Getting started ft. Microsoft's Copilot

✨Welcome to the first edition of untechnical✨

If you’ve found yourself here, we’re hoping it’s because you’re looking to learn and leverage new tech, AI and automation in your life and work.

In these newsletters, you’ll benefit from:

• A curated summary of Tech/AI news from the week

• Spotlights on the hottest AI/automation tools

• Shortcuts, hacks and anything I’ve learned that you should know, too!

So, let’s get into it!

What is untechnical? 🔗

The vast majority of the world would not describe themselves as being ‘technical.’ Most people do not have jobs or qualifications in technology, software, information technology, cyber security, engineering, machine learning, data science…

Yet so much of the future and today(!) is about new technology, AI, automation.

So what happens to those of us who aren’t ‘technical’? How do we also benefit from the technology boom and not get left behind?

(➡️ enter untechnical and this newsletter)

Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT just over 12 months ago, I’ve been closely following the mainstream growth of AI and have tried my best to keep up with the rate of change and barrage of new tools, products and capabilities that continue to emerge on, what feels like, a daily basis.

But let’s be real. It’s hard to keep up. Especially for those who don’t work in tech or identify as ‘non-technical.’

I’ve subscribed to many AI and technology newsletters, news outlets and social channels to keep up as best I can, but noticed there was still more curation and synthesis needed to engage and support those who don’t work in tech or haven’t kept up with their tech/AI/automation advancements over the past 12 months.

This weekly newsletter (amongst other untechnical social content) will be an easy and stress-free way for you to keep your finger on the pulse on all things new tech, AI and automation.

Weekly News Digest 🗞

There’s no shortage of news about tech, AI and automation but it’s hard to know what you should tune into. Here, I summarise noteworthy news from the week and why you should care.

1: New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft

What happened? Over the holiday period, the NYT sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. It’s alleged OpenAI utilised written content published by the NYT to train their AI technologies (e.g. ChatGPT) without authorisation.
Tell me more: Amongst other complaints, the NYT discovered that the ChatGPT powered Microsoft search tool, Browse with Bing, produced almost word-for-word results from an article on the NYT’s product review site, Wirecutter. Critically, the Bing results did not make any reference to the original source information (Wirecutter article) and removed all referral links, which Wirecutter uses to generate commissions (i.e. $$$).
Why is this important/interesting? This is the first time a large American media company has sued an AI company, like OpenAI, over copyright infringement. Large AI models, like ChatGPT, are only as good as the data used to train the model. In other words, higher quality data/information used to train the model = higher quality generative AI outputs for end users (like us!) Quality information is seldom free…so in the age of AI, who should pay for its production and/or usage?
Untechnical opinion: The timing of this law suit has really piqued my interest! Is it a coincidence that the NYT commenced legal proceedings at the same time Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered Copilot apps launched? (More on Copilot below.) Ethically, this type of dispute is also quite interesting. Wirecutter/NYT invested time and money into producing the original written content (intellectual property) in the online articles, yet ChatGPT reproduced this content without consent or any reference to Wirecutter/NYT and removed the commission-generating links. In school and university, we would have called this plagiarism. We’ll keep a close eye on how this case unfolds!

 2: Microsoft launches Copilot app for Android, Apple and iPad iOS

What happened? Over the holiday period, Microsoft stealthy launched the Copilot app for Android. This release was closely followed by the launch of the Apple iOS and iPad iOS Copilot apps.
Tell me more: Copilot is an AI-fuelled chat assistant, which is powered by OpenAI’s latest generative AI products (GPT-4 and DALL·E 3). For Microsoft 365 users, Copilot can be integrated with and used within Microsoft tools like Outlook, Word, Powerpoint etc. Users can ask Copilot questions, draft emails, and summarise text and can create images through the text-to-image generator DALL·E 3.
Why is this important/interesting? This is a major glow-up for Microsoft 365 users. And, if you are not an existing ChatGPT premium member (i.e. you don’t pay for the latest ChatGPT features like GPT-4 or DALL·E 3), this could be a way to access premium ChatGPT features for free! We explore Copilot more below.

3: Former Trump lawyer cites fake AI-generated cases in US federal court case

What happened? Michael Cohen, the former US lawyer for Donald Trump, unknowingly cited fake AI-generated legal cases in a US federal court. The non-existent cases were used by Cohen’s legal representation to support a motion to shorten his three-year probation period.
Tell me more: Aiming to support his legal counsel, Cohen conducted research using Google Bard, which he misunderstood as a ‘super-charged search engine, not a generative AI service like Chat-GPT’ and provided it to his lawyers. Unfortunately, Cohen’s legal representation did not verify the validity (or existence!) of these cases and included them in the motion submitted to the court. Things took a turn for the worst when no one, including the judge, could find these cases!
Why is this important/interesting? This situation shows how little many know about existing generative AI tools and their (current) capabilities. Generative AI tools, like Google’s Bard and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are known to hallucinate; meaning they can convincingly make things up with no warning! When it comes to the legal system, and the importance of accurate information and legal precedence, hallucinating generative AI tools are a recipe for disaster.
Untechnical opinion: I am not usually one for naming and shaming. But in this instance, this example shows that even highly educated professionals, like lawyers, can fall prey to assuming generative AI is something it is not (i.e. a super-charged search engine). AI-powered legal research may well be the future of the legal profession, but we’re certainly not there yet; especially on generative AI models like Bard!

Tech Tool Spotlight 💡

Here I deep-dive into a new or updated technology tool to show you what’s possible and ways you can apply the tool.

Microsoft’s Copilot 

Over the holidays, Microsoft launched Copilot apps for Android, Apple and iPad iOS users. This is the start of something big from Microsoft and where we see their investment and close partnership with OpenAI shining through.

Get a quick rundown (<3mins) of what’s possible with Copilot

Looking for some practical ways Copilot might be useful to you?

Below is a summary of how Copilot can assist across the Microsoft 365 product suite. As someone who uses Microsoft 365 products a lot in my corporate roles, I am excited to see how I can leverage Copilot to boost my productivity and spend less time on admin and menial tasks.

Playground 🪁

Experimenting with new tech, AI and automation is one of the best ways to learn. But it can be hard to know where to start or what to play around with. Here I provide an example of what I’ve been playing around with recently to give you some inspiration.

Output: 3D Animated Illustration

Feedback 🎯

This newsletter is not a one-way street. Learning more about what you’d like to see more/less of and what content is going to support you best is incredibly important.

💬 Do you have any feedback that may help improve future editions of untechnical? Let us know by replying to this email.

That’s all for this week! Until next Tuesday…

✨ Thanks for tuning in! ✨