Links for 2023-09-05
“Could a language model become aware it's a language model (spontaneously)? Could it be aware it’s deployed publicly vs in training? Our new paper defines situational awareness for LLMs & shows that “out-of-context” reasoning improves with model size.” https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mLfPHv4QjmeQrsSva/paper-on-measuring-situational-awareness-in-llms
Can Programming Languages Boost Each Other via Instruction Tuning? https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.16824
New dual-arm robot achieves bimanual tasks by learning from simulation https://bristol.ac.uk/news/2023/august/dual-arm-robot.html
The receiver on Earth for the laser from the spacecraft will use superconducting nanowires, able to detect a single photon from Psyche's laser. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/dsoc/index.html
"Our ancestors suffered a severe population bottleneck that started around 930,000 years ago and lasted for almost 120,000 years. This is estimated to have reduced the number of breeding individuals to ∼1300, bringing our ancestors close to extinction." https://www.sciencenews.org/article/extreme-cold-human-ancestors-population-crash-dna
"When you look at this video it's obvious that communist countries were giant prisons. This is a prison escape. It seems shocking now, but at the time we were so used to the idea that we took it for granted." — Paul Graham https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7CWajaOx4E
According to this land-use study, only 0.6% of Earth's land area is 'artificial surfaces' https://fao.org/uploads/media/glc-share-doc.pdf
“Chinese nationals, sometimes posing as tourists, have accessed military bases and other sensitive sites in the U.S. as many as 100 times in recent years, according to U.S. officials, who describe the incidents as a potential espionage threat.” https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/chinese-gate-crashers-at-u-s-bases-spark-espionage-concerns-cdef8187 [https://archive.ph/Hk3ts]
Ukraine links:
“The situation in the Robotyne-Verbove area is developing in a positive direction for the Ukrainians. Ukraine has further penetrated the first Surovikin line near Verbove, now reaching the main trenchline. Ukrainians have also overran Russian positions south of Robotyne.” https://twitter.com/emilkastehelmi/status/1698796521637007491
“Alexander Khodakovsky and a # of Russian channels claim Ukraine is conducing assaults on Novodonets'ke and Novomaiors'ke on the Velyka Novosilka axis after a heavy artillery bombardment.” https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1698954702858146026
‘Boyets’s unit [Skala battalion] has already been reduced by casualties to 25% of its original strength since joining counteroffensive operations around the axis towards Robotyne in July, and the life expectancy of storm units is the shortest on the front’ https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ukraine-counteroffensive-i-m-ready-to-die-90-of-the-guys-here-will-die-too-76jvs3kwj [https://archive.ph/MinpB]
“Ukraine’s offensive neither is over, nor has it failed. Ukraine’s prospects depend on how well Western countries resource the Ukrainian war effort into the fall, replace lost equipment+ provide the necessary enablers — above all, artillery ammunition.” A read worth your time.” https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-resources/stormbreak-fighting-through-russian-defences-ukraines-2023-offensive
Perseverance and Adaptation: Ukraine’s Counteroffensive at Three Months https://warontherocks.com/2023/09/perseverance-and-adaptation-ukraines-counteroffensive-at-three-months/
A Brutal Path Forward, Village by Village https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/02/world/europe/ukraine-russia-counteroffensive.html
“If the Biden administration is interested in ending this war,” Gen Arnold told me, “then it will provide the long-range weapons (ATACMS, Harpoon missiles, Reapers, F-16s), more M113 armored personnel carriers, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/04/arnold-ukraine-counteroffensive-united-states-weapons/ [https://archive.ph/nW6ZQ]
“78th Special Purpose Regiment 'Hertz', reportedly ambush RuAF 40m away. They fire off a ton of ammo, VOGs, hand grenades and RPGs. One UAF is perhaps lightly WIA (left arm?) but stays in the fight.” https://twitter.com/Danspiun/status/1698735491602858325