ChatGPT could play a key role in several areas of finance. Guillaume/Getty Images
Experts have predicted ChatGPT’s impact on a variety of industries, and it appears Wall Street will be no exception..OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been the subject of public fascination recently. Microsoft poured $10 billion into the startup during its most recent round at the end of January, which reportedly valued the startup at $29 billion.
ChatGPT is a chatbot that generates conversational written responses to a user’s questions and prompts by using generative artificial intelligence that recognizes and mimics human speech patterns while dispatching encyclopedic knowledge. From churning out grammatically-correct but substance-lacking school essays to giving sound advice on how to negotiate a raise, playing with the chatbot is a fun pastime, but people have begun to wonder the impact it could have on across a multitude of industries.
It’s still early days — ChatGPT was released to the public in late November — but experts already expect ChatGPT and its underlying tech to be utilized as a productivity-enhancing tool in finance. “It’s going to automate select tasks that knowledge workers are engaged in today so that they can focus on higher-value tasks,” Dylan Roberts, partner and principal at KPMG, told Insider.
ChatGPT has the capacity eventually to replace humans in certain roles, according to some, but the realization rests in the customers’ hands. “Technology will be able to do it. The question is, do customers accept it or not?” Peter-Jan Van de Venn, vice president of global digital banking at consulting firm Mobiquity, told Insider.
However, ChatGPT does have at least one issue specific to its application to finance. The product is “black-boxed,” according to Charles Hearn, the chief technology officer at fintech Alloy, meaning the AI can present answers without being able to trace how it got to those answers. That process can make it difficult to meet some regulatory requirements in financial services.
Others are skeptical of ChatGPT’s ability to revolutionize industries and doubt the likelihood that it is the end-all be-all for white-collar workers. One Princeton professor even called the chatbot a “bullshit generator,” The Markup reported. But Dev Patnaik, CEO of strategy and innovation firm Jump Associates, said dismissing tools like ChatGPT so quickly is a mistake.
“You are using all of your brain power to stack up reasons of why the future is not going to happen rather than think and reason about what you’re going to do about it when it does,” Patnaik told Insider. But while you mull on whether or not to pay attention to ChatGPT on Wall Street, some are already putting the tech to work. At Sweden private-equity giant EQT, ChatGPT is enhancing the firm’s 7-year-old AI platform it built itself, according to Alexandra Lutz, who heads up EQT’s AI-powered Motherbrain.
But while you mull on whether or not to pay attention to ChatGPT on Wall Street, some are already putting the tech to work. At Sweden private-equity giant EQT, ChatGPT is enhancing the firm’s 7-year-old AI platform it built itself, according to Alexandra Lutz, who heads up EQT’s AI-powered Motherbrain.Continue reading..
Four versions of "Solarpunk" artwork, created by the AI Midjourney, as prompted by Sean Ellul...Sean Ellul via Midjourney
Think of your dream house. Maybe it has high, arching ceilings, a roaring fireplace and expansive windows that look out onto a placid lake. Or maybe it’s a breathing metallic dome that sits on a fiery planet and is filled with alien butlers. What if you could write a paragraph about those houses, and then immediately enter virtual versions of them and bring all your friends?
Thanks to recent developments in AI like ChatGPT and DALL-E, a future in which users will be able to create their own strange, immersive worlds is not far off. In the fall, three new text-to-3D generators were announced: GET3D from Nvidia, Make-a-Video from Meta and DreamFusion from Google.
And metaverse builders are already using text generators like ChatGPT—which responds to text prompts with startling poise and intelligence—and visual generators like DALL-E—which creates images out of text prompts—to ideate new worlds and designs.
Metaverse industry insiders say that these AI technologies will be crucial toward building virtual worlds that are detail-rich and customizable—that they hold the key toward creating metaverses that regular people will actually want to spend time in.
“We’re able to fill the internet with interesting stuff because everybody is capable of taking a picture, recording a video, or writing words,” says Rev Lebaredian, VP for Omniverse and simulation technology at the chipmaker Nvidia. “If we are going to create a 3-D internet, then you absolutely have to have the people who are participating in it creating content as well—and the only hope we have of making that happen is if AI can help us.”
