WEEKLY WHEATIES #2453
Uncanny Valley, AI, Headlines, Picks of the Year
In this newsletter:
📝 Post: Unmasking AI: The Journey Through the Uncanny Valley
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: AI Updates
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: Quick Headlines
😎 Pick of the Week: End of the Year Picks
📦 Featured Product: Bidets
📝 Unmasking AI: The Journey Through the Uncanny Valley
If the last few years haven’t been an example of how far AI has come, 2025 will move the needle even more. I’ve talked earlier this year about What can AI Really do? in regard to text, audio, images, and video. And since then, they have improved more and more. The text output is better, the audio sounds clearer and realistic, the images can now incorporate text much better, and the video is scary realistic, and I can guarantee you’ve been tricked by AI video on social media in the last few months.
Which leads me to share something called the Uncanny Valley. If you click the link to visit the Wikipedia page, you’ll see the graph with the valley on the right side. Essentially this graph is showing the human likeness of something we see or hear, compared to our emotional response of seeing or hearing that thing.
On the left side we see how robots become more humanoid compared to stuffed animals, then we get into zombies, prosthetics, and puppets. We know some things are not human, and they don’t bother us. However, the more human-like something becomes, the little things throw us off, and they make us feel very uncomfortable. It is also akin to the “I don’t know what it is, but something feels off” comments you may have made before.
Again, as AI becomes more and more capable, this valley must be part of that process. Things will be bad, uncomfortable, and weird before they become more normalized. You may have seen the AI pictures and videos of people with more than the normal number of fingers, limbs appearing and disappearing, and many more non-normal effects. These are becoming less and less common, with AI creating very life-like and realistic stock media. However, as it progresses, there are even arguments on if AI is actually good for Hollywood. In the “fake world” this is easy to do. Google’s DeepMind Genie 2 is helping grow the video game space and creating new open worlds here.
There are also tons of other tools and apps available for professional and personal use, allowing people to dream big and create things previously unable to do - at least inexpensively and quickly. There are people who are very creative in their search for entertainment, helping bridge these gaps, too. And if it helps solve a real-world problem, then that’s just a bonus. A few examples of this in practice include:
Animated Drawings from Meta FAIR
World Labs - a tool to generate Worlds from pictures
However, AI is much more than art, literature, and helping you write stories or jokes. Which is funny because these are two of the main areas people thought would be some of the last places for AI to work towards. Some recent headlines share some amazing things AI is helping across the scientific and engineering world, too:
Google’s DeepMind and Nature.com are tackling weather forecasting with great performance
AI decodes the calls of the wild
Side note here: check out the CornellLab app Merlin Bird ID to help figure out what birds are making noises in your backyard!
As fast as computers are, Moore’s Law is still working strong
Google CEO says over 25% of new Google code is generated by AI
Read How Hallucinatory A.I. Helps Science Dream Up Big Breakthroughs
However, what if you want to use AI and are not sure where to start through all the fuss? Well, I created a site for just that if you missed it in a past newsletter. Keep it on the Download includes softwares and apps for just about anything (not all are AI-affiliated). And if something is missing, please let me know! For other searches, The Neuron shares their top AI tools for business along with another comprehensive directory of AI agents I found.
You should at least start with some sort of Chatbot. There are a few major players here, and they all are trained on their own “model.” Think of them like the difference between Google, Bing, and Yahoo search engines. You can basically get the same information from them, it will be ordered and look different, but it’s still a search engine. Well, all Chatbots basically do the same thing - they are a much more advanced version of Siri or Google you use on your phone, with the exception that they will find or create an answer. You will never have to hear the “I’m sorry, I can’t help with that,” unless it’s something illegal or out of their moral or ethical standards.
After searching and finding a tool, how to then use it? There’s no limit, essentially, as AI can literally generate new things, so don’t be scared to play around with a Chatbot. You could type into it what you do for a living or hobbies you have, give it some examples or use cases of any of your projects or tasks, and simply ask, “How could AI help with anything mentioned above?” You may be surprised. A few places you could start may include: writing emails or code, analyzing or checking content for grammar, marketing ideas, comparing information, transcriptions and summarizations, and much, much more.
All that said, two finance wise-guys, Jeffry Funk and Gary Smith, believe there is an AI bubble about to pop. They argue too much of AI is free (trying to attract users), along with the exponential growth in costs, all while delaying profits. I’m not sure that’s the case, but they make a good argument. I have always said AI won’t replace people; AI will just replace people who are not using AI. The faster you are to adopt and integrate AI, the more difficult it will be to replace you.
Try different tools out and experiment a bit. Ask questions and share what you’ve found. Do an online search for “AI prompting” and see what tips and tricks you can find. Just keep in mind, the prompting is very important, but it also may changes as these LLMs are updated.
🗞️ ICYMI: AI Updates
As 2025 draws near, Forbes shares their predictions on how AI will be used more and more. Just from the post above, we can see how AI is used across disciplines - especially in enterprise. With the 12 Days of OpenAI coming to a close, there were announcements for search and integration with desktop apps, and you can even text (via WhatsApp) or call ChatGPT at 1-800-ChatGPT! Lastly, they also announced new models, o3 and o3-mini. Not to be outdone, Google released Google’s Veo 2 to compete with OpenAI’s Sora.
🗞️ ICYMI: Quick Headlines
Apple joins Google antitrust fight to protect $20B search partnership
Honda and Nissan to merge, Honda will take the lead
NASA spacecraft just plunged into the sun and broke stunning records
Historical mysteries solved by science in 2024
😎 POTW: End of the Year Picks
To end the year, how about some picks from 2024 throughout entertainment, nature, and social media, all the way to the bottom of the ocean?
📦 Featured Product
Before people start fighting over toilet paper at Costco again, consider saving the money you’d spend on a couple of 48-packs and try out the Luxe Bidet NEO 185. They’ve been used all over the world for years and aren’t too mainstream in the US, but maybe one day. I have many friends and family members using and swearing by them. Not to mention the number of positive reviews from this particular model - it’s friendly to males and females. If you want one with tons of tech (warm water, heated seat, blower, and more), check out the Brondell S1400.
