Data Science Insider: November 25th, 2022

In This Week’s SuperDataScience Newsletter: Google’s Secret Project Uses ML to Teach Itself Code. Meta AI Excels at Diplomacy. The State of AI. Copyright Lawsuit Could Shape the Future of AI. AI Picks World Cup Winner. Cheers, - The SuperDataScience Team P.S. Have friends and colleagues who could benefit from these weekly updates? Send them to [this link]( to subscribe to the Data Science Insider. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Google’s Secret Project Uses ML to Teach Itself Code]( brief: It has been revealed that Google is rolling out a clandestine program that leverages ML to create code. The project, allegedly known as ‘Pitchfork’, is part of a wider effort by the tech giant to embrace generative AI. The project has been shrouded in secrecy, but anonymous Google employees have claimed that the technology has been designed to learn programming styles, before generating new code based on these learnings, with the ultimate goal of “teaching code to write and rewrite itself.” The project began life at the X research department of Alphabet - the company's moonshot unit - but it has subsequently been moved into a new division called “AI Developer Assistance,” an AI developer support team under Google Labs. Why this is important: This is the latest example of Google ramping up its investment in AI, but the company raises questions over the development of technology that seeks to replace human employees eventually. [Click here to learn more!]( [Meta AI Excels at Diplomacy]( brief: Meta has announced that it has created an AI that can beat humans at the popular strategy game, Diplomacy. Described as one of the most complex games ever devised, it involves seven players competing for control of Europe by moving pieces around on a map. To be successful, players must talk to each other, form alliances, negotiate tactics, and identify when other players are bluffing. Meta’s new system, called CICERO, can participate in game conversations and negotiations without most human players realising they are talking to a machine. The AI ranked in the top 10% across 40 online games against 82 human players and was trained using data from 50,000 conversations in games played by humans. Why this is important: Board games have long been used as a useful measure of AI achievement. This latest development shows that AI has built upon its mastery of analytical rules to understand the nuances of language needed to win. [Click here to read on!]( [Copyright Lawsuit Could Shape the Future of AI]( In brief: Here at SuperDataScience we’ve frequently covered the advancement of generative AI, but a new class-action lawsuit brought against GitHub, its parent Microsoft, and its technology partner, OpenAI - by GitHub programmers, is threatening the future of the technology. The lawsuit claims that AI-powered coding assistant GitHub Copilot relies on “software piracy on an unprecedented scale” and that “By training their AI systems on public GitHub repositories (though based on their public statements, possibly much more) we contend that the defendants have violated the legal rights of a vast number of creators who posted code or other work under certain open-source licenses on GitHub.” The proposed suit is the first big copyright lawsuit over AI and damages could exceed $9 billion. Why this is important: The case is still in the early stages but it will test, in a court of law, many of the ethical considerations that we’ve previously discussed in these newsletters. [Click here to discover more!]( [The State of AI]( In brief: Each year, AI investors Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth produce ‘The State of AI Report’ which analyses the most exciting developments in AI. The report is designed to stimulate discussion about the state of AI and its implication for the future. In this Fortune article, Benaich and Hogarth discuss this year’s findings, particularly their conclusion that fears surrounding established tech giants and their affiliated AI research labs monopolizing the development of AI have, so far, been proven false. They also discuss their findings that suggest that the lowered cost of and access to computing has led to state-of-the-art research coming out of much smaller, previously unknown labs. Still, Nvidia continues to dominate AI hardware. Why this is important: Now in its fifth year, this report is reviewed by leading AI practitioners in industry and research. As such, its conclusions are worthy of review by all data scientists. [Click here to see the full picture!]( [AI Picks World Cup Winner]( In brief: This week the controversial World Cup 2022 kicked off in Qatar with a flurry of headlines. Many will be eagerly watching to see which team will lift the trophy on 18th December, but an AI model from The Alan Turing Institute is already confident that it has found the winner. The algorithm examined data from more than 100,000 simulated matches to predict that Brazil is likely to win for the sixth time. The AI model has been nicknamed 'AIrsenal' and was trained on international fixture results from every year since the 2002 World cup onwards. It found that the South Americans had a 25% chance of winning, followed by Belgium and Argentina. Why this is important: The methodology used to create the algorithm is sound, but World Cups always throw up surprises. Argentina has already lost their opening match in a shock defeat to Saudi Arabia and only time will tell if Brazil will be victorious. [Click here to find out more!]( [Super Data Science podcast]( this week's [Super Data Science Podcast](, data science developer advocate for JetBrains, Dr Jodie Burchell, joins Jon Krohn to shed light on her responsibilities and why it's a role you might want to consider. Jodie also dives into building reproducible data science workflows and the keys to working effectively with real-world data. --------------------------------------------------------------- What is the Data Science Insider? This email is a briefing of the week's most disruptive, interesting, and useful resources curated by the SuperDataScience team for Data Scientists who want to take their careers to the next level. 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