Changing workflows
While the use of AI tools in metaverse creation isn’t quite there yet, it is already playing a crucial, if slightly mundate role. ChatGPT, for example, is being used by metaverse builders to brainstorm ideas, write code, and compose texts of decks and emails.
In researching for this story, I emailed Sean Ellul, the co-founder of the 3D development studio Metaverse Architects, to ask him if he’s been impacted by ChatGPT. He responded with a well-written five-paragraph email about how he’s been using the technology. But there was a catch: in the fourth paragraph, the e-mail revealed that it had actually been written by ChatGPT itself. Ellul had punched in the following prompt into the service and then sent it over (with minimal editing):
“Write an email to Andrew, from TIME, about how at the company Metaverse Architects we are using chat GPT to brainstorm code, prepare articles and ideate new projects. We even use it to write emails, such as this one!”
The ensuing email was staid, yet completely believable and informative. It was proof of the baseline powers of ChatGPT and the ways in which Ellul has implemented it into his daily processes. Ellul says he uses ChatGPT to tweak design ideas, solicit marketing techniques, create architectural blueprints, and many tasks in between….Continue reading….
Fibre broadband is fast becoming a must-have utility. So what exactly is it and does your household need what it can offer?
What is fibre broadband?
Unlike ADSL broadband connections which use standard copper wires to send data, fibre optic broadband works by sending laser light along plastic or glass cables – literally at the speed of light. It means data can be sent and received at vastly improved speeds.
There are two kinds of fibre broadband, FTTC – fibre to the cabinet – being the most common. It connects fibre cables to the green cabinet in your street, which is then connected to your home with copper wires.
FTTP – or fibre to the premises – is where the fibre-optic cable travels all the way to your property, rather than stopping at a street cabinet.
As there is no copper wiring, this is also known as ‘full fibre’. It’s the quickest type of broadband but currently only accounts for a minority of the UK’s connections.
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What are the advantages of fibre broadband?
Because it’s faster, it offers much slicker web browsing, seamless streaming and a generally much more satisfying online experience. Fibre broadband is also a lot more reliable when several members of one household all need to get online at the same time.
How fast is fibre broadband?
According to regulator Ofcom, superfast FTTC fibre connections (with some copper wires) offer download speeds of at least 30Mbps (megabits per second).
Ultrafast FTTP connections (‘full fibre’ straight to your door) offer download speeds of at least 300Mbps, with some packages offering up to 900Mbps or even 1 Gigabit per second (1,000Mbps).
For context, the average broadband speed for the UK is 71 Mbps, according to Ofcom.
How much does it cost?
Fibre is pricier than standard broadband, particularly for the ultrafast speeds via FTTP where broadband-only packages can cost more than £50 a month. There might also be set-up costs to consider. However, FTTP deals don’t require you to have a phone line, which goes some way to offsetting the expense.
Do I need fibre broadband?
Fibre-optic broadband is ideal for busy, modern households regularly downloading films or games, or uploading substantial digital files. It’s increasingly also a must for home-workers relying on high-quality video calls.
Can anyone get fibre optic broadband?
It depends on whether your area is serviced with fibre connections from one of the two main fibre providers – BT Openreach and Virgin Media.
The majority of broadband providers use the Openreach network – enter your postcode on the Openreach online fibre broadband checker to see if you can get it. Virgin Media has its own postcode checker that you can use to check if your area is serviced.
What if I can’t get fibre yet?
While most households have access to FTTC, FTTP is currently only available to only about 15% of households. But that’s going to change with Government targets set to get more homes connected.
If your area is not serviced yet, you can register your interest online with BT Openreach. If there’s enough demand from other locals that have also submitted an interest, BT may get in touch.
You can also register for updates with Virgin Media if you cannot currently get fibre at your address.
How do I find the best fibre broadband deal?
You’ll need to compare broadband packages on offer in the same way as with standard broadband deals. Results can be filtered by cost, but it’s important to remember that it isn’t all about price. A cheap deal might not offer the speed or the service you are looking for.
You should also consider the contract length as well as whether you want an ‘unlimited package’ which means you don’t need to worry about download limits.
Think also about ‘add-on’ elements offered with many fibre broadband packages. These include TV subscriptions, mobile plans and other perks that could offer better value than your existing set-up.
