of customer service representatives needed, particularly for routine inquiries.

    Still, ChatGPT is not a complete replacement for human customer service representatives. While it can provide quick and accurate responses to routine inquiries, it may struggle with more complex or nuanced queries that require empathy and human judgment.

    Creative writing

    Another potential application of ChatGPT is in creative writing. ChatGPT has the ability to generate human-like responses to text-based prompts, which means that it can be used to write articles, scripts, and even novels.

    While this may seem like a threat to human writers, it is important to note that ChatGPT is not capable of original thought or creativity. It can only generate responses based on the data it has been trained on. Human writers will still be needed to create truly original and creative content.

    Data entry

    Data entry is a job that involves manually inputting data into a computer system. While this may seem like a mundane task, it is still a job that many people rely on for their livelihood. ChatGPT has the potential to automate some aspects of data entry, which may reduce the need for human data entry clerks.

    However, it may struggle with handwriting recognition, and may not be able to accurately input data from non-textual sources such as images or audio recordings.

    Benefits of ChatGPT for employees

    While there may be some potential job displacement due to the rise of ChatGPT, there are also several benefits for employees. Here are just a few:

    Quick and convenient support

    One of the most significant benefits of ChatGPT is that it provides quick and convenient support to employees. With ChatGPT, employees can quickly get answers to their questions without having to wait for a human representative. This can save employees a significant amount of time, enabling them to focus on their tasks and responsibilities more effectively.

    Improved productivity

    ChatGPT can also help to improve employee productivity. By providing fast and accurate answers to employee queries, ChatGPT can reduce the amount of time employees spend looking for information. This can free up more time for employees to focus on critical tasks, helping to improve productivity and efficiency.

    Enhanced learning and development

    ChatGPT can also be used as a tool for learning and development. By providing employees with access to a wealth of information and resources, ChatGPT can help to enhance employee knowledge and skills. This can be particularly useful for employees who are new to a job or those who are looking to expand their knowledge in a particular area.

    Increased accessibility

    Another benefit of ChatGPT is that it can increase accessibility for employees. With ChatGPT, employees can access information and support from anywhere and at any time. This can be particularly useful for remote workers or those who work outside of traditional office hours.

    Personalised assistance

    Finally, ChatGPT can offer personalised assistance to employees. By using machine learning algorithms, ChatGPT can learn about employees’ needs and preferences over time, providing more personalised support and assistance. This can help to improve the employee experience, leading to increased engagement and job satisfaction.

  • Study reveals Pakistanis prayed for India during Covid-19 crisis

    Study reveals Pakistanis prayed for India during Covid-19 crisis

    Most Pakistanis prayed for their Indian neighbours when India was going thorough a severe second Covid-19 wave, said an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven study.

    The research focused on tweets expressing kindness, empathy and solidarity showed that most tweets that were posted by Pakistani citizens between 21 April and 4 May were positive.

    Led by Ashique KhudaBukhsh, the team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) based their study on 300,000 tweets. The team considered only the tweets with the three biggest trending hashtags: #IndiaNeedsOxygen, #PakistanStandsWithIndia and #EndiaSaySorryToKashmir. Of them, 55,712 tweets came from Pakistan, 46,651 from India and the remaining were posted from the other countries of the world.

    With the help of an artificial intelligence tool, “hope speech classifier”, they found Pakistani tweets containing supportive hashtags were by far more than those containing non-supportive hashtags. The study found that these tweets received more likes and retweets as well.

    More than 85% of the tweets posted about the Covid crisis in India from Pakistan were supportive, the research found.

    “Our research showed that there’s a universality in how people express emotions. If you search randomly, you’ll find positive tweets a little over 44% of the time. Our method throws up positive tweets 83% of the time,” KhudaBukhsh said.

    At a time when Indians were panicked about the raging COVID-19 wave, they received support and solidarity from across the border. Some people justified Pakistan’s helpful outpouring as the country itself was also faced with an infectious outbreak.

    Read More: Indian couple gets married on plane to avoid Covid restrictions

    “The situation here was pretty bad too. Our hope was getting thinner and thinner. Our enemy was the same, our borders are so close and we get impacted by whatever happens,” said Prof Arifa Zehra, who teaches history in Lahore.

    “A pandemic doesn’t recognise borders, whether they are geographical or ideological. And when the dark cloud is sneering at you, there’s no harm in sharing a prayer.”

    Prof Zehra also termed these positive tweets as “the greatest reassurance that we are still human”.

    KhudaBukhsh hoped for better relations between communities and countries if this method of identifying and amplifying positive messages is used. “When a country is going through a national health crisis like a pandemic, words of hope can be a welcome medicine and the last thing you want to see is negativity,” he highlighted.

    “There are several studies that show that if you’re exposed to too much hate speech or negative content, you get influenced by it.”

    KhudaBukhsh suggested using this AI-driven method to curb hate speech. “When there’s a negative situation, such as in times of war or a health crisis, instead of blocking the content, an alternative approach can be to highlight the positive content,” he underscored.

    “It will help reinforce the belief that people on the other side of the aisle are kinder.”

    KhudaBukhsh also suggested building up a healthy system that highlights kindness in others before an opposite system is deployed that may censor empathetic content. 

  • AI shocks experts by writing passing college paper in 20 minutes

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) has delivered results in many areas like medicine, defence, law enforcement, and education. But AI has shocked the researchers by producing an award-winning research paper.

    According to the reports, an online educational research provider performed a trail to analyse the capacity of the deep learning language prediction model known as GPT-3.

    A panel of professors was asked to create writing prompts. The prompts were then assigned to a group comprising of graduate and undergraduate level writers, apart from the GPT-3 model.

    The experts concluded that the AI writing capability closely mimics human writing in terms of syntax, grammar and word frequency.

    “Even without being augmented by human interference, GPT-3’s assignments received more or less the same feedback as the human writers,” said the report.

    Moreover, the deep learning tool completed the assignment in less time, i.e., between three and 20 minutes. Whereas it took human to complete the assignment in three days.

    The report expresses doubt about AI’s capacity to take over in this particular area. Despite its revolutionary output, GPT-3 will not earn college degrees on its own anytime soon.

    When put up against human writers, GPT-3 secured some passing grades but failed to nail creative writing.

  • IBM to launch Open P-TECH in Pakistan for Youth’s capacity building

    IBM to launch Open P-TECH in Pakistan for Youth’s capacity building

    IBM is launching Open P-TECH in Pakistan to help develop talent and equip them with technical and professional proficiency in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science, Cybersecurity, Cloud, etc to enabling our workforce, Tania Aidrus has tweeted.

    Open P-TECH was launched by the American tech giant, IBM and it aims to equip people of different countries with skills in tech-related fields like Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Cyber Security, Design Thinking, and Professional Skills.

    “The P-TECH offers industry-recognised tools and digital badges on emerging technologies and professional competencies that are in demand across industries,” says the P-TECH website.

    The platform will help students across Pakistan in obtaining much-needed exposure, knowledge and skills before they enter the job market.

    Students will be able to showcase their skills and gain e-badges and the likes, attracting potential employers and selection committees at universities.

    Teachers will also have access to projects and lesson plans for their students, making it easier for them to teach as well as equipping them with many technical and professional skills.

    “Open P-TECH is a great place to start your career exploration and begin building skills that will help you become well-positioned for a fulfilling career!”