Links for 2024-02-29
AI:
Microsoft presents The Era of 1-bit LLMs — “…significantly more cost-effective in terms of latency, memory, throughput, and energy consumption. More profoundly, the 1.58-bit LLM defines a new scaling law and recipe for training new generations of LLMs that are both high-performance and cost-effective. Furthermore, it enables a new computation paradigm and opens the door for designing specific hardware optimized for 1-bit LLMs.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17764 (discussion/skepticism: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xbuagojQmjucZdWPB/supposing-the-1bit-llm-paper-pans-out)
“‘My belief is, to get to AGI, you’re going to need probably several more innovations as well as the maximum scale,’ Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said. ‘There’s no let up in the scaling, we’re not seeing an asymptote or anything. There are still gains to be made. So my view is you’ve got to push the existing techniques to see how far they go, but you’re not going to get new capabilities like planning or tool use or agent-like behavior just by scaling existing techniques. It’s not magically going to happen.'” https://www.wired.com/story/deepmind-ceo-demis-hassabis-interview-artificial-intelligence-scale/ [no paywall: https://archive.is/G6POi]
“Talking to Jensen Huang should come with a warning label. The Nvidia CEO is so invested in where AI is headed that, after nearly 90 minutes of spirited conversation, I came away convinced the future will be a neural net nirvana. I could see it all: a robot renaissance, medical godsends, self-driving cars, chatbots that remember.” https://www.wired.com/story/nvidia-hardware-is-eating-the-world-jensen-huang/ [no paywall: https://archive.is/GHXzI]
Chip race: Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Nvidia battle it out for AI chip supremacy https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/1/24058186/ai-chips-meta-microsoft-google-nvidia
Amazon’s Billion-Dollar Investment Arm Targets Generative AI in Robotics https://singularityhub.com/2024/02/28/amazons-billion-dollar-investment-arm-targets-generative-ai-in-robotics/
[Impressive!] Alibaba presents EMO: Emote Portrait Alive -- Generating Expressive Portrait Videos with Audio2Video Diffusion Model under Weak Conditions https://humanaigc.github.io/emote-portrait-alive/
Lots of companies are now working on humanoid robots. This one is by https://sanctuary.ai/: "Powered by Carbon, Phoenix is now autonomously completing simple tasks at human-equivalent speed. This is an important step on the journey to full autonomy. Phoenix is unique among humanoids in its speed, precision, and strength, all critical for industrial applications." Video: https://x.com/realgeordierose/status/1762938715134157077
Logic:
There are more results:
We prove many more results, for instance we show that, although double negation elimination also is a classical principle, it does not have finite satisfiability gap. In other words, there are Heyting algebras which are not Boolean, but in which double negation elimination holds with arbitrarily high probability!
Blog post: https://bmbumpus.com/2024/02/27/degree-of-classicality/
Mastodon: https://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez/112006284226812596
Health:
Gene therapy-mediated partial reprogramming extends lifespan and reverses age-related changes in aged mice, showcasing lifespan extension in wild-type animals through in vivo reprogramming. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/cell.2023.0072
Beating the Odds: Inside the Tribe with a Near-Zero Rate of Heart Disease. https://x.com/Paddy_Barrett/status/1750066558221590619
Miscellaneous:
The Quest for a DNA Data Drive https://spectrum.ieee.org/dna-data-storage
Combining materials may support unique superconductivity for quantum computing https://www.psu.edu/news/eberly-college-science/story/combining-materials-may-support-unique-superconductivity-quantum/
Decision Theory and Transhumanism:
Cooperating with aliens and (distant) AGIs: An ECL explainer https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eEj9A9yMDgJyk98gm/cooperating-with-aliens-and-distant-agis-an-ecl-explainer
Evidential Cooperation in Large Worlds: Potential Objections & FAQ https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KCKxCQyvim9uNAnSC/evidential-cooperation-in-large-worlds-potential-objections
Politics:
The Houthi air strikes aren’t working https://unherd.com/newsroom/the-houthi-air-strikes-arent-working/
Hard to beat in terms of embarrassment: A German ship accidentally fired two $2.1 million missiles at a friendly U.S. drone and missed both times. https://augengeradeaus.net/2024/02/rotes-meer-nach-zwei-fehlschuessen-zerstoert-fregatte-hessen-huthi-drohnen/
Ukraine:
“The longer this war lasts, the better Russia will get at learning, adapting, & building a more effective fighting force” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/russias-adaptation-advantage [no paywall: https://archive.is/1uaTc]
“A 10th Mountain Assault Brigade drone drops a note to a Russian who wants to surrender. It tells him to follow the drone which then guides him to UAF positions.” https://x.com/Danspiun/status/1762788878639878443
“The head of the Russian occupation administration of Zaporizhja, Yevgeny Balitsky, admitted that Russia is massively deporting Ukrainians who do not support Russia.” https://x.com/den_kazansky/status/1762398536874741872
“Footage from (airbust) FPV drones of the 3rd Assault Brigade striking at advancing Russian infantry just outside Orlivka.” https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1762913112309539036
Belgium will contribute 200 million Euros to procure 50,000 155mm shells for Ukraine. This will be conducted in coordination with Czechia, who have identified a source of ammunition outside of Europe. Delivery will be by the end of March. https://www.lesoir.be/571279/article/2024-02-28/la-belgique-debloque-200-millions-deuros-daide-pour-lukraine
"Much like the downgraded Abrams tanks, the Ukrainians will receive older F-16 variants...which lack advanced avionics, software and sensors, and the most advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles will not be supplied until 2026" https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/weathering-storm-western-security-assistance-defensive-ukraine
“Time to Send EU Forces to Ukraine” https://cepa.org/article/time-to-send-eu-forces-to-ukraine/