Links for 2024-03-01
AI:
OpenAI is collaborating with Figure to create humanoid robots https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/figure-raises-675m-at-2-6b-valuation-and-signs-collaboration-agreement-with-openai-302074897.html
Demis Hassabis - Scaling, Superhuman AIs, AlphaZero atop LLMs, Rogue Nations Threat — Demis Hassabis: “So I wouldn’t be surprised if we had AGI-like systems within the next decade.” https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/demis-hassabis
Singapore is preparing its citizens for the age of AI. https://x.com/BrianRoemmele/status/1762706303669916014
GPT-4 with simple engineering can predict the future around as well as crowds https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.18563
“These results indicate that by using smaller, distilled problem decomposition models in combination with problem solving LLMs we can achieve reasoning with cost-efficient inference and local adaptation.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.15000
Video as the New Language for Real-World Decision Making https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17139
Sora: A Review on Background, Technology, Limitations, and Opportunities of Large Vision Models https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17177
Sora Generates Videos with Stunning Geometrical Consistency https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17177
Stable Diffusion 3 - Creative AI For Everyone! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PddEGvUFZDQ
Miscellaneous:
A new study has found that mechanical damage to the cell membrane may induce cellular senescence in human cells. https://www.oist.jp/news-center/news/2024/2/22/damage-cell-membranes-causes-cell-aging
“Sometimes utilitarianism is conceptualized as “being willing to do bad things for the greater good”, so it always surprises me how much less willing I am to do this than most people.” https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/less-utilitarian-than-thou
Six Degrees of Wikipedia: Find the shortest hyperlinked paths between any two pages on Wikipedia. https://www.sixdegreesofwikipedia.com/
Politics:
“Faced with civil disobedience against their rules on modesty, the clerics are scuttling back to the seminaries. An Iranian visitor to Britain notes with surprise there are more veils on London’s underground than Tehran’s.” https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/02/28/as-iran-scares-the-middle-east-at-home-its-regime-rots [no paywall: https://archive.is/j8l8A]
Ukraine:
The Prime Minister of Estonia supported Macron's idea of stationing foreign troops in Ukraine https://espreso.tv/svit-premerka-estonii-pidtrimala-ideyu-makrona-shchodo-rozmishchennya-inozemnikh-viysk-v-ukraini
Almost half of Dutch people are willing to send ground troops to Ukraine. https://www.hartvannederland.nl/panel/bijna-helft-nederlanders-voor-grondtroepen-oekraine
Under the right conditions, Canada open to sending noncombat troops to Ukraine, Defence Minister Bill Blair says https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/under-the-right-conditions-canada-open-to-sending-noncombat-troops-to-ukraine-defence-minister-bill/article_eec6806c-d71d-11ee-91fb-ab92d0af803e.html
“French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal says that France may send soldiers to Ukraine for air defense systems, training of the Ukrainian army or protecting Ukraine’s border with Belarus” https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1763300044432720345
Macron says Ukraine troop deployment comments were carefully thought out https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2024/02/29/macron-says-ukraine-troop-deployment-comments-were-carefully-thought-out_6573056_5.html
Ukrainian soldier of the 73rd Maritime Special Operations Center shared video of TWO destroyed Russian BTR-82s together with soldiers in the first days of the offensive on Avdiivka https://x.com/GloOouD/status/1763301360940777963
As far as I can tell, 4 main issues now seem to be compounding in Russia's favor, not all of which are Ukraine's fault:
1. Europe waited far too long to ramp up its artillery production.
2. Sudden cutoff of U.S. aid (~2 months now).
3. Ukrainian leadership delayed the necessary mobilization far too long.
4. Ukraine failed to build adequate fortifications and defense lines.