Data for Good YYZ

T.O. chapter of Data for Good - data scientists driven by a passion for social change. We help charities and non-profits thrive through data-driven insights 📊

[Data for Good @Data_for_Good]

Hey, if we don't say it enough, we ARE extremely proud of you! It's a great week to say it: THANK YOU to all our amazing #dataforgood #volunteers 🤗👏

w/ @VolunteerCanada #nfp #NGOs #NationalVolunteerWeek #NVW2024 #ThankYouDataChamps #volunteering #VolunteerWork

[Data for Good YYZ @dataforgoodyyz]

Hi Data for Good! Our friends at the @OpenDataSociety are hosting a pub night in Toronto on March 7th. If you're into Open Data, socializing, and a good pub - this event's for you!

RSVP 👉https://t.co/6CSLONe2m5

[Data for Good YYZ @dataforgoodyyz]

Hello Data for Good volunteers! We've partnered with the Canadian Urban Libraries Council / Conseil des Bibliothèques Urbaines du Canada (CULC/CBUC) to host a virtual DataThon 🎉📚📊

RSVP on our MeetUp group to attend: https://t.co/wiIA1WLLaN

[Statistics Canada @StatCan_eng]

We are exploring the potential development of a new online tool that would allow you to build and download your own #census data tables from our website. If you currently use #census data, share your insights and experiences with us: https://t.co/VivMjPGvt3.

[Statistics Canada @StatCan_eng]

Happy #WorldWideWebDay! Cheers to another year of staying connected, informed and entertained via the #Internet. In 2022, 95% of Canadians aged 15 and older said they used the Internet. 🌐 https://t.co/qaOyf9FwGU

[Data for Good YVR @dataforgoodyvr]

Great opportunity for Data Scientists!

[TORONTOVERSE @torontoverse]

How often do #Toronto’s swimming beaches test in the safe range for water quality? And which individual beaches test safe most often? 🤔

We dug into 10 years of data to find out. https://t.co/jW0fUZhugF

[School of Cities @UofTCities]

SofC Data viz lead @JeffAllenMaps & Prof. Zack Taylor @bigcitypolitics have released part 5 of the Place and Politics in Toronto blog - this one unpacks the 2023 mayoral by-election, the geography of @anabailaoTO's surge & more. #TOpoli
Read more: https://t.co/V0yrawLjFY

[UN Biodiversity @UNBiodiversity]

Biodiversity loss is a widespread concern, particularly in the tropics, where it is highest.

Explore this #SDG15 #dataviz to see how much biodiversity has declined in each country: https://t.co/CW17T541mA #SDGAtlas #KMGBF

via
@wb_research
@WBG_Environment

[Paul Couvert @itsPaulAi]

Excel and Word are surpassed by AI.

Google has released two free AIs for Docs and Sheets.

Describe what you want and a text or spreadsheet is created.

Here's how to activate and use these free features:

[DataKind @DataKind]

Our next #Nonprofit #Data 101 webinar is on Wednesday, July 26, at 10am ET! Make sure to join us to talk non-data stakeholder engagement. #Socialimpact pros will have the opportunity to sign up for a free consultation with an expert following the event. https://t.co/6yMsRUbD2w

[Charly Wargnier @DataChaz]

Google introduces #NotebookLM, an #AI-powered notebook for faster learning and insights! 🔥

With it, you can:
- Summarize facts + explain ideas.
- Generate connections based on chosen sources.
- Personalize it with your GDocs.
- It's privacy-focused!

Link to waitlist below ↓

[Statistics Canada @StatCan_eng]

In the first quarter of 2023, least wealthy and younger age groups reduce their wealth as mortgage debt increases.

Read more: https://t.co/mAjeKOnHhy.

[AI Breakfast @AiBreakfast]

OpenAI predicts that we will arrive at AI Superintelligence (exceeding the capabilities of AGI, in their words) before 2030.

They acknowledge this could either solve many of the world’s problems, or lead to the outright extinction of humanity.

