Links for 2023-08-31
This is HUGE: AI drone racer finally beats human world champions! https://twitter.com/hausman_k/status/1696957939687579802
Turbocharged Python: AI Accelerates Computing Speed by Thousands of Times https://www.umass.edu/news/article/umass-amherst-computer-scientists-use-ai-accelerate-computing-speed-thousands-times
A.I. Brings the Robot Wingman to Aerial Combat — “An Air Force program shows how the Pentagon is starting to embrace the potential of a rapidly emerging technology, with far-reaching implications for war-fighting tactics, military culture and the defense industry.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/27/us/politics/ai-air-force.html [https://archive.is/btE4q]
Australia to integrate autonomous vessels and nuclear deterrence https://www.naval-technology.com/news/australia-to-integrate-autonomous-vessels-and-nuclear-deterrence/
The A.I. Dilemma: Growth versus Existential Risk — "With log utility, the models are remarkably unconcerned with existential risk, suggesting that large consumption gains that A.I. might deliver can be worth gambles that involve a 1-in-3 chance of extinction. For CRRA utility with a risk aversion coefficient(γ) of 2 or more, the picture changes sharply. … quite conservative in trading off consumption gains versus existential risk. … A.I.-induced mortality reductions can make large existential risks bearable." https://web.stanford.edu/~chadj/existentialrisk.pdf
“Consciousness is a great mystery. Its definition isn't. In fact, pretty much all the experts agree.” https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/consciousness-is-a-great-mystery
Taking ‘bold’ bets: new UK agency prepares to fund breakthrough technologies https://www.ft.com/content/c32a974b-f0b1-4b4a-bfc3-a35f3beccac2 [https://archive.is/NYhYk]
“We found that neuron densities follow a lognormal distribution within and across cerebral cortical areas in several species!” https://twitter.com/AitorMoraGre/status/1695356877180108930
“In a century, this simple result by Chad Jones will be seen as one of the most important econ insights ever, that innovation comes to halt in a shrinking economy” — Robin Hanson https://youtu.be/wTXf2oMOIyg?si=rNYYmg1lSjjSye04
Growing Living Composites with Ordered Microstructures and Exceptional Mechanical Properties https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.202006946
As someone in the replies points out, what makes this even more mysterious is that “[o]ver half of the brain's cortex is dedicated to processing visual information, making the human visual system one of the most energy-demanding parts of the brain. It accounts for approximately 44% of the brain's total energy consumption.”
One reply says “[i]t's not such a mystery though, vision data is much lower dimensional because there is a lot of smoothness in an image (nearby pixels are pretty similar except at a few places).”
Eliezer Yudkowsky adds “[i]mages are hundreds of thousands of pixels, so nobody can afford an architecture that runs a large model over every pixel. The resulting small models are in fact much stupider than GPT-4 and have trouble following even slightly complicated instructions.”
Ukraine lines:
Ukraine might have breached the first Russian main defensive line, also known as the Surovikin line, in the direction of Verbove. https://twitter.com/georgewbarros/status/1696908850819920000
Yet another barrage of Ukrainian drones and missile attacks on targets in Russia and temporarily occupied territories. https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1696976751048421685
Just in: Explosions were heard in Bryansk, Russia. Locals posted videos showing unknown drones in the sky. https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1697148801058758823
"EU countries and European institutions were able to quickly create a legal framework and are finalizing the definition of industrial projects that will allow to produce more than 1 million artillery shells per year," European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton said. https://ukrinform.ua/rubric-world/3754810-es-viroblatime-bils-ak-1-miljon-artilerijskih-snaradiv-soroku-evrokomisar.html
How Ukraine Can Win a Long War https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/win-long-war-strategy-counteroffensive [https://archive.is/3L2pQ]
“John McCain would have turned 87 today. In 2014, he went to the Senate floor to warn his colleagues about Antony Blinken. He said Blinken was "not only unqualified" but "dangerous" to serve at the @StateDept. Sadly, McCain's warnings about Blinken have all come true - again.” https://twitter.com/GLNoronha/status/1696670016098451704
"Dramatic collapse of net income for Russia’s Gazprom. For the first half of 2023 the net income was 296 billion Ruble (around 2.85 billion Euro). In the same period of time in 2022 Gazprom’s net income was 2.5 trillion Ruble (at this time around 41.5 billion Euro). This is a collapse of 92% in only one year. Before the war, oil revenues constituted 30–35 percent of the total Russian budget." https://www.barrons.com/news/gazprom-reports-sharp-net-income-fall-f5d3fbd1
Russia Sinks Line Of Ships To Protect Kerch Bridge https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/russia-sinks-line-of-its-own-ships-to-protect-kerch-bridge
Russian attack drones that kill people in Ukraine daily - Shahed-136/131 & Lancet - are mostly made of Western parts. https://twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1696840531920253158