Top 5 stories of the week: Copy-paste is archaic, ChatGPT and Bing Chat debate continues

With the economy cooling, there isn’t as much news coming out of big tech as there will be in the second half of 2022. Instead — as evidenced by our top stories this week — tech leaders, experts, analysts and readers have been looking at broader ( sometimes even philosophical) topics.

For starters, are you still using CTRL+C and CTRL+V to copy-paste? (We’ll admit we’ve been guilty of it here.) In our top story, guest writer Rosie Chopra of Magical advocates copy-paste methods worthy of modern day 2023. Another of our guest writers, Olivier Gaudin, calls for C – suite to take ownership of the code—which, he says, is ultimately any organization’s most critical asset.

And, of course, there hasn’t been a lull in the chatter around generative AI, including ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Our security editor Tim Keary wrote about Blackbird’s new AI assistant for security analysts, and prolific guest writer Gary Grossman explored the implications of Bing Chat’s chatbot in Sydney — which has made some very creepy and cryptic statements.

And finally, AI editor Sharon Goldman went over the hype, innovation, skepticism and sheer hysteria surrounding generative AI in her column The AI ​​Beat.

Interested in reading more? Here are the top five stories for the week of February 20.

Decades of technological innovation have transformed nearly every area of ​​business. But for some reason, most of us still use CTRL+C and CTRL+V to move information from one place to another.

While this method was indeed revolutionary when it was invented by Xerox computer scientists Larry Tessler and Tim Mott nearly 50 years ago, it is extremely ineffective today.

In this week’s top story, guest writer Rosie Chopra of Magical calls for a smarter copy-paste method for the modern age, highlighting the fact that the way things are now no longer meets the demands of business. Why do workers perform the repetitive, mind-numbing task of transferring thousands of pieces of data (numbers, text, images, and more) from documents and websites to cells, fields, and platforms when they could be working on more important projects?

Source code is the foundation of every modern business, Olivier Gaudin points out in the second top story of the week. So why isn’t the C-suite owning the code and prioritizing it with things like sales, marketing, security, finance, and HR?

To strengthen this critical strategic advantage and maximize their business results, organizations must focus on code at the highest level. This transition will address a major problem that has gone unchecked for years: code ownership. Someone must be responsible for managing the source code and software.

Because today, who actually owns the source code often remains unclear.

Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT was introduced in November 2022, there has been intense discussion about the potential impact that generative AI will have on enterprise security.

Security editor Tim Keary this week wrote about Blackbird AI, which uses genetic artificial intelligence to counter offensive intelligence operations. Specifically, the defense AI and risk intelligence provider announced the RAV3N Copilot, an AI assistant for security analysts.

The tool uses genetic artificial intelligence to create narrative insights and risk reports to give defenders greater context for security incidents. It can automatically generate executive updates, key findings and mitigation steps to help security teams manage security incidents more effectively.

New York Times Journalist Kevin Roose had a close encounter of the robotic kind with a shadowy self seemingly spawned by Bing’s new chatbot – Bing Chat – also known as “Sydney”. News of the interaction quickly went viral and now serves as a cautionary tale for artificial intelligence, writes guest author Gary Grossman in this top story of the week.

What does this interaction with Sydney – suddenly declaring her love for Rouge and teasing him to reciprocate – say about the future of artificial intelligence? And what should we do to ensure that technology does not evolve beyond humanity’s control?

Finally, AI editor Sharon Goldman outlined in her AI Beat column why she didn’t spend her week testing Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot or talking about how Sydney — the internal code name for Bing’s AI chat feature – he made her feel or if he seduced her.

Instead, she indulged in some deep thoughts (and tweets) about her own response to the Bing AI conversations posted by others. Also, he points out, issues like AI regulation and governance are much more critical.