Posted today from OpenAI blog:

[AI Breakfast @AiBreakfast]

Chief Twit @elonmusk just announced that Twitter now supports 25k character tweets, so here's the complete edition of today's AI Breakfast newsletter:

15 news stories, 7 tools, and 5 research papers in a single tweet:

In today’s edition:

-OpenAI to transform ChatGPT into work assistant
-CalypsoAI secures $23M for AI safety
-Databricks buys MosaicML for $1.3B
-Baidu's AI model outperforms OpenAI's
-Adobe adds indemnity for AI art
-AI contributing to crypto scams
-Fraud allegations at AI firm Joonko
-New ChatGPT privacy rules from Congress
-Google profits from AI spam
-US mulls AI chip export limits
-AI-designed drug enters Phase 2 trials
-Reka gets $58M for custom AI models
-FTX suspends $500M Anthropic sale
-AI accelerates NHS cancer treatments
-Tempo upgrades AI fitness system
-7 New AI Tools
-Latest AI Research Papers

Today’s AI News, in brief:

OpenAI's Ambitious Plans for ChatGPT as a Work Assistant: OpenAI plans to evolve ChatGPT into an advanced personal assistant for work. The new capabilities include drafting emails and documents, mimicking a user’s writing style, and incorporating real-time business information. This strategic move sets OpenAI on a potential collision course with Microsoft, its primary partner and investor.

CalypsoAI Raises $23M to Boost Safety of AI Models: AI security firm CalypsoAI has raised $23 million in a funding round aimed at improving safety measures in generative AI models. The funding will help address overlooked challenges and obstacles that companies face when integrating generative AI into existing workflows. By adding these so-called "guardrails," CalypsoAI aims to ensure the responsible and secure use of generative AI across various sectors.

Databricks Acquires MosaicML for $1.3 Billion: Data storage and management startup Databricks has struck a $1.3 billion deal to acquire MosaicML, a startup focused on generative AI. The acquisition aims to address the growing demand from businesses wanting to develop their own custom cost-effective language models. Databricks plans to integrate its AI-ready data management technology with MosaicML’s language model platform to allow businesses to build proprietary language models using their own data.

Baidu’s Ernie Bot Beats OpenAI's ChatGPT in Key AI Tests: Chinese tech giant Baidu has announced that its AI model, Ernie 3.5, outperformed OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4 in several benchmark tests, notably in Chinese language tests.

Adobe Indemnity Clause Eases Legal Concerns Over AI Art: The clause guarantees Adobe's coverage of any copyright claims associated with works created using its AI art creation tool, Adobe Firefly, reducing the risk to creators. The indemnity seeks to make enterprise customers feel more comfortable using generative AI for commercial art purposes. However, the indemnity only covers Firefly-generated output and not any additional copyrighted elements added by users.

Increase in Crypto Scams Linked to AI Rise: Meta has reported blocking over 1,000 malicious links disguised as ChatGPT extensions, referring to ChatGPT as “the new crypto” for scammers. DEXTools, a platform for decentralized exchange trading, identified 700 token trading pairs associated with the terms “ChatGPT” or “OpenAI.” This trend suggests that scammers are taking advantage of the hype around AI tools to create tokens and fake accounts.

Allegations of 'Staggering' Fraud Cause Disarray at AI-Powered Diversity Firm: Joonko, an AI-powered diversity recruiting firm based in New York City, is in turmoil following allegations of 'staggering' fraud against its CEO. The startup's innovative job board used AI to foster diversity in hiring practices, connecting companies with a pool of over 150,000 job candidates. However, it is alleged that the CEO deceived investors by exaggerating the company’s business size, falsifying invoices, and manipulating wire transfers and bank accounts.

Congress Enacts New Guidelines for ChatGPT with Privacy Focus: The US House of Representatives have issued new guidelines restricting access to OpenAI’s free version of ChatGPT. Congressional staffers are now required to use the premium version, ChatGPT Plus, in their professional activities. The guidelines mandate the use of privacy settings such as two-factor authentication and the disabling of chat history.

