Links for 2023-11-04
Does davidad's uploading moonshot work? — “the first time I’ve seen a concrete plan that might work to get human uploads before 2040, maybe even faster, given unlimited funding” https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FEFQSGLhJFpqmEhgi/evaluating-an-uploading-moonshot-blockers-enablers-and-costs
“Using causal experiments, we find that large enough language models learn simple structured representations for binding!” https://arxiv.org/abs//2310.17191
Large Language Models Understand and Can be Enhanced by Emotional Stimuli https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.11760
“Announcing MetNet-3, the first AI weather model to learn from sparse observations and outperform the top operational systems up to 24 hours ahead at high resolutions. A portion of its forecasts are now available across various Google products.” https://blog.research.google/2023/11/metnet-3-state-of-art-neural-weather.html
Unsupervised Methods for Concept Discovery in AlphaZero https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iq8ZidJPRm29z4bew/unsupervised-methods-for-concept-discovery-in-alphazero
OpenAI vs. Anthropic vs. Cohere https://sacra.com/research/openai-vs-anthropic-vs-cohere/
Robotics secure 80% of rice harvest in 5% of the time https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15026367
Saying the quiet part out loud: trading off x-risk for personal immortality https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/A22bTHYLDdkeqFsLd/saying-the-quiet-part-out-loud-trading-off-x-risk-for
“… the draft memo carves out an exemption for models that deal with national security and allows agencies to effectively issue themselves waivers if ending use of an AI model “would create an unacceptable impediment to critical agency operations.” https://www.wired.com/story/joe-biden-wants-us-government-algorithms-tested-for-potential-harm-against-citizens/ [https://archive.ph/W3WOp]
Nobuo Fujita (1911 - 1997) is the only Axis pilot to have dropped bombs on the mainland USA. He was made an honorary citizen of the American city he bombed on the day of his death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuo_Fujita
Combat footage of USS Washington (BB-56) defending TF-58 against an IJN air attack off Saipan during the Marianas campaign, June 13, 1944. https://twitter.com/Rich_Ships/status/1717962244032524379
Japan Radically Increased Immigration: Among Tokyo residents in their 20s, 1 in 10 is now foreign-born. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/23/japan-immigration-policy-xenophobia-migration/ [https://archive.ph/s407p]
What I care most about are definitions. For one thing, humans describe mathematics through language, and, as always, we need sharp words in order to articulate our ideas clearly. (For example, for a long time, I had some idea of the concept of diamonds. But only when I came up with a good name could I really start to think about it, let alone communicate it to others. Finding the name took several months (or even a year?). Then it took another two or three years to finally write down the correct definition (among many close variants). The essential difficulty in writing “Étale cohomology of diamonds” was (by far) not giving the proofs, but finding the definitions.) But even beyond mere language, we perceive mathematical nature through the lenses given by definitions, and it is critical that the definitions put the essential points into focus. (Mathematicians without Apologies, June 2, 2018)
— Peter Scholze on definitions (http://arxiv.org/abs/2310.20100)
2nd Mechanised Battalion of the Presidential Brigade with some spectacular footage of Russian heavy vehicle attacks repelled by the Avdiivka garrison. https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1720386993819971772
“[Russia’s] latest budget, passed on October 26th, will boost defence spending in 2024 by nearly 70% to 10.8trn roubles ($115bn)—nearly a third of total expenditure and almost three times what had been forecast in 2021.” https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/10/31/what-russias-new-budget-reveals-about-the-war-in-ukraine [https://archive.ph/0Nlbx]
Support for the defence industry from an unusual source. "No doubt the Pentagon, like any large organization, wastes a lot of money. But recent events have made the case for spending at least as much as we currently do, and perhaps more." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/31/opinion/ukraine-military-spending.html [https://archive.ph/UZg44]
Top-10 Russian genocidal quotes about Ukraine https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/10/31/top-10-russian-genocidal-quotes-about-ukraine/
American Views on the Ukraine War in 6 Charts https://news.gallup.com/poll/513680/american-views-ukraine-war-charts.aspx
“The cold-eyed men in Moscow and Beijing must be as delighted as they are astounded by the spectacle of U.S. populists cultivating war weariness in a nation that is shedding no blood and is spending a pittance of its wealth.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/01/vance-republican-isolationism-ukraine-aid/ [https://archive.ph/9HArb]
MBDA Germany announces that Taurus cruise missile production could be restarted in the short term https://twitter.com/MBDADeutschland/status/1720038473644572881
Israel links:
Vice Chancellor of Germany: “The phrase, “Israel's security is part of Germany's raison d'état” has never been an empty phrase, and it must not become one. It means that Israel's security is essential for us as a country.” https://twitter.com/BMWK/status/1720130870864998800
Russia tells UN Israel does not have right of self-defense in war with Hamas https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/russia-tells-un-israel-does-not-have-right-of-self-defense-in-war-with-hamas/