Links for 2022-04-16
Notes from Stanford on probabilistic graphical models, starting with a review of basic probability theory, covering Bayes nets, MRFs, BP, MCMC, and concluding by explaining Auto-Encoding Variational Bayes. https://ermongroup.github.io/cs228-notes/
Two years (!) of working memory training in high-schoolers showed no measurable transfer-of-training benefit for fluid or crystallized intelligence measures https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-51481-001?doi=1
“The mathematics of measuring how well our true objective (e.g. helpful or accurate responses) is being optimized when training an AI systems on a proxy metric (e.g. the output of a reward model).” https://openai.com/blog/measuring-goodharts-law/
Generating chit-chat including laughs, yawns, 'ums,' & other nonverbal cues from raw audio https://ai.facebook.com/blog/generating-chit-chat-including-laughs-yawns-ums-and-other-nonverbal-cues-from-raw-audio/
“The earthquake, 3800 years ago, had a magnitude of around 9.5 and the resulting tsunami struck countries as far away as New Zealand where boulders the size of cars were carried almost a kilometre inland by the waves.” https://southampton.ac.uk/news/2022/04/ancient-super-earthquake.page
Small brains predisposed Late Quaternary mammals to extinction https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-07327-9
Nvidia’s Next GPU Shows That Transformers Are Transforming AI https://spectrum.ieee.org/nvidias-next-gpu-shows-that-transformers-are-transforming-ai
As Russia Plots Its Next Move, an AI Listens to the Chatter https://www.wired.com/story/russia-ukraine-war-ai-surveillance
AI Accurately Predicts If – And When – Someone Could Die of Sudden Cardiac Arrest https://scitechdaily.com/ai-accurately-predicts-if-and-when-someone-could-die-of-sudden-cardiac-arrest/
“The Greek Plan or Greek Project (Russian: Греческий проект) was an early solution to the Eastern Question which was advanced by Catherine the Great in the early 1780s. It envisaged the partition of the Ottoman Empire between the Russian and Habsburg Empires followed by the restoration of the Eastern Roman Empire centered in Constantinople.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Plan
The conflict over Ukraine should really be seen as a proxy war between the West and China. In the long term, Russia is irrelevant. What matters is what China learns from it. How united is the West? Is the West willing to suffer economic hardships in order to win? Can the West be blackmailed into neutrality by threats of nuclear war? Can countries be discouraged to join a Western military alliance by threatening to attack them?