U.S. Government Mulls New AI Chip Export Curbs to China: The Biden administration is contemplating new restrictions on the export of AI chips to China, due to concerns over their potential use in weapons development and hacking. The proposed regulations could impact chips from leading manufacturers like Nvidia and may significantly affect China's AI capabilities. Discussions are also in progress regarding restrictions on leasing cloud services to Chinese AI firms. Currently, the flagship NVIDIA A100 GPU is not allowed to be sold in China.

AI-Designed Drug Set For Human Trials: Biotech firm Insilico Medicine has initiated Phase 2 clinical trials for an AI-designed drug, marking a significant breakthrough in the field. This could potentially revolutionize drug development by accelerating the process and reducing costs. The trials involve a novel treatment for chronic lung disease designed using machine-learning tools. Investment in AI-driven drug discovery has seen a sharp increase in recent years.

Reka Emerges from Stealth with Custom AI Models: Reka, a startup founded by researchers from leading tech companies such as DeepMind, Google, Baidu, and Meta, has emerged from stealth mode with $58 million in funding. The company's goal is to build custom AI models for businesses, addressing the limitations of existing LLMs like OpenAI's GPT-4. Reka's first commercial product, Yasa, is a multimodal assistant that understands images, videos, tabular data, and text. This product can be personalized to handle proprietary data and applications, enabling continuous improvements while reducing the need for fine-tuning or extensive AI expertise.

Bankruptcy-Hit FTX Halts Sale of $500 Million Stake in Anthropic: FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, has paused the sale of its $500 million stake in AI startup Anthropic. This decision follows allegations of financial mismanagement against its former leadership, including co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. It is reported that customer funds were commingled, leaving customers owed approximately $8.7 billion. FTX is exploring various strategies to repay creditors, which include selling off assets such as its stake in Anthropic.

NHS Accelerates Cancer Radiotherapy with AI Scanning Tool OSAIRIS: The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has introduced the OSAIRIS AI scanning tool in a bid to expedite cancer radiotherapy treatments. Developed in partnership with Microsoft, this tool has the capacity to plan treatments around 2.5 times faster by automating the process of identifying healthy organs in scans. Ideally, this will free up medical professionals to concentrate on direct patient care and enhance the overall efficiency of the treatment process.

Tempo Enhances AI Personal Training with 3D Body Scans and Dynamic Reps: Tempo, an at-home fitness system, has introduced 3D body scans and dynamic reps to its AI personal training regime. These new features analyze user data to recommend workout intensity and make real-time adjustments based on the user's performance. Tempo is also offering optional full-body composition scans to help users track their progress. The company has also launched Tempo Core, a smaller and more portable version of its AI fitness system, which is now compatible with AirPlay.

6 new AI-powered tools from around the web

Klenty is an AI tool for sales outreach, enabling quick creation of personalized communication sequences across multiple platforms, integrated with useful resources.

theGist offers an AI-enhanced workspace, uniting all communications and notifications in one inbox and providing smart insights from your apps for improved focus and productivity.

Swantide's Corduroy is an AI RevOps assistant designed to seamlessly introduce complex workflows to your CRM without the need for technical expertise.

Flowpoint uses AI to simplify analytics, providing tools for conversion optimization, ROI enhancement, and data-driven decision making, including cross-domain tracking.

Crisp AI's MagicReply is a virtual customer service assistant, leveraging machine learning to deliver personalized responses across multiple channels, improving support efficiency.

Behavio offers cost-effective ad testing, providing behavioral insights for maximizing ad performance, enabling easy ad uploads, testing, and actionable recommendations.

Sendsteps is an AI-powered presentation maker, capable of creating engaging slides quickly, offering content suggestions, and real-time audience engagement tools, in multiple languages and ISO 27001 certified.

Wrpup converts long videos into short highlights, facilitating easy content sharing and improved video engagement, ideal for educational, explanatory, and speaking videos.

