Links for 2023-03-06
“We introduce Performer-MPC, an end-to-end learnable robotic system that combines several mechanisms to enable real-world, robust, and adaptive robot navigation with real-time, on-robot transformers.” https://ai.googleblog.com/2023/03/performer-mpc-navigation-via-real-time.html
Beating OpenAI CLIP with 100x less data and compute https://www.unum.cloud/blog/2023-02-20-efficient-multimodality
Google USM: Scaling Automatic Speech Recognition Beyond 100 Languages https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.01037
Large Language Models Are State-of-the-Art Evaluators of Translation Quality https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.14520
Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589
“The Waluigi Effect: After you train an LLM to satisfy a desirable property P, then it's easier to elicit the chatbot into satisfying the exact opposite of property P.” https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/D7PumeYTDPfBTp3i7/the-waluigi-effect-mega-post
“We report the computational design of highly efficient enzymes. Lab testing confirms that these novel luciferases can recognize specific synthetic substrates and efficiently catalyze the emission of light.” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05696-3
“Can we use ultrasound to remote-control the location and motion of specific cells? Yes! Excited to publish our work on genetically selective acoustic manipulation using gasvesicles as acoustic actuators.” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add9186
How often do we find ourselves mind wandering to off-task thoughts during situations where attention is needed for successful performance? And is mind wandering likely to increase in frequency with more time-on-task? https://psyarxiv.com/46xfh
Lockheed Martin's 'Beyond Apollo' plan to "untether humans from Earth", using nuclear thermal propulsion, cryogenic propellant depots and ISRU https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2021/beyond-apollo-taking-one-giant-leap.html
"Removable Luneburg lens type radar reflectors are sometimes attached to military aircraft in order to make stealth aircraft visible during training operations, or to conceal their true radar signature." https://theaviationgeekclub.com/these-devices-make-stealth-aircraft-visible-on-radar-screens/
Human magnetic sense is mediated by a light and magnetic field resonance-dependent mechanism https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-12460-6
“Wagner’s goal, Mr. Prigozhin has said, wasn’t so much to take Bakhmut but to grind down Ukraine’s military. To an extent, this plan worked: As Ukraine poured some of its best brigades in to defend the city in recent months, even a lopsided casualty ratio in the Ukrainian favor ultimately worked to Moscow’s advantage given Russia’s larger population—and the fact that Russia was trading ill-trained prisoners for the lives of Ukrainian troops.” [Wall Street Journal] https://archive.is/W5FJ2
I now suspect that mathematics is not much harder for computers to understand than ordinary natural language documents....One thing I didn't understand was that simply allowing models to "think longer" allowed the models to generate much better results...Unlike other uses for LLMs, mathematics is not as prone to problems of model hallucination. That's because invalid, hallucinated proofs can efficiently be verified as invalid by proof assistants.
[...]
What would the world look like if the best mathematicians in the world are computer programs that we can summon by paying a few dollars to access an API?
Thread by Matthew Barnett: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1632147179942060033.html
And I thought some other countries like Nicaragua recognized the annexation as well. This must be one of the most unpopular decisions in recent human history.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_annexation_of_Donetsk,_Kherson,_Luhansk_and_Zaporizhzhia_oblasts
Although Russia's occupation of Georgian regions is similarly unpopular, only five United Nations member states recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia: Nauru, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian-occupied_territories_in_Georgia
The recognition of Crimea seems to be the most popular Russian land grab: Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe have recognized the result of the 2014 referendum in Crimea.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation
When it comes to Transnistria, even Russia itself seems to recognize that it is part of Moldova, despite its occupation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria
Tinúbú claims to be a descendant of the most successful indigenous slave trader in 19th-century Lagos, after whom a prominent downtown square is named...