The Leading Edge #6

Welcome to Leading Edge, Edition 6! ??

This week, we're exploring a variety of compelling topics: the European Union's pioneering AI Act that sets new global standards for AI regulation, the bold claim by Nvidia's CEO about the future of programming and its real-world implications, the heated debate over the openness of AI models amidst legal battles and industry opinions, and the stark realities of startup life revealed by a recent survey.

Remember, your continued interest and feedback fuel this newsletter, so let's keep the conversation going. Share your thoughts and spread the word as we journey through the cutting edges of tech and business together!

EU passes 'world-first' AI law

The European Union has taken a groundbreaking step by approving the world's first comprehensive set of regulations to govern the rapidly advancing field of AI.

This historic legislation, known as the AI Act, marks a significant move to address growing concerns surrounding the impact of AI on jobs, privacy, and the future of humanity.

The European Parliament showed strong support for the act during a session last Wednesday, with a vote tally of 523 in favor, 46 against, and 49 abstentions.

This new legislation categorizes AI applications according to their potential risk levels, ranging from "unacceptable" to high, medium, and low hazards.

Devin and the Death ?? of Programming

A few weeks back, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said programming as a profession is dead.

He also suggested that we should stop teaching kids coding.

Sure, AI can code now. ChatGPT, Copilot, they're impressive.

But anyone who's tried them knows they're tools, not replacements. They can augment a programmer, not really replace them.

Then there's Devin from Cogniton...

This video blew my mind.

Devin takes on a real-world task, sourced from Upwork, and solves it independently. I haven't gotten access yet, so who knows if it's all hype (but I doubt it).

Not heeding the Jensen talk, I am still helping my 12 year old learn coding with Python.

For two reasons:

? Coding = Problem-Solving Brain Training: Even if AI writes the code, logical thinking is forever.

? AI = Kid Superpowers: Imagine what he could build with an AI teammate! Things he'd never achieve alone.

So coding may not be dead.

Not yet.

But coding as we know will soon cease to exist.

In 5 years if not 2.

Dead man walking.

The Battle for AI's Soul: Open ?? or Closed ???

So Elon Musk announces that Grok, xIs LLM model will now go open source.?

Interesting timing with his legal case against OpenAI and Sam Altman.

However details are forthcoming. For example, what exactly does “open source” mean for Grok? Will it have weights (at least that) and training data?

And on the other side, Vinod Khosla is campaigning for not making LLMs opensource.?And he compares it to war and the Manhattan Project. (In a totally unrelated news "Oppenheimer" took home seven academy awards last week ).

And Mistral AI has gone back to closed source with its paid models.

What path will you choose?

Open or closed?

Startup Life is Rough!

The Sifted survey is a wake-up call for anyone who thinks being a startup founder is all sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns.

It's a hard life.

Particularly in the past year, where things have been quite brutal for VC-backed tech founders.

The survey had red flags everywhere:

?? 45% of founders said their mental health was "bad" or "very bad."

?? 85% said they experienced high stress levels.

?? 55% suffered from insomnia.

?? 61% considered leaving their company.

?? 49% might do it in the coming year.

So come in for the vision, the thrill, and the ride.

But don't expect it to be easy.

Note on data: 156 founders were surveyed, almost all from early-stage startups. Two-thirds were male.All graphics are from the Sifted survey.

Until next week...

And that's a wrap for this week's edition of The Leading Edge! ??

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