🥟 Chao-Down #289 Google's Gemini will refrain from commenting on elections, 5 Pulitzer Prize finalists used AI in their journalism, Why people are falling in love with AI chatbots

One of the prevailing challenges facing an aging population is loneliness, and South Korea has a solution.

South Korea's local governments are deploying 7,000 AI-powered dolls to seniors and dementia patients that can hold full conversations. These dolls, called Hyodal, are designed to help the elderly combat loneliness and remind them to take medication. The dolls offer touch interaction, 24-hour voice reminders, check-ins, voice messages, a health coach, quizzes, exercise, music, and more.

As for caregivers, they’ll have access to an app allowing them to send/receive voice messages, make group announcements, and monitor motion detection.

And the tech seems to be working. According to studies from over 9,000 Hyodal users, people found that depression levels reduced and medicine intake improved.

South Korea is leading the world’s “silver tsunami” due to its shrinking birthrate and growing elderly population. According to statistics from 2017, the elderly make up about 14 per cent of the nation’s total population. By 2025, it’s expected that 20 per cent of the population will be elderly, turning South Korea into a super-aged society.

It’s important to make sure we create tech solutions that help all members of society and Hyodal is one attempt to making sure we care for our older seniors. Check out their video below.

-Alex, your resident Chaos Coordinator.

What happened in AI? 📰

Google’s Gemini will steer clear of election talk in India (Engadget)

Why people are falling in love with AI chatbots (The Verge)

Five of this year’s Pulitzer finalists are AI-powered (Nieman Journalism Lab)

From research to talent: Five AI takeaways from Biden’s budget (FedScoop)

Your Kid May Already Be Watching AI-Generated Videos on YouTube (WIRED)

Should artists be paid for training data? OpenAI VP wouldn’t say (TechCrunch)

Always be Learnin’ 📕 📖

The state of SaaS pricing - Is usage-based pricing still the future of SaaS? (Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged)

This is why the idea that AI will just augment jobs, never replace them, is a lie! (Donald Clark Plan B)

ChatGPT Is Funnier Than You (Nautilus)

Projects to Keep an Eye On 🛠

localsend/localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to AirDrop (Github)

Introducing a novel safety evaluation benchmark for large language models. (Scale)

Command-R: RAG at Production Scale (cohere.com)

The Latest in AI Research 💡

KnowAgent: Knowledge-Augmented Planning for LLM-Based Agents (zjukg.org)

Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research (Nature)

A Critical Evaluation of AI Feedback for Aligning Large Language Models (arxiv)

The World Outside of AI 🌎

HIIT Workouts Could Be Bad For Your Health (Bloomberg)

The Cystic-Fibrosis Breakthrough That Changed Everything (The Atlantic)

What a $1 deal says about America's office market (bbc.com)

Spare change donated at checkout raises millions for charities (NPR)

US salaries are falling. Employers say compensation is just 'resetting' (bbc.com)

Ozempic Side Effects: Users Turn to TikTok For Medical Advice (Bloomberg)

One Last Bite 😋