Links for 2023-04-29
Brain Images Just Got 64 Million Times Sharper https://today.duke.edu/2023/04/brain-images-just-got-64-million-times-sharper
“I cloned my voice with AI and my mother couldn’t tell the difference” https://www.understandingai.org/p/i-cloned-my-voice-with-ai-and-my
A Skyrim mod which allows for conversations with NPCs via ChatGPT, xVASynth (text-to-speech), and Whisper (speech-to-text). https://youtu.be/Gz6mAX41fs0
“Can GPT-4 Perform Neural Architecture Search? ...we believe our preliminary results point to future research that harnesses general purpose language models for diverse optimisation tasks.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.10970
Transformers explained from Scratch https://e2eml.school/transformers.html
Instant Plugins for ChatGPT: Introducing the Wolfram ChatGPT Plugin Kit https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/04/instant-plugins-for-chatgpt-introducing-the-wolfram-chatgpt-plugin-kit/
Enhancing Chain-of-Thoughts Prompting with Iterative Bootstrapping in Large Language Models https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.11657
Large Language Models are Versatile Decomposers: “…our model outperforms human performance for the first time on the TabFact dataset.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.13808
End-to-End Spatio-Temporal Action Localisation with Video Transformers https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.12160
“We present a smoothly broken power law functional form...that accurately models and extrapolates the scaling behaviors of deep neural networks...” https://twitter.com/ethanCaballero/status/1651278118936625170
Tiny Transformers: Physicists Unveil Shape-Shifting Nano-Scale Electronic Devices https://news.uci.edu/2023/04/17/uc-irvine-physicists-discover-first-transformable-nano-scale-electronic-devices/
MIT engineers “grow” atomically thin transistors on top of computer chips https://news.mit.edu/2023/mit-engineers-2d-materials-computer-chips-0427
This Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to Reverse Aging https://singularityhub.com/2023/04/18/this-longevity-study-across-5-species-found-a-new-pathway-to-reverse-aging/
How parasitic fungus hijacks nervous system of flies, uses mind control to manipulate behavior as insects near death https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/04/how-a-mind-controlling-fungal-parasite-turns-insects-into-zombies/
In Defense of Merit in Science: “Perhaps the grandest irony of them all, and the saddest commentary on the state of academia, is that this article, defending merit, could only be published in a journal devoted to airing “controversial” ideas.” https://unsafescience.substack.com/p/our-defense-of-merit-in-science
Nuclear waste should be a selling point for nuclear energy [The New York Times]: https://archive.is/ZJQCj
Some quotes from the article:
...you’d need to drink over a gallon of the treated water being released from Fukushima to get the equivalent radiation exposure of eating a banana.
...waste products that are the most radioactive are the shortest-lived...40 years after the fuel becomes waste, the heat and radioactivity of the pellets have fallen by over 99 percent. After around 500 years, the waste would have to be broken down and inhaled or ingested to cause significant harm.
Compare this to other hazardous industrial materials we store in less secure ways that don’t become less toxic over time. Take ammonia: It is highly toxic, corrosive, explosive and prone to leaking. Hundreds of ammonia-related injuries and even some fatalities have been reported since 2010, and we continue to produce and transport millions of tons of it annually by pipelines, ships and trains for fertilizer and other uses…The waste should really be a chief selling point for nuclear energy, particularly for those who care about the environment: There’s not very much of it, it’s easily contained, it becomes safer with time and it can be recycled. And every cask of spent nuclear fuel represents about 2.2 million tons of carbon…