I was scribbling away on today's edition when I overheard a group of 20-somethings:

"We'll just ChatGPT-it," they said with a shrug as if it was the most normal thing in the world. While it was a little weird to hear AI being thrown around so casually, I have to admit it felt validating. AI is having its iPhone moment.

In today's edition:

• AI ethics powwow with tech giants and The Pope

• A roundup of the top headlines and hottest product launches

• Spray on conductive liquid powered by AI is coming for your keyboard

⛪ Tech Giants Head to AI Sunday School

The Vatican just held the ultimate power meeting with the holy duality of Big Tech and religion. The Pope, Microsoft, IBM, and leaders from the Jewish and Islamic faiths all came together to discuss AI ethics in relation to the future of humanity and the planet. This wasn't your average Sunday school.

It wasn't a secret society meeting either

The Rome Call for AI Ethics, originally signed three years ago by Microsoft and IBM, focuses on six principles: transparency and inclusion, accountability, impartiality, reliability, security, and privacy.

Pope Francis called this meeting personally. Presumably, he finally realized Siri wasn't a real person and decided he needed to act.

The goal of the meeting was to ensure technology serves the "common good."

 That's a lot of pressure for Big Tech. It's also incredibly awkward if you're Microsoft (invested in OpenAI), Google (acquired DeepMind), or Apple (that Siri thing).

Big Tech companies already have to worry about governments making sure they don't abuse AI. Now they've been reminded The Pope is watching too.

(GeekWire)

🤠 Headline Roundup

Replika, the chatbot that's too hot to handle, got itself into some hot water. Soon we'll be using chatbots to sue other chatbots for inappropriate behavior. (Vice)

DeepMind's CEO advocated for "not moving fast and breaking things." (Time)

Engineers simplified air pollution prediction models using AI and hopefully didn't teach the machines how to suffocate us all to death before taking over. (Cornell Chronicle)

Nvidia unveiled new AI workflows to help combat loss prevention in the retail industry. Translation? Shoplifting will soon only happen when the power is out. (TechCrunch)

Meta announced plans to train its AI on Shutterstock's millions of stock images. Apparently, the company exhausted Instagram's database of people in fake poses. (PetaPixel)

CNET explained its AI journalism test, changed the byline on AI-written posts, and stopped hiding its disclosure behind a drop-down menu, obviously because we complained. (CNET)

Scientists used AI to reduce the time and cost associated with developing promising new medicines. Don't tell Big Pharma. (University of Toronto)

Wendy's (that's right, the burger chain) is planning to use Google's AI and ML chops to improve its food ordering experience. "Hey Google, bring burger." (Restaurant Dive)

McDonald's also came to play. The fast-food chain teamed up with content creator Karen X Cheng to come up with an AI-powered ad for the Lunar New Year. (Restaurant Dive)

A programmer created an AI "waifu" but got so addicted to chatting with her that his IRL girlfriend "forced me to delete her." (Futurism)

Inbenta, yet another provider of AI-powered chatbots, raised $40 million (TechCrunch)

Butter Payments raised $22 million to help companies fight churn. (PYMNTS)

Coho AI raised $8.5 million to optimize B2B SaaS companies' conversions. (TechCrunch)

⌨️ Smart Skin is Coming for Your Keyboard

You know how in sci-fi movies they can control technology with their bare hands?

Well, some big-brained geniuses from Stanford, KAIST, and Seoul University used AI to bring the idea to life.

This "smart skin" material is so thin that it's measured in nanometers. Once the conductive mesh is sprayed on, machine learning interprets your hand movements and transmits electronic signals via Bluetooth to the device you want to control.

The first application is meant for VR, where it essentially acts as a virtual keyboard. The tech isn't just for Zuck, though. It's easy to imagine how smart skin could be useful in medicine, gaming, and education.

(Euronews)

🔥 Hottest Product Launches

• Decorai.io - take a photo of any room for instant interior design ideas (link)

• Full body tracking - using only Wi-Fi signals (link)

• Predis.ai - input your idea and get ready-to-post videos for social media (link)

• Bardeen - automate manual workflows to save time for being creative (link)

• GPT for Google Sheets - a Chrome extension that adds GPT into Google Sheets (link)

• Lenny's Podcast Search - learn by topic from Lenny Rachitsky's podcast content (link)

💼 Hiring Corner

• ML Engineer at Gumroad

• Director of Communications at Anthropic

• Research Scientist Intern at Meta

• AI Research Scientist, Internship at Two Sigma

• Machine Learning Research Engineer at OSARO

Animations will never be the same.

That's a wrap for today. Stay curious and see you tomorrow! If you want more bite-sized content, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@jeremykuoo).