Links for 2024-03-25
AI:
LLM2LLM: Boosting LLMs with Novel Iterative Data Enhancement — Significantly enhances the performance of LLMs in the low-data regime, outperforming various baselines (e.g. up to 24.2% improv. on GSM8K) https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.15042
“Large language models (LLMs) often use a very simple linear function to recover and decode stored facts. Moreover, the model uses the same decoding function for similar types of facts…The researchers showed that, by identifying linear functions for different facts, they can probe the model to see what it knows about new subjects…” https://news.mit.edu/2024/large-language-models-use-surprisingly-simple-mechanism-retrieve-stored-knowledge-0325
Who will build new search engines for new personal AI agents? — “…and these challenges combine to make any agent-based products really hard to design. For example: if I want to book a place for drinks in Peckham tonight, and it turns out that everywhere is busy, as a human I would just choose not to book, or chat with my friends about what to do. But an AI agent, lacking common sense but being highly autonomous and motivated, might email my friends to move to another evening...” https://interconnected.org/home/2024/03/20/agents
Google presents Chart-based Reasoning: Transferring Capabilities from LLMs to VLMs https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.12596
New algorithm unlocks high-resolution insights for computer vision: FeatUp, developed by MIT CSAIL researchers, boosts the resolution of any deep network or visual foundation for computer vision systems. https://news.mit.edu/2024/featup-algorithm-unlocks-high-resolution-insights-computer-vision-0318
ScreenAI: A visual language model for UI and visually-situated language understanding https://blog.research.google/2024/03/screenai-visual-language-model-for-ui.html
Hinton's Blueprint for AGI with Language Models: The Future is Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-qwhm5sw2s
Miscellaneous:
The US Government Seems Serious About Developing a Lunar Economy https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/03/the-us-government-seems-serious-about-developing-a-lunar-economy/
Thiel Foundation Announces Next Thiel Fellow Class https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240320742346/en/Thiel-Foundation-Announces-Next-Thiel-Fellow-Class (See also: Peter Thiel's special program to bribe people to drop out of college has been a remarkable success: https://www.strangeloopcanon.com/p/on-medici-and-thiel)
“[T]he idea that trade is always good is actually fairly obvious: if both parties were not better off, one or other would not be prepared to make the trade.” https://www.stevestewartwilliams.com/p/the-worst-economists-in-the-world
6 Martial Arts Experts Took Realistic Self Defense Tests https://youtu.be/F-0231ddgyc (More here: The Ultimate Self-Defense Championship | Season 1 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4FJXg8RNp-mqVhFpncyMk4rANel-TRa9)
Ukraine:
It looks like Ukraine has decided to expand its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. Not just oil refineries anymore. Overnight, a successful Ukrainian drone attack targeted Russia's Novocherkassk State District Power Plant in Rostov Oblast. The attack knocked two generator units offline. https://x.com/JimmySecUK/status/1772130534073704916
Another spectacular video of an earlier Ukrainian attack on the Russian oil refinery in Ryazan. https://x.com/ian_matveev/status/1771925770983690607
Russian equipment losses during their 2022 invasion of Ukraine has exceeded 15 000! https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html
DeepState UA notes that the situation on the front continues to deteriorate. https://x.com/RALee85/status/1771968480671076452
“Remember when people were saying that T-55s would only be used as support vehicles, now Russia has reached a point where we are seeing Desertcross 1000 ATVs right on the frontlines.” https://x.com/OAlexanderDK/status/1772198731368083547
Politics:
Russia’s cultural and ethnic diversity...is Russia’s strength...Our state was built around values of multiethnic harmony.
– Vladimir Putin[1]
Many people on the political right admire Russia and see Putin as the savior of white Christendom. What they don't know is that Russia has a higher percentage of Muslims than, say, Germany,[2] and it's not because of an open border policy. Worse, instead of building a wall, Putin has sacrificed thousands of Russian soldiers not only to keep Muslims in Russia against their will, but to give them Russian passports,[3] which has led to numerous major terrorist attacks, such as the Beslan school massacre that ended with the deaths of 334 people.[4]
At an official event where Putin gifted a copy of the Koran during a visit to a mosque, he noted that the desecration of the Koran is a crime in Russia.[5] Nikita Zhuravlev, a teenager who burned a Koran, was extradited to Chechnya under Putin's watch. There he was tortured and beaten on camera.[6]
In 2015, Putin inaugurated the Moscow Cathedral Mosque,[7] a city where tens of thousands of Muslims fill the streets for Eid prayers.[8]
Russia has also introduced the Islamic banking system.[9]
P.S. One of Russia's most famous TV hosts, the Jewish Vladimir Solovyov, recently chanted Allahu Akbar in front of Russia's Islamist mercenaries.[10]
[1] http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/71165
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Russia
[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chechen_War
[4] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_siege
[5] https://www.aa.com.tr/en/russia-ukraine-war/quran-desecration-is-crime-in-russia-putin/2933175
[7] https://youtu.be/w0m9E8wKPO8