Links for 2023-11-10
You can now operate robots by just thinking about it. With your brain signals. NOIR learns to predict your intended goals in advance, so that your thinking efforts (literally) can be reduced to a minimum. https://noir-corl.github.io/
High-resolution neural recordings improve the accuracy of speech decoding https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42555-1
The rise of brain-reading technology: what you need to know https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03423-6 [https://archive.is/98asO]
Almost an Agent: What GPTs can do https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/almost-an-agent-what-gpts-can-do
“We introduce AuDrA, an AI system trained to evaluate visual creativity like a human.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13428-023-02258-3
GitHub is being re-founded on Copilot https://github.blog/2023-11-08-universe-2023-copilot-transforms-github-into-the-ai-powered-developer-platform/
“Spectron is the first spoken language model that is trained end-to-end to directly process spectrograms as both input and output, instead of learning discrete speech representations.” https://blog.research.google/2023/10/spoken-question-answering-and-speech.html
In a preregistered experiment, GPT4 was better able to solicit user preferences by just asking them questions than users were able to articulate in prompts, with less mental effort. https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.11589
Neural MMO 2.0: A Massively Multi-task Addition to Massively Multi-agent Learning https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.03736
The Future of Fully Homomorphic Encryption: NYU Tandon researchers are developing specialized hardware accelerators for enabling computation on encrypted data https://spectrum.ieee.org/fully-homomorphic-encryption
Chemists make breakthrough in drug discovery chemistry: Two methods to replace carbon with a nitrogen atom in a molecule https://phys.org/news/2023-11-chemists-breakthrough-drug-discovery-chemistry.html
“The authors also found that 74% of the unhealed injuries and 70% of the healed injuries had occurred in adolescent or adult males, a significantly higher rate than in female individuals, and a difference not seen in other European neolithic mass-fatality sites.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/nov/02/large-scale-warfare-occurred-in-europe-1000-years-earlier-than-previously-thought
Solar geoengineering works: https://maximumprogress.substack.com/p/geoengineering-now
The cooling from Pinatubo’s 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide was geophysical happenstance; the droplets it formed were not of the optimal size. By making smaller, more effective droplets, geoengineers could achieve the same reduction by spraying just a few million tons of sulfur dioxide into the air in a year. Actually, they would probably spray sulfuric acid directly, rather than having the atmosphere convert sulfur dioxide, but the principle is the same.
P.S. Using chalk instead of sulfur is much more efficient: https://nephewjonathan.substack.com/p/diy-geoengineering-the-whitepaper
Global warming is quickly and cheaply reversed by ejecting calcite nanoparticles into the stratosphere.
Political links:
Ukraine might have damaged or destroyed two other Russian ships last night. Crimea has become an untenable death trap for the Russian fleet. https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1722892010363719937
Nikki Haley on supporting Ukraine: "We all know that half a million people have died because of Putin. And here is a freedom-loving, pro-American country that is fighting for its survival and its democracy...I think we should give them the equipment and ammunition to win." https://twitter.com/GOP4Ukraine/status/1722431052847718613
“It is clear that some politicians and media outlets have been promoting a "conflict-freezing" narrative, that bears a striking resemblance to the approach outlined in Russian doctrinal thought.” https://twitter.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1722634361584193643
Douglas Murray at the Israel-Gaza border https://twitter.com/ReichmanShmuel/status/1722754621557350845