A Renegade TacoBot, Self-Directed AI, & TaxGPT

Todo lists that do the lists and a Wisdom Offering 🌮Taco🌮 Bot

Disclaimer: Text in italics has been written by AI.

The enthusiasm and support from the first edition have been nothing short of extraordinary, and I'm grateful for the invaluable feedback, messages, and calls from each of you. Being so immersed in this field, it's easy to assume everyone around us is equally in the know – but that's not always the case.

While the focus of this edition and possibly a few more will be on AI businesses and tools, rest assured this won't be an exclusively AI-centric newsletter. I firmly believe we're at a crucial moment in history, witnessing the assembly of building blocks for our future. There's never been a more opportune time to create something, launch a side project, or master a new technical skill.

Welcome to the 2nd Edition. Today we’re going over:

• Catchup last week: A Google CEO’s perspective, Taylor Swift vs ChatGPT

• Thought Perspective: AI taking your job? Hint: Maybe

• Learning: 3 new concepts and terms

• Go Play with: 4 Free tools you can play around with today in the Founders’ Toolbox including my very own TACOBOT

• Wanderlust Bonus: A destination you should probably travel to once you leave your screen

It’s been 728 years since the first edition which was on April 17th, 2023 (in AI time). Let’s catch up:

Continuing on from last week, why should you care about AI? You’ve probably seen more and more of it all over the place, so much so that over the last 30 days Chat-GPT has been searched more times than Taylor Swift in the US. To put that into perspective, lord Taytay gets googled 2.1m/months on average.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on 60 minutes: He thinks of AI "as the most profound technology humanity is working on. More profound than fire, electricity, or anything that we have done in the past." You can see the full interview here but you need to be in the US or have a VPN.

IS AI TAKING MY JOB?

Well, it depends on how you look at it.

Think back to when computers started becoming normalized. Many definitely thought: are computers going to take my job? The short answer was yes. But we know the answer was a little bit more complicated because looking back, someone still needed to input commands. What was true back then is true now, inefficient professions will be the first hit and wherever you can throw in automation will be the jobs that evolve. We all know administrative assistants, bookkeepers, and certain developers are at risk but let’s take accounting for example

Using willrobotstakemyjob.com, we take a look at Accountants. The risk level for the role being automated sits at 71%.

Does this seem believable? How long until we think Accountants are going to be obsolete with the current education/testing/and processes they have in place? Well, if a non-software company can a demo like TaxGPT (for Canadians)

I believe by year’s end you’ll see every other budgeting/finance app have some sort of accounting integration. Why not be able to attach all your statements and let AI figure out the best way to calculate, bookkeep, file and most importantly save money? I’m not saying don’t become an accountant - I’m saying that all accountants are going to use AI before the end of the decade (if not sooner).

AI Terminologies, Concepts & Examples
(this is where it gets good)

Prompt Engineering

If you haven’t heard yet, there are jobs being posted online for Prompt Engineers anywhere from $175k-$350k range. But what is Prompt Engineering? Prompt Engineering is the process of designing effective prompts to generate more accurate and relevant outputs. The better the prompt, the better the answer from AI.

Prompt Engineering is like whipping up a gourmet meal for a hungry AI brain - the tastier the prompts, the more delectable the output. Or think of prompt engineering as a dating game show host who knows how to ask the perfect questions to reveal the contestants' true personalities. By crafting interesting and probing questions, the host can coax the contestants (or AI models) to reveal their hidden talents and quirks.

Some prompts you can try using on ChatGPT:

• Understanding Complex Topics: "Explain [complex topic] in simple terms. Explain to me like I'm 11 years old."

• Finding holes in your argument with specific perspectives: "I will provide you with an argument or opinion of mine. I want you to criticize it as if you were "

• AI Travel Guide: I want you to act as a travel guide. I will write you my location and you will suggest a place to visit near my location. In some cases, I will also give you the type of places I will visit. You will also suggest me places of similar type that are close to my first location. My first suggestion request is "I am in New York City and I want to visit only Coffee shops starting with the letter C"

• AI-Assisted Doctor: I want you to act as an AI assisted doctor. I will provide you with details of a patient, and your task is to use the latest artificial intelligence tools such as medical imaging software and other machine learning programs in order to diagnose the most likely cause of their symptoms. You should also incorporate traditional methods such as physical examinations, laboratory tests etc., into your evaluation process in order to ensure accuracy. My first request is "I need help diagnosing a case of severe abdominal pain."

• AI Chef: I require someone who can suggest delicious recipes that includes foods which are nutritionally beneficial but also easy & not time consuming enough therefore suitable for busy people like us among other factors such as cost-effectiveness so overall dish ends up being healthy yet economical at same time! My first request – “Something light yet fulfilling that could be cooked quickly using feta cheese, broccolini and wild salmon from lake ontario”

If you would like to see more prompts in future issues, let me know using the suggestions box down below.

Now what on earth is AutoGPT? Imagine a to-do list that just…does the list itself. Auto-GPT is built on top of Chat-GPT and is an artificial intelligence (AI) agent that can be given a goal in natural language and then attempts to achieve it by breaking the goal into sub-tasks and using the internet and other tools in an automatic loop. Auto-GPT can autonomously assign itself new objectives to work toward a larger goal without requiring constant human input. 

AutoGPT has internet access, long-term and short-term memory management, text generation, and text-to-speech functionality. Most importantly, it operates automatically without you.

If you would like to play with an instance of it without having to build your own version using the GitHub repo, you try out a free-to-use demo called AgentGPT.

Vector Databases

Vector databases are a type of database that store and manage data in the form of vectors. Vectors are ordered lists of numbers, and they can represent things like points in space, directions, or measurements. Some simple ways of thinking about it:

A vector database is like a magician who can instantly summon a rabbit from a hat, but instead of a rabbit, it's the information you're looking for, and instead of a hat, it's a massive pile of data.

A vector database is like a super-fast librarian who can not only find any book in a library in seconds but can also organize the books in a way that makes finding them even faster next time.

Examples of vector database websites

• Pinecone.io

• Weaveate.io

Founders’ Toolbox: A Spotlight

Every week, I play with dozens and dozens of new tools and I’ll derive a few that are worthy of your experimentation.

• Ora - Create a shareable custom chatbot in seconds. The link takes you to a chatbot I created that offers Wisdom from a Taco’s perspective. The Renegade Taco Bot 🌮 

• Video-to-text via Huggingface - Enter the link of any YouTube video to generate a text transcript of the video

• Humata - Ability to upload your files (such as a PDF) and ask AI anything about the contents. Useful for large reports

• Tripnotes - Plan your next trip in seconds. Type in a destination with any constraints (location, time, modes of transportation etc..) and watch tripnotes run its magic

Let me know your thoughts or some of your favourite apps you’ve been using on the daily.

The Renegade Explorer

As some of you may know, I embarked on a backpacking journey across the globe in 2022/2023, and I've been lucky enough to explore some amazing off-the-beaten-path locations along the way. As we all know, life can be overwhelming at times, and it's important to take a break and nurture our sense of curiosity. Each week I feature a breathtaking destination alongside some beautiful photography that will inspire your next adventure.

This week's featured destination is a picturesque UNESCO World Heritage Site where thatched-roof farmhouses, nestled amidst majestic mountains, transport you back in time to experience the enchanting charm of traditional Japanese village life

Suggestions Box.

What’s on your mind? Go ahead. Make my day.