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Welcome back, Superhuman
Researchers are mapping out the brain with AI, then taking a virtual stroll through its synapses with VR headsets. And: Watch volunteers try out a “third thumb” that can be used for increased mobility.
Today’s Insights
Using AI to decode brain disorders
Prompt: Email assistant
Chart: How AI budgets have evolved over time
5 new AI tools to boost your productivity
Everything else you should know today
AI-Generated Images: The ‘80s
NEXT IN AI
Researchers use an AI brain map to decode Alzheimer’s and autism
Source: WTSP/Screenshot
We have about as many neurons as the Milky Way has stars — roughly 100 billion. And understanding how the brain works can be like peering into the night sky without a telescope. Now, researchers at the University of South Florida are using AI to get a close-up view.
It’s believed that disorders like autism and Alzheimer’s might be closely related to how the brain processes sound. So, the researchers decided to zoom into the auditory centers of the brain to investigate how they develop over time. They’re using mice as their test subjects for now, but the experiments could still offer important insights, since mouse brains are structurally similar to ours.
The scientists are focusing on the brain's largest synapse, called the calyx of Held, and tracking how nerve cells communicate with each other there. They can feed their data through an AI model to build a digital representation of that information, then explore a 3-D map of the data in virtual reality.
If we can understand how the brain grows and changes over time, we might be able to find new treatments for different neurological disorders and even repair traumatic brain injuries. “It’s like you have a route from, say, New York to Chicago, and someone detours in Cleveland,” medical engineering professor George Spirou told the Guardian. “You can figure out why there was some off-ramp that shouldn’t have been there, and go back and fix it.”
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AI AT WORK
How to create flowcharts in ChatGPT
Go to ChatGPT and ask it to provide steps of any process to convert it into a flowchart.
Prompt: Please provide steps for [enter your process topic]
Now ask ChatGPT to convert the steps into a flowchart format
Prompt: Please create a flowchart representing the steps for [enter your topic] incorporating the above steps. Ensure that related steps are placed side by side.
Now ask ChatGPT to covert this text into Mermaid code
Prompt: Please write mermaid code for this
Copy this Mermaid code and go to https://draw.io
Open new file and click on + button on top menu bar, go to Advanced → Mermaid
Paste the Mermaid code and it will give you the visual representation of your flowchart
You can edit it, add colors, and download this file to use further.
(Pro-tip: Run the prompt and adjust it accordingly to get your desired result)
PROMPT OF THE DAY
Email Assistant
Prompt: I received an email from [name of the person or company] regarding [subject or main content of the email]. Can you pull out the key points from it and summarize it for me? I have a presentation on [specific date] and might need to include this information.
You can adapt the prompt to your specific needs.
Source: Great AI Prompts
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CHART
How much CFOs expect their AI budgets to change over the next year
CFOs say their companies are still trying to work out the right balance for how much to spend on generative AI products each year, according to a new report from PYMNTS, an outlet that covers the payments industry.
Close to half of companies who spend less than $1 million on AI annually say their AI budget is set to increase over the next 12 months. Nearly three-quarters of firms that spend more than $5 million say they plan to scale back, while 22% say they want to spend even more next year.
Meanwhile, 55% of companies who spend between $1 million and $5 million each year on AI say they want to spend the same amount this year, suggesting that might be the sweet spot for most firms.
Even though CFOs are divided over how much to invest in AI, six in 10 agree that generative AI is the single “greatest innovation of our time.”
PRODUCTIVITY
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AI & TECH NEWS
Everything else you need to know today
Directors Cut: Sony CEO Tony Vinciquerra told investors last week that the company plans to start using AI to slash film and TV production costs.
Smuggled Circuits: The US has started monitoring Nvidia and AMD’s chip exports to the Middle East out of a fear that the technology could be slipping into China.
AI Audit: OpenAI says it disrupted groups in at least five countries that used its services to create disinformation campaigns on social media apps and websites.
Cross-Border Handshake: In what is apparently the first-ever foreign investment in a Chinese generative AI company, a Saudi Arabian funding group is giving $400 million to AI startup Zhipu.
AI GENERATED IMAGES
A weekend in LA in the ‘80s
Source: @julestinner on Midjourney
Prompts:
Minimalistic Pin up retro aesthetics artwork of a vibrant and stylized artwork of an los angeles sunset scene. The composition focuses sunset strip lined with tall, slender california palm trees under a spectacularly colored sky transitioning from deep red at the top to bright orange near the horizon. Tiny stars speckle the vivid red sky, adding a dreamlike quality. The foreground features a typical city street with crosswalks. in the background is the skyline of downtown los angeles. A few cars add life to the scene, and the traffic lights glow with a vivid green, contrasting sharply with the warm colors of the sunset. The atmosphere should evoke a sense of warm, tropical evenings in a bustling city. --style raw --ar 4:5
You can adapt the prompt above and add elements like cars, people, and colors to get the output you want.
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