Links for 2024-01-24
AI:
SAP to restructure 8,000 jobs in push towards AI, shares hit record https://www.reuters.com/technology/sap-announces-company-wide-restructuring-updates-2025-outlook-2024-01-23/ [https://archive.is/TQnlH]
NYU and Meta present OK-Robot: An open, modular framework for zero-shot, language conditioned pick-and-drop tasks in arbitrary homes https://ok-robot.github.io/
Figure has signed a commercial agreement with BMW. They will deploy its general purpose robots into automotive manufacturing environments. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/figure-announces-commercial-agreement-with-bmw-manufacturing-to-bring-general-purpose-robots-into-automotive-production-302036263.html
“There's a new promising method for finetuning LLMs without modifying their weights called proxy-tuning” https://twitter.com/rasbt/status/1748021765790376385
Did you know that there is already a system falling within the purview of the recent AI Executive Order? https://twitter.com/nicimaug/status/1747742783958405475
Drones:
Eric Schmidt is building a startup for an AI-powered mass-producible combat drone named 'White Crane'. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/2024/01/23/eric-schmidts-secret-white-stork-project-aims-to-build-ai-combat-drones/ [https://archive.is/Zwujj]
Pentagon looks to AI-powered weapons https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2024/01/pentagon-already-testing-tomorrows-ai-powered-swarm-drones-ships/393528/
OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with the Pentagon https://www.semafor.com/article/01/16/2024/openai-is-working-with-the-pentagon-on-cybersecurity-projects
£10-a-shot laser destroys drones in ‘major defence milestone’ https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/laser-weapon-aerial-target-porton-down-xzzwn00ls [https://archive.is/ArNai]
Science and Technology:
Temperature as Joules per Bit https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12119
Ultraviolet light can kill almost all the viruses in a room. Why isn’t it everywhere? https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23972651/ultraviolet-disinfection-germicide-far-uv
Neuroscience:
Study reveals a universal pattern of brain wave frequencies https://news.mit.edu/2024/study-reveals-universal-pattern-brain-wave-frequencies-0118
Sensory representations in primary visual cortex are not sufficient for subjective imagery https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.10.574972v1
Sex Differences in the Brain and the Mind https://quillette.com/2024/01/18/sex-differences-in-the-brain-and-the-mind/ [https://archive.is/wip/JNq4P]
“More recent birth cohorts have greater cranial volumes, more gray matter, and larger hippocampuses”. https://twitter.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1742350467621855288
Politics:
“Over the past three years, about $6 trillion — equivalent to roughly twice Britain’s annual economic output — has been wiped off the value of Chinese and Hong Kong stocks. The Hang Seng index has crashed 10% so far this year alone, while the Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Component indexes are down 7% and 10% respectively.” https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/23/investing/china-stock-market-losses-explained
"Chinese analysts want to understand why Russian weapons are doing so badly in the war in Ukraine. 70% of China’s modern airplanes are licensed copies, unlicensed copies or variants of the SU-27. 20% are inferior planes that are not even as good as the Russian copies." https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/01/weapons-that-dont-work-in-the-ukraine-war-make-up-most-of-chinas-military.html
No Place to Hide: A Look into China’s Geosynchronous Surveillance Capabilities — "Yaogan-41 could provide China an unprecedented ability to identify and track car-sized objects throughout the entire Indo-Pacific region and put at risk numerous U.S. and allied naval and air assets operating in the region." https://www.csis.org/analysis/no-place-hide-look-chinas-geosynchronous-surveillance-capabilities
Ukraine:
This is a big video. The 14th Separate Regiment destroyed some very expensive pieces of heavy Russian equipment. ➡️1K148 Yastreb-AV Radar System ➡️BUK-M2 and BUK-M3 launchers ➡️Zoopark-1 counter battery radar system ➡️2S5 Giatsint-S self propelled gun. Millions up in smoke. https://twitter.com/Getty776/status/1749827965570199636
Situation taking a turn for the worse in Avdiivka. https://frontelligence.substack.com/p/latest-on-avdiivka-and-helicopters
“As ludicrous as it may sound, it seems that North Korea is a more efficient partner for Russia than the friends who supply Ukraine with artillery ammunition are for us. That's laughable. And it has to change,” said the Ukrainian Foreign Minister. https://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/politik-ausland/ukraine-aussenminister-kuleba-exklusiv-in-bild-hoert-auf-von-putins-sieg-zu-spre-86880282.bild.html
“Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, reports that a new drone counter system has been developed for the AFU. It generates white noise which makes Russian drones uncontrollable. The radius of operation is 250 meters. It is already in serial production.” https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1749824141765582850
“Notice the newly developed anti drone jammer Cupol (Купол - Dome) on the rear top of the turret of this Bradley ifv.” https://twitter.com/TheDeadDistrict/status/1748215646653948411