When can I switch broadband provider?
You can switch your broadband provider at any time, but if you’re still in your contract period you might have to pay a fee to end your contract early.
If you’re not sure, check with your provider or dig out your contract to see how much time you have remaining on it.
If you do end up switching, don’t forget to make a note of when your new deal ends – this will serve as a reminder to yourself to compare prices again to make sure you’re still on the best deal.
Best fibre optic broadband providers
1. Virgin Media – 5/5 stars
Average download speed: 466Mbps
Average monthly cost: £42
Complaints per 100k subscribers: 60
Our verdict
The 54% of homes eligible for Virgin Media’s cable broadband service can get some of the fastest broadband speeds available, and at 9p per Mbps (in other words, the average monthly cost divided by the average download speed), one of the best value services too.
Each tariff comes with the 11-antennae, dual-band Virgin Hub 3 router, or the Virgin Hub 4 version with its Gigabit tariff. Ofcom data puts Virgin Media bang on the national average for customer satisfaction.
2. BT – 5/5 stars
Average download speed: 448Mbps
Average monthly cost: £49.99
Complaints per 100k subscribers: 50
Our verdict
BT offers full-fibre tariffs with an average monthly cost of £49.99 and average speed of 448Mbps, giving you a cost-per-Mbps value of 11p. As with its standard fibre tariffs, the Stay Fast guarantee will get any speed issues resolved in 30 days or pay you £20 and allow you to exit your contract without penalty.
Ofcom’s 2020 Customer Satisfaction Tracker found 86% of BT customers were satisfied with its service.
3. EE – 5/5 stars
Average download speed: 448Mbps
Average monthly cost: £48.67
Complaints per 100k subscribers: 22
Our verdict
The mobile network cum broadband provider EE scores very highly for customer satisfaction, and with an average tariff price of £48.67 and average download speed of 448Mbps, it matches BT in value for money.
Each tariff comes with an EE Smart Hub router. The dual-band, seven-antennae hardware promises to manage connections intelligently and reach every room of your home.
4. Zen Internet – 5/5 stars
Average download speed: 450Mbps
Average monthly cost: £51.74
Complaints per 100k subscribers: Data not available
Our verdict
With speeds and prices to rival that of EE and BT in terms of value for money, Zen Internet is a strong contender. Tariffs start at £38.99 for speeds of 100Mbps and each come with a FRITZ!Box 7530 router that allows visitors to use your connection without having to share your wi-fi password.
Ofcom hasn’t published any customer satisfaction data for Zen Internet, but it scores well above average for broadband on TrustPilot at 4.1 stars.
5. TalkTalk – 4/5 stars
Average download speed: 272Mbps
Average monthly cost: £36
Complaints per 100k subscribers: 87
Our verdict
TalkTalk is the cheapest full fibre broadband provider on our list, but it does offer the lowest average speeds. Its two tariffs cost £32 and £40 per month respectively, and offer average speeds of up to 272Mbps. Subscribers get a D-Link router.
TalkTalk scored 78% in the overall satisfaction category of the Ofcom 2020 Customer Satisfaction Tracker, below the national average of 85%.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between fibre and copper broadband?
Using the internet involves sending and receiving data from your computer or mobile device. Generally speaking, there are two main ways to transmit data: copper (often referred to as ADSL) or fibre optic cables (and sometimes a combination of the two). There’s also satellite and mobile transmission which we look at below.
When transmitted using copper telephone wires, data is translated into and sent as pulses of electricity. Copper is an excellent conductor with relatively low electrical resistance making it a good medium for sending and receiving data.
Data sent via fibre optic cables moves at the speed of light resistance-free. This makes transmission much faster than copper broadband.
Copper broadband can transmit data up to 24 Megabits per second (Mbps). In contrast, fibre broadband can reach speeds in excess of 1,000Mbps (1Gbps) making it 40 times faster.
A hybrid copper and fibre connection type known as Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) uses fibre optics from an exchange to the nearest roadside cabinet and then copper cables to your home. Speeds are significantly faster than copper alone, topping out at around 80Mbps.
