Links for 2022-04-20
“The determinant of a matrix is how much the matrix expands or contracts space. More precisely: it's the volume of the parallelepiped spanned by the columns of the matrix. (Ditto the rows.) This, btw, is why det 0 => non-invertible: one or more spatial dimensions has collapsed” https://mobile.twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1073673971583705089
'We found that code models get better when you prompt them with "I'm an expert Python programmer".' https://twitter.com/jacobaustin132/status/1515063524258627586
Right from birth, human brains are organized into networks that support mental functions such as vision and attention, a new study shows. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811922002294
US Army awards $19M to small businesses to develop AI/ML technologies 'that will lead to more informed Army decision-making, facilitate autonomous operations and increase the speed and scale of military action' https://www.army.mil/article/255512/army_awards_19m_to_small_businesses_to_develop_aiml_technologies#20220412
In this demonstration of Siemens' SynthAI, learn how you can auto-generate 1000’s of annotated images in minutes and automatically train your ML vision algorithms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6qIyb4HlwM
“We've trained a natural language assistant to be more helpful and harmless by using reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF).” https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.05862
A 2006 NASA program shows how government can move at the speed of startups https://www.thecgo.org/benchmark/a-2006-nasa-program-shows-how-government-can-move-at-the-speed-of-startups/
“In the 1970s & 80s, anthropologists working in small-scale, non-industrial societies fastidiously noted down what people were doing throughout the day. I’ve been exploring the data & am struck by one of the most popular activities: doing nothing.” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1510978995269029888.html
Metaculus: How good were our AI timeline predictions so far? https://www.metaculus.com/notebooks/10624/how-good-were-our-ai-timeline-predictions-so-far/
Economic Impacts of Artificial General Intelligence https://www.metaculus.com/notebooks/9871/economic-impacts-of-artificial-general-intelligence/
AI safety and timelines https://www.metaculus.com/notebooks/10438/ai-safety-and-timelines/
“I think all the different angles we look at share the same conclusion: slightly faster timelines than anticipated.” https://www.metaculus.com/notebooks/10655/the-next-five-years/
Nuclear power is safe and gets cheaper the more we embrace it – we need to get past its PR problem https://inews.co.uk/news/science/nuclear-power-safe-cheaper-uk-embrace-it-1570802
"If [Germany] turned back on all the nuclear reactors, [it] could eliminate nearly all the need for gas electricity—and some coal too, which is quite polluting." https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/why-germany-wont-keep-its-nuclear?s=r
The largest fly in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauromydas_heros
The only insects that live on the open ocean: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001570