Data Science Insider: January 6th, 2023

In This Week’s SuperDataScience Newsletter: Apple Books Launches AI-narrated Audiobooks. How to Use. groupby(). AI Legal Assistant Takes First Case to Court. ML Conference Bans use of ChatGPT in Papers. Launch of the Self-driving Stroller. 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. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Apple Books Launches AI-narrated Audiobook]( brief: The Guardian has revealed that Apple Books has quietly rolled out a new “digital narration” feature for its audiobooks. The move has sparked fears that human narrator jobs could eventually become obsolete. The article alleges that the tech giant initially planned to release the AI-narrated audiobook feature on its Books app in mid-November but delayed the launch due to the publicity surrounding Elon Musk’s unruly Twitter takeover and mass redundancies at Meta. Apple is currently inviting independent writers and larger publishers to opt-in to having their written works converted into an audiobook using AI voice synthesis models. Apple has claimed that using AI rather than commissioning voice actors could save writers and publishers thousands of dollars. Why this is important: Reaction from the publishing industry has been mixed but many are concerned about the impact on voice actors. AI-generated audiobooks have previously failed to appeal to listeners, so time will tell if Apple will be more successful. [Click here to learn more!]( [How to Use. groupby()]( brief: The groupby() function is one of the most commonly used Pandas functions in data analysis. This article from Level Up Coding argues that data scientists should exploit its strengths in data manipulation, analysis, and visualisation. Pandas can be difficult to get the hang of but this article outlines the best practices to enable you to analyse and visualise data using .groupby(). These are of particular use to data scientists who are working on tabular or structured data as it enables easier manipulation of data through applying the .groupby() method to a DataFrame and grouping it according to a feature. Straightforward or more complex functions are then applied to that grouped object. Why this is important: Not having a complete understanding of Pandas can result in data scientists not working efficiently. By fully understanding the .groupby() method you will be able to increase your productivity and accuracy. [Click here to read on!]( [AI Legal Assistant Takes First Case to Court]( In brief: An AI is set to make history by becoming the first to advise a defendant in court. The AI was created by the chatbot and “World’s First Robot Lawyer” DoNotPay, and will run on a smartphone before advising the defendant on what to say via an earpiece. The case will be heard in February, although the jurisdiction and defendant are currently being kept a secret. The chatbot was initially created in 2015 by Stanford University student Joshua Browder to automate appeals against London parking tickets but moved towards AI in 2020. The software has been designed to not respond to everything in court, but instead listen and analyse before instructing the defendant. Why this is important: Browder has claimed that his ultimate goal is for DoNotPay to replace lawyers altogether in some cases, to save defendants money. [Click here to discover more!]( [ML Conference Bans use of ChatGPT in Papers]( In brief: The prestigious International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) has announced that it has banned authors from using AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to write scientific papers. In a statement, ICLM said: “Papers that include text generated from a large-scale language model (LLM) such as ChatGPT are prohibited unless the produced text is presented as a part of the paper’s experimental analysis.” The news has led to widespread debate amongst the academic community with some arguing that the ruling was hypocritical due to medium and small-scale language models, such as spell checkers and predictive keyboards being authorised. Others argue that the ban is shortsighted and unfairly penalises those without English as their first language. Why this is important: As the use of ChatGPT becomes more widespread, these kinds of conversations will become more frequent and our industry will need to decide on a universal stance. [Click here to see the full picture!]( [Launch of the Self-driving Stroller]( In brief: The annual CES tech show in Las Vegas has revealed many new and exciting gadgets but this year’s attendees have been impressed by the launch of the Ella smart stroller by the Canadian startup Glüxkind. The firm has announced that it aims to be the “driver assist” of parenting to bring the buggy into the 21st century. The smart stroller uses robotics and ML to improve safety, usability, and comfort- featuring push assist, hands-free cruising, brake assist, and auto parking. It comes equipped with a dual-motor drive system that helps it on steep roads, pavements, and bumpy paths. The buggy also contains onboard sensors and a multi-level braking system, designed to improve infant safety. Why this is important: The stroller will set you back a whopping $3,300 (£2,700) and involve an awful lot of trust in the technology. However, cars and delivery services have already embraced robotics so perhaps this is simply the next step. [Click here to find out more!]( [Super Data Science podcast]( this week's [Super Data Science Podcast](, Sadie St. Lawrence joins Jon Krohn to share our annual predictions on the future of AI. From the data mesh to multimodal models like ChatGPT, tune in to discover what's next. --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Want to take your data science skills to the next level? Check out the [SuperDataScience platform]( and sign up for membership today! 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