Fibre To The Home (FTTH) or Fibre To The Premises (FTTP), however, uses fibre optics all the way from the exchange to your home. This offers the fastest possible broadband connection with speeds possible in excess of 1Gbps.
What factors affect my broadband speed?
Other factors, as well as your connection, will determine your household’s broadband speed.
For example, wired connections may produce faster speeds than wireless ones. The more devices connected to your router, the slower your speed is likely to become.
You may also experience lag if many households are using the internet at the same time in your area. Peak hours tend to be in the evening between 7pm and 11pm.
Some factors are beyond your control. For example, the distance between your home and the cabinet affects copper or FTTC connections. Greater distance can mean slower speeds. Even the weather can affect copper cabling and cause problems.
Many broadband providers now offer speed guarantees. These pay compensation if your speed consistently falls below an agreed minimum. Customers are also allowed to leave contracts without penalty if things can’t be rectified.
What other types of broadband are there?
In addition to copper broadband, FTTC and FTTH/FTTP, there’s also satellite broadband and mobile broadband.
Satellite broadband uses the same technology used to receive satellite television like Sky. It can deliver download speeds of up to 300Mbps and is an alternative for people in rural areas where both conventional broadband and mobile broadband are too slow. It’s in something of a transitional period right now.
Mobile broadband is much more widely available and competitively priced. With the roll-out of 5G technology underway, average speeds are going to be climbing rapidly across the country. 4G connections offer download speeds of up to 100Mbps in ideal conditions, while 5G can theoretically offer speed greater than 700Mbps – that’s ten times faster than the average UK home broadband speed.
Will I need a different modem for fibre broadband?
If you’re upgrading from ADSL broadband to fibre broadband (FTTC or FTTH/FTTP), there’s an element of new gear that’s needed, but installation involves minimal disruption.
If you’re upgrading from FTTH/FTTP to FTTC, your master phone socket will need to be upgraded to an Optical Network Terminal (ONT). It’s a small white box that attaches to one of your interior walls close to a power socket. This is necessary to connect to the fibre cables that lead up to your property.
Does fibre broadband require a phone line?
FTTC and ADSL connections require a phone line because they use copper telephone cables to transmit data at least part of the way to its destination. FTTH/FTTP does not require a phone line since data is sent over fibre optic cables for its entire journey.
What does FTTN mean?
FTTN stands for Fibre To The Node, which essentially means the same as FTTC. Specifically, data is sent and received via fibre as far as your nearest roadside cabinet and copper telephone wires carry it from the cabinet to/from your home.
When I arrive for my meeting with Sara Whitestone, a 28-year-old neuroscientist based in Bordeaux, I’m sweaty and five minutes late. Whitestone is already putting my delay to good use by calling her mother in the U.S. Immediately, I realise that she and I aren’t cut from the same cloth. In life, you have two types of people: Those who organise their time, and those who run around chasing it like headless chickens.
Whitestone works for an international group based in Switzerland: It’s a time-consuming career with weekly travel obligations. One of her favourite project management tools is Jira, basically “a to-do list, but on steroids,” as she describes it. “I live and breathe my to-do list at work,” she says. “I’m juggling so many projects and have so many things I need to remember.” Her favourite apps are synchronised to her personal calendar, too – which she shares with her boyfriend.
“And now, the crazy part,” Whitestone continues. She says her management tools have also become fundamental in keeping track of other parts of her life – from dates to couple trips, from exercise classes to endometriosis symptoms, and even random thoughts. When she shows me her apps, I feel as if I’ve been granted access to her entire private life. “I don’t have to remember if my phone tells me,” she explains when I ask why these apps are so useful to her.
Though they’re almost everywhere in our personal lives, organisational tools like Trello, Notion or Todoist originated in the world of corporate management. A lot of them are based on the Gantt chart, designed between 1910 and 1915 by mechanical engineer and management consultant Henry Gantt, to increase productivity and optimise industrial workflow. Another popular model is the Kanban method, first introduced as part of Toyota’s production system in the 1950s.
Paris-based Edouard Polese, 34, heads a startup focused on teaching people how to drive. He, too, is hooked on project management tools – so much so he’s even created his own app. “I use the same tools for business strategy management and for picking out Christmas presents,” he says.
