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Eric is hiring for various positions at Turpentine and for his personal team, including a chief of staff, EA, Head of Network, Head of Special Projects, and Investment Associate. Roles are available for newsletters, events, and more. Interested candidates can visit erictornberg.com for more details.
While AI agents like GPT-4 have generated much excitement, they still have limitations in terms of logical reasoning and deduction. The current capabilities are mostly limited to tasks like chat and code writing, lacking the deeper understanding required for more complex tasks. However, progress is being made in areas such as reinforcement learning and exploration, which can allow agents to adapt and improve their performance on new websites and tasks. Ongoing research and innovation in the field are expected to enhance the capabilities of future agent models.
Multion, founded by Dib Gerg, is continuously iterating and making impressive advancements in the development of AI agents. While Multion is still limited compared to human assistants, it is gradually gaining capabilities and achieving impressive results. The company emphasizes efficiency and speed, focusing on optimizing performance while maintaining a fast response time. They are also exploring techniques like fine-tuning, memory management, and planning to support complex tasks efficiently. Multion aims to provide value to users by driving adoption and eventually tackling more ambitious and complex tasks.
Multion places importance on creating AI agents that are not only high-performing but also efficient in terms of cost and speed. By optimizing the provision of useful information to the model and carefully managing the context, Multion aims to maximize the value and output of the agents while minimizing the cost per step. Their focus on efficiency facilitates effective task completion and enables them to offer competitive pricing in the market. Additionally, Multion is exploring dedicated instances and caching mechanisms to further enhance performance and minimize costs.
As AI agents continue to develop, the near-term future is expected to be a period of fluctuation and bipolarization. People will either embrace the potential benefits of AI agents or express concerns about their negative impact. This polarization may lead to varying degrees of acceptance and regulation in society.
Developers of AI systems should prioritize implementing safety measures to prevent abuse and potential harm. This includes incorporating prompt injection prevention, moderation models, and input filters to detect and prevent malicious or harmful behavior. Verification processes can also be employed to ensure that the actions of AI agents are responsible and in line with user expectations.
AI systems still face limitations in areas such as planning, logical reasoning, and deep domain expertise. While they can imitate human conversations to a certain extent, they may not be able to match expert-level knowledge or perform complex planning tasks. Advancements in planning algorithms and reasoning capabilities are expected to address these limitations in the future.
AI systems, such as AI agents, have the potential to complement or enhance human labor. By automating tedious or time-consuming tasks, they can free up human workers to focus on more complex or creative work. In the short term, AI systems are likely to assist humans in completing tasks, but in the long term, they may replace certain jobs or change the nature of work.
In this episode, Nathan sits down with Div Garg, founder of Multion, to discuss the current state and future outlook of AI agents. They discuss benchmarking real-world tasks, the promise and perils of consumer AI adoption, predictions that 2024 may be a breakout year for personal bots, and more. If you need an ecommerce platform, check out our sponsor Shopify: https://shopify.com/cognitive for a $1/month trial period.
We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.
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LINKS:
MultiOn: https://www.multion.ai/
Part 1 with Div Garg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR2Mdlx5eik
SPONSORS:
Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of ALL eCommerce in the US. And Shopify's the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries.From their all-in-one e-commerce platform, to their in-person POS system – wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With free Shopify Magic, sell more with less effort by whipping up captivating content that converts – from blog posts to product descriptions using AI. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/cognitive
Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off www.omneky.com
NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you're looking for an ERP platform ✅ head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/cognitive and download your own customized KPI checklist.
X/SOCIALS:
@labenz (Nathan)
@divgarg9
@MultiON_AI (MultiOn)
@CogRev_Podcast
TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) - Episode Preview
(00:06:06) - Current state of AI agents - still early with chat abilities, but logical reasoning lacking
(00:12:32) - Estimated timeline for usable everyday AI agents - focused on adoption and reliability
(00:17:41) - Architectures beyond language models - action transformers and process optimization
(00:22:00) - Context limits of current AI models - efficient context compression is key
(00:25:00 - Managing memory and knowledge retrieval in agents
(00:29:40) - MultiOn's own model creation
(00:30:16) - Sponsors: Netsuite | Omneky
(00:49:00) - Maturing agent capabilities beyond language with planning systems
(00:32:00) - Benchmarking agent capabilities on real-world website tasks
(00:59:30) - Inspiration from computer OS thread scheduling and coordination
(01:02:30) - Expanding agents to mobile for voice commands and authentication
(01:06:47) - AI agents complementing vs substituting human roles
(01:09:00) - Removing repetitive "digital chores" to change job landscapes
(01:11:36) - Sourcing high-quality demonstrator data at scale
(01:13:00) - Privacy protections when collecting user data
This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at erik@turpentine.co.
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