ChatGPT rivals, AI’s newest focus, and launch of Apple Vision Pro

When ChatGPT first came out, it was referred to as “the Google killer”, and although I doubt many people thought one of the biggest, most profitable, and most pervasive companies in the history of the world was actually going to “die”, the sentiment was born from the following revelation:

“Why would someone search for something on Google or any other search engine to get a bunch of options — links — to other sites, often random, usually stack ranked according to sponsored and promoted listings, followed by pages stuffed with keywords, etc. when they can just type a query into a box and get AN answer?”. To take a quick trip in the way back machine, we can remember the quotable line from the old tv show ‘Dragnet’ — “just the facts”.

As AI has progressed over the last year, we see a lot of impressive and powerful AI coming out of Google / DeepMind, including their own answer to and version of ChatGPT, Bard (now Gemini). But Google, being the dominant search engine for humanity, continues to innovate and is leading the pack when it comes to one of AI’s “newest” focuses: Search, or specifically, generative search.

Within days of the release of this issue of AI Logs, Google retired its legacy “cache link” and has decided NOT to deprecate their SGE (search generative experiences); meanwhile a startup with a new and improved search engine experience, Arc, just launched. Although, they’re not specifically an AI technology, what they’ve done for search may be adopted as an actual bonafide game changer.

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NEWS

• 🪖 Russia, China ditch US proposal, swap notes on the military use of AI

  The US has called for a diplomatic framework for using AI for military purposes, but Russia and China have allegedly chosen to stay away.
  

• 📜 Researchers chant AI spell to decipher 2,000-year-old charred scroll

  The newly understood text thought to be from Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, talks about music, food, and enjoying life. But this is just a small part of what's still buried.
  

• 🚴🏼‍♀️ AI-backed algo crafts 3D printed foam, boosts helmet protection by 25%

  Good news for bike riders and football players.

MUST READ

Apple Vision Pro teardown reveals the secrets of its mixed-reality magic

The Apple Vision Pro, a mixed-reality headset by Apple, offers a new spatial computing experience. iFixit disassembled it, revealing its complex internals, including the EyeSight display and extensive sensor array. While praised for ambition and engineering, concerns exist regarding weight, battery, and repairability. Despite flaws, it showcases Apple's innovation in hardware design.

Vision Pro integrates advanced AI and augmented reality (AR) technologies with the familiar sleek and intuitive user interface characteristic of iPhones and MacBooks. It introduces the innovative visionOS spatial operating system and a 3D user interface, creating the illusion of digital content seamlessly blending into the user's real-world environment.

Click below to learn more about Apple Vision Pro.

OTHER IMPORTANT UPDATES

• 📱Apple's next big leap: Generative AI features coming soon

  Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, teased exciting developments: the tech giant is delving into generative AI with anticipated new features later this year, sparking intrigue
  

• 🔘 Elon Musk’s satellites to amateur radio, China’s new spy tech tracks all
  Chinese researchers have developed a new signal intelligence device that could rival or exceed those of the US. The device is AI-enabled and is said to be a "game-changer."
  

• 🤖 French hospital trials 'socially assistive' robots to help the elderly
  The Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris in France recently hosted a set of "socially assistive" robots to help lighten the workload for its human staff.
  

• ⏩ Bard is dead, long live Gemini: Google’s new name for its AI chat?

  The chatbot has been constantly evolving, adding new features and capabilities.

PROMPT OF THE WEEK

1. I’ve often discussed in this “promoting the week” section the importance of ascribing a role to your AI within the prompt, and a “super prompt” I’ve shared here and referenced again and again - “Professor Synapse”, is a great specific deployment of “role-playing”. But in this week’s PotW, I want to do a deeper dive on Role Playing within AI. If you ask the AI inside of a prompt to act as a certain role, like an archetypical customer, a famous executive, or a highly trained specialist, it will provide feedback as that person and can go back and forth, postulating how that persona would answer the questions.

   Especially in the mobile apps or versions where you can speak into the microphone and have it speak back like Pi, ChatGPT, and others, this can be very powerful. A great use case or example is:

   “Act as a potential customer of (my product) who is comparing us to (competitor) and considering going with us. Ask questions a prospective customer is likely to have, who’s familiar with our offering and the space, raise concerns, and help me as the salesperson convince them to ‘pull the trigger’ and buy. Don’t be too easy, and be hard to win over. Once we’re done, please analyze and tell me what I could have done differently or better. Do you understand the task?”

   To take this prompt and section a step further this week, I wrote all the following, but then asked an AI what it thinks of the prompt, and got this feedback and insight that breaks it down well too. I always love to ask my AIs for their feedback on what I write and also what I get from other AIs. Enjoy!

