AI:
Superhuman fact-checking with LLM agents: LLM agents can be used as automated evaluators for long-form factuality. Not only do they have superhuman performance, but they are also 20 times cheaper than human annotators. More: “We also benchmark thirteen language models on LongFact across four model families (Gemini, GPT, Claude, and PaLM-2), finding that larger language models generally achieve better long-form factuality.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.18802
This video is 100% AI-made: 1. Person in the top left is AI 2. Voice is also AI 3. The commentary script is also written by AI 4. The gameplay is an AI agent playing Minecraft https://x.com/Kwebbelkop/status/1773349423923204216
Meet Hume’s Empathic Voice Interface (EVI), the first conversational AI with emotional intelligence. https://x.com/hume_ai/status/1773017055974789176
“Introducing Jamba: AI21's Groundbreaking SSM-Transformer Model. Production-grade model based on Mamba architecture, Jamba achieves an unprecedented 3X throughput and fits 140K context on a single GPU.” https://www.ai21.com/blog/announcing-jamba
SiMBA: Simplified Mamba-Based Architecture for Vision and Multivariate Time series https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.15360
Robotics Research Update, with Keerthana Gopalakrishnan and Ted Xiao of Google Deepmind https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai/robotics-research-update-with-keerthana-gopalakrishnan-and-ted-xiao-of-google-deepmind/
Engineering household robots to have a little common sense https://news.mit.edu/2024/engineering-household-robots-have-little-common-sense-0325
“Can large language models explore in-context? Across all of our experiments, only one configuration resulted in satisfactory exploratory behavior: GPT-4 with chain-of-thought reasoning and an externally summarized interaction history, presented as sufficient statistics;” https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.15371
Machine Vision: Detection, Tracking, and Segmentation
Track Everything Everywhere Fast and Robustly: Substantial improvement in training speed (>10x faster), robustness, and accuracy in tracking over the SoTA optimization-based method https://timsong412.github.io/FastOmniTrack/
DINO-Tracker: Taming DINO for Self-Supervised Point Tracking in a Single Video https://dino-tracker.github.io/
“T-Rex2 covers all object detection scenarios and is a game-changer for real-world apps, from agriculture & medicine to transportation & logistics” https://github.com/IDEA-Research/T-Rex
EgoLifter: A novel system that can automatically segment scenes captured from egocentric sensors into a complete decomposition of individual 3D objects. https://egolifter.github.io/
Miscellaneous:
“South Korea shows us year by year that there is no floor to low fertility, and things do not simply self-correct. TFR in 🇰🇷 was 0.72 in 2023 and new data show it is trending to 0.68 in 2024. 🤯” https://x.com/MoreBirths/status/1773080369341858069
These Gun-Shooting Robot Vehicles Are the Future of Urban War https://gizmodo.com/these-gun-shooting-robot-vehicles-are-future-urban-war-1851350861
Politics:
Netherlands politician Baudet — who initiated the 2016 Dutch referendum against EU-Ukraine association agreement — admits in app messages that he got paid by a Russian propagandist who "works for Putin". [from 2020] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax4T13RpHpA
A Russian-backed "propaganda" network has been broken up for spreading anti-Ukraine stories and paying unnamed European politicians, according to authorities in several countries. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68685604
Ukraine:
Prague has successfully concluded negotiations for the supply of 1 million artillery shells to the Ukrainian army, with loads expected to arrive by April. https://www.corriere.it/esteri/24_marzo_28/praga-chiuse-trattative-milione-proiettili-kiev-15-paesi-ue-non-c-l-italia-b97ebfc8-ecf3-11ee-9b2a-e24dadf21a23.shtml
Swedish Defense Minister Paul Jonson said that now, after the country has joined NATO, it does not rule out the possibility of supplying its JAS-39 Gripen fighters to Ukraine. https://kyivindependent.com/swedish-defense-minister-ukraine-needs-shells-quickly-ramping-up-production-can-take-years/
“A hidden russian bunker was discovered and set on fire by a thermobaric grenade from another drone.” https://x.com/TonyaLevchuk/status/1773202910723047846
“This is extremely impressive, showing an extremely expensive 9S36 target acquisition radar of the Buk-M2/3 system destroyed by a single FPV drone strike.” https://x.com/CalibreObscura/status/1773448431148634572
Magyar’s bird directed a French-made AASM “Hammer” into its target. This Russian post was torn apart and only a crater remained. https://x.com/Tendar/status/1773475424812642544
The Russians keep shooting down their own planes. Imagine how trigger-happy they will be when the first F-16s arrive. https://x.com/Tendar/status/1773389109295231487
State Duma member Andrey Lugovoy, notorious for the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, urges the Kremlin to make Kyiv and Kharkiv unlivable and to kill the Ukrainian government by bombing or various "exotic means," like the poisoning of Khattab in 2002. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s7idMA321k
Vladislav Shurygin told Vladimir Solovyov that Ukrainians are animals who don't understand anything human. He suggested using cluster munitions and wiping out entire towns where Ukrainian soldiers' wives, children and parents live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w9NIPYrxRQ
RT Contributor Vladislav Ugolny advocates eliminating the Ukrainian population with biologic or chemical weapons, or conducting a total cleansing when taking Ukrainian cities. He wants to preserve only historic buildings & get rid of all Ukrainian people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI75fnTazlU
I have recently come around to a refined Just War Theory. Contemporary Just War Theory says that Jus Ad Bellum (justice before war) and Jus In Bellum (just conduct of a war) are separately judged. This allows the odd situation where an invader can be unjust in starting a war, but somehow just in waging it. It also restrains the hands of defenders against aggression - your attacker can deliberately hide behind women and children and old people and the finger waggers in distant lands will say "oh no, you can't attack them! Ceasefire now!"
A refined idea: Jus ad Bellum is the whole of what makes a war just. Every act of an aggressor is unjustified, even according to international law for conduct. And everything a defender does is justified, no matter how destructive, provided it is militarily effective, shortening the war and bringing victory.
This doesn't mean that there are not strategic considerations to make about escalation and how to make a just and lasting peace. And if someone invades your territory, tortures and murders your citizens, steals your wealth, kidnap your children to brain wash them, and whose media figures (those allowed to speak in a totalitarian state) advocate for the genocide of your people and culture, then no one has any 'ethical' right to tell you what you can and cannot do to win.