Sure, it’s easy to be horrified by this, but Polese thinks it helps him a lot with his mental health. “The goal is to lighten the mental load, to calm down,” he says. “We’re kind of forced to mix our professional and personal lives nowadays – our brains don’t automatically forget what’s going on at work just because it’s 9PM and we’re home.”
“When we ask people what they like and what the main benefit is they get from Todoist, it’s that it reduces stress and anxiety,” says Amir Salihefendic, CEO of Todoist. “Most people don’t have assistants. Most people just keep everything inside their heads and I think that creates a lot more stress than if they had an assistant app to update and use.” Salihefendic, who says he has a “very bad memory,” created his app back in 2007, when he was a 22-year-old computer science student. Today, Todoist has 20million users.
For Whitestone, management tools are equally as crucial for her mental and physical health, since she has an autoimmune disorder and needs to block out time to rest. “Many people who have limited energy levels or chronic pain end up over doing it,” she says. As an undergrad, Whitestone would often ignore signs of exhaustion and end up burnt out or sick. “I’m the kind of person who just works until I drop,” she says. “I learned years ago I need to schedule recovery time.”
For many users, these tools are crucial to reclaim control of the soul-crushing demands of big city life, too. “In Paris, I got really overwhelmed by the rhythm of everyday life,” says Mathis Samba, 29, who works in finance at a consulting firm. He was suffering – and so was his relationship with his girlfriend. It got to a point where they barely saw each other on weeknights. “It was really awful, just too much,” Samba says.
Despite being taunted by friends and loved ones, Samba eventually decided to block time off for dates on Family Wall, an app specialised in organising domestic life. “We have to make sure to take time for ourselves, just as we do for our friends and colleagues,” Samba says. “Since we live together, we’re always going to see each other, but there’s seeing each other and there’s spending quality time together.”
As you’ve probably noticed, the type of people who tend to use these apps have something in common: They’re often in high-level jobs, live in cities and have busy social lives. According to Marc Bessin, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and sociologist at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), that’s not a coincidence.
“If you’re interested in this kind of app, you’re someone with the means to organise your time,” he says. That’s not necessarily the case for all very busy people, like for instance, a single mother working a low-paid full-time job with multiple kids to take care of. “Being able to master your schedule is something that sets you apart in today’s world,” Bassin continues. “These apps are designed for a population that increasingly want to take control of their lives.”
In reality, these apps are not for everybody – they mostly appeal to a very specific type of person, someone who typically works in a performance-based job. Omer Perchik, CEO of Any.do, estimated that his company and its main competitors combined have less than 5 percent market penetration – meaning the vast majority of potential customers aren’t using these tools. “The category has a relatively high churn rate, not because the products are not good, but because people are, at large, procrastinating,” he says.
Salihefendic agrees. “Most people are actually really bad at planning and executing stuff,” he says. “If you look at our data, there’s this snowball effect where people keep adding tasks for today, don’t complete them and move them to tomorrow, then they have a thousand tasks for a single day.”
Indeed, not everyone has the type of mentality that is conducive to organisation, but our society’s obsession with productivity and optimisation can make us feel inferior to people who naturally have these skills. That’s the case for freelance graphic designer Patrick Pabeun, a friend of mine who’s “more of a dreamer type”, in his words.
“I have a twin sister who functions very differently from me – she has a job managing a big team and a personal life, too, somehow. She does yoga classes and hosts at least two dinners a week.” Patrick hopes that the apps will help him achieve a similar level of ease when busy. “In an ideal world, it’d all just coexist in harmony,” he says.
This begs the question – is there still a place for dreamers in this world? Sociologist Marc Bessin believes that a mass adoption of these apps shouldn’t really be seen as a sign of progress. “Society pushes us to keep track of our activities to get instant results,” he says. For this reason, we tend to abandon a more long-term vision of our lives and lose track of what balance actually looks like on the whole.
“You don’t always have to focus on organising your daily life,” Bessin concludes. “You need meaningful activities that make you present in the world, too.”
