Welcome to Week 4!

Google and Anthropic have both landed punches on OpenAI this week, but never to be outdone, the latter announced on Saturday access to plugins and web browsing for all. Competition is ramping up, and it’s only a sharp upwards trajectory from here.

This week’s bumper email includes:

• 👁️‍🗨️ ChatGPT Prompt of the Week: Create Step-By-Step Guidance

• 😮 Claude Breaks New Ground: 75,000 Words of Context

• 📰 In the News: Duet AI for Google Workspace

• 🌐 Beta Features for ChatGPT Plus Subscribers

• 🏙️ Planning the Future: Meta's ImageBind

• 🍗 AI Roast of the Week - Auckland Traffic

Remember, the more friends and colleagues that you share this newsletter with, the quicker you work your way towards a free paid subscription to ChatGPT Plus and dedicated in-person training sessions for you and your team. See the referral button at the end.

I’m also keen to hear from you and what you’d like to see each week. Hit reply and let me know!

👨‍🏫 ChatGPT Prompt of the Week: Create Step-By-Step Guidance

We'll provide you with an example prompt each week that you can use with ChatGPT.

This week's prompt can help you prepare step-by-step guidance on any topic.

You could also use this prompt to create guidance to share with the public, or as part of an organisation’s SOPs.

This prompt works best if you have ChatGPT Plus with GPT-4 and Web Browsing enabled.

Example prompt:

You are tasked with writing a guidance note for a new staff member on how to prepare an application to a council for an existing use rights certificate under s139A of the RMA:

https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1991/0069/latest/DLM235284.html

In relation to existing use rights under s10 of the RMA:

https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1991/0069/latest/DLM231927.html

You are an expert at writing guidance that is both comprehensive and succinct. Explain to the new staff member how to prepare an application for an existing use rights certificate, using step by step instructions. 

Assume a scenario where the planner has identified that existing use rights apply, and how they should best prepare the application.

Here is the guidance created from this prompt, complete with numbered footnotes so you can see where it has sourced information from:

Oh, how I wish I had this when I was working with Auckland Council and preparing practice and guidance for staff on a regular basis. I could have produced a new guidance note each week!

😮 Claude Breaks New Ground: 75,000 Words of Context

Frustration is a familiar feeling when we hit the message size limit on ChatGPT, isn’t it?

Claude to the rescue!

Anthropic, an AI research lab, recently announced an impressive upgrade to its chatbot, Claude. Now, Claude can process up to 75,000 words of context - a staggering three times more than OpenAI’s GPT 4.

To put that into perspective, that's approximately the length of 100 Wikipedia entries, or a healthy chunk of the Auckland Unitary Plan.

This upgrade means Claude can quickly digest, summarise, and reference information from hundreds of pages in mere seconds.

To demonstrate its capacity, Claude was given an 85-page Netflix corporate filing to analyse. The AI chatbot not only highlighted crucial information for investors but also neatly presented Netflix’s balance sheet data in well-formatted tables and offered comprehensive analyses on Netflix’s market positioning.

Consider the possibilities for planners. Instead of spending hours sifting through lengthy reports, case law, complex legal documents, and dense pieces of legislation, you could just ask Claude.

Why this matters: This new feature could position Anthropic as a real competitor to OpenAI and other AI research labs. The breakthrough in token capacity has set a new standard in the AI realm, potentially leading to a race for even larger context windows. But what's truly exciting for us is the power and potential this brings to the work we do as planners.

Planners can spend less time on data collection and preliminary analysis, and more time on strategic thinking, community engagement, and innovative problem-solving.

Obviously, I would love to see us become less verbose so these tools aren’t necessary, but you know… can’t win them all.

My Tip: As I've been emphasising to anyone who will listen, it's wise to focus on the core AI technology rather than getting carried away with peripheral tools, or ‘AI for XXX’ wrappers, as I like to call them.

As these models continue to advance, research labs like Anthropic and OpenAI will invariably build in the functionality we need, rendering many tools built off GPT redundant (think about the many ‘AI PDF’ tools we’ve seen come out).

For now, I’ll be keeping my eye on the big players and the core technology. They’re just getting started.

📰 In the News: Duet AI for Google Workspace

I expect that most of us use Microsoft tools, hence the excitement over CoPilot, but there may be a few who use Google Workspace, so I am sharing this news for those.

Google have this past week announced Duet AI, a new feature that embeds generative AI across Google Workspace to help users and teams do their best work.

Duet AI will offer a range of capabilities and benefits, such as:

• Writing with smart chips, proofread suggestions, and language options in Gmail and Docs.

• Creating images from text in Slides with original and bespoke visuals.

• Analysing and acting on data with automated data classification and custom plans in Sheets.

• Organising and planning with custom backgrounds and tasks in Meet.

