Links for 2022-12-15
An automated way to assemble thousands of objects: A new algorithm for automatic assembly of products is accurate, efficient, and generalizable to a wide range of complex real-world assemblies. https://news.mit.edu/2022/automated-way-assemble-thousands-objects-1207
“We find that every 9 months, the introduction of better algorithms contribute the equivalent of a doubling of compute budgets. This is much faster than the gains from Moore’s law! That said, there's uncertainty (our 95% CI spans 4 to 25 months).” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1602765951551750144.html
Why Does AI Lie, and What Can We Do About It? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w65p_IIp6JY
AI Excel Bot: Transform Text To Excel Formulas in Seconds. https://aiexcelbot.com/
“Here it is! The first ever Comcast bill negotiated 100% with A.I and LLMs. Our ChatGPT bot talks to Comcast Chat to save one of our engineers $120 a year on their Internet bill.” https://twitter.com/jbrowder1/status/1602353465753309195
OpenAI’s latest chatbot is sending Chinese users into a frenzy even though it is officially unavailable in the country https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3202427/openais-latest-chatbot-sending-chinese-users-frenzy-even-though-it-officially-unavailable-country
“Recently, a study came out where 71 research teams independently analyzed the same data, all trying to test the same hypothesis. About 58% of the teams found no effect, 17% found a positive effect, and 25% a negative effect. But that's not even the oddest part…” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1597946520401510400.html
Quick look: cognitive damage from well-administered anesthesia https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LCRCWuuwKWpZybZhj/quick-look-cognitive-damage-from-well-administered
“You may have heard of the 'central limit theorem': when you take the mean of 𝑛 identical independently distributed random variables, the result approaches a Gaussian as 𝑛 → ∞ (if each random variable has finite standard deviation). But what if instead you take the *maximum* of these random variables?” https://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez/109468070018655595
What Constitutes a Mind? Lars Chittka Challenges Our Perception of Sentience With the Smallest of Creatures https://singularityhub.com/2022/12/06/what-constitutes-a-mind-lars-chittka-challenges-our-perception-of-sentience-with-the-smallest-of-creatures/
"So the rule is simple. Don’t eat spent nuclear fuel, even if it’s 600 years old. But you have plenty of substances around the house for which the same rule applies." https://worksinprogress.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-two-particles
How the clinical trial system is close to broken: The cost per-patient has increased from $10,000 to, in some cases, $500,000, with big implications for medicine. https://statnews.com/2022/11/03/why-were-not-prepared-for-next-wave-of-biotech-innovation/
Indian and Chinese troops fight with sticks and bricks in video:
One-line proof that there are infinitely many prime numbers:
n(n+1) has a larger set of prime factors than does n because n+1 > 1 is coprime to n, so it has a prime factor that does not divide n.
(via Bill Dubuque)
Wonder why nuclear power is expensive? Because it has been and still is deliberately sabotaged as a viable energy source.
The risk analysis for a nuclear license must assume that a worst-case accident happens *EVERY YEAR* for the life of the reactor.
Source: https://thebreakthrough.org/blog/nrc-staff-whiffs-on-nuclear-licensing-modernization