Big, Fat AI Report: Free and Meaty for Marketing Collateral

October 12, 2023

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

Curious about AI, machine learning, and smart software? You will want to obtain a free (at least as of October 6, 2023) report called “Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2023.” The 386 page PDF contains information selected to make it clear that AI is a big deal. There is no reference to the validity of the research conducted for the document. I find that interesting since the president of Stanford University stepped carefully from the speeding world of academia to find his future elsewhere. Making up data seems to be a signature feature of outfits like Stanford and, of course, Harvard.

A Musk-inspired robot reads a print out of the PDF report. The robot looks … like a robot. Thanks, Microsoft Bing. You do a good robot.

But back to the report.

For those who lack the time and swipe left deflector, an two page summary identifies the big finds from the work. Let me highlight three or 30 percent of the knowledge gems. Please, consult the full report for the other seven discoveries. No blood pressure reduction medicine is needed, but you may want to use the time between plays at an upcoming NFL game to work through the full document.

Three big reveals:

AI continued to post state-of-the-art results, but year-over-year improvement on many benchmarks continues to be marginal.
… The number of AI-related job postings has increased on average from 1.7% in 2021 to 1.9% in 2022.
An AI Index analysis of the legislative records of 127 countries shows that the number of bills containing “artificial intelligence” that were passed into law grew from just 1 in 2016 to 37 in 2022.

My interpretation of these full suite of 10 key points: The hype is stabilizing.

Who funded the project. Not surprisingly the Google and OpenAI kicked in. There is a veritable who is who of luminaries and high-profile research outfits providing some assistance as well. Headhunters will probably want to print out the pages with the names and affiliations of the individuals listed. One never knows where the next Elon Musk lurks.

The report has eight chapters, but the bulk of the information appears in the first four; to wit:

R&D
Technical performance
Technical AI ethics
The economy.

I want to be up front. I scanned the document. Does it confront issues like the objective of Google and a couple of other firms dominating the AI landscape? Nah. Does it talk about the hallucination and ethical features of smart software? Nah. Does it delve into the legal quagmire which seems to be spreading faster than dilapidated RVs parked on El Camino Real? Nah.

I suggest downloading a copy and checking out the sections which appear germane to your interests in AI. I am happy to have a copy for reference. Marketing collateral from an outfit whose president resigned due to squishy research does not reassure me. Yes, integrity matters to me. Others? Maybe not.

Stephen E Arnold, October 12, 2023

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under AI, Business strategy, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.