Deep fake or deepfake technology as AI or artificial intelligence as a biometrics fake visual... [+] Getty
Facial recognition software has become increasingly popular in the past several years. It is used everywhere from airports, venues, shopping centers and even by law enforcement. While there are a few potential benefits to using the technology to prevent and solve crimes, there are many concerns about the privacy, safety and legislation regarding the use of the technology.
Facial recognition technology uses a database of photos, such as mugshots and driver’s license photos to identify people in security photos and videos. It uses biometrics to map facial features and help verify identity through key features of the face. The most key feature is the geometry of a face such as the distance between a person’s eyes and the distance from their forehead to their chin.
This then creates what is called a “facial signature.” It is a mathematical formula that is then compared to a database of known faces. The market for this technology is growing exponentially. According to a research report “Facial Recognition Market” by Component, the facial recognition industry is expected to grow $3.2 billion in 2019 to $7.0 billion by 2024 in the U.S. The most significant uses for the technology being for surveillance and marketing. This, however, raises concerns for many people.
The main reason for concerns amongst citizens is the lack of federal regulations surrounding the use of facial recognition technology. Many are worried about how accurate the technology is and if there are biases and misinformation in these technologies. One issue, for example, is that the technology has been proven in multiple studies to be inaccurate at identifying people of color, especially black women.
Another major concern is the use of facial recognition for law enforcement purposes. Today, many police departments in the U.S., including New York City, Chicago, Detroit and Orlando, have begun utilizing the technology. According to a May 2018 report, the FBI has access to 412 million facial images for searches.
Not only is this a concern with the possibility of misidentifying someone and leading to wrongful convictions, it can also be very damaging to our society by being abused by law enforcement for things like constant surveillance of the public. Currently, the Chinese government is already using facial recognition to arrest jaywalkers and other petty crimes that cause debate amongst what is considered basic civil rights and privacy issues versus protecting the public.
Accuracy and accountability are necessary when it comes to the use of technology, especially regarding the justice system. The concerns have not gone unnoticed by politicians and many cities have started to create legislation around these issues. Oregon and New Hampshire have banned the use of facial recognition in body cameras for police officers. California cities, such as San Francisco and Oakland, and some cities in Massachusetts have outlawed certain uses of facial recognition technology for city officials including law enforcement.
The Utah Department of Public Safety has also put forth some bans on the use of facial recognition for active criminal cases. Law enforcement in Utah claim that the use of facial recognition software helps keep dangerous criminals off the streets, but advocates say that there is no checks and balances when it comes to the system. Recent pushes from Portland, Oregon show that they are soon to follow suit.
The latest legislation push to put limitations on facial recognition technology is a California bill, AB 1215, also referred to as the Body Camera Accountability Act. This bill will temporarily stop California law enforcement from adding face and other biometric surveillance technology to officer-worn body cameras for use against the public in California.
According to the ACLU of Southern California, “AB 1215 is a common-sense bill that rightly concludes that keeping our communities safe doesn’t have to come at the expense of our fundamental freedoms. We should all be able to safely live our lives without being watched and targeted by the government.”
Governor Gavin Newsom must decide whether or not to sign it into law by October 13. If he does, it will go into effect in January. Law enforcement isn’t the only issue with the technology that is of concern. U.S. Customs and Border Protection in partnership with Delta have added facial scanning to the Atlanta airport’s Concourse E, its Detroit hub, boarding gates in Minneapolis and Salt Lake City, and this month to Los Angeles International Airport.
The use of this technology causes concerns about how much people are being watched and if hackers can access this data causing more harm than good. “Facial recognition really doesn’t have a place in society,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future. “It’s deeply invasive, and from our perspective, the potential harm to society and human liberties far outweigh the potential benefits.”
With the vast number of concerns and privacy issues surrounding facial recognition software and its use, cities around the U.S. will face more dilemmas as they attempt to tackle these issues. AI and facial recognition technology are only growing and they can be powerful and helpful tools when used correctly, but can also cause harm with privacy and security issues. Lawmakers will have to balance this and determine when and how facial technology will be utilized and monitor the use, or in some cases abuse, of the technology.
Nicole Martin is the owner of NR Digital Consulting and host of Talk Digital To Me Podcast. She has worked in many different industries on customer journeys, website management, social…
ChatGPT could play a key role in several areas of finance. Guillaume/Getty Images
