Happy Tuesday! No, you’re not having a stroke, this is our second “News & Notes” in a row, ’cause there’s just so much news that’s noteworthy. Let’s run it down…
Yay Us!
We could not be more jazzed to share that we were awarded the Real. Good. Business. Award from the NC State Business Sustainability Collaborative! It was amazing to be able to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of this program, and those who have done so much for sustainability and business development in our area. A huge “thank you” for the recognition!
Your Photoshop Alternative is Now FREE.
Those of you who have been subscribers for a while have heard me talk about Affinity before. It’s an outstanding graphics editing tool that rivals or beats anything Adobe does and has traditionally been available at a fraction of the cost.
Earlier this year Canva purchased the Affinity suite of tools and now they’re announcing a new version that not only combines all 3 Affinity apps but also makes them available for FREE. If you do graphics editing, get on it!
Learn more
Don’t Forget to Vote!
It may not be a major election year, but chances are there are still important races happening at your precinct. Make time to get to the polls. On the plus side, it’s probably not busy.
AI Security
There’s a lot of talk about AI, but there’s not a lot of talk about AI security, something that should (and will) get more attention. The main vector for AI threats are via “prompt injections,” which are inputs (text, audio, image, etc.) that appear legitimate but are designed to allow adversaries to bypass safeguards and influence model behavior.
An attempt to combat these attacks was floated by Meta in a blog post last week called “Agents Rule of Two: A Practical Approach to AI Agent Security.” In short, to avoid dangerous consequences, AI agents can be capable of no more than 2 of the following:
- processing untrustworthy inputs (e.g., spam messages)
- accessing sensitive systems or private data (e.g., an user’s inbox and contacts)
- changing states or communicating externally (e.g., sending email)
This might sound complex but it’s a good rule of thumb for users when working with AI inputs and agents. Consider the inputs, access level, and functionality you’re granting.
Browser Shift
For many of us, we spend 8+ hours a day looking at out computers. And the majority of that time is spent in our web browser.
If you’re curious about the impact that has on the environment, I have a fun new tool for you. From the makers of the Shift browser, you can check out this quiz to determine “How Dirty is my Browser?”
And if you like that, you might also like that Shift is the first self-described carbon-neutral browser. The company tracks and purports to offset the carbon usage of users. If you’re considering a browser switch, check it out.
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! YOU ARE AMAZING!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!”
TESTIMONIAL
Oak City Cares
Each year we strive to complete at least one pro bono project. Last year we redid the website for Oak City Cares, a public-private partnership serving Wake County neighbors experiencing homelessness.
This isn’t our most descriptive testimonial, but it’s still a fave. All caps are theirs. :D
Upcoming Classes
Sustainable AI – The Coven Cary – 11/19
Make Your Own EOY Infographic – The Coven Cary, 12/10
All Upcoming Events
What We’re Reading
Your reading goodies for this week…
- New prompt injection papers – Simon Willison on the prompt injection share from Meta and other AI security thoughts.
- The fantasy of the “saved folder” – Haley Nahman considers our efforts to save and resurface the magic we find online in a post that will resonate with many. I definitely bookmarked it.
- Musk attempts ‘anti-woke’ encyclopedia – This gets included to remind us all of how amazing Wikipedia is (yes, I already linked to it in this newsletter) and that they need your support.
- The Complete History & Strategy of Google – We’re cheating; this is actually a podcast, though you can read the transcript!
If you’re at all curious about how Google took the lead in AI – then walled themselves into a corner that stopped them from innovating on it – this 4-hours podcast is for you.
“…in the year 2000, two years after Google’s founding, Larry [Page] says, ‘Artificial intelligence would be the ultimate version of Google. If we had the ultimate search engine, it would understand everything on the web, it would understand exactly what you wanted, and it would give you the right thing.’
That’s obviously artificial intelligence.”– David Rosenthal, Acquired co-host
