Links for 2023-07-14
Are you underestimating new battery technology? A huge step-function in batteries is coming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDPS_torqP8
xAI is a new company founded by Elon Musk that sets out to Understand the Universe: "The mathematics of deep learning is profound, beautiful, and unreasonably effective. Developing the "theory of everything" for large neural networks will be central to taking AI to the next level. Conversely, this AI will enable everyone to understand our mathematical universe in ways unimaginable before." https://x.ai/ (discussion: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/px76zCyJDidizxT5t/elon-musk-announces-xai)
An open-source gymnasium for machine learning assisted computer architecture design https://ai.googleblog.com/2023/07/an-open-source-gymnasium-for-computer.html
RLTF: Reinforcement Learning from Unit Test Feedback — "Our approach generates data in real-time during training and simultaneously utilizes fine-grained feedback signals to guide the model towards producing higher-quality code." https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.04349
What happens when you train generative models on their own outputs…over and over again? Image models survive 5 iterations before weird stuff happens. https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.01850 (see also: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.11495)
Do neural networks, trained on well-understood algorithmic tasks, reliably rediscover known algorithms for solving those tasks? https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.17844
Sketch-A-Shape: Zero-Shot Sketch-to-3D Shape Generation https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.03869
New ferroelectric material could give robots muscles https://www.psu.edu/news/materials-research-institute/story/new-ferroelectric-material-could-give-robots-muscles/
The snowy plains of Earth's... core. It's iron snow. Its falls from the molten outer core onto the solid inner core, forming 300km+ piles that show up as aberrations on seismic data. This happens in conditions of ~320 GPa at >5500K. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191219162350.htm
If you’re so smart, can you survive the jungle? https://thompsonj.substack.com/p/if-youre-so-smart-can-you-survive
Synthetic Cells Stripped of Nearly All Their Genes Still Thrive Under Evolution https://singularityhub.com/2023/07/07/cells-stripped-of-nearly-all-their-genes-still-thrive-under-evolution/
The European Parliament adopted an act on increasing the production of ammunition and missiles in the EU. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20230711IPR02613/meps-approve-plans-to-provide-more-ammunition-for-ukraine
In the 1970s, Sweden was an absolutely delusional commie stronghold.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_genocide_denial#Sweden
The Indochinese revolutionary movements enjoyed widespread support in Swedish society, particularly among supporters of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. When the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh and expelled its inhabitants, 15,000 Swedes greeted their victory by spontaneously celebrating in the center of Stockholm. Claes-Göran Bjernér, a cameraman for the Swedish state broadcaster Sveriges Television, described the jubilant mood among Swedish journalists saying, "at the time most of us considered the Red Khmers as a liberation army and Pol Pot as no less than a Robin Hood". One journalist for Expressen cried with joy, calling the fall of Phnom Penh the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Swedish author and journalist Per Olov Enquist defended the emptying of what he called "that whorehouse, Phnom Penh".
Prime Minister Olof Palme issued a joint declaration with Fidel Castro congratulating the Khmer Rouge on their victory and immediately extended diplomatic recognition to the new rulers of Cambodia. Parliamentarian Birgitta Dahl became the driving force in the Social Democratic government for providing foreign aid to Democratic Kampuchea, an offer which the Khmer Rouge would eventually decline. In 1976, she vigorously denied allegations of Khmer Rouge atrocities during a discussion on Swedish radio.