Latest AI Research Papers from arXiv

📄 Restart Sampling for Improving Generative Processes

The paper presents a novel sampling algorithm called Restart for generative processes based on differential equations, such as diffusion models. The algorithm combines the advantages of deterministic ODE-based samplers and stochastic SDE-based samplers to balance speed and sample quality. The authors analyze the performance of ODE and SDE samplers and propose Restart as a method to better balance discretization errors and contraction. Empirical results show that Restart outperforms previous samplers in both speed and accuracy, achieving better sample quality and improved trade-offs in text-to-image alignment and diversity. Code for the algorithm is available on GitHub.

📄 Aligning Large Multi-Modal Model with Robust Instruction Tuning​​

This work presents the construction of LRV-instruction, a comprehensive dataset consisting of 120K visual instructions that encompass 16 vision and language tasks. The dataset includes both positive and negative instructions, covering various semantic levels and styles. Through the use of LRV-Instruction, the authors thoroughly examine the issue of hallucination in existing LLMs and demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach in enhancing visual instruction tuning. They also introduced GAVIE, a novel evaluation method that eliminates the need for human-labeled ground-truth answers and can be easily adapted to different instruction formats. The authors anticipate that their work will contribute to addressing the challenges posed by hallucination in LLMs.

📄 MotionGPT: Human Motion as a Foreign Language

MotionGPT is a motion-language model that uses language and motion data to perform various motion-related tasks. It treats human motion as body language and combines pre-trained language models to generate and understand human-like motions. By converting motion data into motion tokens and processing them with a language model, MotionGPT achieves excellent performance in tasks like text-driven motion generation, motion captioning, prediction, and in-between motions.

📄 ViNT: A Foundation Model for Visual Navigation

ViNT is a foundation model for vision-based robotic navigation. It brings the success of pre-trained models to this field using a flexible Transformer-based architecture. Trained on diverse navigation datasets, ViNT outperforms specialized models and can handle kilometer-scale navigation problems. It can be adapted to new tasks and environments, making it an effective foundation model for mobile robotics. ViNT allows zero-shot deployment and efficient adaptation to downstream tasks, making it a valuable tool in the field of visual navigation.

📄 RoboCook: Long-Horizon Elasto-Plastic Object Manipulation with Diverse Tools

RoboCook demonstrates its effectiveness, robustness, and generalizability in elastoplastic object manipulation with a general-purpose robotic arm and everyday tools. Its contributions include tool-aware GNNs for accurate modeling of long-horizon dynamics, a tool selection module with self-exploratory trials, and a self-supervised policy learning framework for improved performance and speed. While it pioneers solutions for tool usage, a limitation is an occasional dough sticking to the tool, which could be addressed with an automatic error correction system. The reliance on human priors and the need for higher-level planning are recognized, and additional topology estimation is required for cables and clothes.

Thank you for reading today’s edition of AI Breakfast.

[Prime Minister of Canada @CanadianPM]

Canada’s population has officially reached 40 million. Today, let’s celebrate the country we love and the 40 million people we share it with. #40MillionAndGrowing 🎉

[Abi Aryan @GoAbiAryan]

excellent paper: Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap

https://t.co/YNwf8riLpG

[Volunteer Canada @VolunteerCanada]

Volunteer Canada proudly celebrates Pride Month! This June, & always, we stand with the 2SLGBTQ+ community, embracing diversity & fostering inclusivity. We believe in creating a world where everyone feels seen, heard, & valued.

#pride #diversity #equity #inclusion

[Statistics Canada @StatCan_eng]

June 5 marks the 50th anniversary of #WorldEnvironmentDay and kicks off Canadian #EnviroWeek.

To access our latest #environment data: https://t.co/0rXqR9aCb2.

[Data for Good YYZ @dataforgoodyyz]

Socialize over data! #opendata

[Canadian OpenData Society/Communauté canadienne DO @OpenDataSociety]

Announcing our Open Data Pub Night for Greater Toronto & Hamilton & Niagara: Free registration at https://t.co/PQKeVbSEUi