   “The prompt you've provided is an excellent example of a role-play scenario that can be used to train sales personnel or to refine a sales strategy. It's designed to simulate a realistic interaction with a potential customer who is considering your product but is also looking at competitors. The prompt encourages the AI to ask challenging questions and raise concerns that a well-informed customer might have, which can help prepare a salesperson for tough real-world selling situations.

   Here's a more detailed breakdown of the prompt and its potential benefits:

   The "Customer Comparison" Role-Play Prompt

2. Objective:

   To simulate a realistic sales conversation where the AI acts as a skeptical potential customer comparing your product with a competitor's. The goal is to challenge the salesperson to address concerns and persuade the customer to make a purchase.

   Benefits:

   Realistic Practice: The scenario provides a safe environment for salespeople to practice handling objections and tough questions without the risk of losing an actual sale.

   Critical Thinking: It encourages salespeople to think critically about the unique selling points of their products and how to communicate these effectively.

   Competitor Analysis: The prompt requires knowledge of competitors, which can help in understanding the competitive landscape and refining the sales strategy.

   Feedback for Improvement: After the role-play, the AI can provide an analysis of the salesperson's performance, offering insights into areas for improvement.

   How to Use the Prompt:

   Set the Scene: Begin by explaining the context to the AI, including details about your product and the competitor.

   Start the Role-Play: Engage with the AI as if it were a potential customer, responding to its questions and concerns.

   Handle Objections: Use the opportunity to practice overcoming objections and highlighting the advantages of your product.

   Conclude and Analyze: After the role-play, ask the AI to analyze the interaction and provide feedback on the sales approach.

   Example Role-Play Interaction:

   AI: "I've been looking at your product and [competitor's product], and I'm leaning towards them because of [specific feature]. Why should I consider your product instead?"

   Salesperson: "That's a great question. While [competitor] does offer [specific feature], our product stands out because of [unique selling point]. Additionally, [another advantage]. Can I tell you more about how this benefits you?"

   AI: "I'm concerned about [potential issue]. How does your product address this?"

   Salesperson: "I understand your concern. Here's how our product tackles that issue [solution]. Plus, we offer [additional support or feature]."

   AI: "Alright, I'm intrigued but still not convinced. What else can you offer to sway my decision?"

   Salesperson: "Let's discuss [exclusive offer or guarantee]. We're confident in our product and want to ensure you feel secure in your decision to choose us."

   Post-Interaction Analysis:

   The AI can then provide feedback such as:

   "You addressed the feature comparison well, but you could have provided more evidence or customer testimonials to strengthen your argument."

   "Consider elaborating on the long-term benefits and cost savings of your product to make a more compelling case."

   By using this prompt, sales teams can gain valuable practice and insights, leading to improved sales techniques and potentially higher conversion rates.”

TUTORIAL

ChatGPT API calls and actions

To add API calls and external actions to your custom ChatGPT GPTs simply:

1. Link them in “Actions”

2. AlsolLink them in the “Custom instructions” section whe.n creating your GPT

3. You can command it to check the entire repository/knowledge base before replying.

These two chained together can make your custom GPTs powerful, and help you leverage the full power of them short of the forthcoming GPT “App Store”.

TOOLS OF THE WEEK

📝 Venture Kit is a freemium and easy-to-use AI that generates business plans for startups in a way I haven’t come across before. Clean layout, in-depth, well-written, customizable, available market research, and much more make this a powerful tool for any entrepreneur. The free version is actually quite good and the pro is only $20/mo.

🔵 Osum is a market research tool that’s quite good. I typically like to feature affordable solutions and this one is a bit pricey, but it does offer seven-day free trials, outperforms any other tools I’ve seen using AI for market research, and costs substantially less than this level of research and analysis would cost otherwise. SWOTs, reports, ICPs, growth strategies and much more.

👧🏼 RebeccAi is yet another cool tool for entrepreneurs — this one helps with validating ideas, creating business plans, and more. Product market fit, go-to-market strategy, idea validation, and more can be so challenging, especially for early or first-time entrepreneurs and this tool is really helpful. The free tier is fairly limited, although it’s definitely helpful and great for being free; the full-featured version is awesome and starts at $5 for the first month.

▪ Perplexity is comparable to ChatGPT but has some notable differences. What makes Perplexity great is how it searches the internet and aggregates its finding much better, sites sources, has an available copilot, lets you aggregate your chats history into groups, allows you to choose the “focus” of the output (academic, research etc).