The new ChatGPT is here (and I was wrong)

The new ChatGPT will blow your mind…

OpenAI released the latest version of ChatGPT Monday night.

After watching the demos, all I can say is, “Wow!” The world just changed before our eyes.

You have to see these two short videos:

1. ChatGPT coaches a kid through a math problem in real time.

2. A blind person uses artificial intelligence (AI) to understand their surroundings.

The pace of AI innovation is off the charts. ChatGPT has only been around for 18 months. It can already power AI assistants that “see,” “hear,” and “speak” seamlessly with almost no delay. It feels like there’s a human on the other end.

Here’s a great chart showing how things are moving faster than ever.

AI systems took 20 years to reach human-level abilities in handwriting recognition. It took less than a year to hit that milestone for language comprehension:

Source: Our World in Data

1. AI will transform the world a lot faster than we think.

Take personalized AI tutors, for example, which I thought were “coming soon.”

I was wrong. As of Monday night, they’re already here and accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

In the first video linked to above, the AI coaches a kid through a math problem step by step, just like a real tutor.

All the kid did was share his iPad screen with ChatGPT and ask it to help solve the problem. Here’s what it looks like…

Source: @mckaywrigley on X

Think about how many kids’ lives this will change.

The rich heir living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side doesn’t need an AI tutor. He can afford a real one.

But what about the less-fortunate kid who comes home every day and has nobody to help with his homework? This is a total game-changer.

And yes, homework is dead. Time to think up new ways to test the youth.

2. AI will also eliminate language barriers.

Another ChatGPT demo shows it translating a conversation between an Italian speaker and an English speaker, in real time.

This is great if you’re like me and often have awkward conversations with locals while overseas. Even better, it will unlock millions of new potential relationships. Imagine jumping on a video call and seamlessly talking with guy who speaks Japanese, while you’re speaking English?

People love to fantasize about the potential dangers of AI. Last weekend, Warren Buffett compared AI to nuclear weapons.

Huh? What about all the good these tools are doing, like AI tutors that can turn our kids into straight-A students?

Every new invention can be used for both good and bad. Fire allowed us to cook food and stay warm. It burned whole cities to the ground.

Let’s double down on the good and outlaw the bad.

3. I got to talking with a lawyer on my recent trip to Washington, DC…

He told me ChatGPT is more useful than a first-year intern.

There are lots of “AI for lawyers… accountants… and doctors” being built. Yet ChatGPT is beating them at their own game. A lot of these AI-specific apps are going to zero.

There will be massive winners and losers from this megatrend. Investors should continue to focus on companies making money from AI today.

Remember, we’re in the early innings of the largest infrastructure project ever. Companies will spend more money on AI data centers… chips… and servers than Washington spent putting a man on the moon.

You want to own the businesses profiting from this trend. We’re heavily invested in the AI buildout in Disruption Investor. Upgrade here.

Lastly, you now have no excuse not to use AI.

OpenAI announced that the latest version of ChatGPT—GPT-4o—is free.

Start using AI in your daily life. Soon, people who don’t know how to use AI will seem as ancient as folks who can’t turn on a computer.

Don’t get left behind.

4. Today’s dose of optimism…

Former US presidential candidate John Kerry made some interesting comments at The World Economic Forum earlier this year:

“2023... was literally the most disruptive, climate-disrupted, most climate consequential, negative year in human history.”

Can someone send Kerry this chart, which shows climate-related deaths collapsing to 97% over the past century:

Source: Bjorn Lomborg

It’s not that Mother Nature is serving up fewer heatwaves, flash floods, and hurricanes than before.

It’s that we’ve invented new tools to (mostly) escape her wrath.

Extreme heat… we invented air conditioning.

Extreme cold… we created indoor heating and insulation.

Hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis… we contrived early warning systems for evacuations.

Technology—not politicians or penance—will solve climate change.

Stephen McBride
Chief Analyst, RiskHedge

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