• Unleashing creativity with assisted writing and smart canvas in Docs.

Unlike CoPilot which has only been rolled out to some customers for trial, anyone subscribed to a Google Workspace plan can request waitlist access to Duet AI now.

This was just one of many new AI product announcements from Google at their I/O 2023 event, which you can read more about here.

I underestimated Google’s ability to catch-up with OpenAI and Microsoft, and they’ve proven this week that they’re still a force to be reckoned with.

🌐 Beta Features for ChatGPT Plus Subscribers

OpenAI hasn’t taken this week’s product announcements from Google and Anthropic lying down, with Sam Altman tweeting on Saturday that its web browsing and plugin features would be released this week to all ChatGPT Plus users.

This provides paid users with an enhanced AI toolset that can greatly amplify ChatGPT’s capabilities and assist us in our work even further.

The new features being introduced are:

1. Web browsing: This feature equips ChatGPT with the ability to surf the internet, fetching the most recent and relevant information on topics and events of your choice. Be it the latest urban development trends, or the most recent changes in legislation, ChatGPT will pull the needed information, thereby augmenting its role as a vital tool in your work toolkit. This puts the platform on par with Bing, which has been using GPT 4 for a while now.

2. Plugins: With this feature, ChatGPT can now utilise third-party plugins that you enable. This opens a world of possibilities, from accessing specialised urban planning software to enabling data visualisation tools, providing deeper insights for your planning projects. Obviously, someone has to build these tools first, but there is 70+ plugins already available, and the race will now be on to build more.

To activate these beta features, follow these steps:

• Click on 'Profile & Settings'

• Select 'Beta features'

• Toggle on the features you’d like to try.

As of Saturday afternoon, I had access to Web Browsing, but not plugins. I could switch on “Browsing” from the model switcher at the top of the screen.

I gave the web browsing tool a good spin, to see whether it could produce a table with the key Auckland Unitary Plan PC78 submission and further submission dates.

It’s incredible being able to watch as it literally explores the internet like a person:

It then produced a concise table with key dates. I was surprised it picked up on all the errata notification and close dates - all correct.

I thought, why not push it a little harder. What about adding to the table a link to the public notice for each notification period? I then enjoyed watching GPT-4 ‘think’ in real time:

And voila, there we have it. Job done.

I’m interested to see how others will use this new capability. Hit reply and tell me about your experience!

🏙️ Planning the Future: Meta's ImageBind

As planners, we often lean on technology to help us visualise and make sense of our cities. Meta's new AI tool, ImageBind, is one that I believe will pique your interest.

ImageBind is an open-source AI model that has the ability to bind information from six modalities: text, image/video, audio, depth (3D), thermal (infrared radiation), and inertial measurement units (IMU) which calculate motion and position.

Here's a snapshot of ImageBind's capabilities:

1. Outperforms Specialist Models: ImageBind has proven to outperform specialist models trained for individual modalities. It can even create images from audio, bringing a whole new dimension to data interpretation. It makes sense that bringing model capabilities together makes for smarter AI, right?
   

2. Designing Immersive Virtual Worlds: This AI model can combine 3D and IMU sensors to design immersive, virtual worlds. Think of it as a new way to present complex plans and designs to stakeholders. Imagine being able to walk a client through a new development, complete with sight, sound, and the warmth of the sun.
   

3. Cross-modal Retrieval and Composition: ImageBind enables the retrieval of different types of content that aren’t observed together, allowing it to comprehend new modalities without intensive training. Imagine generating an image from an audio input! Or generating the sounds of Auckland from an image of Queen Street!

Unlike other AI tools that are focused on a single modality, ImageBind leverages multiple modalities, opening up new possibilities for data analysis and creative design.

This is just one of the many innovative AI tools being developed by Meta. You can read more about ImageBind and its potential applications here.

In case you weren’t already aware, Meta is very focused on AI in the context of creating an interactive, virtual world.

With the continual advances in AI technologies, we're moving towards a new era in designing and managing our cities in a more immersive way. Tools like ImageBind are showing us that the future is not just about the physical space, but the holistic experience of the city - I am getting super pumped for our future!

🍗 AI Roast of the Week - Auckland Traffic

Each week, we’re going to include in this newsletter something funny ('roast' section). We’ll try to keep it light-hearted and focused on general planning-related topics rather than targeting specific individuals or organisations - we’re all friends here!

Now ChatGPT can make jokes - with factual sources!

The End (for now)

Thank you for reading our third issue of AI-mpowered. We hope you found the content valuable and inspiring. You can find all issues here.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with others who might also be interested in what we’re covering here.

We would also love to hear your feedback and suggestions for future newsletter topics.

If you have any specific prompts you'd like to learn about or new tools and resources you would like access to, please don't hesitate to let us know.