Sunday Signal: ChatGPT leaking secrets, 30 observations at 30 and the idea of enough

Hey friends 👋 Happy Sunday.

Here’s your weekly dose of AI and introspection.

AI Highlights

1. ChatGPT is leaking its secrets.

Researchers have exposed vulnerabilities in OpenAI's ChatGPT and its custom GPTs, revealing a significant privacy risk. For $200, they extracted several megabytes of ChatGPT's training data, indicating the possibility of extracting a gigabyte of data with more resources. See the live example here.

This vulnerability is echoed with custom GPTs. Researchers achieved a 100% success rate in leaking files and a 97% rate in extracting system prompts. The custom GPTs, which can be created by anyone with an OpenAI subscription, have been found to reveal initial instructions and uploaded documents.

Alex’s take: I feel this situation calls for increased awareness. These tests were conducted using the production version of ChatGPT. I gave the prompt a go earlier this week and saw the vulnerability first-hand. It highlights there’s still a long way to go to build secure and resilient AI that doesn’t regurgitate its training data using a simple prompt.

2. An introduction to large language models.

Andrej Karpathy, former Senior Director of AI at Tesla and a key figure in AI, simplifies the complexities of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT in his talk, 'Intro to Large Language Models'.

Alex’s take: What I enjoyed about this talk is how accessible it is. Andrej’s simple explanations make it something even total beginners in the world of AI can enjoy. It’s one thing experimenting with these tools, it’s another cementing your technical insight (and impressing your friends with your newfound knowledge). This talk helps you find that blend.

3. Animate Anyone: Image-to-video.

You can now bring still images to life. Alibaba's Institute for Intelligent Computing introduced 'Animate Anyone', an image-to-video model trained on 5,000 character video clips. The technology animates characters from photos into videos whilst maintaining consistent appearance details. They leverage diffusion models to overcome traditional animation challenges.

Alex’s take: This is the most advanced character animation I’ve seen so far. I see huge applications here for brands leveraging this for celebrity deals without scheduling constraints. What’s more, virtual try-ons could become indistinguishable from the real thing.

1 Article I Enjoyed

Thirty Observations at Thirty.

Delian Asparouhov is a Partner at Founders Fund.

He is also the Co-founder and President of Varda Space Industries, which is building the world’s first space factories.

This week he published a piece on 30 things he noticed about the world in his last 30 years.

My favourite takeaways:

• Everything in life compounds: Compound interest exists in personal relationships, knowledge, and finances. Early efforts can have massive outcomes.

• Improving personal inputs improves output: The quality of sleep, physical health, and food you consume must be top-tier priorities to achieve great work. Good personal input leads to great professional output.

• There’s no substitute for focus: When there’s an existential boulder that needs to be pushed up a hill, say no to everything else.

I’ll finish with a small idea this second takeaway sparked. The older I get the more I realise there is no substitute for high-quality sleep, nutrition and exercise.

If you want to do great things, start by taking care of yourself.

Everything compounds—for better or for worse.

Your contribution to the world begins within.

1 Idea I Learned

The idea of enough.

Seneca once said:

“If you don't regard what you have as enough, you will never be happy even if you rule the entire world”.

Don't let the pursuit of more blind you to the value of having enough.

Financial wealth affords us the freedom to do things on our own terms.

Yet true wealth means more than just having a lot of money.

Wealth is having gratitude, safety and wisdom to make informed choices about your desires.

It’s not the cash in your hand, but the mindset you hold.

This understanding is the true essence of wealth.

Remember, wealth is less about having more and more about wanting less.

Know your values and desires. Set your limits and find your own version of 'enough'.

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1 Quote to Share

Mark Zuckerberg on risk-taking:

“In a world that’s changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.”

People will always point to the downside risks of a decision.

If you are stagnant and you don’t make any change, you're guaranteed to fail.

The greatest danger lies not in the potential for failure, but in the complacency of inaction.

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1 Question to Ponder

How can I make sure I actually commit to what I set out to do, rather than retreating back to the safety of my comfort zone?

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💡 If you enjoyed this issue, share it with a friend.

See you next week,

Alex Banks

P.S. Productivity begins in bed.