#54: ChatGPT Code Interpreter, the Misuse of AI in Content and Media, and Why Investors Are Betting on Generative AI

As generative AI continues to improve, iterate, and integrate, there are news stories to discuss and advancements to break down. That’s why we’re happy Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput are back for episode 54 of The Marketing AI Show.

ChatGPT Code Interpreter available for all

OpenAI announced on July 6 that ChatGPT’s Code Interpreter feature will be made available to all ChatGPT Plus users. Previously, only select users received access after signing up for a waitlist. Code Interpreter gives ChatGPT the ability to run code, use files you upload to produce outputs, analyze data, create charts, and perform sophisticated math. This gives ChatGPT the ability to do all sorts of data analysis and code-dependent tasks it couldn’t do well before. People are already using Code Interpreter in interesting ways including customer segmentation, data visualization, and data analysis. 

The misuse of AI in content and media

A handful of stories in the past several weeks are shedding light on the dangers and misuse of AI in content and media. A report from misinformation tracking site NewsGuard shows that content farms using AI to generate hundreds of low-quality articles a day are raking in programmatic ad dollars—and hundreds of brands are unwittingly supporting them. And otherwise legitimate media sites are following their lead. Tech site Gizmodo recently started publishing AI-generated content and the results were problematic. One article on Star Wars movies was riddled with inaccuracies and prompted an outcry from Gizmodo staff, who said these types of stories were “actively hurting our reputations and credibility” and showed “zero respect” for journalists. Last, but certainly not least, news came out of a leaked email from German tabloid Bild detailing how the publication plans to replace over a hundred jobs with AI. 

Investors are betting on generative AI. Why and how?

Research recently published by McKinsey estimates that generative AI could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion of annual value to the global economy. The firm estimates that about 75% of this value will accrue through four use cases: customer operations, marketing and sales, software engineering, and R&D.The impact will be felt across all industries and sectors, but McKinsey specifically points out that banking, high-tech, and life sciences could see the largest impact. The full research report is well worth a read. But the larger point here is that the possible market impact of generative AI is massive. And investors are clearly responding to that, having just written some huge checks to leading generative AI companies.

One big example: Inflection AI announced it raised $1.3 billion in a fresh fundraising round led by Microsoft, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, and NVIDIA.Inflection AI has been around just over a year and, in that time, the company has built one of the world’s most sophisticated large language models, which powers Pi, its personal AI assistant product. The company is also the “largest AI cluster in the world comprising 22,000 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs.” It’s also important to note that Inflection AI’s CEO and co-founder Mustafa Suleyman also co-founded DeepMind, which was acquired by Google and forms the backbone of their AI work.

Another example: At the same time, Runway, which builds generative AI tools for creators, announced a $141 million extension to its Series C funding round from companies like Google, NVIDIA, and Salesforce Ventures.